The Perfect Pairing for Smoked Turkey It’s time to prepare the feast for my favorite holiday. This year we are having a hickory smoked turkey so I’ve decided to serve a Gewurztraminer. A bit of sweetness is needed to stand up to the smokey flavor of the meat. Fetzer Gewurztraminer 2010 Tasting notes: Lovely golden [...]
Oprah’s Favorite Wine Being one of the world’s wealthiest people, Oprah can pretty much afford any wine she likes. Surprisingly, some of her favorite wines are produced by a boutique winery in Napa Valley. Blackbird Vineyards is a relative newcomer to Napa Valley – producing it’s first vintage in 2003. And, typical of the area, [...]
Soup and Wine As winter approaches and the weather begins to get cooler – or colder, depending on where you live, soups are easy and delicious to have for lunch or dinner. When I was at Costco last week they had small bags (6 large onions) of sweet Mayan onions that I thought would be [...]
Traditional Pairings Lately, it seems like whenever you ask an expert for wine pairing recommendations for turkey or chicken they encourage you to try Pinot Noir or syrah. Yes, they both can go wonderfully with turkey, but because there are syrahs that are more powerful than some Cabernets and some Pinots that are too sweet [...]
Paso Robles Zinfandel Opolo Vineyards was started by two wine lovers who lived next door to each other in Camarillo, CA. In 1999 Dave Nichols and Rick Quinn produced their first commercial crush under the Opolo label. Their first wines were Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, and Muscat Canelli. Opolo now has 270 acres [...]
It’s Not Just The Weather The 2010 growing season is now being called the worst-ever harvest. Sonoma seems to have gotten the worst of it. Because the fruit was on the vine longer than normal, and the rainy season has begun, a lot of the fruit has suffered from mold. Some vineyards have suffered 100 [...]
Not Just Any Blend The world of wine is changing and like everything else, we enjoy wine trends. I’ve recently noticed that blends are becoming more popular. There are different reasons. For one, they can be more cost effective to produce than varietals – something the industry is thinking about these days. But the main [...]
2010 Could Turn Out to be One of the Best California Vintages in Years It was touch and go in August and September when vineyards were reporting that grapes were not ripening due to the unusually cool summer. Growers were worried that leaving the fruit on the vine until October could be disastrous if the [...]
Continue reading about The Great Late California Grape Harvest
Cocktail Time You may have noticed the shelves of your favorite wine emporium (or big box store) have been stocking their shelves with more champagne to get ready for the holiday season. While the weather is still on the balmy side we don’t have to think about the holidays in order to enjoy some bubbly. [...]
Boz Scaggs in Napa Valley One of my favorite singers is also a winemaker – who knew. A career that began with moderate success, Boz Scaggs hit the big time when he teamed up with Toto in 1976 to record the smash album Silk Degrees. Today, Scaggs is touring the US with Michael McDonald and [...]
