This post, Rick’s Pick – Wine of the Week, is something new that I am trying to get me back to posting more often. So, let’s begin. Over the New Year holiday, a new friend brought a bottle of 2020 Champalou Vouvray to the festivities. After my first sip, I knew I had to buy this wine and keep it in my rotation. This post will also be a mini-lesson for those unfamiliar with French wine regions and bottle labels. A Bit About Vouvray Wine from Vouvray is made from the Chenin Blanc grape. Vouvray is an AOC (appellation d’origine…
Leave a CommentStrong Coffee to Red Wine Posts
I have been getting lots of questions about wine headaches, so I thought it might be time to talk about histamines in wine. But before we get there, we must talk about the elephant in the room. This post is about headaches and other reactions you get while drinking wine and not headaches resulting from being hungover. Histamines not Sulfites From a previous post, we know that for 99% of us, wine headaches do not come from sulfites; we have already gone through that. In the sulfites post, we also discussed hydration when drinking alcohol. So here it is worth…
Leave a Comment
This is a long and detailed post but worth every word. Pace yourself. It is a 16-minute read. The information required and permitted on wine bottle labels varies from country to country, making it a challenge for the casual wine drinker to know what exactly is in the bottle they are drinking. Shops that sell wine help by organizing by region and/or variety. Sure, you could ask for help, but wine is intimidating if you are like most shoppers. Thus you are too embarrassed to ask. So let me pause a second and tell you to ASK! That is why…
Leave a Comment
Wow! Congratulations to Sue and Rodney Tipton of Acquiesce Winery and Vineyards for your honors and awards at the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The world’s largest wine competition of North American wines. The competition was held earlier this month, and Acquiesce Winery & Vineyards walked away with an astounding array of achievements. This year, well over 5,000 wines entered from the USA, Canada, and Mexico (who knew that wine is made in Mexico?) Not only is it the largest in North America, but it is also highly regarded by wine professionals around the world. Wine Competition? Just what…
Leave a Comment
It’s Who We Are Tasting In January The very first winery that Gary and I visited on our last trip to wine country was Harney Lane Winery and Vineyards in Lodi, California (you can read my intro post about Lodi here.). They made a great first impression that set the bar quite high for all the other wineries that followed. We enjoyed these wines so much that we are putting together a tasting in January. If you are interested, you can join in either locally or virtually. Email us or leave a comment if you are interested. Harney Lane Winery…
Leave a Comment
I first started my reporting of Suisun Valley wineries and AVA back in September. I genuinely have no idea where the time went, but it is time to get back on this. So this post will continue sharing many of the other wines we sampled and the fabulous and enthusiastic winemakers we met on our first day of presentations. Two of the winemaker’s families have been working this land for decades. Parents, grandparents, and sometimes great-grandparents settled here to become fruit farmers growing cherries, plums, and others. Some slowly moved into wine grapes as supply and demand proved to be…
Leave a Comment
This is another edition of “what’s in my glass” or WIMG. Wines we have drunk and really enjoyed. Some are directly from the winery, and others we purchased locally. So let’s not delay and get into these wines. WIMG Suisun Valley Filling Station “Faith,” 2019 Sauvignon Blanc ($32.00) Solano County Green Valley AVA, California As I have said before, my palate for Sauvignon Blanc is specific. I like most citrus flavors but not grapefruit. I like mineral elements and some herbs but not grassy, and I am not a fan of the gooseberry flavor. As such, I stay away…
Leave a Comment
It’s All About Sugar The two basic wine descriptors of still wine are often improperly used and, as such, can cause much confusion. What are those two descriptors? They are dry and sweet. There is actual dryness and sweetness in wine. And there is also perceived dryness and perceived sweetness. The usage of these perceived traits as levels of actual dryness or sweetness can be confusing, so I hope that I can shed some light on the subject. To do so, we need to start with the process of how one makes wine, and that begins with fermentation. The process…
Leave a Comment