When I close my eyes and think of Arizona, I think of many things. Wine and winemaking do not come to mind. Enter Aridus Wine Company and that all changes. Arizona Wine Industry, briefly The first commercially planted vineyards in Arizona began cropping up in the 1970s. There are three wine growing regions in AZ: Verde Valley, Willcox AVA and Sonoita AVA. Of these three regions over 70% of all wine grapes grown in Arizona are sourced from the Willcox AVA. The industry is considered youthful and exuberant with wine quality being “all over the map” from amateurish to award-winning.…
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Can We Simply Enjoy The Wine? Ever since I started blogging eating at restaurants or drinking a bottle of wine with Gary has become “a thing.” Don’t start eating until I get pictures is now the understood, unwritten rule when dining out. Be sure to give me your notes is the rule when drinking a new bottle of wine. While we always enjoy the wine, sometimes I see that pouty look on Gary’s face, and I know he just wants to enjoy what we are eating or drinking without the need to analyze. I have to admit; sometimes I feel…
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Unless you are an Italophile, I am guessing that the title of this post has you a bit stumped. Don’t be too hard on yourself, when I was approached to try a couple of wines from Salice Salentino made from the Negroamaro grape, I was stumped as well. What? Where? Huh? Like most of you, when I think of Italy, I think of Rome, Venice, Florence/Tuscany. The Amalfi Coast, if you are a romantic, and perhaps Milan, if you a fashionista. Lately, you can add Calabria to the mix after being bombarded by the Kelly Ripa, Ancestry.com commercial that ran every five…
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Two Lesser Known Wine Regions in France One of the things that I love about wine blogging is that it forces me outside of my familiar. Before writing Strong Coffee, I drank pretty much just one varietal. I would drink that varietal from different countries and different regions, but it was always the same grape. In the last two years, I have opened my eyes to wines of every color (I tried a blue wine once. Yes, blue, real blue; it did not go well.), and style. From countries that I had no idea made such great wines. And the…
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As the weather has gotten cooler, I have slowly gravitated from rosé to red wine, and for the first time in years, I am drawn to the Bordeaux varietals and Bordeaux-style red blends. There is something about their boldness and their power that can warm the cockles of your heart. Chill, be gone! What is Bordeaux-Style Red Blends? I say Bordeaux-style because Bordeaux is a wine region in France known for growing specific grape varietals. Thus Bordeaux-style wines use the same varieties of those produced in Bordeaux. A Bordeaux red blend usually combines two or more of these classic varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc,…
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Time flies way too fast. As I look back at the various new wines I have tried, I can see empty bottles with handwritten notes overtook my desk and found their way onto the bookshelf. That’s not good. But what that means is that means it is time for the Fall Wine Roundup. A roundup means the comments will be short and to the point and end with a LOVE, LIKE, NMS (not my style), or GLove (Gary loves it, but it’s NMS) I am breaking this roundup into a couple different posts. This is Roundup #1 which includes two…
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Welcome to Part Two from my visit to Ehlers Estate in Napa Valley. If you missed the first post about this experience, you would find it here. Today, I am continuing the Tasting portion of the visit, followed by a chat with the new winemaker and after that, the bonus. But you are going to need to keep reading to find out what it is. Ehlers Estate * Tasting of the Reds Cabernet Franc, Say what? Cabernet Franc is a grape variety that the casual wine drinker may not be familiar. It is an old grape variety and is a…
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Ehlers Estate Wine with a Purpose When on a wine tasting trip in Napa Valley, it is easy to get lost in the blur of so much wine. There are vineyards at every turn and tasting rooms for wineries dotting the valley from top to bottom. It is so easy for several wine tasting experiences to blend into a single event. That was not the case for the tasting we had Ehlers Estate. They knocked it out of the park. Our experience at Ehlers Estate was the first one of the day at ten o’clock in the morning. I am…
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