For March there could only be one winner, an amazing trip out to Napa and Sonoma with the California Wine Industry. Wast Coast US wine’s got a special place in my heart for the rest of my life. Great trip, great people, and great wines! “MARCH: Cakebread Merlot, Napa Valley, 2013 In March I went …
Wine behemoth E&J Gallo is fast closing in on a hundred years of business. Little did brothers Ernesto and Julio know when they started peddling wine after the repeal of prohibition in 1933, that their company would be so vast, and (crucially) still in family hands. I caught up with Paul Sorrentino at the Californian …
In Part 2, Amelia and I explore that “special relationship” those two berks Tony Blair and George Bush kept banging on about, by having a look at English and American fizz options for Christmas. We’ve got the super fresh Exton Park Brut, and the sublime Domaine Carneros Classic Cuvée…enjoy!
I’ve just sent off my California wine pieces to the editor at The Buyer. It’s the online wine magazine I write for in the UK. I’m really chuffed that they’ve backed me the way they have and hopefully I’ve not written anything too daft just yet! Following on from my great trip out to San …
Think Californian Wine Is Too Punchy? Have a Read through This… Read More »
I didn’t really know how to approach this one. There’s going to be stigma about marijuana for a long time to come even though it’s now legal in California. It’s just another crop that the vines have to compete with for space, labour, and water. As I was finding out in my recent trip to …
Time To Put the Bong Down and Saddle Up, Your Winery Needs You! Read More »
I remember when I got the itinerary for the week that Thursday morning was the one I was nervous about. We were cramming a lot into a short space of time, and Thursday was arguably the pinnacle of that, but then it turned out to be arguably the pinnacle of the trip for me.
This was the Wednesday of the week and we were half way in. We’d seen some sights, tasted great wines, and were perversely all getting on really well as a group which doesn’t always happen on these things. Or at least I think we were, maybe they just didn’t tell me!
I’m not even sure how to describe some of the scenes from Day 4 but I’ll have go. We had a couple of vineyard visits that couldn’t have been more different if they tried, met up with one of Napa’s top somms for a glass or two of something special, and ended up at yet …
CALIFORN-I-A DAY 4: Aesthetics, Action Shots, and Agent 69 Read More »
Yesterday we checked out of San Fransisco, boarded the party bus, and headed out into wine country. As much as this was the first day of work it was a Sunday, so it was a nice ease-in job, with a good slug of time at the wonderful Ram’s Gate Winery at the mouth of Sonoma …
CALIFORN-I-A DAY 2: Beards, Bridge, and Belly Busting Desserts Read More »
Well we’ve all made it safe and sound. The California trip has started and the long hours in the plane out to San Fransisco are nearly out of all our systems. There’s a group of about 12 of us, which is enough to make me a little bit nervous and self-conscious, but sod it, the …
CALIFORN-I-A DAY 1: Beers, Burgers, and Buckets of Rain! Read More »
