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Sonoma Coast Jewels: Freeman Vineyard & Winery
Part of my motivation to visit Freeman Vineyard & Winery was reading that co-owner and assistant winemaker learned about wine from her grandfather, a Japanese scholar. And that she shared the same first name as my study abroad hostess, Akiko.
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Top Ten Best Drinking Movies
After exhaustive research by our panel of judges here is a list of movies that star alcohol in some way. Conspicuously missing are a lot of quite good wine movies. Once I started making the list it became clear to me that Alan Rickman’s Steve Spurrier would pass out long before the spurned Arthur was even warmed up.
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The effect of price on wine reviews
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Weinrieder 2006 Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben
Grüner Veltliner is not one of the most well known wine grapes on the planet. Wines made from this grape tend to have a spicy nose of white pepper, floral perfume, and either peach or tropical fruit. The Weinrieder 2006 Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben is an excellent example of just how good this wine can be.
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Pop that Cork! Value-Priced Champagne Alternatives
In the current economy, many people are looking for an alternative to traditional champagne to help ring in the New Year. Last year we told you about Cava from Spain, and we’ve found a few other sparklers to share with you this year as well.
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Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Volant 2005
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Great Finds in Grocery Store Wine
Amazing. You can put your name on a list for wine or beer that sells out in 10 minutes. Now that’s customer service. The kind you might expect at a small store in the older neighborhoods of a big city or a small town. Or if you’re an important customer at the big wine retailer. Not a huge mega-store that sits along the freeway in the suburbs. It’s the kind of service that builds clientele, not just customers.
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Qué Syrah and Pinot Noir! Olson Ogden Wines
This beautiful small lot Syrah is opaque, an inky purple with gorgeous ripe fruit. Blueberries, blackberries and rich baking spices on the nose, reminded Joe of a succulent pie. Once in the mouth, we tasted more of the blackberry and blueberry flavors, brown sugar and cloves, with a nice toasty oak on a finish that ended in gobs of fruit, spice, vanilla and velvety tannins.
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Turkey and Cannellini beans with Terlato Pinot Grigio
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2006 Cornerstone Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
When a bottle of something like the wine being reviewed today comes in, I know that if I let it age for a bit it will become everything the wine maker, and wine drinkers for that matter, hope it will become. By opening it while it is so young, not only am I not tasting it when it has reached it’s full potential, I am ensuring that one of a finite number of bottles of something special will never be tasted.