A wine buying guide for the curious wine enthusiast.
Today is Earth Day, first held on April 22, 1970. An ideal moment to examine Scheid Family Wines, a producer deeply committed to earth-friendly practices (an enthusiasm shared by more and more winemakers every year, fortunately). Scheid Family Wines got their start in 1972 when Al Scheid first purchased property in Monterey County and wine …
Proprietor Ron Lachini’s family hails from the Tuscan town of Lucca. At some point, his grandfather immigrated to the United States, settling in the large Italian community of San Francisco’s North Beach. He started making wine with his father and grandfather in their garages as a child. He and his wife Marianne both attended U.C. …
March is Women’s History Month, and an apt time to feature winemaker Katy Wilson, one of the few but growing number of women in the wine industry. Wilson founded LaRue Wines in 2009 when she was just 26, but already had years of experience. For Wilson, there was never a “Plan B” career path. She …
Founded in 2017 by Blair and Laura Lott, Rescue Dog Wines has an unusual and commendable mission: a generous 50% of their profits go to rescue dog organizations across the country. The Lotts explained that they started planning a new life in wine country around 2015. “We knew that we wanted to embrace sustainable growing …
Varietal-specific Wine Glasses – Episode #9 My second guest on the Winervana podcast is me! My long-time friend Rob Young sits in the host’s chair, and we talk about varietal-specific stemware made by Riedel, and why you should consider buying some of these glasses. You can see images of the stemware here. The video of …
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Yet another white-collar professional turned winery owner, Randy Wulff was an attorney for 20 years. After graduating from the Honors College at the University of Oregon and Hastings College of the Law, he worked as a successful trial lawyer and mediator at a law firm in San Francisco. “Even when I was one of the …
If you don’t like fish, this is the fish recipe for you. If you do like fish, especially tuna, this is definitely the recipe for you. It was published by the great Pierre Franey (1921 – 1996) in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune in August of 1992. It may well be the greatest …
Continue reading “(Not Too) Spicy Grilled Tuna Steaks with Salad Greens”
Irv Bliss’ early years as a farmer were occupied with growing pears, prunes, walnuts, and a large family garden just outside of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, California. Although successful, for years Bliss nursed the vision of planting a vineyard in Mendocino, which he believed to be one of the best places around to grow grapes. …
x Author Jack London (1876 – 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of unabashedly commercial fiction in both novels and magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. His most famous works include The Call of the …
The pioneering Trefethen Family Vineyards is truly a rarity in the Napa Valley: a winery that grows, vinifies, and ages all of its wines entirely on the property, and has been helmed by a single family for three generations. The area in which Trefethen is located is one of the oldest in Napa Valley’s wine …
Wikipedia says an “estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or cattle-raising. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the pampas, have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Puerto Rico, an estancia was a farm growing frutos menores, that is, crops for local sale …
Until Yellow Tail precipitated the boom in “critter wines” in 2000, it can be argued that Penfolds was just about synonymous with Australian wine in the U.S. The label is ubiquitous here, in both grocery stores and fine wine shops. Prices range from about $12 per bottle for the Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet, to $850 for …
Patz & Hall was founded in 1988 when two Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards employees, assistant winemaker James Hall and national sales manager Donald Patz, decided to strike out on their own. Their ambition was to apply traditional (i.e. French) winemaking techniques to fruit from elite, small vineyards, specializing in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The …
Patz & Hall was founded in 1988 when two Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards employees, assistant winemaker James Hall and national sales manager Donald Patz, decided to strike out on their own. Their ambition was to apply traditional (i.e. French) winemaking techniques to fruit from elite, small vineyards in Napa Valley specializing in Chardonnay and …
The Brooks Winery of Amity, Oregon in the Willamette Valley was founded in 1998 by Jimi Brooks, a native of Portland and son of a pediatrician. The winery’s production is focused on Pinot Noir and Riesling, and includes about 20 selections of each in any given year. Brooks also dabbles in Tempranillo, Muscat, Pinot Gris, …