The world of wine is huge. Finding a wine you enjoy often feels like searching for that proverbial needle in the haystack. If there’s one thing my recent Finger Lakes wine bloggers trip taught me, it’s that there are whole regions of wineries that wine writers like myself have barely heard of, much less sampled
Read more

The Mystery At the annual Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC), one late afternoon/early evening is dedicated to an excursion out of the host hotel and into the wine region itself. Where we bloggers go is a mystery; each tour bus heads to a different location for a wine tasting and dinner, and just where we will
Read more

How often do you get to chat with winemakers fresh from harvest with the purple hands to prove it and chefs young and old describing their locally sourced dishes all while helping advance the cause of sustainability with a ticket purchase and silent auction bid on more amazing foodstuffs? Okay, for me, it’s fairly often.
Read more

Last week, I posted about the Cape Classics National Braai Day contest running through September 28, 2015. As promised in that post, here are my reviews of two affordable, and food-ready, Indaba Wines to help you on your quests to compose a winning entry, and most importantly, have a tasty, tasty, fire-cooked braai meal. Obligatory
Read more

Jen Pfeiffer Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Other Words: Rock it Like a Redhead, the Rebel Victoria, Australia This is a NakedWines.Com production, and unfortunately, it’s currently out of stock. Though I hear there’s a similar wine coming from Pfeiffer soon… Regardless, on Day 1, it’s a well-rounded mouthful of blackberry with a pepper accent. On Day
Read more

Jacqueline Bahue Cabernet Franc 2013 Sonoma County, CA The nose gives off an impression of scents. It’s an invitation to explore their potential. And on exploration, this is a beautifully integrated glass of wine. Elegant, a gracious hostess in pearls whose complex inner beauty lies just beneath her skin. My current love affair with cabernet
Read more

A few weekends ago, I hit up my first urban tasting room in Oakland–Jeff Cohn Cellars. I assure you, my guide, Peter of Bung R. Cooper’s wine blog, was not going to let me stop after just one location! We meandered over a few Jack London Square blocks to Urban Legend Cellars (621 4th Street),
Read more

At Bisou Bistronomy in the Castro, an impressive handful of Bay Area winos—oops, I mean wine bloggers—gathered to explore the wares of one of the newer importers on the block: Bliss Wine Imports. And we didn’t even run the other customers out of the restaurant until an hour into the tasting! Alleah Friedrichs and Erin
Read more

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of checking out Jeff Cohn Cellars’ tasting room in Oakland along with my friend Peter, the man behind Bung R. Cooper’s wine blog. Jeff Cohn, a renowned winemaker, spent a decade learning from and crafting Rosenblum wines before starting his own winery in 2006.  He’s also a genuinely nice
Read more

Pickberry Vineyard Merlot 2013 Sonoma Mountain, CA Plump cherries on a slate board with mild blue cheese and sautéed mushrooms. The cheese deepens as the long finish continues…and continues…and continues. If only cherries and blue cheese were a better combination. I should have ordered brie! My Quini Profile: My Quini Flower: Which means I award
Read more