Ridge Vineyards is the producer of some of our favorite wines. We’ve enjoyed them since the 1980’s getting their shipments in Florida and coming out to visit initially at their first estate – Monte Bello in Cupertino. Today Ridge has three estates – Monte Bello, Lytton Springs, and the newest in Paso Robles. Ridge’s Lytton Springs estate outside Healdsburg is closest to us and among … Continue reading A Monte Bello Cabernet Tasting…..
From land that has been producing grapes since 1880 in the Napa Valley, one of the world’s greatest wineries has called it theirs since 1972 – Shafer. Robert Parker is responsible for giving the winery that title. I know many would agree! We visited the winery just after Christmas. It’s wise to book your visit well in advance. Tasting appointments are very limited to enable … Continue reading A Taste of Shafer…….
The Garagiste Wine Festival was a great excuse, not that you need one, to spend a long weekend in Paso Robles. The rainy season has already begun in Northern California. Heading south to Paso Robles gave us a break from the rain and some terrific sunny, 80 degree weather we happily soaked up! Serial Wines tasting room is just off the square in downtown Paso … Continue reading This Fall in Paso Robles…..
This was the 15th year The Garagiste Wine Festival was held in Paso Robles. In the world of wine festivals, these festivals are one of the best. Participants are from small wineries in this select area of California who are making less than 1500 cases per year. 50 micro-wineries poured at this years festival. 11 of them for the first time in Paso and 5 … Continue reading Paso Robles Garagiste Festival……..
Napa Valley wines have a well known reputation for being rather pricey. When there is so much terrific wine to be had in California it is difficult to spend the high price tag to taste and to purchase. We were over on Howell Mountain to taste Jon Jones’s newest releases at Paravel and arranged for an afternoon tasting in Yountville at Elyse. Elyse’s tasting room … Continue reading Napa’s Elyse
It’s ten o’clock in the morning and we are sitting down to taste wine. We’ve returned to the Spire Collection just outside of Callistoga. I wrote about our first visit in the blog entry – Tasting in Napa. It will give you a gracious plenty on the background of the Spire Collection so I won’t repeat myself. It is a modern, tastefully appointed tasting room. … Continue reading Myriad & The Spire Collection
There are always some tastings that stand above all the rest and this was one of those – Behrens Family Winery. High on Spring Mountain outside of St. Helena, in a very comfortable tasting room surrounded by wonderful original art and a killer view, we met Robin Cooper and some exceptional wines! For close to 2 hours Robin painted a full picture for us of … Continue reading Spring Mountain Experience
We headed out of Santa Barbara the next day to Los Olivos and Los Alamos to taste at Andrew Murray and Casa Dumetz. After talking with Noah from the Wine Merchant, we added the Holus Bolus tasting room to our trip. Our first stop was at Andrew Murray Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley Wine Country. Tastings are held at the winery in a stunning location … Continue reading Day Trip from Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara California not only has a stunning coastal location, beautiful Mediterranean style architecture, amazing restaurants and shopping – it also has its share of wineries! More than 280 wineries are located among the seven AVAs in Santa Barbara County. We made a road trip to Santa Barbara to relax for a few days and explore a few of those wineries and tasting rooms. We … Continue reading Santa Barbara Trip
East of Sacramento and west of Lake Tahoe has become one of our favorite winery haunts. It’s the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. It’s a region that began growing grapes in the gold rush days of 1849 but has more recently begun flourishing into a major wine region of California. We visited a small portion of the region for the third time in October. Over … Continue reading Into the Foothills
John's Wine Cellar 