Sonoma Valley Portworks Petite Sirah Port 2007 Clarksburg, CA During my trip last spring to Petaluma, I picked up this bottle of port in a surge of jubilation that I had found a winery specializing in dessert wines (613 2nd Street in the Foundry Wharf building). Plenty of wineries offer one or a handful of
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At the tail-end of my 2014 Wine Bloggers Conference experience, I stopped in at Cimarone Winery. I’d heard of them through Twitter, as the winery’s social media (@cimarone) did a great job letting us bloggers know they were in nearby Los Olivos and would be offering a special tasting for us if we ever had
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Shortly before I headed out to the 2014 Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC14), I agreed to watch a demo of the new Quini app with Roger Noueim, the company’s CEO. Excepting the occasionally slow search functions, it works beautifully on iPhone, iPad, and the desktop. I’m mostly using a beta version for Android, which is much,
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This is the first of several posts covering my experience at the Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC14) held in Buellton, CA, last weekend. I’ll feature one per week, likely through August, and why not start with what’s most important to me? Naturally, that’s the wines themselves. Over the course of the conference, I tasted around 70
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A few years ago, I reviewed a few drinks made with Veev aḉai liqueur at Ruby Tuesday’s back when the brand first launched. I enjoyed those drinks and how clean the spirit tasted. It imparted a crisp and mild berry flavor to the cocktails that I found quite appealing. Fast forward to this last winter,
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Ridge Distillery Absinthe Blanche Kalispell, MT 116 proof This absinthe is completely clear, as I’d imagine the blanche designation indicates. It has few legs to speak of when swirling it in the glass and is a completely blank slate based on appearance. Its particular anise smell reminds me of the thick, black, candy bites of
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Homewood Winery Merlot Port 2010 Dry Creek, CA I picked up this bottle on a recent sojourn to Sonoma from the one vineyard we ventured to on a quick day trip to the region. I thought the merlot port delicious in the tasting room, and I’m interested to see how it stacks up when drunk
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Fat Grape Winery 2010 Merlot Northern California I posted recently about what I’d recommend for a foodie day trip to Treasure Island. Fat Grape was the sulfite-free winery we visited that offers a zillion different types of wine to taste for free. The Fat Grape 2010 Merlot was one of two wines that impressed me,
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Edna Valley Vineyard 2011 Merlot Central Coast, CA This merlot’s nose has plastic overtones, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying its raspberry and pepper notes. It’s thin to medium bodied and meatier than expected on drinking. Think nicely seasoned duck with a spicy raspberry and stewed tomato sauce. That pepper will tickle your nose!
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2010 Fetzer Crimson Winemaker’s Favorite Red Wine Blend Mendocino County, CA I admit to reticence when trying this wine, not knowing if a big label’s wine was up to snuff at under $10. Plus, there were a lot of words on that label, which frankly can be off-putting for those not that skilled in wine-label
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