Our friends at Artisan Wine Depot invited us over for a Saturday (May 8) afternoon tasting of pinots from The Donum Estate. Donum pinots are pricey, including one with a suggested retail of $90. Is...
On May 16 we made our way to Salinas. Mainly known for being “America’s salad bowl” and the home of John Steinbeck, this little town has recently become the gateway to the Santa...
In our previous article we raved about Picayune Cellars and Flying Goat Cellars. But we tasted pinot noirs from eleven — count them — eleven wineries making pretty good pinots...
On March 14 we took a deep breath, had our mechanic bless our ancient BMW 530i, and headed south. Our destination was the Los Angeles County Fair venue (the “Fairplex”) in Pomona (out...
While exploring our wine-cellar[1] this afternoon, we were pleased to discover two bottles of the RN Estate Solomon Hills Vineyard (Santa Maria Valley). The vintages were 2011 and 2012. Forthwith...
A few weeks ago we reviewed the two best newcomers: Reuling Vineyards and Ernest Vineyards. Today we want to review seven excellent wines. This is Pinotfest 2014: the best of the rest. In roughly the...
Our earlier review focused on the best two pinot noirs we found at Garagiste: Vinemark Cellars 2012 Paso Robles pinot noir ($29) and Vino Vargas 2012 Rio Ruso Russian River Valley pinot noir ($45)...
We were fortunate to be invited to the Pinotfest trade tasting November 21. We visited quite a few newcomers, some old favorites, and a few that we’d tried before but wanted to revisit. This is...
It’s been a while since our last article about the August 17 Family Winemakers Tasting in San Mateo. But there are more good wineries to be reviewed. Our excuse for the delay is that there are...
[Updated January 14, 2015. Our original article alleged that Brooke Gadke owned Maggy Hawk. In fact, the owner is Barbara Banke. Ms. Gadke is the estate manager. Our apologies for this error...
Rob Murray Vineyards rounds out our top six from the Family Winemakers Tasting August 17. Despite bottling under four labels, production is fairly small, usually under 500 cases per wine variety per...
[pullquote]Because we make our Pinots from just five small blocks, production is small. That said, we love new members and encourage collectors to join our mailing list. I personally set up members...
Blair Estate Wines is another winner from the Family Winemakers tasting August 17. Another reminder: our top six picks are very, very close. You will not go wrong with a pinot from any of these...
[Updated September 9, 2014. Minor corrections to pricing for both wines as well as their lineages. Route 152 is an even better bargain at $10 than it was at the price we originally posted, $18!]...
[Corrected September 4, 2014 per e-mail from Bryan Vais. We got several facts wrong about the Foray. Our apologies for not doing enough research.] We arrived at Bailiwick late in our tasting and...