Wine

L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y

​A long time ago, when I was first getting into wine, someone, somewhere introduced me to Australian wines, and more specifically, the Barossa Valley.  Unlike a lot of wine folks out there, my introduction was not the big boys like Lindemans, Penfolds, or Rosemount, but it was Torbreck.  It was the Woodcutter’s Shiraz, but it was unlike anything I had had up until that point.  Jammy and juicy, with loads of bold red fruit and velvety tannins,

Love Is All You Need (The Ballad of Luc And Jodie)

Love is all you need.  At least that’s how the song goes.  And so too, we would come to learn upon a visit from Sriti Fusillo, the national sales manager of Morlet Family Vineyards, as she told the beautiful story of a man and a woman, in love, and how we fellow wine fans could live vicariously through that love, with each sip of their wines.
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For a little background,

What’s The Story, Morning Glory?

You could trace the roots of Ridge back to 1885, when a prominent Italian doctor named Oseo Perrone purchased just shy of 200 acres atop the Santa Cruz Mountains,

This Is How It All Begins, Chapter One

​​I’ve been in this business a long, long time.  Seen plenty of ups and downs, and I am talking as much about industry trends as I am my personal life, to be sure.  But we’re talking about wine, and this business is a bit of a whirling dervish at times.
Take a recent visit from my good friend Janine Poleman, who works for a fairly new importer – Elixir Wine Group.  Janine is a supernova of intellect,

This Is How It All Begins, Chapter Two

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Returning to the scene of the crime…

So a quick recap from our previous post… Janine Poleman from Elixir Wine Group and I, are in the cellar for a look at some of the newest wines to hit her portfolio, wines she hopes to bring this way for the holiday season, and go!

Always a woman with something up her sleeve, the La Mejorada Villalar Oro 2009,

The Stuff Of Legends

​Weird fact – the Staglin family purchases their historic Rutherford Bench estate in 1985, the year I graduated high school.  Okay, so there’s no real relevance in that little factoid other than the year they began a journey toward making some of the best Cabernet in Napa, I was beginning a strange and twisted odyssey toward the wine business.  And all points lead me to right smack dab in the middle of the Jungle Jim’s wine department,

A Little Bit Of What You’re Missing

​In something of a recap post, we had a pretty busy week around the Eastgate Wine Department, with not one, or two, but three wine tastings this week.  Thursday night is pretty standard, as we boast our Thursday Night Wine Jam, a bit of a leftover concept of mine that has finally found a home, and is growing slowly, a bit like watching a sapling tree get a few inches taller with each passing year –

The Evergreen State

​I have to issue this disclaimer:  I love Washington State wines.  Always have.  Yet it wasn’t really cemented in my besotted psyche until 2009, when I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Road Trip Washington Wine, an industry trip that takes wine buyers from around the country to get a firsthand look at the wine country of Washington State.  4 days of it, across the state, with up-close-and-personal meetings with the best winemakers and vineyard managers around the state,

Sometimes Your First Love Is Your Best Love

MY OWN PRIVATE VENETO: K2’S ITALIAN WINE PRIMER, PART 1

One of my favorite wine regions has been, and will always be, Italy.  The diversity of it is truly remarkable; there is something from everyone.  From the glorious Nebbiolo grape that is the heart and soul of Barolo, the wine of kings, to the grace of the Sangiovese grape and all its clonal brethren in Tuscany, to Aglianico of Campania and Nerello from Sicily, and all the spectacular wines in between (the sparkling beauties of Franciacorta,