I’m not sure if this qualifies as a tradition yet, but for the third year in a row, I spent Black Friday doing some wine tasting in Amador County. Coming from Napa, I almost feel like a bully passing judgment on Amador’s wine industry, so I make sure to approach everything with an open mind [...]

Okay, so maybe this isn’t actually the most difficult wine quiz in the entire world, but it is extremely challenging. I created these 20 questions in order to help study for the Certified Wine Educator (CWE) exam in 2010. Therefore, at the risk of sounding elitist, this test is geared towards those who are already [...]

You can say what you want about Napa. I happen to live there. But for me, Mendocino County is Northern California’s true paradise. I spent the better part of the day in the Anderson Valley today, driving past dozens of miles of vineyards that have all slipped into fall colors. All of Mendocino County looked [...]

I’m all about second chances, but never third chances. As I had promised my readers a while back, I would eventually revisit Neela’s Contemporary Indian Cuisine to see how this much-needed Napa restaurant was faring six months after its opening. I finally returned to Neela’s about two weeks ago for lunch, inspired by the rumors [...]

Making great soup is a time-consuming endeavor, even though the end-product itself appears to be rather straight-forward. Unfortunately, there is simply no substitute for homemade chicken stock, which means that you’re looking at four hours of simmering just to get this one key component ready. Folks who buy their “broth” from supermarket shelves might as [...]

I made my first visit to Bardessono last night for the restaurant’s weekly Sunday Supper, a $39 four-course dinner which offers one of the best deals in wine country. My dinner last night was delicious, bordering on exceptional, and if the restaurant can continue along this path every Sunday night, then Bardesonno will easily become [...]