Year: 2011

Le Wine Buffs Take Manhattan

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Le Wine Buff - Enjoy BordeauxEnjoy Bordeaux's Le Wine Buffs are back and we're thirsty. This time we're taking on New York City and Manhattan is gonna stumble down in a vinous frenzy of affordable Bordeaux wine! We're the wine sponsor for this year's TechEnology wine event held by Enjoy Bordeaux partner Snooth and tech media publishing titan Ziff Davis. Held at the newly renovated General Assembly, the event will mix some of the icons of tech, publishing and the wine biz and look to do some serious vino mind melding. I'm excited to be pouring and talking about these wines at the event because I think Bordeaux is coming into another renaissance of exposure for it's thousands of high quality, affordable wines and their Chateaux, all across the greater appellation. Much of this belief was built during our visit to Bordeaux last summer. This event promises to be "a private, networking event recognizing the wine world's most technologically forward people, business and practices"...and these are the peeps that need to know Bordeaux! See you on the Right Coast vinopanions, and cheers!

In Pursuit of Balance: Pinot in the Spotlight

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Pinot Noir grapes at Chehalem Ridgecrest Vineyard, Newberg, OregonFollowing on the heels of my panel workshop at the very successful 9th Pinot Noir Summit this past month, I'm involved in another new, rather exciting Pinot adventure this month. California Pinot Noir: In Pursuit of Balance (Twitter) is a revolutionary new partnership intending generate dialog about balance in Cali Pinot. The partnership was founded by Jasmine Hirsch (Twitter) of Hirsch Vineyards and Winery (Twitter) and Rajat Par, longtime wine director for the Michael Mina family of restaurants including his own Rn74 (Twitter). As a well-respected family winegrower and an international restaurant wine director respectively, they are knee deep in the world of Pinot each and everyday. It is through this dedication to a single varietal that they realized a conundrum: is California Pinot becoming too big and unwieldy?

Pops & Son Wine Trip 6: The Mountains of Murphys

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Dad caught the Frickin' at Twisted Oak! - PSWT6This was a trip so epic, that it took a year to digest and to prepare the story-telling...that's the story I'm stickin' to anyway! Pops & I have taken many a wine trip together over the years, this was the sixth, in fact. Each one has been in a different appellation or sub-appellation around NorCal. Following my pre-WBC09 Twisted Murphys visit with some other vinopanions in crime, I decided that Pops and I needed to definitely take over Murphys and its Calaveras County wine country for our upcoming trip later that year. I spoke a lot in that earlier Murphys post about the exciting, up and coming aspects of the Calaveras County wine region and how it has already reached at least the wine crafting quality of it's larger and surrounding appellation of the Sierra Foothills and is coming into its own as a true wine destination. Murphys, the historic Gold Rush and logging town, has completely reinvented itself as a more boutique, yet still nicely rustic wine and food mecca, tucked underneath the stunning Sierras and Calaveras Bigtree National Forest. Pops and I decided that we needed to dig a bit deeper this time and really get to know this comfortable piece of wilder wine country.

5 Questions with Three Thieves

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Three ThievesIt's not every day that we as wine lovers get to stumble upon a truly good show about wine. I'm not talking about something that involves some guy dressed in tails and swishing aged, thin wine in his mouth and spitting...no, I'm talking about three renegades digging deep around the world to find new wines to grow, to sell and to chug by the bottle: Three Thieves (Twitter) aren't here to mess around. Already known around the wine biz as the triumvirate to buck any stodgy trend with their affordable and tasty jug wine, Bandit Tetra Pak wines for that on the go tipple among many other fun and innovative wine brands, the guys have fully branched out with their first tv gig, Three Thieves now on The Cooking Channel. I managed to hunt down thief Charles Bieler (Twitter) to chat about his Cooking Channel adventures with his fellow vino amigos, Joel Gott (Twitter, WineLog) and Roger Scommegna.

Vintners Hall of Fame Class of 2011 Inductees

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Vintners Hall of Fame - CIA GreystoneLast November I had the distinct pleasure to again welcome the newest class of wine legends into the Vintners Hall of Fame (VHoF) at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, CA. The previous year's luncheon and gala for the 2010 inductees were quite the shindigs and so I was very thankful to be invited back as a member of the wine media. The 2011 class of VHoF members is another set of US wine icons and the upcoming celebratory gala should be another extremely memorable night.
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