Okay… so technically our neighbors didn’t betray us. It just feels that way. By any conservative measurement, we (my family at “Chateau Dude,” that is) have the greatest neighbors on the face of the planet. Correction: had. Our neighbors are moving away from us, those backstabbers! Okay… so technically they’re not backstabbers, and we’re just…
Category: elegant wines
Best Of The West: Has Pinot Noir Found A New Spiritual Home In West Sonoma Coast?
Burt Williams might speak softly and have a relatively unassuming appearance, but when it comes to age-worthy, elegant Pinot Noir he is one hundred percent deadly Jedi Knight. That much was clear during the recent West Of West festival in Occidental, CA (I attended as a media guest), where Littorai’s Ted Lemon interviewed Williams to…
Foley, Food Porn, And A West Coast Wine Geek-out
At the end of July, I wound up at the top of Chalk Hill in Healdsburg. It was one of those events that I should be used to by now but that make me slightly uncomfortable anyway because they a) are held in lavish settings that seem to cost a billion dollars, b) usually end…
Focus, Focus, Focus: Zeroing In On Wines For Now At Virginia’s Blenheim Vineyards
I am not a fan of small producers in emerging wine regions bottling and selling a large array of varietal wines; almost everyone loves having choices, but too often the cumulative result in this case ends up feeling like a Zinfandel that’s been watered-down in a feeble attempt to get it under 16% abv –…