What makes a wine “wild fermented”? Without going into too much detail, it means the winemaker chose let the wine ferment of its own accord, catalyzed by yeasts existing on the grape skins and in the winery. For those who don’t know the intricacies of winemaking, most wines — generally speaking — are fermented after [...]
Oxford Landing Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 · The “Rhone Rangers” are gaining fame for growing traditional Rhone Valley varietals in California. However, there are winegrowers “down under” doing the same thing in Australia. This is one example. Though Shiraz is well-known as a wine from Australia, you may not be as familiar seeing the other [...]
Concannon Syrah 2005 · Livermore Valley For whatever reason, I’ve always associated Concannon with Petite Sirah — perhaps because they were the first California winery to varietally label the grape back in 1964. And their Petite Sirah generally rocks. So it was with a little hesitation, overcome by curiosity, that I plucked this bottle from [...]
Septima Malbec 2007 · Uco Valley, Argentina Argentine Malbec is one of those grapes that can produce extremely rich, dense, complex red wines, but can also be made into simple, fruity, easy quaffers — not unlike California Zinfandel. This particular Malbec is on the soft side, and comes from the Uco Valley of Argentina. It [...]
Wow … a few of the under-$20 deals ran out quickly on Wine.com. No biggie … here are my choices for the best values available on the site for under fifteen bucks. Remember you must order TODAY to take advantage of the one-cent shippingdeal. Click on the wine name to order directly from Wine.com. Jip [...]
Forgive me if I sound like a shill for Wine.com this week, but it’s all in the name of helping you get good wine at good prices — and one-cent shippingis nothing to sneeze at in the quest for great values. That said, this is the last day of one-cent shipping from Wine.com. So I’ve [...]
Estancia Meritage 2004 Year in and year out, Estancia consistently delivers a strong quality – to – price ratio across its breadth of bottles. Because I am never disappointed with their “entry” level of wines, Estancia is one of the brands I will consider when spending “big bucks” (hey, to me, $25-30 IS big bucks!) [...]
Dante Merlot 2006 · Michael Pozzan Winery I have to admit, I purchased this wine based on its label — one of my best friends became a father recently, to a son named “Dante”. So it was an added bonus that the juice behind the label turned out to be pretty good — and well [...]
If you are living in a similar part of the world as me — where the summer weather has become hot and sticky — then you likely are reaching into the fridge for chilled white wines to cool you off. No doubt Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc are standbys, but if you haven’t given Albariño [...]
Robert Mondavi Solaire Chardonnay 2007 · Santa Lucia Highlands In the past, when I was geekier, more condescending, and had free access to world-class (read: expensive) wines, I stayed away from the “mass produced” brands. But lately I have become more humble and open to wines from any and every producer. And there’s something to [...]