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 just placed my order for the 2007 releases of Chasseur Pinot Noir, thanks to a friend who has been on their mailing list for quite some time. I’m looking forward to putting some of these wines alongside the wines of some other Russian River and Sonoma Coast producers, hopefully in a blind tasting. I’m [...]

With 2007 being a banner vintage for Russian River Pinot Noir, I have been making a concerted effort to get over to Sonoma to scoop up some of these current releases (as well as piggy-backing some orders with friends who are on exclusive mailing lists — such as the list for Chasseur Wines — which [...]

With a friend in town from my Hyde Park days, lots of food and wine was on the agenda last weekend. In essence, it was about three solid days of eating and drinking, all jump-started by the Fourth of July, which was super-gluttonous in its own right (and highlighted by a giant lamb leg, slow-roasted in [...]

I just received my allocation of 2007 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir, having finally earned a coveted spot on their mailing list during these tough economic times. Well, I should amend that statement: I earned a spot on their provisional list, which means that I’m entitled to some left-overs. I now have a couple bottles each [...]

Given the choice between a glass of Chardonnay and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, I’m liable to choose the latter about nine times out of ten. I have found that among wine drinkers, this decision tends to be pretty divisive: people will usually form a distinct preference between these two white wines, kind of like [...]

With friends coming into town this week, it’s safe to say that I’ll be knee-deep in the Napa Valley food-and-wine experience for the next couple of days. I’ve got a calendar full of tasting appointments on the horizon, including visits to Paradigm, Nickel & Nickel, Cardinale, and Revana. When I woke up this morning, I [...]

I drove out to Sonoma County today to gather a few Dry Creek Zinfandels for the blind tasting that I’m arranging this month. As I had kind of prefaced in my posting for June 3, I stopped by Unti, Ridge and Mauritson. These three wineries are all within a couple miles of each other, right [...]