It’s said that fruit-driven Vintage Ports reflect the vintage conditions and aged Tawnys reflect the Port House style which is a complex blend of wines from different vintages.  The House style can be drier than sweeter, or fruity vs. complex.  It is up to the winemaker to determine how to achieve the House style using a mix of grapes and vineyard locations, a range of vat sizes, a vast inventory of existing blends and vintage wines, and a blending philosophy.
Graham’s House style, for example, is rich and sweet, while Warre’s …

My motto is “Discover the world and savor the classics.”  The catchphrase encourages consumers to explore all the wines of the world but to never forget the classics.  One cannot truly appreciate wines without having benchmarks to compare them to.  One of the most classic of these benchmarks is Port, the sweet fortified wine of the Douro (“Golden”) Valley in Portugal.  The region has been making wine since Roman times.  Its wine history is interwoven with Portugal’s illustrious past as New World explorer and global trader.  The Douro Valley’s terrain …

 
Appreciation of great wines deepens with positive memories of visiting the place of origin and soaking up the history and culture, the landscapes and most of all, tasting the food and wines at the source.  In a great wine capital like the Napa Valley, with wineries and restaurants lining its straight, flat roads, visiting the region is an easy thing to do.  In the historic city of Porto and the Douro Valley, it hasn’t been quite as convenient to get the full experience; after all, the majority of quintas and …

If the greatest wines in the world are made to age using the most expensive production methods, have a long history of quality control and are so recognizable by style that they can only be a single wine from a singular place, then Port is such a wine.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine made since the 17th century from grapes grown in the Douro River Valley in Portugal.  They are aged, traditionally, downriver in the cooler port city of Vila Nova de Gaia across the river from Porto.  In the …

My trip to Porto and the Douro Valley in Portugal revealed a lesser-known fact:  that sweet fortified wines can pair with savory foods in new and exciting ways.  Just don’t think about Port as a really “sweet” wine, and don’t always think “red” although most Port wine is made with red grape varieties.
While Port wine is sweet, typically about 100 grams/liter, it can be lower than 40 g/l for a white Port or as low as 80 g/l for ruby and tawny Ports depending on the producer’s house style.  For …

Food and wine charities are not new.  Professionals in the hospitality industry who participate in these events are by nature, generous people, and so are their patrons.  But when Dry Creek Valley vintner Clay Mauritson asked busy restaurateur, hotelier and Michelin star Chef Charlie Palmer to help him put together Project Zin – a charity to raise funds and awareness for Down syndrome which affects Mauritson’s son – Chef Palmer was standing by.
Clay and Charlie’s friendship goes back over a decade, when Clay’s family began helping Palmer develop vineyards in …

Zinfandel, like most reds, goes great with BBQ and there was plenty of that at the Good Eats & Zinfandel pairing at Fort Mason on Thursday as part of Zinfandel Advocates and Producers’ 20th anniversary celebration.  But with zinfandel’s softer tannin structure and moderate acidity, there is a broader range of dishes it can be enjoyed with, from spicy hot to vegetarian to soups, even sashimi!  Fifty zinfandel producers teamed up with Bay Area chefs to produce mouthwatering pairings that kept throngs of fans crawling the venue.  Here are some …

In a valley dominated by cabernet sauvignon vines, Robert Biale Vineyards is committed to zinfandel.  Zinfandel has been a way of life for this Napa Valley native.  Robert Biale’s grandparents Pietro and Christina moved to California from Northern Italy in the 1920’s and acquired property in Napa in 1937.  They planted zinfandel because it was popular at the time and being practical immigrants, appreciated the grape’s generous and consistent yields of 4-5 tons/acre.  They, and their son Aldo and wife Clementina, were farmers who grew vegetables, grapes, prunes and walnuts …