Another of my favorite publications was also nominated for a prestigious James Beard Award. The Pinot Report, also out of Sonoma County like Michele Anna Jordan’s "Mouthful" radio show, was nominated for an award in the category of "Newsletter Writing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant and Nutrition". Published and written by Greg Walter, The Pinot Report has been featured in this blog here and here. The approach of The Pinot Report is to bring a focused eye on West Coast Pinot…

Sometimes exactly the right people get recognized. That happened when the James Beard Awards Nominees were announced this evening. Throughout the country there are a number of really wonderful radio shows that focus on food and wine. Lynn Chamberlain’s "Wine & Dine" show on iTunes is great (more on that in a later post), Gene Burn’s "Dining Around with Gene Burns" on KGO in San Francisco is dynamite and one I never miss. But out here in Sonoma County there…

If MKF Research is right, and they usually are, California wil need to produce an additional 4.5 million cases of high end wine, give or take, in order to satisfy demand by 2010. MKF is the wine industry premier wine research company and often releases various statistical reports and forcasts for the industry. In their latest Monthly Report they forecast that a combination of increased demand and a slowdown in yields over recent vintages will mean that another 18,000 acres…

Not so much a “Wacky Wine Name” but rather a Wine with a Wacky Tale. The 1988 Clos Pegase Napa Valley Hommage was the winery’s high-end, reserve Cabernet. Each vintage owner Jan Shrem chooses a painting from his enormous and amazing collection of modern art and slaps it on the label. Well, when he slapped this label on his wine, the BATF slapped him back. The BATF told Jan that the wine label was “obscene”. Now keep in mind the…

You think you’ve seen it all, then all of a sudden, something new appears…but in reality, it’s not new. I thought I was aware of all the wine blogs out there…But wait. I come across “Basic Juice“. The Basic Juice blog is the work of Beau Jarvis, schooled in wine and working out of that wine capital of the world: Utah. The blog is damn good, with reviews, commentary and, best of all, regular posts. There is also a bit…