Getting together with people to talk about dust sounds almost as exciting as watching paint dry.
But in this case, we're not talking about just any dust. This is special dust.
This is Rutherford dust, the special soil in a certain sector of
the Napa Valley that helps vintners produce some of the most
distinctive wines to be found anywhere.
So special is this dust that it has its own society. And last
month, more than 50 members of the
Rutherford Dust Society gathered at
the elegant
Auberge du Soleil resort for...
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The concept of truth in advertising should extend to wine labels.
That's why the Napa Ridge brand of wines caused such a stir at the
dawning of the new millennium. There is no geographic place known as
"Napa Ridge," and there wasn't even a Napa Ridge Winery.
Vintners in real parts of the Napa Valley took umbrage with the
Napa name being hijacked (as they put it), and a lengthy court battle
ensued.
The very public debate over the use of the Napa name in a non-Napa
wine helped fuel interest in protecting wine region names around the
world. In 2005, representatives of seven regions signed...
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Vintners who make Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley grapes...
or Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley grapes... are rightfully proud of
their bottlings.
Russian River Pinot and Dry Creek Zin are sought-after by wine
drinkers in the know, men and women who understand that certain
varieties thrive in specific microclimates.
But if a campaign being undertaken by the Sonoma County Vintners
trade organization is successful, wineries will be required to include
two additional words on their...
Seventy percent of all California winegrapes are grown in the San Joaquin Valley.
That may come as a shock to those who assume virtually all of the state's wines come from Napa Valley or Sonoma County.
To help raise the profile of the San Joaquin Valley, a unique
tasting room and visitors' center has opened in the town of Madera.
It's called...
All wine drinkers experience it at some point: boredom with the same-old same-old.
The cure for this affliction: a glass of wine with a ton of
personality. And nothing fits that description better than Sauvignon
Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand.
Marlborough is New Zealand's largest and best known winegrowing
region. It's located in the northeast sector of the South Island, with
the...
The official name of the Santa Rita Hills growing area is "Sta. Rita Hills."
The Grinch who stole Christmas must have come up with that idea,
since "Sta." looks much more like an abbreviation for "Station" than
"Santa." But we're not here to argue about abbreviations; we're here to
tell you about this eight-year-old appellation in California's Santa
Barbara County.
The flavor, intensity and complexity of Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir
and Chardonnay come from a combination of unique east-west coastal
valleys, passionate winegrower...
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If there is one winegrowing area in California that most closely
emulates the Burgundy region of France, it's the Russian River Valley
of Sonoma County.
Just as in Burgundy, the two varieties that reign supreme in the
Russian River are Pinot Noir among reds and Chardonnay among whites. So
many wineries - most still family-owned and relatively small - are
congregated in the area today that an organization has been formed to
help visitors plan their excursions and navigate the terrain: the
Russian River Wine Road.
From a humble beginning with nine member wineries, the Wine Road now encompasses more than a...
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Established in 1983, the American Viticultural Area in Northern
California known as El Dorado includes those portions of El Dorado
County located between 1,200 and 3,500 feet in elevation, bounded on
the north by the middle fork of the American River and on the south by
the south fork of the Cosumnes River.
El Dorado is a sub-appellation of the 2.6-million-acre Sierra
Foothills AVA - one of the largest appellations in California - which
includes portions of the counties of Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado,
Amador, Calaveras, Tuolomne and Mariposa.
The El Dorado appellation is unique due to its high elevation and complex topography. Its mountain vineyards are perched at...
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The 2009 Pinot Noir harvest has wrapped up in Monterey County's
Santa Lucia Highlands appellation, with winegrowers reporting
potentially very high quality and normal yields.
Some of California's finest vineyards call the SLH home, with more
than 30 winegrowers cultivating more than 2,500 acres of Pinot Noir
there.
At the
Pisoni Vineyard, Gary Pisoni is very happy with the quality of his Pinot Noir harvest.
"The eventual '09 vintage looks very promising," Pisoni says. "It was the third consecutive dry winter, which limited...
By this time next week, California will have a new American
Viticultural Area -- a fancy name for an area of land with unique
and/or unusual climatic and/or environmental qualities for the growing
of winegrapes.
As is the case with many AVAs, this new one will be defined within an existing, larger AVA.
In fact, it will be within the boundaries of several AVAs. Ranging
from largest to smallest, the existing AVAs are California's...
