IRVINE, Calif. – Carter Creek Winery and South Coast Winery, both owned by family-operated Carter Hospitality, earned distinction among the best in the West, bringing home four medals – including a coveted Best of Class – at the prestigious 2025 Sunset International Wine Competition. The wins spotlight standout vintages from Texas Hill Country and Southern California’s Temecula Valley,…
JOHNSON CITY, Texas – Carter Hospitality Group announces Carter Creek Winery, in the heart of Texas Hill Country, earned six awards at the 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (SFCWC), which took place during the week of January 15. This competition is the largest in North America and brings attention and respect to the industry worldwide. Now…
When we were looking for our final winery to visit during our most recent trip to the Dry Creek Valley area, we really wanted a place that would be new to us and to our readers but at the same time be of extremely high quality. We think we did pretty well. Tim Bucher grew…
Zaca Mesa Winery just celebrated its 50th anniversary. That’s quite an achievement in this relatively young wine region. The land was purchased in 1973 by John Cushman and five of his friends. It was only the third winery in Santa Barbary County and served as the training ground for many winemakers who then went on…
With annual production of about 50,000 cases, Stolpman Vineyards might seem like a large winery compared to many of the others in Santa Barbara County, but the reality is that it is fairly small relative to the big corporate producers. Still, we were wondering why this winery that produces a wide variety of excellent wines…
Some time ago we had explored paying a visit to the restaurant Little Beast in Eagle Rock. Starting as a popup by Sean Lowenthal and Deborah Schwartz, it found its eventual permanent spot in 2013 in a historic craftsman home built in 1911. Well, we never did make it over there. Then, we read last…
Known for its three wine regions of Verde Valley, Wilcox and Sonoita/Elgin, and tasting rooms throughout the state, Arizona is an emerging wine producer–creators of many wonderful wines and there are more to come with a bevy of emerging wineries. Although its history goes back to the 1700s, it was discovered as a wine growing…
My final installment from my time in Chateauneuf du Pape is a visit and tour at Domaine du Grand Tinel that’s been making wine for 7 generations! (My husband Eddie covered me for another day – see his coverage from Domaine Saint Prefert Et Domaine Isabel Ferrando and Vieux Telegraphe below.) Lucien Jeune, born in…
We began the day at Domaine la Barroche where the sandy soil with quartz stones took over the vineyards. The same 12 people do the harvest every year; and the group also sorts the grapes in buckets by hand for the 2,000 cases of wine they produce a year. During the de-stemming process they discard…
We were very much interested in visiting “new to us” wineries on our trip to the Santa Rosa / Healdsburg area, and Emmitt-Scorsone definitely fit that requirement. Heading west from the town of Healdsburg into the Dry Creek Valley, we immediately encountered the change in scenery that is so common to wine regions. The road…