Last weekend, we traveled to Walla Walla, Washington, to attend Vintage Walla Walla, an annual event considered to be one of the nation’s premier regional wine tasting events. It is a two-day event featuring seminars, tours, and winemaker dinners in addition to the two marquee tastings, the Vintage Pour and the Grand Pavilion Tasting. On […]

Last week in Texas Wine Country 2009, Part One, I shared with you my initial impressions of Texas wines in 2009 and how much better they are today than in 2002. Now after visiting a total of 23 wineries and tasting a total of 169 wines from 28 wineries, let me give you a summary […]

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 […]

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 […]

On our first day in the Cape Winelands, we were making good time to our morning appointment until we discovered that our exit in Paarl was closed due to road construction. Because we had never been to this area it took us about thirty minutes to circle around and get us back on track to […]

We could not have asked for more hospitable hosts for the first-ever North American Wine Bloggers Conference than the people of the Sonoma wine industry. They really stepped up to the plate with sponsorships and donations of wine to help make the conference possible. Sonoma County is located north of San Francisco between Napa County […]

A couple of months ago I promised you a series of posts on what we call Super Bargain wines. In early September, I posted on Super Bargain Wines for Tough Times which featured a list of excellent wines selling for less than or equal to $10 a bottle. A few weeks ago I did a […]

3:30pm Dad (John) and I are here at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma County, California. We are just about to begin the Live Wine Blogging segment which will feature 14 wines from 14 wineries. We will update this post as we go. 3:36pm 2004 Bonterra The McNab (Mendocino, California): 60% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, […]

Last Friday, we hosted one of our monthly wine tasting dinners. We blind tasted six Zinfandels, four from California and two from Washington State. It was another fun evening of good wines, excellent food, and wonderful friends. Among the six wines, two set themselves apart from the rest. The 2006 Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel and […]