We are all familiar with California Cabernet Sauvignon, Oregon Pinot Noir, and Washington Riesling.  But how about Pennsylvania Grüner Veltliner?  With almost 150 wineries, and over 12,000 acres under vine, Pennsylvania is searching for it’s “signature” grape varietal.  In an effort to draw more attention to their wines, they are strongly considering both Cabernet Franc, and Grüner Veltliner as their signature...

Harvest has begun in Napa Valley.  2009 has been a fairly mild growing season, contrasting last year’s damaging frosts and fires.  This growing season has brought slightly higher yields compared to ’08, with some hot days towards the end of the season.  So far rain has held off, which can be detrimental during harvest. Araujo Estates began harvesting Sauvignon Muscat today.  Other vineyards will begin harvesting Sauvignon...

Two different wildfires burning right now have caused winery tasting rooms to close.  The first fire, named “The Lockheed Fire” started last Wednesday night at the Lockheed facility in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  This hilly area is home to many small producers.  So far only Beauregard Vineyards and McHenry vineyards have closed, evacuating all employees.  As of Sunday, this wildfire had burned 6.843 acres and was 50%...

Why decant? I frequently get asked whether a wine should be decanted or not.  First, there are two main reasons to decant a wine:  to aerate the wine which releases flavors and aromas, and to remove the wine from its sediment.  So we typically decant young wines to help them “open up,” and older wines to remove the sediment. Typically most bargain priced wines will not benefit from decanting, because they lack the structure...

This has been an ongoing debate for quite a while now, and customers frequently ask me this.  Primitivo and Zinfandel are genetically very similar.  They are both clones of the ancient Croatian grape Crljenak.  Since both clones come from the same original varietal, most of the differences we see today have come about from normal mutation.  Grape vines are very prone to mutation, and not necessarily in a bad sense.  Grapes tend to...