Supporting independent craft wineries.

904, 2023

Beneduce Vineyards – Fear not the Umlaut

By |April 9, 2023|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

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. […]

304, 2023

The 4th Annual International Cabernet Franc Competition Announces Results

By |April 3, 2023|Categories: California, Featured, Industry, Local Wine Events, News|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

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. […]

102, 2023

Life-changing Tokaji Furmint

By |February 1, 2023|Categories: Digest, Featured, News, Origin Stories|Tags: , , , , , , |

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.

2001, 2023

Villány Underground – Péter Bakonyi of Bakonyi Pincészet

By |January 20, 2023|Categories: Digest, Featured, News, Origin Stories, Q&A|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

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. […]

1012, 2022

Bells Up Winery – The End of the Beginning

By |December 10, 2022|Categories: Digest, Featured, Industry, Marketing and Sales, News, Oregon, Origin Stories, Q&A|Tags: , , , , , , |

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.

312, 2022

Youngberg Hill’s Wayne Bailey – Farmer First

By |December 3, 2022|Categories: Digest, Featured, Industry, News, Oregon, Origin Stories, Q&A|Tags: , , , , |

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.

112, 2022

7th FRANC & FRANC International Cabernet Franc Forum

By |December 1, 2022|Categories: Digest, Featured, Industry, News, Origin Stories|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

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.

2111, 2022

Lenné Estate – Going in Blind

By |November 21, 2022|Categories: Digest, Industry, Marketing and Sales, News, Oregon, Origin Stories|Tags: |

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.

408, 2022

Lula Cellars – The Deep End’s Hidden Gem Comes of Age

By |August 4, 2022|Categories: California, Digest, Featured, Industry, Marketing and Sales, News, Origin Stories|Tags: |

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.

2406, 2022

Story Winery’s Storied Past, Present, and Future

By |June 24, 2022|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

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.

2305, 2022

Schermeister Winery – Love at Second Sight

By |May 23, 2022|Categories: California, Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

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.

1304, 2022

ACORN Winery and Alegría Vineyards – The Russian River Valley’s ‘United Nations of Grapes’

By |April 13, 2022|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

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.

2403, 2022

St. Clair Brown Winery & Brewery – Women Embracing Local Napa Their Way

By |March 24, 2022|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

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.

1003, 2022

Foothill Wine Fest – Recognizing the Best of the Sierra Foothills

By |March 10, 2022|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

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

2402, 2022

Robert Sinskey Vineyards – Pursuit of Gluttonous Hedonism

By |February 24, 2022|Categories: Featured, News|Tags: |

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.

1101, 2022

Suisun Valley – Petite Sirah and Beyond

By |January 11, 2022|Categories: Featured, Industry, News|Tags: |

Suisun Valley, recognized as one of California’s earliest AVAs in December 1982, is an exceptional area in which to grow and make Petite Sirah. If one travels to Suisun Valley from Napa using what locals call the backroads over Mount George (bonus: avoiding Highways 29, 12, and Interstate 80) and enters via Suisun Valley Road, there is a sign in front of Vezér Family Vineyards’ Blue Victorian Winery declaring, “The Petite Sirah Capital of the world.”

1612, 2021

Contra Costa’s Del Barba Ranch and Louie’s Block Quest for Survival

By |December 16, 2021|Categories: Featured, News|Tags: |

The historic vineyards of Contra Costa County, located about 45 miles east of San Francisco, California, are nearing extinction due to urban sprawl. However, with devotees like fourth-generation wine grape farmer Tom Del Barba, winemakers like Matt Parish, and vineyard consultant, farmer, winemaker and outspoken advocate, Julian Erggelet, the hope of survival remains.

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