Hi! My name is Sydney, just like the city in Australia. In fact, some people tell me that’s where my name came from, since my Mom and Dad enjoyed their visit to Sydney so much when they were on their wine trip to Australia in 2005 before I was born. I’m the little Peep in […]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2007 St. Hallett Faith Shiraz from the Barossa Valley of Australia. […]

Dusi Vineyard is located in west Templeton, California, in the Paso Robles AVA. The Dusi family is well-known for growing top-notch Zinfandel, which is considered the heritage variety of Paso Robles because it had a strong influence on the growth and development of the local wine industry. Sylvester and Caterina Dusi immigrated to the United […]

Betz Family Winery, located in Woodinville, Washington, was founded by winemaker Bob Betz and his wife Cathy. They have grown steadily since their inception, from producing 150 cases of their first vintage in 1997 to currently producing around 3,500 cases, which is the level they plan to maintain. Betz Family Winery remains a small family […]

Pacific Rim Winery, located in West Richland, Washington, is almost exclusively a Riesling producer. The first Pacific Rim Riesling was produced in 1992 as a brand within Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California, and used grapes from California, Washington, and Germany. In 2007, owner Randall Grahm decided to downsize Bonny Doon and spun off […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is Masters of Wine. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Masters of Wine are those who have passed the examinations held every year by the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW), the wine trade’s most famous and most demanding professional qualification. …. The examinations […]

First of all, let’s get right to the obvious. If a wine costs less than $10, has a screwcap closure, or comes in a box, it is ready to drink now. Today, the overwhelming majority of wines, even at higher price points, are made to be drunk young. So enjoy! Many more wines are drunk […]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2007 Owen Roe Sharecropper’s Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley of […]

Washington State Cabernet Sauvignons are among the best in the world, and they are much better values (higher QPR) than most Cabs in other wines regions of the world. Last Friday evening, we tasted six Cabernet Sauvignons from Washington State in our monthly wine tasting dinner. It was another fabulous evening of good wines, the […]

Years ago when I was teaching school in Houston and needed to get an evening meal ready after work, one of my standby meals to prepare was beef stroganoff. My version has evolved over the years to be a quick and easy recipe and seems to get quicker and easier as the years go by. […]