Sauvignon Blanc Wines from 4 countries with pairings

I was at lunch with my friend Jodi at Paradise Pantry in Downtown Ventura many years ago. I was painstakingly perusing the wines list, trying to decide on a flight or a glass or… and what was I going to eat and how would it pair… all the usual for me. She’s decided already, and quickly so I asked. “Oh, I’m ordering sauvignon Blanc,” she replied. “I always do. It’s always good and it always goes with what I want to eat– salads and seafood.” Continue reading →

Chalk Hill Sauv Blanc and halibut pesto with beans

Spring is in the air everywhere signaling that it’s time for Sauvignon Blanc with Sauvignon Blanc Day coming up each year on the first Friday of the month of May, and celebrated with events all weekend all over the world! We have two days of wines and pairings, with four wines from around the world tomorrow, and today, two from Sonoma’s Chalk Hill which is celebrating over 50 years of wine making, including iconic Sauvignon Blanc!  Continue reading →

Champagne Roederer

Grape growers generally don’t just wake up one morning and go from farming conventionally using synthetic pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, basically killing the soil (and in Champagne making the water some of the most polluted on Earth) and everything except the vines to farming sustainably by going organic, biodynamic and/or regenerative and renewing the ecosystem.  Vines that have been farmed with fertilizer and other synthetics basically have been on drugs, often for their entire lives, which means the vines need to be weaned off the drugs, and the soil needs to be repaired. It’s a process, and along the way, farmers– who often at heart are really scientists with farmers who are winemakers more like mad-scientists– Continue reading →

Biodynamic and Organic Waterford Whisky with bread pudding with whiskey sauce

With Earth Day come and gone and Earth Month almost over, let’s toast to #EarthDayEveryDay and all who did so much for the Earth this month with Biodynamic and Organic Waterford Whisky! Here on Wine Predator, we love organic and biodynamic products — and we love our whisky because we do not live by wine alone! So I was thrilled when we were offered samples of these beautiful Irish Waterford Distillery bottles of whisky that are organic and biodynamic which we paired with bread pudding that Sue Hill made… and yes, with a whisky sauce and homemade whipped cream!

Continue reading →

Menu for a Selection of Robert Hall Cavern Select Wines

What is regenerative viticulture all about? What’s the same or different between organic, biodynamic or regenerative organic? That’s what I was trying to explain to my husband after his query as we drove back from the Santa Paula Agricultural Museum following a panel discussion on the topic of regenerative agriculture. I explained about the three legs of the stool: people, planet, profits. To me, for wine, what it really comes down to is this: in biodynamic and regenerative organic vineyards and agricultural spaces, the land is much more ALIVE: cover crops enrich the soil full of microbial activity, the air is busy with beneficial buzzing insects and birds singing, the woods and other nearby natural spaces house diverse animals. The land is ALIVE –and so is the fruit.  At Robert Hall Winery in Eastside Paso Robles, they are taking a deep dive into understanding the differences between being Certified California Sustainable Winemakers (which is an important first step) to their Regenerative Organic Certification by comparing these practices on 4o acres of their estate vineyards. Continue reading →