WineDiva on December 14th, 2010

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 [...]

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WineDiva on November 24th, 2010

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 [...]

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WineDiva on July 14th, 2010

White Wines That Are Better with Age Usually when we think of wines that age well we most often think of cabernet sauvignon, Barolo, Brunello di Montelcino and fortified wines like Port and Madeira. But, there are white wines that are better with age. Red or white, there are certain conditions that allow some wines [...]

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WineDiva on July 5th, 2010

State Fair Medal Winners The California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition is the oldest and most prestigious wine competition in North America. Each year, thousands of California wines are entered into the competition for the chance to win one of many coveted awards from the State Fair’s panel of expert wine judges. After the competition, [...]

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WineDiva on April 22nd, 2010

Rainy Day Wines It’s been raining, on and off, for a couple of days, and for some reason rain and soup just seem to go together. They had some nice leeks at the store so I decided to make leek & potato soup. It’s pretty simple to make and goes perfectly with European style chardonnays. [...]

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WineDiva on April 14th, 2010

Gallo’s Turning Leaf Gets Makeover From Financial Times: Napa Valley, the seat of California’s wine industry, is not exactly a fashion mecca. The pastoral towns dotted around the vineyards are more Buddh­ist than Burberry, more caps-’n’-culottes than Chanel. So slightly tipsy heads turned from cellars to catwalks when it was recently announced that Basso & [...]

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WineDiva on April 2nd, 2010

Gallo Wine E. & J. Gallo is the largest winemaker in the world. Since 1964, we’ve known Gallo for it’s top selling ‘jug wine’ – Hearty Burgundy. According to Gallo spokeswoman, Kristina Kelly, “The wine was a favorite of winery founders Ernest and Julio Gallo because it was the kind of hearty red wine they [...]

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WineDiva on February 26th, 2010

3 Wine Price Points – One Great Winemaker While searching out the next “diamond in the rough” of good, affordable wine, it’s best to take in two considerations: the land the grapes are grown on and the style of the winemaker. One of the top winemakers in the world is 71 year old Aubert de [...]

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WineDiva on September 23rd, 2009

Crème de La Crema By Virginia Boone – Press Democrat Back when Melissa Stackhouse was studying winemaking at UC Davis in the 1990s, she figured any serious California winemaker would go to the Napa Valley and make cabernet sauvignon. Making high-minded hearty reds, she thought, would be the path to glory. And for a time, [...]

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WineDiva on August 15th, 2009

Australian Winery Sues Franzia Cos Over New Australian Wine Chad Bray – Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The Australian winery that produces [yellow tail] wine has sued two companies affiliated with Fred T. Franzia, the vintner that produces an ultralow-priced wine nicknamed “Two Buck Chuck,” over the introduction of a low-cost Australian wine. The [...]

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