I’ve been putting off this post for a long time. Part of it is that I have been searching for a way to write about wine that is neither insipid nor pretentious, and quite frankly I have yet to find a formula that fits me. But part of the reason is because winemaking requires patience. And [...]

I’ve been out of sorts lately. Not necessarily bad, but I feel a little thin, and not in a good way. Technology has been failing me lately, and juggling several creative jobs is leaving me wrung out and sodden more often of late. This is when I remember how mentally calming it was to work [...]

I do not consider myself an expert wine taster, although I suspect I am better than the average bear. Still, when I hear reviewers talk about notes of this, that and the other thing, I can usually “get” one or two, but am at a loss for what is probably either the province of the [...]

It’s Wine Blogging Wednesday again, and this time the topic is…comfort wines. “Comfort” wines. Curious, because with the exception of bad wines or unready Barolos, pretty much every wine is a comfort wine to me. That’s what wine is: Liquid comfort. Each wine is comforting in its own way: After work in a Sacramento summer [...]

I am really digging the concept of Wine Blogging Wednesday: A group of us get together once a month to review either one type of wine, or one year, or some other theme. This month was a sort of writing test – write a review of an Italian red wine in seven words, sort of [...]

I normally don’t drink white wines in winter, largely because I am typically in red meat, duck, long-stewed nirvana at the time. Winter is for big, earthy bold reds you can drink with such meals, or even by themselves while reading in front of a fire. Guess if I ate more chicken or quail or [...]

After drinking some very nice California wines recently that set me back more than $25 apiece, I wanted to get back to my normal drinking habits, which on weekdays primarily consists of Spanish and Portugese wines under $15. Don’t get me wrong: I can appreciate a fine bottle of wine, I’m just not in the [...]

I admit it: I have a weakness for the unusual. Wine is no exception. So when I saw a winery I buy from fairly frequently offering an Italian varietal I’d never heard of, I just had to buy it. And, even better, it was only $10 at Corti Bros. The wine I am drinking as [...]

So I was perusing the food event site Is My Blog Burning? and saw there was a petite sirah tasting shindig. Well I typically drink Italian and Spanish varieties, but I’d tasted a few nice petite sirahs lately, most notably one from Napa’s Quixote winery. That remains my favorite, but $60 a bottle is a [...]