Yes we blend!
Yes, we blend! And in the Côtes du Rhône that usually means Continue reading
White, Red, Rosé? Côtes du Rhône Wines Paired with Squash Soufflé, Instant Pot Cassoulet #Winophiles
Organic Sauvignon Blanc Paired with Fried Calamari Ceasar Sandwiches
Organic Sauvignon Blanc from Bonterra and Kind of Wild Paired with La Brea Bread Calamari Ceasar Salad Sandwiches
There’s little I love more than freshly baked bread. Except freshly baked bread with wine! So when one of my favorites bakeries, La Brea, contacted me about doing a bread and wine pairing, I said ABSOLUTELY!
AmByth’s Natural Wines: Biodynamic Farming for the Future #WinePW
AmByth wines, olive oil, vinegar, and pairings
As we bounced along on the narrow, straight dirt road in our 1990 VW Westfalia camper van, with a very steep oak wooded hillside to the left, and a rolling dry cow pasture rising to our right, I was sure we’d gone the wrong way. The sign that said AmByth with the arrow? Maybe we should go back and check. And then the road came to an abrupt end in a clump of oak trees with a climb up to the right and the left. To the left was a green gate and another small sign: AmByth.
“AmByth is the Welsh word meaning ‘forever’. We view it as our legacy,” states AmByth Estates founder Phillip Hart.
Tastes Like Saving Our Planet: 2 $13 Chardonnay with Fresh Tuna, Garden Harvest Preview #WinePW
Chardonnay pairings: Watermelon, mint, feta, arugula salad; fresh seared blue fin tuna; grilled zucchini; zucchini flowers stuffed with goat cheese battered and fried; raw oysters
“In the name of productivity, the ‘fast life’ has changed our lifestyle and now threatens our environment and our land (and city) scapes,” writes Carlo Petrini in the SLOW FOOD MANIFESTO. Arguing that we “confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of an adequate portion of sensual gourmandise pleasures, to be taken with slow and prolonged enjoyment.”
Featured in the Slow Wine Guide is pioneering Fetzer, one of the first larger wineries to get on the certified organic bandwagon, and is also now a B Corp. While they do source and use conventional grown fruit in their Fetzer brand, their Bonterra brand is all certified organically grown grapes, and they also have biodynamic wines. Fetzer’s family of wines includes Chile’s Cono Sur brand which uses organically grown certified grapes.
Verdicchio? Is That A Vegetable? Does It Go With Carbonara? #ItalianFWT
Verdicchio from Marche and Lugana, Italy
“Verdicchio? Is that a vegetable?” My writing partner Sue Hills was asked this question twice in twenty four hours. While Verdicchio may sound like some sort of green vegetable, it’s actually a green fruit — a grape to be exact, and not surprisingly, a greenish grape. To make it even more complicated, Verdicchio is known by many other names, and combined, it’s one of the most planted grapes in the world — and likely one that you don’t know! Continue reading
Because You Might Be Dead Next Year: Drinking A 1995 Clos des Amis Cabernet for Cabernet Day 2021
“Because I was dead last year.” That’s what Bruce Freeman said when he brought out and opened a 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon from the cold room at his winery, Clos des Amis, located on South Mountain in Santa Paula, Ventura County, California, on Cabernet Day 2021.
Bruce Freeman
What he said is true: during the 2019 harvest, two years ago, Bruce was very sick. Near the end of harvest, he was Continue reading
Chardonnay Harvest: Ventura County Vineyards August 2021
Clos des Amis winermaker Bruce Freeman with a truckload of Olivelands Chardonnay, Santa Paula, Ventura County, CA
It’s that moment we’ve all been waiting for and preparing for: Harvest 2021! A week or so ago, I spent two days picking and then processing the Chardonnay from the Olivelands Vineyard just south of Santa Paula, Ventura County, California. These grapes will go into the Clos des Amis Olivelands Chardonnay, a small experimental vineyard hidden in a pocket hillside and surrounded by Continue reading
