Wine Stars

It’s that time of the year when friends and family gather for holiday events and good cheer.  This is often accompanied by wonderful dessert wines ranging from sweet white rieslings, gewurtraminers, and viogniers in late-harvest, sparkling, and ice-wine formats as well as velvety red ports, black muscats, and late harvest zinfandels.  All of these sweet and semi-sweet dessert wines pair well with different types of cheeses, chocolate, cakes, pies, and other delectable dishes such as crème brulee, cheesecake and flan. This week’s blind tasting included 6 different dessert wines from California – including 4 whites (late harvest riesling, gewurtraminer, viognier, [...]

California has claimed zinfandel as one of its signature grapes.  This is because there is no other place else in the world that can produce such big, spicy and jammy wines from this unique grape varietal (originally from Croatia).  One of the most famous appellations for zinfandel is the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County which has hot dry summers and warm autumns to ripen the heavy purple fruit from this vine.  Driving through Dry Creek Valley in the autumn is one of the most beautiful sites in California, because the valley floor and hillsides are filled with a tapestry [...]

California pinot noir is a “hot commodity” amongst the Millennial generation with its silky red fruit flavors and soft tannins.  It is an easy drinking red wine for new wine drinkers, but is often difficult to find at price points below $20.  Therefore, the purpose of this tasting was to evaluate value priced pinots and try to find some favorites.  Our five Millennial wine judges succeeded in this endeavor and have three great pinot noirs to recommend.  ***** (93, GOLD) Bogle Russian River Pinot Noir 2006 - $13 Silky texture, spices, fresh berries and cloves. A hint of minerals. Soft and [...]