Beyond Tokaji – Pushing the Boundaries of Hungarian Wines
Hungary’s 22 wine regions offer a variety of wines of remarkable value. Three of Credo’s latest imports push the boundaries of traditional winemaking.
Foothill Wine Festival Competition Announces Results
The Foothill Wine Festival team is pleased to announce the results of the 2023 competition sponsored by Choose Folsom. The competition was held in Folsom on September 9th and 10th. […]
Matt Parish – Wine Industry Mentor
Matt Parish has decades of wine business experience as a senior winemaker at Constellation, Treasury, and Naked Wines USA, but in my eyes, it is his kindness that makes him one of my favorite wine industry mentors. […]
Dominic Mantei – Winemaking Adventurer
Northern California native Dominic Mantei embraces the adventure of making wine at Kaya Vineyard and Winery in Georgia’s Dahlonega Plateau. […]
Beneduce Vineyards – Fear not the Umlaut
In February 2023, I traveled to New Jersey to visit a few of their top wineries. One was Beneduce Vineyards, where I met owner/farmer/winemaker Mike Beneduce for a comprehensive – and impressive – portfolio tasting – plus an engaging conversation about winegrowing and winemaking. […]
The 4th Annual International Cabernet Franc Competition Announces Results
The 4th Annual Cabernet Franc Competition, founded and sponsored by Michael Kelly of California Wines & Wineries, took place on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at The Golf Club at Copper Valley in Copperopolis, California. […]
Life-changing Tokaji Furmint
My introduction to Tokaji Furmint was in 2020 – the 2018 Wetzer Tokaji Furmint – a dry white with some botrytis influence made in a minimalist style (native yeast, unfiltered, unfined). I wrote about tasting it – and won one of the categories in the 2022 Hungarian Wines Web Wine Writing Competition.
Villány Underground – Péter Bakonyi of Bakonyi Pincészet
The first day of my November 2022 trip to the annual Franc & Franc Forum in Villány, Hungary, we arrived late due to flight delays. Our guide asked my group if we wanted to skip the tastings to freshen up at the hotel and join everyone at dinner – or attend the tastings, but arrive at the first tasting a little late. I had been awake for about 36 hours, but I said yes to the tastings. […]
Bells Up Winery – The End of the Beginning
In August 2021, I met Sara and Dave Specter of Bells Up Winery for the first time during a media visit that was a bit more formal – a sit-down tasting and interview with them both.
Youngberg Hill’s Wayne Bailey – Farmer First
In late October 2022, I visited Youngberg Hill in Oregon’s McMinnville AVA. It is a gorgeous 50-acre property with a historic inn atop the hillside, surrounded by astounding views and meticulously farmed, organic and biodynamic vineyards planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris.
7th FRANC & FRANC International Cabernet Franc Forum
Fast forward to 2022. Villány is the primary red wine region of Hungary, which is becoming increasingly well known for producing its signature wine, Cabernet Franc, thanks to the area’s sub-Mediterranean climate, loess and clay soils, and innovative producers who are making Villányi Franc in a variety of styles.
Lenné Estate – Going in Blind
Lutz, an Oregonian, began his career in Napa Valley in 1984, when he developed a taste for wine shortly after college. He worked at several well-known wineries, including Robert Mondavi. It was at Mondavi where Lutz and the Mondavi team would participate in staff blind tastings led by Robert himself.
We Should Start a Vineyard…
“We should start a vineyard. My family in Italy did it so it can’t be that hard,” said Brian Cadamatre to his girlfriend, Nova, when they were college students. The seed was planted.
Lula Cellars – The Deep End’s Hidden Gem Comes of Age
During a rare chilly and rainy, late-spring day, a friend and I stopped to taste the highly rated wines at Lula Cellars, a small producer in the cooler and foggier “Deep End” of Anderson Valley in Mendocino County.
Story Winery’s Storied Past, Present, and Future
Story Winery in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley has a long – and yes, storied – history. Its tasting room is a restored bunkhouse from the Gold Rush era built in 1860. The estate vineyards date back to 1894 – a .75-acre block planted with Mission – along with its Picnic Hill Vineyard, 6.75 acres planted with Zinfandel in 1896, and its Creekside Vineyard, 7.5 acres also planted with Zinfandel in 1936.
Schermeister Winery – Love at Second Sight
In 2012, Rob had been making wine for the likes of Mark Aubert and Jayson Pahlmeyer when he took a chance and made 125 cases of his own Napa Valley Pinot Noir employing native yeast fermentation, which has since become his signature style.
ACORN Winery and Alegría Vineyards – The Russian River Valley’s ‘United Nations of Grapes’
When Bill Nachbaur was a second-grade student in Vallejo, California, his teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He replied, “I want to be a farmer.” Little did he know his dream would come to fruition in 1990 in the form of purchasing, farming, and making wine from certified historic vineyards in the Russian River Valley, whose original block dates back to 1890.
St. Clair Brown Winery & Brewery – Women Embracing Local Napa Their Way
Co-owner, winemaker, and head brewer Elaine St. Clair and co-owner and president Laina Brown founded St. Clair Brown Winery in 2010 and the brewery in 2018. After decades of working for other companies, they asked themselves, “How do we want to spend the rest of our lives and career?” The result is downtown Napa’s combined organic culinary gardens, urban winery, and nano-brewery.
Foothill Wine Fest – Recognizing the Best of the Sierra Foothills
The Sierra Foothill Wine Fest Wine Competition, sponsored by the Greater Folsom Partnership, began as a passion project of Mike Owen of Crystal Basin Cellars in El Dorado County, to spotlight the Sierra Foothills as one of California’s up-and-coming wine regions. Photo: Elizabeth Smith
Robert Sinskey Vineyards – Pursuit of Gluttonous Hedonism
Dr. Robert Sinskey, founder of Robert Sinskey Vineyards, was a forward thinker who envisioned the popularity of healthier, locally farmed, and global cuisine accompanied by a lighter-bodied red wine, Pinot Noir. In 1982, he purchased a farm off Las Amigas Road in Napa Valley – before the establishment of the Carneros AVA and in anticipation of his retirement – to become a Pinot Noir grower.