Blog
Drink Local2015-04-03
Why Drink Local I begged Sara and Markus to let me guest blog, because I like their posts and because I have a message for the San Diegans who read them. Sara and Markus assented. But don’t worry; they’ll be back and blogging soon. Here’s the message: drink local. “WTH?” you ask. (That’s “what the…Read More
Ambient Yeast and “Terroir”
Some thoughts on ambient yeast and “terroir.” One reason why ambient-yeast fermentations tend to give more variety and distinction (aka “terroir”) in wine: The winemaker who does not sulfite or inoculate needs very healthy fruit to avoid problems (rot, spoilage, etc.). To get really healthy fruit, he cannot impose his will on the grapes. He…Read More
Take the scare quotes from wine
Taking The Scare Quotes From “Wine” It was late May and there was still light in the sky when we moved from the kitchen to the dining room. At the same time we moved from the bubbly (with which we toasted my good friend Theresa’s birthday) to an unusual bottle of red wine. As soon…Read More
Drink Freely
DRINK FREELY Thanks to increasingly free trade and competition and the market differentiation they have produced and thanks to the great march of wine culture around the world, I can walk into a local wine shop and buy hundreds of different wines from dozens of different countries and four different continents. That’s my kind of…Read More
Stay Tuned For New Releases2015-03-29
Keep an eye out for our new releases including our Grenache Rose’ and our sparkling red “Black Pet Nat” (BPN).
Machiavelli and San Diego Wine2014-08-12
Machiavelli said, “It is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious.” I say, “It is not appellations that make wines illustrious, but wines that make appellations illustrious.” But that phrase will not always be true when spoken. It takes good wine a long time to make a grape-growing region famous….Read More
A reaction to Jon Bonné on local wine in California2012-07-11
Jon Bonné, the wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, just published “5 more themes for California Wines” to mark Independence Day.http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2012/07/11/5-more-themes-for-california-wine/ Under the heading, “Local wine, for real,” Jon hints at something very interesting: having a local market for small producers contributes to the development of terroir. It resolves the following dilemma: distinctively local…Read More