The Wine Century Club turned 4 last Thursday. The Club was founded by Steve and Deborah De Long in 2005 to promote “the many unsung grape varieties used to make wine.” Dad (John) and I became members of the Wine Century Club last year after tasting at least 100 different grape varieties. While we have […]

Recently, we had one of our double-blind private tastings. When we sat down for our dinner, all we knew were that the two wines in front of us were white, but we did not know their region of origin or varietal. For a more complete description of how we set up these private tastings, please […]

A few months ago, I saw a list of America’s most popular restaurant wines that was published in a post on the popular wine blog, Vinography: Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay Beringer Vineyards White Zinfandel Cavit Pinot Grigio Italy Sutter Home White Zinfandel Inglenook Chablis Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio Italy Yellow Tail Chardonnay Australia Copperidge Chardonnay […]

The tagline used by the Washington Wine Commission to describe Taste Washington is “the ultimate wine experience.” That phrase definitely sums up this past weekend. Taste Washington is a wine and food lover’s paradise. The festivities kicked off on Friday with the Washington Wine Restaurant Awards, picked up steam on Saturday with Education Day, and […]

Recently, I had the opportunity to try several wines from two Sonoma County wineries located in Healdsburg, California. Dry Creek Vineyard and Simi Winery are both worth checking out. They produce good quality wines across the board. For those of us that drink wine virtually every day, it is not economical (nor necessary) to spend […]

Carpenter Creek Winery, located in Mount Vernon, Washington, was founded in 2001 by owner/winemaker Jeff Hammer and his wife Tara. They opened their tasting room in 2003 and did an extensive remodel in 2006. Their remodeled tasting room is very nice and quaintly situated off the road among fir and cedar trees. Currently, Carpenter Creek […]

The inaugural Sip of Snoqualmie, benefitting Encompass, was held last Saturday at the Snoqualmie Casino in Snoqualmie, Washington (about 26 miles east of Seattle). Encompass is a non-profit organization whose mission is to nurture children, enrich families, and inspire community in the Snoqualmie Valley. Thirty-two Washington wineries were on hand pouring their wines during this […]

Our last day in South African wine country was a last minute add-on trip to the Durbanville district, an area very close to Cape Town. The area was beautiful, but the overall quality of the wines was not great. And, unfortunately, the few excellent wines that we did find are not available in the United […]

Stellenbosch is by far the most prominent wine region in South Africa, so I wanted to go back and visit several of the wineries on my list that I had to skip when I was ill on our first visit to Stellenbosch several weeks ago. Our first stop was at de Trafford Winery. It was […]

On our next South African wine adventure, we headed out to Franschhoek to visit wineries that we were unable to visit earlier in our trip when I was ill. Franschhoek, a village settled more than 300 years ago by the French Huguenots, is a picturesque town full of art and antique shops and galleries, coffee […]