Old habits die hard, and there is safety in the familiar.  In the wine world’s accepted collection of wine descriptors, garrigue and garrigue herbs are often used to describe a particular herbacious quality in certain wines, particularly from the south of France–but what is garrigue?  And are we really using the term correctly in describing California wines?  Are we again standing in the shadow of French wine terminology, missing an opportunity to assert our own New World attributes? Scientifically speaking, garrigue describes a Mediterranean scrub ecosystem in areas with calcareous (or limestone) soils, particularly in France’s Rhone and Bordeaux regions.  Think wild thyme, lavender, juniper, rosemary.  Now, that term works…

RE:FIND Distillery is still the best little distillery on the Central Coast. I am somewhat biased about this, but trust me.  You need to try these spirits. I stopped in for a visit last week to see what they’ve been up to since I featured them last year–because the Villicanas (owners Alex and Monica), with their mutual boundless energy, are always up to something fun and interesting. Was I disappointed?  HAHAHAHAHA no.  Don’t be ridiculous.  They’re still making the same top-quality artisanal spirits (and they do MAKE these spirits from scratch, which is a distinction most craft spirit producers cannot claim).  But, ever focused on education as much as the…

You may recall my profile of Rangeland wines in Paso Robles last summer–beautifully crafted estate wines in a gorgeous west Paso setting. The only catch was that you had to make an appointment to taste their wines–maybe you’re shy about that, or maybe it’s just a difficult thing to schedule on a weekend of wine tasting–but that is not the case anymore. Their new tasting room opened a couple of weeks ago in Templeton (in the greater Paso Robles area), and you can now walk in any time Thursday through Saturday and belly up to the tasting bar. They’re sharing space with Nature’s Touch, a locally owned natural grocer, at…

If you have ever uttered the words “I don’t like Zinfandel,” I humbly suggest you are most likely wrong about that. Sure, taste in wines is a hugely subjective thing, but when most people say “I don’t like Zinfandel,” what they almost always mean–whether they realize it or not–is that they don’t like the popular-10-years-ago super jammy, extracted, oaked-to-death, high-ABV fruit monsters that (unfortunately) came to be considered the California style of Zinfandel.  While there’s some truth to that, it’s really not representative of what’s currently going on in the state with this variety, and certainly not representative of what’s going on with zins in Lodi. While Lodi is pretty…

Along with my usual nature photography calendar (my annual Visionary Light calendar), I’m offering a California wine country calendar this year.  It features images from the state’s beautiful wine regions, and I’m donating $5 from the sale of each calendar to the RCU North Coast Fire Relief Fund, which is helping with recovery from this year’s devastating wildfires in Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties.  Just click this link to see a full preview that shows the 12 included images (and purchase one or a dozen!).  They make a great holiday gift, and the funds are going to a great and important cause.

Just because California (mostly) broke its five-year drought this year did not mean it was a perfect year for growing winegrapes.  Growers dealt with devastating floods early in the season–leaving some of Lodi’s most storied vineyards submerged in water until early summer!–and an unprecedented heat spike just as harvest began, with almost two weeks of 100-plus-degree days across the state (which made for an all-hands-on-deck kind of insanity for a while with seemingly everything coming in at once).  And then there were the devastating wildfires that tore through Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa counties at the end of harvest (which reminds me–have you bought your 2018 California Wine Country calendar yet?…

Like wine?  Go here.  Seriously–of all the wine events I attend each year, I always have the most fun at Garagiste because there’s a little bit of everything.  No matter what type of wine you like–got a favorite variety? Favorite style?  “Big” wines? Low alcohol wines?  It’s all here. In addition to the fantastic variety you’ll find at this festival, I have my own reasons for loving this event.  Since my blog is all about story, this gives me a great opportunity to taste my way through small producers I would likely never encounter otherwise–and if I find something I like (and I always do), I’m able to get a…

I have been going in circles for months now over how to tell you about Markus Niggli and his incredible, challenging (and astonishingly good) wines.  Writer’s block isn’t generally something I struggle with, but I also rarely come across someone like Markus–or his wines.  And yes, I’m going to be throwing out a barrage of highly effusive superlatives here, because in this case it’s fully justified. Flash back to last August, when I was in Lodi for the annual wine bloggers’ conference: I opted to go on the pre-excursion before the conference-proper began, and found myself in an intensive get-to-know-Lodi-wines experience.  One of those get-to-know moments was in a shaded…

When LoCA’s Randy Caparoso asks if you might possibly have plans to be in Lodi the following weekend, you should probably say YES, even if you live in Los Angeles and did not, in fact, already have plans to be in Lodi.  If it were me, that is–and it was, and I did say yes. Randy was leading a culinary wine and food pairing class (“exploration” might be a better word) at Lodi’s beautiful Wine & Roses Hotel a couple of weeks ago along with Executive Chef John Hitchcock, and I happily accepted the offer to cover the event for Lodi Wine. As part of Wine & Roses’ ongoing Cooking…

I hope Sue Tipton forgives (or at least has a chuckle over) the literary reference above.  As I sat down to write this piece, and thought about how to title it, I realized I was as confounded by how to properly describe her and her outstanding wines as I was the first day I tasted them.  And this is a very good thing. I have a great fascination with–and admiration for–winemakers who trust their vision enough to buck trends and defy norms and expectations.  Sue Tipton, owner and winemaker of Acquiesce Vineyards in Lodi, California, is one of those mavericks, and the resulting wines prove how great her vision is.…