Stuart Marfell: From Sheep Shearing to Winemaking
When I sat down for lunch with winemaker Stuart Marfell to taste two of the wines he makes, Goldwater and Dashwood, I was taken aback...
08 June, 2016
One family, four estates: the Terra Moretti estates
Vittorio Moretti started a winery for the sheer pleasure of it. A builder by trade, he did not come from the wine industry. But wine was...
27 May, 2016
ORNELLAIA Vendemmia d’Artista: Expressing Wine Through Art
Wine collectors and art collectors converged for a night of elegance at the Ornellaia Vendemmia d'Artista at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. For the wine lovers out there, Ornellaia is known as one of the great Super Tuscan wines. But in addition to making exquisite Bordeaux-style wines, Ornellaia is also a patron of the arts.
With a passion for the arts, Ornellaia created the Vendemmia d'Artista with the goal to inspire and generate emotion. Beginning in 2009, with the 2006 vintage, contemporary artists of international renown from Italy, New York, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Toronto and Basel have been selected to create a work of art and a series of limited edition labels that are inspired by a single word chosen by the winemaker to describe that vintage.
23 May, 2016
Terroir and clones: What do they mean?
Terroir is a term used regularly when discussing wine. But it is a term that is also met with controversy and conflict. What is terroir?...
20 May, 2016
Rodrigo Soto: finding a sense of place
When talking to most winemakers, they tell me that one of their goals is to make wines that represent the place they are from. But first,...
13 May, 2016
Napa locals take back a winery
It seems that we are always hearing about small wineries being bought by larger wineries or companies. Whether it be the financial challenges to run...
10 May, 2016
Surf, Sand and Wine in Pismo Beach, California
This post originally appeared in Wine Tourist Magazine Halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco and located on the coast, just off the 101 freeway, is...
04 May, 2016
Hospice du Rhone returns and Rhone wine lovers celebrate
Fans of the 22 Rhone varieties — bourboulenc, camarese, carignane, cinsault, clairette blanc, clairette rose, counoise, grenache blanc, grenache gris, grenache noir, marsanne, mourvedre, muscardin,...
29 April, 2016
California Wine Trips You Should Go On This Summer (That Aren’t Napa)
If you live in Cali and like wine, sure, you’re gonna go to Napa. But here’s the thing: Napa makes up only one percent of...
27 April, 2016
Another tasting of a lifetime at Pebble Beach Food and Wine
Last year at Pebble Beach Food and Wine, I attended a seminar featuring a vertical tasting of the first growth of Royal Tokaji. This was by far the “tasting of a lifetime” and one that could never be repeated. However, the great thing about wine is that there are many “tastings of a lifetime,” those times when the lineup of wines is like no other, cannot be duplicated and only in your wildest imagination would you have thought about it. And that is what happened at the ninth annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine event.
The weekend started with a tasting of Tete du Cuvee Rose Champagne. Exploring this more robust style of Champagne, I thought life was really good at this point as I sat with glasses of pink bubbles in front of me from the following producers:
20 April, 2016