CA’s Livermore: McGrail, Murrieta’s Well, Steven Kent
Napa may be California’s most famous and best known wine region, but California’s commercial wine industry actually began elsewhere– in warm interior valleys like Cucamonga east of Los Angeles and Livermore east of Oakland in Alameda County. While the padres first planted grapes in the 1760s to make sacramental wine using the labor of enslaved native Americans, immigrants settling in California planted vines first for their own use, and then for commercial use. Robert Livermore in Livermore Valley led the way in the 1840s followed by pioneering winemakers like C. H. Wente, James Concannon, and Charles Wetmore who founded their wineries in the early 1880s.
How do you feel about Moscato, the often fizzy, often sweet wine made from the Moscato grape primarily grown in northern Italy that has its day today? For many, it’s a love-hate relationship — people either love it Continue reading →
Cerasuolo from Organic Famiglia Febo and Biodynamic Lunaria with an Abruzzo Inspired Menu
Who wants to go to Abruzzo? Me! Famous for being “green” from the rivers that cut through from the mountains through the hills where the wine grows and down to the Adriatic Sea, Abruzzo has plenty to rave about from food featuring saffron to Montepulciano as a red wine or rose. I’m headed to Abruzzo then Veneto in June after a quick stop in Rome just in time for “Republic Day aka “Festa della Repubblica” which celebrates the day that Italians voted to decide in 1947 NOT to follow a monarchy but to become a republic after the devastation of World War 2. Continue reading →
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 →
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!
You wouldn’t think there would be much of a difference between the two but there is. And tasters had a strong preference one to the next!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 