With January enveloping us in its grim embrace, it’s nice to have a glass of red wine to look forward to with dinner and this wine, which I got as a sample, fits the bill. Ponzi Vineyards Tavola Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2010: An easy-drinking pinot noir that is ready to go right now...
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Big news in the wine world if you are into basketball and the rapidly developing Chinese wine market. Yao Ming, the recently retired Houston Rockets star, announced today he has formed Yao Family Wines in the Napa Valley. The company has released its inaugural wine, a 2009 Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, under the brand name...
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Do the undead drink red? Could be, judging by the plethora of cabs, zins and other red wines that come with Halloween-appropriate labels. Vampire Vineyards, featuring a (painted) drop of blood on the label, began with grapes from Algeria and then Transylvania itself, imported by winery founder Michael Machat who was inspired by the...
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Today’s Wine of the Week has a long name _ Alois Lageder 2008 BETA DELTA Lagrein – Merlot _ but a short description: Very tasty. This wine is a blend of lagrein, a red wine grape that grows mostly in the South Tyrol, and merlot. It retails for about $22-$28; I got mine as...
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I’d like to say I discovered Benessere Vineyards by driving around the Napa Valley and exploring a wildflower-lined lane. But the truth is I learned of them by getting a box of samples delivered to my door in Berkeley. So, not so much with the romantic backstory, but that, as it turns, out doesn’t...
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Sometimes you meet people who make you feel like you should be trying just a little bit harder. At least that’s how I felt after I spent some time with Laura Catena and her mom, Elena Catena, third and fourth-generation members of an Argentine-Italian winemaking family. Catena is an ER physician at the UCSF...
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I got a little behind this week what with one thing and another. Taxes, mostly. Boy, was that fun. The point is I left the Wine of the Week until this morning which meant I had to taste before lunch which is usually something I cannot stand to do and spit as fast as...
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You know you’ve really covered a wine event when you come back with purple teeth and a notebook coveredin red wine stains. That’s how I ended the 20th annual Zinfandel Festival. What a scene. More than 250 wineries participated in the event, put on by Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, from big outfits to...
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A funny thing happened to my to-do list this week. “Finish laundry,” was No. 4 or 5 on Monday. And darned if it isn’t still there today. I cannot imagine how that happened. However, I’m happy to say, “Find a good wine for Friday,” was accomplished, and in very short order. The wine...
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I drank a little history the other day. The occasion was a tasting of all 11 years of Shafer Vineyards‘ Relentless wine, an 80-20 blend of syrah and petit sirah named in honor of Shafer’s dynamic winemaker Elias Fernandez. A tasting like that is called a vertical, for obvious reasons. It’s interesting from a...
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