A refreshing wine with a nose of soft lemon creme. Flavors of bright citrus, green apple with hints of orange and honeysuckle caress the palate highlighted by bight acidity. Great with lighter summer fare or just to sip on the patio. Buy This Wine
A rather expressive nose of dark berry fruit, dark cherry and spice. This full-bodied wine has matured into a well-integrated art. Flavors on the palate are rich with notes of cherry, dark plum with hints of ripe raspberry and tobacco box. Beautifully supple tannins and balanced acidity add to the complexity. Buy This Wine
Today, Facebook is awash with photos of the grape harvest across the northern hemisphere. I look forward each day to beautiful pictures of grape clusters, men and women picking grapes as the sun rises across the vineyard and free-run juice on the winery crushpad that will soon be the wine in my glass. As a wine-writer in Colorado and Texas, I dream of being more than a chronicler, I want to be part of the action. This desire is never more pronounced than when I see harvest pictures posted by my winemaker friends in California and Texas.
This year I decided enough with the wine dreaming. It was time to get dirty and pitch in a for a few days with winemakers Chris Brundrett and Bill Blackmon of William and Chris Vineyards in the Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg. Chris is regarded as one of the real up and coming young Texas winemakers while Bill offers the hand of experience from many Texas grape harvests. They make a hell of a winemaking team creating predominately blended wines with 100% Texas fruit using a minimal intervention approach. Together, Bill and Chris have a sort of yin and yang quality. Chris is full of energy and a “get ‘er done” approach while Bill has a very calm Zen-like quality about him.
Before you say, Texas, wine, what? Texas now is home nearly 250 wineries (up from only 45 a decade ago) making it the 4th or 5th (depending on who’s counting) largest wine producing state. The Texas Hill Country AVA sits behind only Napa and Sonoma as the most visited wine region in the U.S. Continue reading »
Press Release:
St. Helena, CA – The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) today announced that its 2013 Vintners Hall of Fame inductees will be winemaking pioneer Meredith “Merry” Edwards, legendary wine writer Frank Schoonmaker, labor leader Cesar Chavez, and the founder of The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker.
The official induction of the 2013 Vintners Hall of Fame honorees will take place on February 18, 2013 at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, California, as part of the college’s 7th Annual Vintners Hall of Fame Induction Celebration. Continue reading »
Getting wineaux philosophical …this is a sexy smooth and satisfying Pinot. The winemaker refers to this wine as “Christmas in the mouth” and that’s not far off. A rich nose of blueberry, dark fruit and baking spice gives way to a plush mouth-feel full of rich flavors of blueberry, cherry, ripe raspberry and pie spice with notes of leather and cocoa in the finish. Balanced acidity and soft tannins add to the beauty. Buy this Wine
