California sparkling wine has come a long way (baby) since German draft-dodger and later NYC barber Jacob Schram decided that the hot and sunny knolls of Calistoga in the 1860s looked like a suitable place to plant vines like those he’d left behind in his beloved Rhineland (after all, he’d seen hills far steeper –…
Category: sexy wines
What’s In A Name, Anyway? (Recent Releases From Steven Mirassou’s Not-Quite-Family-Named Brands)
After six generations of pressing grapes in California, the Mirassou family has only one son left who owns a wine brand: Steven Mirassou. But he can’t legally use his own name on his bottles, despite the fact that Mirassou’s have been making wine since the mid-1800s, probably longer than any other CA winemaking family. He…
Cuckoo For Pou-Fu (“Zen” Sauvignon Blanc From Salon des Vins de Loire 2012)
Readers here could be forgiven – what with all of the French wine mini-review action, and the Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Loire features running here lately – for thinking that 1WineDude.com has gone totally Francophile. But then, after I start pumping out the coverage from my recent Napa jaunt, you’ll probably start calling me a CA-o-phile……
1WineDude.com TV Episode 44: Brix… Howz! (Putting Wine + Chocolate Pairing To The Taste Test)
For Valentine’s Day, I subject myself to the much-dreaded and (in my view not unfairly) oft-maligned dry-red-wine-with-chocolate food pairing, so that you don’t have to (you can thank me later). Mentioned in this episode: Brix Chocolate (specially formulated to complement wine) – Pretty tasty on its own, especially the medium dark variety 2009 V. Sattui…