Recommended Wine Blog: The Best of Wines

I recently got a note from one of our wine club members, Steve Stumpf, about a wine blog he'd started recently.  I visited the site, not expecting too much, and loved it.  The writing is funny and irreverant, the topics mercurial and interesting, and the presentation full of

Syrah/Roussanne Harvest and Co-Fermentation

Each year, one of our favorite Syrah lots in the cellar is one that we co-ferment with Roussanne.  We typically blend about 10% Roussanne into Syrah, de-stem the two grapes, and then ferment them together in an open-top tank.  The lushness of the mid-palate of Roussanne helps round out the

Harvest 2007 Begins!

The 2007 harvest is underway.  As I've written about this year, we've had a relatively unusual year for weather, with a very cold, dry winter delaying the beginning of budbreak and flowering, and then a remarkably moderate summer, with few days over 100 and no extended

Paso Robles Rhone Rangers Experience

Back in January, we helped organize the Paso Robles Rhone producers into a regional chapter of the Rhone Rangers.  I wrote about the importance of Rhones in Paso Robles an few months back, and it's been gratifying to see how the member wineries have jumped in to contribute.

Hand Harvesting

While my wife was in the hospital this week with our second baby, we were lucky enough to be paired in the post-delivery room with an acquaintance: the well-respected Central Coast grower relations director of a major international wine consortium, who I've known for several years, and whose

Welcome John Morris, Tasting Room Manager

We're excited to welcome John Morris as our new Tasting Room Manager. John joins us most recently from Per Bacco Cellars in San Luis Obispo, but honed his retail, wine and management skills in locally with Bonny Doon, and in Seattle, where he worked at De Laurenti Food

Wine Pricing

Earlier this year, I was browsing through some recent reviews online (at the content-rich and interesting site Wine Review Online) and came across a writer's comment that said "all of the Tablas Creek wines are conspicuously expensive, and if there is an explanation for this that would

Varner Pinot Noir "Hidden Block" 2004, Santa Cruz Mountains

I've been wanting for a while to start a section where I can post about other wines that I've tasted that have made an impression on me.  The world doesn't need another wine reviewer, and I'm not in the business of assigning

Veraison!

This week, we're seeing the first signs of veraison in the vineyard.  This means the clock is ticking... we figure on an average of about 45 days between the end of veraison and the beginning of harvest. (Veraison is the French term for the point at which berries

Outstanding in the Field Dinner - Tablas Creek, Coleman Farms, Sage Restaurant

Every now and then, you come across an event that is so perfectly suited to what you'd like to communicate about your wines that it seems impossible that someone else should have come up with the idea.  The Outstanding in the Field dinner series is this sort of