Category : Bars and Tasting Rooms
It’s 2019 already?! Farewell, 2018, and your delicious food and drink memories. Attending the Lodi Wine and Chocolate Festival for the first time was one of those memories for me. Obligatory disclaimer: My tickets were comped for the 2018 Lodi Wine and Chocolate festival as a media representative. Tickets are now available to the general
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Did you say vertical tasting? That’s an irresistible invitation for wine bloggers. We love to compare and contrast different vintages from the same winery, to ponder the sometimes subtle, sometimes great, differences between them. Make it five vertical tastings in an evening, at a restaurant I’ve never tried before and from a wine region with
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Last January, I was delighted to visit Chateau Montelena for the first time on the invitation of Calhoun & Company. Obligatory disclaimer: That means the Chateau Montelena Dream Tasting was entirely free to me. Indeed, it was a media and industry event, and I was thrilled, and a bit intimidated, to be included among the
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A highlight of my blogging year was attending the 2016 Vintage Port Preview Tasting at the Fairmont Hotel this past June. Obligatory disclaimer: That means this tasting experience was free to me. I’ve been drinking wine for about a decade and a half now, and I knew from my first sip of Port, or Porto,
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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
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The History Last spring, I had the pleasure of visiting Bodegas Aguirre Winery for the first time. Obligatory disclaimer: This was an invitation extended to media, and thus, free to me. Located in the Livermore Valley, which is a historic Californian wine region, Bodegas Aguirre is the passion project of cardiac surgeon Ricardo Aguirre. Dr.
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McCay Trulux Zinfandel 2014 Lodi, CA If Anne Shirley’s cherry cordial was blackberry instead, this is exactly how I imagine it. Medium-bodied with a nose full of very dark, extra ripe berries. I want to make a syrup with it and pour it over pancakes or maybe reduce it with vinegar for a tasty drizzle.
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KickAss Britchen Red Paso Robles, CA Non-vintage $29 The KickAss label invokes the lighter side of winemaking for AronHill Vineyard’s owner, Judy Aron. The back label declares its inspirations proudly: “Life is all about ASS. You are either covering your ASS, laughing your ASS off, kicking ASS, kissing ASS, busting ASS, trying to get a
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Zinfandel is the best grape out there, as far as Duane David Dappen, owner and winemaker of D-Cubed Cellars, is concerned. As he’s been making wine since 4-H club, he’s had plenty of time to make up his mind! Duane worked at other esteemed wineries early on in his career, but making zinfandel under the
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Early this year, I attended the San Francisco leg of the Association for the Promotion of Wines and Spirits in North America (APVSA) tour of the USA. The Once Upon a Wine tour was this year’s chance for the European labels represented by the APVSA to introduce their wares to potential distributors and importers. Attending
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