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 [...]

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. [...]

Love Those Baby Blues

  I first met winemaker Kenny Kahn in 2008 at Bassin’s annual charity California Barrel Tasting event in Washington DC. In a room full of Cabernets toting triple-digit price tags, Kenny’s $20 Baby Blue blend from Sonoma was the highlight of my evening, and I have been a fan of Blue Rock Winery ever since. Kenny’s [...]

Post Card from Napa – Antica

  We arrived by car, but it seemed at times that even mountain goats would have trouble ascending these slopes. The narrow paved road curved from left to right and, at the top, revealed a stunning hilltop winery that seemed to emerge from our imagination. We had reached Atlas Peak, the mountain but also the [...]

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