Mar 15, 2005
Among the obscenely over the top wine geeks there is a common dream: head for the hills, buy land, live on it, plant grapes, make wine. I admit to having this dream in the back of my mind. And occasionally I look around for just the right spot in the hills. Very few wine geeks follow this dream, for obvious reasons. It’s expensive. And when you start to think about it, the amount of work is really tremendous. Still, we…
Mar 15, 2005
Christian over at Turn the Screw has, as he often does, dished out an interesting post. This time it’s about wine competitions and their usefulness. The point that Christian leans toward, but doesn’t quite say explicitly, is that wine competitions tend to reward wines that are bigger than the rest, but are not necessarily true to varietal form. It’s a good point. Having judged at a few wine competitions I can say that it is daunting work, at least for…
Mar 15, 2005
And it’s in my own back yard!! March 19 and 20 is the Heart of Sonoma Valley Barrel Tasting, a two day event in which over 30 wineries open their doors and pour from the barrel. Now here’s the thing, this is not a "Sonoma Valley" barrel tasting, but rather the "Heart of Sonoma Valley" barrel tasting weekend. The organization of wineries in and around the Glen Ellen and Kenwood area formed this little coalition and have really run with…
Mar 15, 2005
It’s budbreak time in most of California vineyards. It’ marks the beginning of the growing season, which is both exciting for the winemaker and the source of much dread as the potential for severe frost damage now exists. Yet budbreak is also a great time to hang out in wine country. It’s often difficult for visitors to wine country to look at a vineyard and discern much difference from one vineyard to the next. Bud break makes that easier. Different…
Mar 14, 2005
How does a region completely unheralded for wine become better known as a source of high quality wines? It’s generally a very slow process that includes a steady increase in acres under vine, the move from planting obscure to better known varietals, support from locals and finally some sort of acknowledgement of the wines’ quality from a reputable source. But wouldn’t it help if one of America’s most famous vintners suddenly showed up in a state where vineyards were practically…