Because of my ongoing preparation for the Certified Wine Educator (CWE) exam, I haven’t been posting on this blog as much as I would like. As with the CSW, which I passed last August with relative ease, I plan on crushing the CWE, if that’s even possible. Earning this certification is my only real goal [...]

The last time I had been to the Moscone Center was about 20 years ago, back when it was the site of one of the biggest sportscard conventions in the world. In those days, I was real heavy into baseball, and Moscone had it all; there were even a few tables that offered the infamous [...]

I continue to receive hundreds of searches per day regarding the Farmstead Restaurant, which is set to open in St. Helena next month. To that end, I’m working on scheduling an interview with proprietors Ted and Chris Hall very shortly, so hopefully I can uncover a few more details about this new project. In the [...]

During the heights of harvest and crush, I’ll often promote Calistoga as a potential refuge from the Napa Valley’s tourist congestion (of course, it requires a trip up to Mendocino wine country to truly leave everything behind). But even in the winter, when things around the entire valley go calm, Calistoga still has its merits. [...]