Antica

Italians love their wine, and they’re not going to be restrained from drinking it at any opportunity, particularly when the time seems “just about right.” However, they also recognize that their wine is best when served with food. Piero Antinori of the famous Tuscan winemaking house of the same name knows this perhaps better than [...]

Affordable Cabernets

The wine world offers us stupendous Cabernets, from the Medoc on Bordeaux’s west bank to the Mayacamas Mountains in Napa Valley. And after the dawn-to-dusk routine that we affectionately refer to as the “daily grind,” our spirits need – nay, deserve! – a particularly fine Cabernet to shed the weight from our work-worn shoulders. We [...]

The Fear of Bacchus in Me

More than a few friends have told me they want to learn more about wine so they are not embarrassed when handed the wine list during a business dinner or a date.  After all, knowledge breeds confidence, right?  Well, recently I had a revelation, or what Jules Winfield might call a “moment of clarity,” and [...]

Merry Edwards Pinot Noir

For years, I have been fortunate enough to taste the wines of Merry Edwards. Although I didn’t know I was sampling her early renditions at the time, the wines I enjoyed from Mount Eden Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1970s bore her stamp. Following that opening chapter of Edwards’ vinous life, she [...]

Arrowood and Amapola Creek

  Not being one for idol-worship, I have however followed Dick Arrowood around through his very successful career. Not just to hold his cape, mind you, but because I always knew that – where Arrowood was – great wine could always be found. From 1974 to 1990, he was at the helm at Chateau St. [...]

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