Kathryn Walt Hall has a most impressive curriculum vitae. To touch on just a few of the high points, she is the proprietor of HALL Wines and WALT Wines [family businesses she has been involved with for over thirty years], was assistant city attorney in Berkeley, California, worked as an attorney and businesswoman in Dallas, Texas, and has served on numerous non-profit and institutional boards, with an emphasis on issues related to social care and mental health. From 1997 to July 2001, Ms. Hall served as the United States Ambassador to Austria. In the midst of this, together with her husband Craig she has raised four children.
Kathryn Walt Hall has a most impressive curriculum vitae. To touch on just a few of the high points, she is the proprietor of HALL Wines and WALT Wines [family businesses she has been involved with for over thirty years], was assistant city attorney in Berkeley, California, worked as an attorney and businesswoman in Dallas, Texas, and has served on numerous non-profit and institutional boards, with an emphasis on issues related to social care and mental health. From 1997 to July 2001, Ms. Hall served as the United States Ambassador to Austria. In the midst of this, together with her husband Craig she has raised four children.
For one hundred and fifty years, the Charpentiers have been cultivating their vineyards in the Champagne region on the south hillsides of the Marne valley. Léonidas Charpentier ran a farm at Saulchery, a village near to Charly sur Marne. His business flourished very well, because his most important customers were the coach drivers who pulled their boats with the help of horses along the river La Marne to bring their goods to Paris. This is the reason why the carriage became the house logo. The coach is driving through the gate of Time, from the past into the future, from tradition to modernity.
Padis Vineyards is located in the picturesque hillsides of the Oak Knoll District in the heart of Napa Valley. It was founded by jewelers Steve and Judy Padis with a single barrel in 2007 that was bottled in large format and donated to charity auctions. A year later, their first commercial vintage was released.
Tony Lombardi was born into a family of small business owners, and grew up in Sonoma County. His first job in the wine business came in 1998 when he joined the hospitality team at Clos Du Bois Winery, located in Geyserville, California.
Inglenook was founded in 1879 by Finnish sea captain Gustave Niebaum. By 1887, he had amassed a total of 1100 contiguous acres, marking the inception of the Inglenook legacy. After his death and during the scourge of Prohibition the winery was shuttered. After repeal, Niebaum’s widow, Suzanne, reopened Inglenook and brought in viticulturist and enologist John Daniel Jr., Niebaum’s great-nephew, to upgrade the winemaking system.
Daniel was an uncompromising perfectionist. Under his stewardship from the 1930s to the early 1960s, Inglenook produced some of the most celebrated Cabernets in California. Daniel’s partnership with winemaker George Deuer resulted in wines that were rich, complex, and impeccably balanced, marking a period of extraordinary achievement for Inglenook. Despite the challenges of the era, Daniel was committed to producing only the best. He was one of the few vintners of his time willing to reject wines that did not meet his exacting standards, a rare and costly approach in an industry where every bottle counted.
The addition of the Napanook Vineyard in 1946 helped elevate the winery’s offerings even further, as Daniel blended grapes from this esteemed site into his best wines. Continue reading “Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon”
Located in the heart of the renowned Rioja Alta region, Bodegas Patrocinio is a cooperative winery that has been a vital part of the Spanish wine landscape since 1985. Bodegas Patrocinio crafts wines using traditional Rioja grapes like Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graciano, which are available under various brands: Señorío de Uñuela, Zinio, Sancho Garcés, and Lágrimas de María.
Tony Lombardi was born into a family of small business owners, and grew up in Sonoma County. His first job in the wine business came in 1998 when he joined the hospitality team at Clos Du Bois Winery, located in Geyserville, California.
Eric and Amy Gale are the owners and sole full-time employees of Anchored Roots, Door County, Wisconsin’s newest winery, founded in 2020.
The couple make an ideal front-of-house/back-of-house duo. Amy grew up in Milwaukee, with hospitality at the forefront of her career path. Her initial focus was event planning, from non-profit fundraisers and catering, to corporate events and weddings. This was followed by experience in tasting room management at Airfield Estates in Prosser, Washington.
Eric and Amy Gale are the owners and sole full-time employees of Anchored Roots, Door County, Wisconsin’s newest winery, founded in 2020.
The couple make an ideal front-of-house/back-of-house duo. Amy grew up in Milwaukee, with hospitality at the forefront of her career path. Her initial focus was event planning, from non-profit fundraisers and catering, to corporate events and weddings. This was followed by experience in tasting room management at Airfield Estates in Prosser, Washington.
Chuck Hope and his wife Marlyn came to Paso Robles in California’s Central Coast in 1978 to farm, and eventually to start what would become Hope Family Wines. This early arrival put them on the forefront of the Central Coast becoming a world-class viticultural region. Initially, the Hopes planted apples and grapes in this then sparsely-populated area. Seeing the property’s potential for grape growing, Hope eventually replanted the apple orchards with grapes.
H by Hine is a selection from Hine Cognac, a distinguished brand with a rich history which traces its origins back to the 18th century. Thomas Hine, a young Englishman from Dorset, traveled to France to learn French and the art of making cognac. He settled in the town of Jarnac, in the heart of the Cognac region, where he fell in love with and subsequently married Françoise Elisabeth Delamain, the daughter of a famous cognac négociant (a person or firm that sells or ships wine as a wholesaler).
It all began on a modest orchard in upstate New York. Paul Hobbs, one of eleven children, was raised on a family-run farm where the rhythm of planting, harvesting, and selling crops at farmers markets before school was the norm. These early experiences not only instilled in him the discipline required for farming, but also introduced him to the concept of terroir—a philosophy that would later become the cornerstone of his winemaking career.
Disclaimer: I’ve been a member of the Clos Pegase wine club for years, so this post is hardly impartial.
Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
Clos Pegase was founded by Jan Shrem in 1983 on a 50-acre vineyard near Calistoga in Napa Valley. He was born in Colombia in 1930 to Jewish-Lebanese parents, and spent his childhood in Jerusalem and his early adolescence back in Colombia. After he arrived in the United States at age 16, he attended the University of Utah and UCLA. While in college, he sold encyclopedias.
Eric and Amy Gale are the owners and sole full-time employees of Anchored Roots, Door County, Wisconsin’s newest winery, founded in 2020.
The couple make an ideal front-of-house/back-of-house duo. Amy grew up in Milwaukee, with hospitality at the forefront of her career path. Her initial focus was event planning, from non-profit fundraisers and catering, to corporate events and weddings. This was followed by experience in tasting room management at Airfield Estates in Prosser, Washington.
