We’re with WALT! WALT wines, that is, with winemaker Winemaker Megan Gunderson Paredes and owner Kathryn Walt Hall for this month’s Wine Pairing Weekend Tribute to Women Owned Wineries and Women Who Make Wine in advance of Women’s History Month and World of Pinot Noir events in March AND  in recognition of Amy Bess Cook’s new venture that lists wineries owned by women using Sonoma County fruit (including Merry Edwards who we featured last March following a media tasting of her wines at World Of Pinot Noir in Santa Barbara). Continue reading →

photo of Breathless Sparkling Wine by Gina Shay #WineStudio

Cheers to Women Owned Wineries and Women Who Make Wine!

This February 10, here on Wine Predator, I’m hosting the Wine Pairing Weekend crew as we showcase some of our sweethearts who are women who own wineries or make wine — and food that pairs well with these wines.  Continue reading →

Okay wine friends, how long did it take you to realize that the Crocodile Dundee trailer during the Super Bowl WAS NO TRAILER?

You know the ad where it seems like it’s a trailer for Son of Dundee or some such and it’s actually a showcase for Australian tourism featuring a scene at a winery and starring Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride drinking Australian wine?

According to Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia, in a press release dated Feb. 5, “The Super Bowl has the largest reach of any advertising platform in the USA, with more than 100 million Americans tuning in across the USA and many millions more people globally.” Continue reading →

Did you know:

1. 30% of Israeli wine brands are certified kosher, but they produce over 90% of the Israel wine industry’s output.
2. Wineries around the world craft special runs of kosher wine that meet the specifications.
3. All kosher California wine is made by fully kosher wineries such as Herzog Wine Cellars, Covenant and Hagafen with one exception:  Marciano Estate’s “Terra Gratia.”
4. Passover dinners feature red wine because that’s what Jews used during their Seders after they escaped Egypt.
5. Kosher wines range in price from $5- $500 with the average price at $25.
6. Bartenura produces the largest selling imported Italian Moscato in the U.S. — and while it is kosher, only a small fraction of the 5,000,000 blue bottles go to the kosher market.
7. Founded in 1848, Royal Wine Corp. has been owned and operated in the United States by the Herzog family, whose winemaking roots go back eight generations to its origin in Czechoslovakia; Sue and I visited Herzog last summer and wrote about it here.

As the Kosher world of wine expands with increased demands, exports and enthusiasm, you may be wondering: Continue reading →

What went down in January 2018?

In January we obsessed over Occitanie French wines and cassoulet as well as all things Fetzer via the January #WineStudio Program where we tasted three from the Fetzer label the first week, followed by their 1000 Stories wine aged in bourbon barrels, then Bonterra’s organic and biodynamic wines which we paired with recipes from their website, and finally, their new label Adorada, a wine that stimulates all of the senses. We also showcased Sonoma wines for #WinePW and continued the conversation about the wildfires that struck both ends of the state. Altogether I published five posts and about 7500 words on wine which is a good start on my goal of 108 for the year 2018!

What’s up for February 2018? Continue reading →

Sunday February 4, 2018 is Super Bowl Sunday when the 52nd Super Bowl decides which team,  New England Patriots or  Philadelphia Eagles will be the league champion for the 2017 NFL season. Super Bowl LII will be held at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you can bet it will be cold.

Super Bowl Sunday is the one football game that many non-football fans watch. It’s the footballs social event of the year (unless you are in high school and then maybe it is the big game between cross town rivals like Buena and Ventura here).

For non-football types who are watching the game to be social, highlights will likely be Pink performing the national anthem of the United States, Leslie Odom Jr. singing “America the Beautiful” and, in his third times a charm, Justin Timberlake is headlining the halftime show (in 2001, he performed with NSYNC, and in 2004 in an unforgettable moment with Janet Jackson )

So what should you include in your Super Bowl spread that will keep everyone super good and warm?

How about pulled pork paired with a wine that uses bourbon or whiskey barrels for part of the aging process?

Continue reading →