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Passion for Italian: The Grandi Marchi in San Francisco

Passion for Italian doesn’t describe the rapt attention of the trade audience at the Grandi Marchi tasting last month in SF. Instead, it describes the passion of Italy’s greatest producers for their own uniquely Italian grapes, and their efforts to improve, revive and communicate them to the world…

Spreading French Joie de Vivre to the Masses: Vin de France

Don’t tell Managing Director Valerie Pajotin that Vin de France are mere “table wines”, even though technically, that’s what they are. For Valerie and a contingent of her colleagues from Anivin – the trade group for Vin de France – these wines have the potential to become a global force majeure

Behind The Legend of Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon

My reference wines for benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon are Napa Valley and Bordeaux, so when I had the chance recently to taste through a vertical of Don Melchor wines from Chile’s Concha y Toro with winemaker Enrique Tirado in San Francisco, they were going to have a pretty high bar to meet.

The Wine Lover’s Sake

At a recent sake tasting at the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco, Sake Samurai Timothy Sullivan told us we really shouldn’t call sake a wine “a sake is a sake”. Still, it’s hard for a Wine Muse not to taste sake like a wine and by doing so, I could really appreciate these sakes even more in terms of flavor, quality craftsmanship, long tradition and yes, terroir.

The Taste of Rutherford Dust Found

I’ve written about Napa Valley’s earliest vineyards from St. Helena to Howell Mountain and Stags Leap, but no region’s vintners have had …

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The Essence of Quinta do Noval

I was happy to see Christian Seeley, Managing Director of Quinta do Noval, at the 2011 Vintage Port tasting last month in …

The Clones of Carneros

A couple years ago at the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival technical conference, winemaker Greg La Follette spoke about Pinot Noir lovers.  …