The last of the last. This is it, the last bottle that I bought from a Grateful Palate Warehouse sale, one that was first tucked away in my grandfather’s wine cellar, and then tucked away in my own: a 2006 Montepulciano from Tscharke. Continue reading →
a selection of wines from grapes grown in Ventura County by several Ventura County wineries
Until December 2017’s Thomas Fire struck Ventura County with a vengeance making it the largest fire in California’s history, most people didn’t know where Ventura County was. I’d tell people we were located north of Los Angeles and south of Santa Barbara — two well known regions, and one of them, Santa Barbara, very well known for wine.
But Ventura County has a long history of flowers, seeds, citrus and more agricultural abundance — including wine grapes.
Chiaretto? What’s that? Sue and I figured we’d just pass up this month’s Italian Food Wine Travel Chiaretto prompt — it’s summer, we’re busy, we’re traveling, we’ve got big projects going at home, and what is Chiaretto anyway?
But we got an offer we couldn’t refuse: samples! So we looked at our calendars, and committed to it — still with NO IDEA what we were in for but figuring it was something red.
That’s because even though Sue’s family is from Italy, we don’t speak a whole lot of Italian. Continue reading →
New Zealand is justly famous for their distinctive sauvignon blanc featuring grapefruit (and herbal notes sometimes described as cat pee!) and pinot noir full of bright fruit and violets.
Recently Sue and I were reminded why we love NZ wine when we participated in a twitter tasting of three from Villa Maria’s Taylor’s Pass Vineyard located on the banks of the Awaretere Valley in Marlborough, a region that gets the most hours of sunshine in New Zealand with 2435 hours a year! Continue reading →