The classic wine bottle holds 750 ml. of wine, though you can find some sparklers in bottles as small as 187.5 ml., and some stills and sparklers in gigantic bottles holding up to 27 liters. Only infrequently will you find a person that has actually memorized the sizes and names of available bottles, as well as the amount of wine each holds, and it isn’t an important skill. However, there are mnemonics (memory enhancers) that do allow people to spout out some of the classifications in order...
It has been a perfect dinner. The restaurant’s ambiance is exceeded only by its superb cuisine, while each dish was paired with a wine that you carefully chose to compliment every subtle ingredient. All that is left is dessert, and a beverage to accompany it. Is there some drink to end dinner that is in vogue and can show off your knowledge and suavity? Chocolate martinis are so 90’s, and flavored vodkas are now all too common to be impressive. Fine Port can be outrageously...
Veterans of the Valley uniformly agree that a good tasting room experience can make even mediocre wines taste better. Conversely, run into a surly staff member pouring wines, and no matter how good the drink may be, it probably will not appeal to you and you most likely won’t buy it there, or anywhere. This is certainly no revelation to winery owners, and thus most tasting room personnel are fun, congenial, and ready to help. If you find people who aren’t, we recommend you...
I have the enviable opportunity to try to prevent heart disease from ever harming or killing my patients. In doing so I carry the customary weapons of defense: medications, dietary strategies, exercise perscriptions, omega-3 fatty acid suggestions, and stress reduction admonitions. Undoubtedly, my most widely embraced recommendation is the advice to lightly to moderately drink red wine. While many studies have shown the benefits of this advice, I take it a step...
November 30, 2024
There are a couple of places in the United States where one appellation traverses across county lines, but none more famous than Los Carneros (these days almost universally referred to simply as “Carneros”), which runs through the southern portions of both Napa and Sonoma counties. Quite cool as a result of its proximity to the San Pablo Bay (an extension of the San Francisco Bay), Carneros has rightfully gained notoriety as a world class region for growing Chardonnay...
December 17, 2024
CARBON NEUTRALITY: WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT IN THE WINE INDUSTRY?
Ask Rodney Strong and Sonoma-Loeb
and
THE GOVERNMENT NOTWITHSTANDING, THE VINTNERS COME THROUGH AGAIN
Sonoma-Loeb, long a grower of grapes, but relatively new to the wine production industry with its one Chardonnay, shares an important niche with established winery Rodney Strong and its half million case production. The wines of both establishments are of top quality in our...
Have we become a nation of people who are afraid to be critical of things that are nonsense? When did the wine community decide it would almost universally muzzle its public comments regarding their dislike of a system which allows a shockingly few people and publications to literally have a major say in determining the level of success of every winery on the planet? And what convinced the vast majority of wine critics and writers in the world that a relatively few other people possess such...
October 7, 2024
How many people do you know that became enophiles after first tasting a red Zinfandel? And how often was the wine label named Ravenswood? Quite frequently, we are sure, given the fact that owner/winemaker Joel Peterson makes and distributes over 700,000 cases of his entry level wine, the Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel, each year.
But here is what you might not know:
Joel also makes...
November 23, 2024
You start by talking to people in the industry. You graduate from talking to more formal interviews. You begin to read articles, then go to books, and then to more specific articles on the Net. You learn the practicalities, and, when that is not enough, the science. And somewhere during the 17 or so years that you go through all the above you decide you know enough to write and teach about wine – activities that become more sophisticated over time and bring you some...
Like many of you, we have been known to purchase a bottle or two of wine as we travel through various wine countries or visit our local wine store. And, like you again, what makes us buy a particular bottle at any given time is a function of so many factors that to try and list them all would be folly. But have you ever thought seriously about what stops you from purchasing a wine that you might otherwise enjoy? The cost of the juice? Your financial picture that day? Or maybe you simply don’...
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