In May, I was invited to take part in celebrating 30 years of the Lodi Winegrape Commission (website) with a virtual wine tasting of recent releases from some of the Commission’s participating wineries. Obligatory disclaimer: That means the wines I’m reviewing in this post were free to me. I was first introduced to the Lodi AVA
Read more

Sunny with a Chance of Flowers Wines Monterey, CA This is an unusual wine review, in that Sunny with a Chance of Flowers Wines are unusual wines. The label was born out of a desire to create a great tasting, yet lower calorie, wine with a lower ABV than average and no residual sugar. Wines
Read more

In early September, I had the pleasure of taking part in a virtual testing with Marcelo Garcia, the winemaker at Chile’s TerraNoble (website). To prepare, I pretended I was on the grounds of one of TerraNoble’s vineyards—ah, the magic of green screen in a time of pandemic. Yes, once again I was attempting to combat
Read more

Bodegas LAN Culmen 2011 Reserva La Rioja, Spain Early on in quarantine, the Bodegas LAN winery hosted a tasting with a small group of wine writers of their Bodegas LAN Culmen 2011 Reserva. Obligatory disclaimer: That means this tasting was free to me, along with a bottle of the wine, which I promptly decanted in
Read more

My introduction to the Bodegas LAN winery came over churros and chuleton. I was invited to meet the winery’s CEO, Enrique Abiega, and USA export director, Trinidad Villegas, at Bellota, a Spanish restaurant that’s part of San Francisco’s Absinthe Group. Obligatory disclaimer: This was a new media lunch, so the food and drink I’m about
Read more

This past summer, Jordan Winery added a new slate of activities for guests to enjoy at their estate in Healdsburg, CA. And why not? They just remodeled the estate’s formal dining room, and winery chef, Todd Knoll, has been perfecting his culinary artistry at Jordan for over a decade and a half. My first taste
Read more

Obligatory disclaimer: These Chalk Hill chardonnays were free to me for my review. They are Chalk Hill’s two commercially available chardonnays; the winery produces two others that are only available at the estate or at their website.The 2016 Chalk Hill Estate Chardonnay comes completely from grapes within the estate’s Chalk Hill AVA vineyards. It’s all
Read more

Little did I know that when we convened for the 2016 Vintage Port tasting, another Vintage Port declaration would follow in 2017. I was surprised to find an invitation to attend this year’s preview tasting in my inbox, and I can safely say that the pre-eminent Port producers represented — Symington, Fladgate, and Quinta do
Read more

The Légende line of wines comes from the same lineage as the highly esteemed Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Grand Vins of the French Bordeaux region. While the latter can fetch prices in the thousands, the Légende wines are meant “to offer classic Bordeaux wines with immediate charm,” per the Rothschild website.  You can pick
Read more

This past April, I took my first deep dive into New Zealand wine. Yes, I’ve had plenty before, but I hadn’t had the chance to explore them at depth until New Zealand Winegrowers, the national organization representing all 1,500 NZ-based winegrowers and wineries, invited me to this tasting. Obligatory disclaimer: That means I paid nothing
Read more