Category: Travel
-
Jordan Winery: The Ultimate Wine Country Lifestyle
Jordan Winery, located in Alexander Valley AVA in Sonoma County, produces beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, and they deliver much more than that at their winery. With so many wine tasting options in Sonoma, Jordan Winery stands apart from the rest by offering the opportunity to experience the luxury of wine country in an afternoon.…
-
Carneros spotlight: Sonoma’s Etude Winery
Straddling both Napa and Sonoma counties, Carneros AVA grows some of the most concentrated Pinot Noirs in California. Often more voluminous in flavor than their Coastal counterparts, Carneros Pinot Noir typically has a deep berry (red cherry) flavor, hint of herb, and are made in a style that utilizes oak treatment to balance the intensity…
-
A Serious Wine: Napa’s Howell Mountain Cabernet
About a year ago, six of us piled into an SUV from the floor of Napa Valley in St. Helena for a half-hour climb straight up the Vaca Mountain Range, rising from the eastern side of the Valley to 1400 feet of elevation and beyond. It was 10:00 am and as we zigzagged up the…
-
Heritage Vines of California: Lodi Zin
I was fortunate to visit a very special block in California this summer- Rous Vineyard. Located in Lodi, California, this vineyard has some of the oldest Zinfandel vines in the world. Planted in 1909 in the Mokelumne River sub-AVA of Lodi, this Zinfandel has survived 108 years on sandy loam soil. With a deep network…
-
California’s Best Pinot Noir: Explore Anderson Valley
One of the aspects of California wine I enjoy the most is the variety of wine produced in the state. You can go from hot and flat AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) that produce fruit-forward deep reds to high-elevation spots with a cooler climate for growing austere white wines. For every wine lover out there, there…
-
Lodi’s Verdelho Three Ways
As part of my journey to discover Lodi wine at the 2016 Wine Blogger Conference, I was very fortunate to be hosted by St. Jorge Vineyards. St. Jorge is a breathtaking vineyard and estate in Lodi’s Mekolumne River AVA, which whisk you away to the Mediterranean beauty of Portugal. Vern and Jenise Vierra have been making Portuguese wine…
-
Passion and Points: The Story of HALL Wines
Sometimes, Napa gets a bad rap. No, really. The world-famous valley in California, notable for producing some of the world’s most exquisite Cabernets, is sometimes talked down upon. Recently I was in an off-the-beaten-path wine region of California and a local wine producer commented that you wouldn’t find him on a beach in Hawaii cashing…
-
Lodi: Where The Old World is New Again
I first heard about Lodi, California, from Jon Bonné, author of the The New California Wine (2013). Bonné highlights some of the hot winemakers making a “new” restrained version of California wines, such as Tegan Passalacqua from Turley Wines, known for making Lodi Zinfandels from some of the oldest vines in the country. While I…
-
Wine and Baseball: Two of the Finest Found at AT&T Park
On our last trip to Napa (August 2015), we decided to spend one night in San Francisco to see our beloved Nationals get revenge on the Giants for the 2014 NLDS. I was excited to visit AT&T Park, located right on San Francisco Bay in the heart of downtown. And I was thrilled to watch…
-
Vegas Vino: Drinking Wine in Sin City
People travel to Vegas to gamble, see a show, eat amazing food, and indulge. They don’t go to Vegas to drink wine. I didn’t see one cool, modern, well-stocked wine bar, yet Vegas has twice as many Master Sommeliers as New York City. Vegas is a mix of high-rollers willing to spend $2,000 on a…