Recently, we had one of our double-blind private tastings. This time when we sat down for our dinner of grilled beef tenderloin steaks, brown and wild rice, and mixed vegetables, all we knew were that the two wines in front of us were red, but we did not know their region of origin or varietal. […]

Lionheart Wines, located in Half Moon Bay, California, was founded in 2005 by owner/winemaker Leon C. Glover III. Leon has had the dream of making wine since he was a boy and admired his father’s extensive wine collection. Due to high start up costs and the knowledge required to start a winery, he put his […]

For the last year, we have been touting the virtues of Syrah and Washington Syrah in particular. Now Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, wine writers for the Wall Street Journal, have joined our chorus. Their conclusion after tasting over 50 Washington Syrahs in blind flights over several nights: “As a group, these are the most […]

This month’s wine tasting dinner featured red blends from Washington State. You may remember that we had Washington Red Blends at our September tasting dinner last fall. We put the winner of the September tasting, the 2006 Mark Ryan “The Dissident,” in this tasting along with five other red blends from Washington. Mark Ryan came […]

Kim Crawford Wines, located in New Zealand, was founded in 1996 by owner/winemaker Kim Crawford and his wife Erica. In the beginning, Kim Crawford Wines was one of New Zealand’s first “virtual wineries.” They sourced their grapes from growers across New Zealand, made the wine at other wineries, and managed their sales and marketing from […]

In the process of cleaning up my desk and purging my files over the holidays, I found notes from four Walla Walla, Washington, wineries that we visited in October on the same weekend we took our vineyard tour with Rich Funk of Saviah Cellars. These four were wineries that we had not had a chance […]

South Seattle Artisan Wineries is a group of eight boutique wineries located just south of downtown Seattle, including Cadence, Elsom Cellars, Fall Line, Falling Rain, Nota Bene, O*S, Sodovino, and Stomani. Since these are small, boutique wineries, they are not open for regular tasting room hours. However, they host joint open houses on special Saturdays […]

Mother Nature gave us just enough of a reprieve between snowstorms to allow us and our guests to make it to this month’s wine tasting dinner last Friday night. After being cooped up in our homes for a couple days, it was nice to get out for a fun evening of good wines, excellent food, […]

This Saturday, December 20, is the beginning of the annual college football marathon, 34 games in 19 days culminating in the BCS National Championship Game in Miami on January 8. Those of us football fanatics are stocking up on our manly fare of burgers, chili, pizza, brats, chips, salsa, and cheese. Now we need some […]

Several years ago, Dad (John) began purchasing special bottles of wine to put in his cellar and then enjoy on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and so forth. We always look forward to these occasions knowing that we are in for a very special wine treat. Since we are firm believers in blind […]