About St. Clement Tasting Room in St. Helena Driving from downtown St. Helena to Calistoga on Highway 29, one cannot help turning and looking up to the hill on the left and marvel at the Victorian house that is home to St. Clement Vineyards’ tasting room. The house was built in 1878 by Fritz Rosenbaum. … Read more
About Bravas Bar de Tapas in Healdburg Bravas Bar de Tapas is a wonderful Tapas restaurant in Healdsburg. It opened about a year ago in the spot that formerly was the Ravenous Restaurant. Bravas Bar de Tapas is run by the same folks who own the successful Willie’s Sea Food on Healdsburg Avenue. We dined … Read more
About the Topel tasting room in Healdsburg The Topel Winery tasting room is one of many in the wine country town of Healdsburg. Around the Healdsburg Plaza, and down the road a mile, are as many as 20 tasting rooms. I think we have explored most of them. On our last visit, we saw that … Read more
About the wine cellar worker The cellar worker is also referred to as the cellar person or cellar rat. The latter term is used because the person bounces from job to job around the cellar, hustling back and forth. The cellar worker cleans tanks, hoses off the cellar floor, shovels grape skins, racks barrels, move … Read more
About these huge wine barrels On Wednesday of this week we had a very nice visit with Mark Ketcham, proprietor of Ketcham Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. There were ten of us tasting Pinot Noir wines in Mark’s spacious home. After our visit it was lunch time, and the closest winery with a picnic … Read more
About roses and vineyards Why do you often see rose plants growing at each end of a row of vines in wine country? The roses once served as an early warning system for vineyard growers. When roses suffered mildew, the growers knew they must swing into action before the vine leaves also suffered from mildew. Today … Read more
Napa Valley Cabernet in August. It is the first week in August and vintners are getting excited and anxious about the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest. In the photo above, we see Napa Valley Cabernet in August. You can compare these same Cabernet vines with photos taken in June and July. We arrived in the Napa … Read more
About Viognier in Paso Robles This Viognier vineyard is part of the Pipestone estate located in Paso Robles on the westside of Highway 101. All the vineyards are sustainably and organically farmed at Pipestone. Viognier is a Rhone variety of grape. The soil and growing conditions in this area of Paso Robles are in many … Read more
About SIP Certified wineries “Sustainable in Practice” is the mantra for wineries that have passed a thorough inspection and evaluation of their vineyard and cellaring practices. You can rest assured that SIP Certified wineries have passed a vigorous set of criteria and that they must meet the SIP Certified standard yearly. Visit them and be … Read more
About California Sparkling Wine This month the California sparkling wine houses are harvesting grapes to use in the production of their wines. For their entry level wines, the grape juice used will contain Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for the most part. Mumm Napa, this past week, was the first sparkling wine house to begin harvest. … Read more