In search of the continuous road trip
Today is the third Thursday of November! Today is the day that Beaujolais Nouveau emerges from the temporary storage rooms of French wineries and makes its way around the globe, bringing joy to wine lovers (then leaving them with terrible, terrible hangovers on the third …
When our friend, Ben, worked at a wine store in Chicago, he was always discovering interesting bottles and generously sharing them with us. This is how I had my first taste of Zinfandel from Ridge. I’ll always remember the bottle of Geyserville 2003 (or 2004?): the …
We visited Kenwood in 2006, way back in the day, when Lisa and I lucked into a trip to Sonoma. We loved it. Lisa was DD that day, and I’m pretty sure I sampled every one of their wines. There are maybe 30 on the …
We first visited the Sonoma and Napa Valleys in 2006 — we loved Sonoma, but Napa, not so much. Anytime we leave a wine region, we feel like we’ve missed tons of great stuff, or we find a favorite wine after the fact. Happily, we …
We’re fans of Champagne and potato chips. They’re great together. Champagne and popcorn is good too, but we really like the chips (“crisps” for our British readers). This duo is just as good. Got a bottle of sweet wine but don’t want to wait until …
Try to say this without smiling: I am drinking wine from Walla Walla, Washington. It’s impossible; it’s just too much fun to wrap your mouth around the words. But first, I should warn you right away that we didn’t actually visit any tasting rooms on …
After six months of boxed wine and cheap bottled wine testing and tasting, we’re prepared to make a grand statement: we’ve found the best boxed wine in the world! The honor goes to Viña Borgia Garnacha, a Spanish red that is full of flavor and …
We loved Bisbee, Arizona. We loved Bisbee so much we can’t wait to return. We loved Bisbee so much we were really looking forward to exploring another of Arizona’s ex-mining towns, Jerome. But did we love Bisbee too much to enjoy Jerome? Were our love-struck …
Zinfandel (red, not white, as I’ve told many a server) is one of my very favorite wines. Zin is the extrovert of the wine varietals. It doesn’t hold anything back — it’s right there, in your face, giving you everything it’s got. As an introvert, …
Today we’re headed into Big Sur after making our way north from San Diego. We’re pretty excited for the change of scenery and the prospect of some hot springs. After that, we’re heading into Paso Robles and looking forward to checking out the area and …
In Temecula, we learned the difference between a winery and a tasting room. Temecula is filled with tasting rooms, but we couldn’t find a single winery even though people were making wine everywhere. Let me explain. Temecula is one of California’s B-list wine regions. It’s …
Our friend, Ellen, has a theory: $5 bottles of wine can be very good. Spend more, and you may get a good bottle, but it’s certainly not guaranteed. But failing at $5, that’s no big deal (that’s NBD, for the young’uns). And at $5 a …