Tag: wine

Sonoma County Beats Napa Valley as Top Winery Destination

A group of wine experts considered 11 of the best wine regions in America to visit, ranking Sonoma #3 and Napa #4. What can you make of this? I think Sonoma has the edge in this competition because of its diversity and enticing unknowns. The palate loves a little mystery, don’t you think? While the […]

Best North Coast Wines Determined at North Coast Wine Challenge

The judges of the North Coast Wine Challenge sipped their way through more than 1,050 wines at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country Hotel in Santa Rosa Tuesday in a quest to uncover the best wines grown on the North Coast, one of the state’s premier wine-growing regions. The fourth annual wine competition, which drew entries […]

Quivira’s Hugh Chappelle Makes a Rock Star Rosé

Hugh Chappelle had a precocious palate. While just a kid he was an everyday wine drinker, thanks to his German mother who gave him a taste of the finest rieslings. Chappelle is the winegrower behind our wine-of the-week winner — Quivira, 2015 Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County Rosé at $22. The Quivira is a striking […]

Five Picnic Wines Under $20 For Your Next Sonoma County Outing

There are ground rules for the adventure date, but the most important one is that you don’t tell your date where you’re going. I’m not encouraging you to blindfold your date. Just don’t disclose your plans. Meanwhile keep your stash — the perfect wine and picnic fixins’ out of view. Picnics can happen anywhere and […]
Briana Marie Photography

Pairing Sonoma Wine with Waterfowl

The birds are back — ducks, geese, egrets, avocets, grackles, pelicans, herons, hawks and sparrows — at the wetlands at Viansa Sonoma winery, and there’s no better place from which to view them than a wood-framed outlook equipped with binoculars, telescope, bird identification guide and blankets for chilly days. Not into focusing on fowl? The […]
Sebastiani Tasting Room

Sonoma County Wine Tasting Rooms for Spring

Early spring is a time of renewal in the vineyards, with naked vines beginning to sprout. It’s a beautiful season to enjoy what’s in bloom and the beginnings of longer days and sunshine. Wineries offer new releases as well as barrel sampling, a spring ritual sure to make you feel like a connoisseur. Wine writer […]

LikeWine: Sonoma Wines for Springtime

Springtime is swing season, when white and rosé wines become more tempting, particularly for brunch-time meals and Easter. The additional sunlight of daylight saving time encourages the firing up of grills — a siren call for Zinfandel. Sauvignon Blanc For Easter If you like: Quivira Vineyards 2014 Refuge Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($28) A […]

A Grandmother’s Guidance: The Roots of Healdsburg Shed Owner

As a youngster, he helped in the kitchen of what would evolve into one of the most famous restaurants in the world, The French Laundry in Yountville. At 20, he was the sous chef at Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, by 22 in charge of the kitchen at étoile restaurant in Yountville. At 25, he […]
Beverage director Jordan Nova selects a bottle from the many featured wines at 1313 Main in Napa on Friday, October 11, 2013. (Conner Jay/The Press Democrat)

Wine of the Week: Kenwood Vineyards’ Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaking is the perfect blend of Mother Nature, science and art. That’s how Pat Henderson sees it. Henderson, 53, is the chief winemaker behind our wine-of-the week winner, the Kenwood Vineyards 2012 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon at $19. The cabernet has enticing aromas of black raspberry and currant. On the palate, the wine is weighted […]