At the house I grew up in, in Novato, California, there was a small, special spot under the dining room window where the soil was slightly less porous. It was without question the best location on our property for the production of mudcakes. I discovered this early on, somewhere around the age of 5. It was a combination of soil composition, lack of drainage, and the aspect of the spot to the rising sun that kept the soil somewhat cooler…

I can’t help but continue to return to the subject of "terroir". I feel deep down that by understating this idea and how it is used by winemakers and wine drinkers I’ll somehow better understand my own interaction with the natural and social world I live in. I know. This sounds rather loopy..even "new ageish". Yet, once one chooses to investigate the intellectual and emotional aspect of any discipline, including wine, you are forced to deal with issues that touch…

Something very interesting is happening over at  AppellationAmerica.com (AA). For quite some time this website sat there, taking up bandwidth, offering little more than potential. Clearly its owners had built it to be something substantial. The guts were there, but nothing much filled them. It had always been a site that, when filled, was planned to offer in-depth information on America’s appellations and appellation system. Yet little was offered in the way of information. But something has changed. Very recently…

Wine country can be a parade of images. People come here not just to soak up on wine but to soak up on the beauty that long rows of vines plopped down on the landscape can offer. Today was no different. A blanket of fog covered us today, all day today. Yet, wine country seems to be the tableau that keeps on giving