March means Women’s History Month which is why I invited the Winophiles group of wine writers to find women working sustainably in France for this month’s prompt; scroll down to see who is writing about what and the questions for our twitter chat Sat. March 18, 2023.
March also means celebrating the luck of the Irish with Friday March 17 St Patrick’s Day. While we’ve learned that corned beef and cabbage pair well with the white wines from Alsace as well as similar white wines from Germany Continue reading →
Working at the outdoors tasting table at Ridge Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the mid-80s is where and when I first sampled Petite Sirah. While the wines might have come from Paso Robles or Sonoma, to my memory these juicy, rich, dark, delicious wines came from California’s “gold country” — the Sierra Foothills like Amador and El Dorado Counties. Continue reading →
When I learned that David Glancy of the San Francisco Wine School was organizing a blind comparative tasting he called “Paso Robles vs The World,” my mind immediately jumped to the 1976 Judgment of Paris that put California’s wines on the world map (including Ridge where I once worked), and from there to the idea of a Judgment of Paso. While the Judgment of Paris has been recreated ad nauseam around the world, the concept still captures the imagination: how would wines from one area tasted blind compare with another? I set my sights on attending — and Continue reading →
Campania’s two most important grapes– Falanghina and Aglianico– aren’t well known in the US and are rarely grown in the states with notable exceptions in Paso Robles where Castoro grows Falanghina and Aglianico at Sunce. While Aglianico may be considered one of Italy’s three best wine grapes, Continue reading →
Sparkling wine from Mendoza, Argentina: Mairena Espumante Extra Brut
In 2023, the World Wine Travel group of wine writers is focused on South America, and this month the theme is wine from Argentina that’s not MALBEC from Mendoza. While important, Malbec is not the only thing going on in Argentina! As I recently participated in an AMAZING tasting with SF Wine School and Argentina’s Continue reading →
The Ojai Vineyard 2009 Syrah special bottling is indeed special
The final Saturday of February is “Open That Bottle Night”– a night when you just say, heck why not, life is short, drink the good stuff. Not sure about you but that’s kind of been the mood around here for the past few years during the pandemic anyway…
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 