Livermore Valley’s Taste Our Terroir’s; Quest For Pairing Excellence

I attended the 2016 Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association; Taste Our Terroir – The Quest For Pairing Excellence back in July.  I intended to blog about it before now.  You see how that  went. What is Taste Our Terroir? Taste Our Terroir is Livermore Valley’s  preeminent food and wine festival.  The affair, held each July, spans four…

2012 Weingut Angerhof-Tschida Grüner Veltliner Eiswein

The 2012 Weingut Angerhof Tschida Grüner Veltliner Eiswein is an ice wine from the  Burgenland region in Eastern Austria.  Burgenland is Austria’s key red wine region ( the main grapes being Blaufrankisch and and Zweigelt).  But sweet, primarily botrytized, wines are also a specialty of the region. This wine is a rarity. That’s because ice wine of Grüner Veltliner doesn’t often come…

2012 Rombauer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Stice Lane Vineyard

Fruit for this wine was sourced from the Rombauer Vineyards‘s estate Stice Lane Vineyard in the St. Helena AVA .  A former river bed, the site’s gravel deposits provide ideal soils for growing concentrated full-bodied Cab.   Sustainable farming practices were utilized throughout the growing season.   The vineyard is  Napa Green/Fish Friendly Farming certified….

Wine Pairing Weekend Explores Grüner Veltliner; In The Glass And At The Table

David B. Crowley of Cooking Chat kicked-off Wine Pairing Weekend in June 2014.  On the second Saturday of each month, a group of bloggers who are passionate about the way good wine enhances a meal come together to blog about a wine pairing they have done. Each month has a different Wine Pairing Weekend theme to…

A Taste of Murrieta’s Well #SnoothVT

Not too long ago, I participated in a virtual tasting of four wines from Livermore Valley‘s Murrieta’s Well.  The tasting was organized and moderated by Snooth. Essentially the way a virtual tasting works is that select wine writers and bloggers are sent the same wines.  Then, at the appointed time, we drink the same wines and…

Wine Pairing Weekend To Explores Grüner Veltliner #WinePW

Get ready to explore Grüner Veltliner for the next Wine Pairing Weekend (#WinePW), coming September 10th! Many moons ago, when I first because seriously interested in wine,  Grüner Veltliner (Velt-LEEN-er) was trending.    While the wine  had been consumed in Austria forever, it didn’t gain favor in the international market  until 2002.   That year Jancis Robinson,…

Chillable Summertime Red Wines

Writing this blog for the last six years has led me to some unexpected opportunities.  I’ve been a correspondent for the American Winery Guide, writing reviews of wineries for a couple of years.   I’ve been sharing those reviews on this blog via my “No Reservations Wine Tasting” posts. I’ve also been doing some writing…

2015 Bodega Garzón Albariño

Uruguay’s Bodega Garzón sustainably farms 524 acres of vineyards planted to thin, rocky granitic soils, and cooled by breezes from the Atlantic, which is only 11 miles away.  The grapes were hand-picked,  whole cluster pressed, and raised in stainless steel on lees for six months. The wine pours a pale lemon green color with appealing…