Reviews of wines and spirits for the curious drinker.
WALT Blue Jay Pinot Noir WALT Wines, owned by Kathryn Hall and Craig Hall, is dedicated to the production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Pacific Coast, spanning nearly 1000 miles and including Sta. Rita Hills, Sonoma County, Anderson Valley, Napa Valley, and the Willamette Valley. They strive to source top fruit from the …
Lombardi Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2021 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. From 2001 to 2013, Lombardi held senior …
Lombardi Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Sonoma County 2021 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. From 2001 to 2013, …
Metz Road Riverview Vineyard Pinot Noir 2020 Scheid Family Wines got their start in 1972 when Al Scheid first purchased property in Monterey County and wine grape growing there was in its infancy. Scheid was drawn to the region for what he considered its untapped potential, for making money as well as farming. Scheid was …
Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards Pinot Noir 2019 An American Viticultural Area, or AVA, is an American wine-growing region classification system inspired by the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, or AOC, but without the French rigor. An AVA simply defines a geographic area, and omits grape varieties, maximum production per acre, alcohol levels, etc. The requirements for …
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Byron John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016 The Sta. Rita Hills AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Santa Barbara County, California. From its creation in 2001 through 2006, the appellation was officially named Santa Rita Hills AVA. The name change was the result of a protest by Vina Santa Rita, a very large Chilean wine producer that was concerned about the AVA name …
Schug Carneros Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir 2019 Walter Schug was born in 1935, and grew up in Assmannshausen, Germany, on the only Pinot Noir estate in the Rheingau region, which was originally planted in the 12th century. Although Schug’s father was its manager, Walter never formally worked there. He did work for six years …
WALT Clos Pepe Pinot Noir 2014 WALT Wines, owned by Kathryn Hall and Craig Hall, is dedicated to the production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Pacific Coast, spanning nearly 1000 miles and including Sta. Rita Hills, Sonoma County, Anderson Valley, Napa Valley, and the Willamette Valley. They strive to source top fruit from …
Italo Cescon Pinot Noir Italy’s Piave region covers a vast plain in the greater Veneto area. It is bordered on the south by the Adriatic Sea, to the northwest by the hills of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano, is crossed by the river Piave, and to the northeast it borders on the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Wine …
In 1894, Gaspare Indelicato was born in the small village of Campobello di Mazara in the province of Trapani, Sicily. In 1911, at the tender age of 16, he emigrated to the United States through Ellis Island, New York. Eventually, Gaspare and his wife Caterina settled in the agriculturally-rich San Joaquin Valley, east of San …
“This weekend is not about me. It is about you. I’m gonna show you a good time. We’re gonna drink a lot of good wine. We’re gonna play some golf. We’re gonna eat some great food and enjoy the scenery and we are going to send you off in style, mon frere.” And so Miles …
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Butaud Blanc de Noir Texas isn’t the first place that comes to mind when most people think about wine, especially “serious” high-quality wine. And yet, Texas is fifth in the nation in both wine production and consumption. The history of grape growing in the state goes back at least to the 1660s, when Franciscan monks …
Glee Euphoria Blanc de Noir California Sparkling Wine For reasons I don’t understand, the producer of this sparkling wine, Sapphire Hill, decided to hide behind the Glee moniker. There is nothing on the bottle to link Glee and Sapphire Hill, but it was easy enough to locate them. Sapphire Hill Winery, a family-run boutique winery, …
Germain-Robin XO Brandy The Maverick That Redefined American Brandy In the world of fine spirits, few American producers have challenged Old World orthodoxy as boldly—or as successfully—as Germain-Robin. Long before “craft distilling” became a marketing buzzword, Germain-Robin was quietly rewriting the rules of brandy in Northern California, proving that greatness didn’t have to come from …
Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon In Napa Valley, some of the most compelling wines come not from sprawling estates but from small, vineyard-focused producers who carefully source fruit from exceptional sites. One such winery is Cornerstone Cellars, a small Napa Valley label known for crafting limited-production wines from prestigious vineyard locations.