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…
Category: Wine
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…
Sweet Sticky Things…Unique Dessert Wines From Around The World Tasting
A tasting of unique dessert wines from around the world
Syrah Smackdown: 7 Contenders, 1Winner, and a Great QPR Pretender!
At the most recent meeting of the Pacific Pointe Wine Tasting Club it was Syrah night. However, for the first time, we encountered a situation where one of the wines to be tasted was not the selected varietal. That’s because it didn’t meet the at least 75% threshold for a wine to be labeled a…
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 2; Late Harvest Dessert Wines
Late harvest is a term applied to wines that are made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Allowing the grapes to “hang” longer (to the point where the grapes may be similar to raisins) increases their sugar levels, making a sweeter wine. How long the grapes are left on the vine determines…
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…
What A #CabernetDay!! Library Tasting of Monte Bello and SCM Estate at Ridge Vineyards
Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Day Library Tasting What better way to kick off California Wine Month, than Cabernet Day?! I’d been looking forward to this superb opportunity to taste the iconic Ridge Monte Bello that, along with the Santa Cruz Mountains Estate, is a Bordeaux blend. It was also a chance to taste a…
September Is California Wine Month
Governor Jerry Brown has proclaimed September 2011 as California Wine Month. There are some interesting stats in the proclamation. “Our state’s wineries create jobs for 330,000 Californians and revenue from retail sales of $18.4 billion, including $1.14 billion in exports sales to 122 countries…and bring an estimated 20.7 million tourist…each year” This post from NorCal Wine…