Fall 2011 Ridge Wine Blogger Tasting – Lytton Estate Rhones And A Surprise!

Last Sunday Christopher Watkins, Tasting Room Manager for Ridge Vineyards hosted the Fall 2011 Wine Bloggers Tasting at Ridge, Lytton Springs in Healdsburg.  An intimate group of wine bloggers, many of whom I followed and am a fan of, met in the barrel room.  It was great to put faces with names.  That made the…

What I’ve learned tasting 30 Sparkling Wines In 30 Weeks..

I’ve been drinking sparkling wine on a weekly basis since February, and blogging about it in my “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like…” series.  During that time, I’ve tasted sparkling wines from not only the usual suspects, France, California, Spain, and Italy, but also countries that aren’t “top of mind” when it comes to bubbly like…

T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like…NV Domaine Chandon California Rosé

Domaine Chandon, established in 1973, was the first French-owned sparkling wine venture in the United States.  The winery, and their highly regarded restaurant étoile are co-located in Yountville. Thus creating the only fine dining/restaurant in the Napa Valley.  Chandon makes both sparkling and still wine, but are best known for their sparkling wines which are produced…

How Port Is Made

From the “A picture (or moving pictures) is worth a thousand words” file, is this short that is the final installment in my dessert wine series.  The video explains how Port wine is made. This video is a one of the finalists in the Wine Spectator 2011 Video Contest.  Click here to check out the…

T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like – NV Domaine Ste Michelle Brut

For this week’s “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like” tasting, it’s my first sparkler from the state of Washington.  Domaine Ste. Michelle (“DSM”) is one of the largest sparkling wine houses in the U.S. producing more than 300,000 cases of value sparkling wines annually.  In addition to the Brut tasted here, they also produce Blanc de Noirs, Blanc…

Dessert Wine Primer; Part I – Fortified Dessert Wines

Dessert wines are sweet wines served with, or instead of dessert.  Dessert wines are also known as “stickies” because picking the grapes makes the workers hands sticky.  The term originated in Australia, but has become ubiquitously synonymous with dessert wines around the world. There are essentially two types of dessert wines, fortified and late harvest.  In…

T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like – 2008 Korbel Natural

For this week’s “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like” tasting, “I’m going back to Cali”. Korbel, was founded in 1882.  They are one of the few US producers that include “Champagne” in the name of their products, rather than sparkling wine.  That’s because of a loophole in US laws that allows “semi-generic” products such as sparkling…