With a title such as that, any reader, let alone a Petite Sirah aficionado, would want any introductory banter about the present weather in Napa Valley, the blooming mustard, the cloudless sunny days sparking the hope for a good vintage year ahead or any other whimsical observations to quickly wrap and move on to the […]

Throughout the summer and fall, articles have appeared seemingly left and right pondering the outcome of the 2010 growing season and what it will mean for Napa Valley wines.   Residents, hospitality staff and winemakers alike sat and nibbled their fingernails in nervous anticipation of 2010 harvest and collectively shivered through an unseasonably chilly summer.   While […]

       Zinfandel, long known as California’s red wine grape jewel, is synonymous with barbeque as barbeque is to summer dining.   As August wrapped up this week and Labor Day looms immediately ahead, there is no better tribute than firing up the charcoal grill and pulling a bottle of California’s classic red wine. As cliché as […]

If there is a grape which is followed with fervor and passion in Napa Valley, it is Petite Sirah.   Despite its name’s diminutive reference, the grape is capable of creating a big, bold tannic red wine loaded with complexity.  Primarily grown today in California (despite initially being grown in France), this grape is adored by […]

Port, that pleasing after dinner wine, is best known for its sweeter and “fortified” representation of your favorite wine grape.  Like any other wine, no two ports are alike and can vary greatly.   First, there are four primary types of port:  (i) vintage (which is a single grape port and often very expensive); (ii) ruby […]