California
Top Wine Memories of 2017 – March
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 …
What’s It Like Working For E&J Gallo?
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 …
Think Californian Wine Is Too Punchy? Have a Read through This…
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 »
Time To Put the Bong Down and Saddle Up, Your Winery Needs You!
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 …
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CALIFORN-I-A DAY 5: Bubbles, Burgers, and Blinding Views
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!
CALIFORN-I-A DAY 4: Aesthetics, Action Shots, and Agent 69
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 …
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CALIFORN-I-A DAY 1: Beers, Burgers, and Buckets of Rain!
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 …
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Going To California With Some Drinking In My Mind…La La La La!
I’ve only ever been to the States with work in my old job. So I’ve done the Manhattan and Brooklyn thing, and even had a couple of days up in Boston with the most blinding hangover I can remember in years! But I’ve never been over the West Coast. My brother-in-law lived there for four …
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#NWTW Week 32: ON TOUR – Guest Verdict on Californian Cabernet Sauvignon
Thanks very much to my future brother in law Mr Paolo Actis for taking it for the team and trying this for me in my absence this week… “Thanks Mike for letting me guest review the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Hahn Winery.