In 2017 and 2018, devastating fires hit wine growing regions of the world, making headlines, destroying lives, and wreaking havoc on the industry.
Just over a year ago, after almost a month, the fires in Napa and Sonoma were finally contained.
A few weeks later, the largest fire in California’s history broke out on Monday night December 4 in Ventura Country not far from my home. Read more about the Thomas Fire here. Continue reading
Donnachiara is a winery in the Montefalciane region of Italy just south of Roma that’s been getting a lot of attention on Twitter — generating quite a bit of enthusiasm which made me curious about tasting the wines myself!
So when a few weeks ago, Donnachiara’s owner Ilaria Petitto hosted a wine lunch in NYC, and since I and some of my fellow Italian Food Wine Travel folks couldn’t exactly attend because we live in other parts of the country, we got the next best thing — wines sent to us for a twitter chat that afternoon. Unfortunately, for me, the wines arrived a few days after the twitter chat…
If you, like me, can’t get enough of #Merlot even after a month of #MerlotMe, you might want to check out “Masters of Merlot: Seminar, Tasting and Walk-around Reception with Merlot’s Biggest Champions” Continue reading
On an evening when nobody wants to cook, but everybody wants to party, it is a great time to pull out the instant pot to make something fun, easy, and yummy — and paired with one of these easy drinking Merlot, you know you’ll have a winner of a dinner!
Have you ever looked at the display of Halloween themed wine bottles at the grocery store or World Market and think, “Ewww I bet those are awful!”
Well, I did! I figured they were overpriced, tarted up, bulk wine with nothing to say, and just good-time wine — not one you’d take home for dinner!
Now I’m clearly NOT talking about Flora Springs, which has embraced and celebrated its ghost winery heritage. (Read more about ghost wineries HERE.)
No, I’m talking about the kind of wine you would pick up on your way to a party. Like the kind that comes in a coffin.
But given the opportunity to taste a number of them recently I was surprised and pleased as was the gathering of goblins, ghosts, and ghouls, seven in all, who’ve been friends for 15 or more years. In fact all of us were grateful to be on this side of the grave with each other and these festive and fun wines!
So if you’ve been on the prowl here at Wine Predator a time or two, you may have noticed that we love to pair Merlot with salmon, especially Washington Merlot like we did here with these. But when my husband came home from the store with a beautiful steak, I thought I’d look through my #MerlotMe samples for something that was blended with a Cabernet for that night — but something that would pair well with salmon for the following evening when Sue would be coming over!
That’s why I chose this Nine Hats Merlot from Washington– it’s mostly Merlot but it has some Cabernet Franc in it too. What a winner with both the turf — beef — and the surf — salmon! Continue reading
Ever heard of Lirac wine before?
If you’re a typical American, probably not. If you’re a regular Rhône wine drinker, maybe.
Regardless it’s time to add the palette of Lirac to your palate!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 