Something To Drink
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This Week’s Wine March 12, 2007
There are many ways to look at the constant discussion among winemakers and wine-drinkers – do we blend, or don’t we? Do we make wine that is 100 percent of the named grape, or do we blend three or four types of grapes from three or four different vineyards? Or do we do as the
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This Week’s Wine March 1, 2007
When some of us were much younger, and maybe a little more foolish, Chianti, the red wine of Tuscany, in straw-covered bottles, was the wine of romance. We went to dimly lighted restaurants, often in basements, like the late, lamented Rossino’s of the 1960s. Those bottles, empties used as candle-holders, also adorned the tables covered
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This Week’s Wines January 31, 2007
There are times when a splurge is just the right thing, times when a large investment brings a large reward. I’m talking about spending a lot of money on a bottle of very special wine, but when the wine is to celebrate a memorable event or the anniversary of one, or maybe to mark a
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Tamas Estates
When a young winemaker meets a medium-sized winery, his job is wide-ranging. Chris Graves, whose first primary vintage from Tamas Estates is now on shelves, took over in 2005 with a string of responsibilities that included supervising vineyard management and helping design a new label. Tamas, based in Livermore, is part of the Wente Family
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This Week’s Wines December 17, 2006
Sonoma County, which stretches from the Mayacamas Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, always has seemed to me to be as close to Eden as any place I’ve visited. Besides the scenery, surf and sun, the county is an amazing agricultural site. I’ve always said that if you stuck a fishing pole into the Sonoma earth,
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This Week’s Wine November 23, 2006
Last week, I started this wine column with a reference to red wines, to rich and hearty red wines. And then I realized that Thanksgiving was only a week away, and I shifted gears. And to the surprise of no one who knows me well, I never got unshifted and back to my original topic.
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This Week’s Wine November 14, 2006
As the weather turns chilly, with brisk winds and early nightfall, the fan of red wines grows happy. We’re in a time of year when there is a surfeit of product, and when stews and roasts, and hearty soups, are favored fare. And then there’s Thanksgiving, only 10 days away, when there are plenty of
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This Week’s Wine
Marching hand in hand, the food and wines of South America are growing in their impact on St. Louis diners and drinkers. More restaurants with Caribbean and Latin American menus have come to town in the last few years, and they are busily pairing the meals of their ancestors with their local wines. The wine
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This Week’s Wine October 10, 2006
It’s a short step from flowers to fruit, and especially easy for a man as tall as Paul Carpenter, who looks as if he should be shooting baskets rather than pruning vines. Having nicely mixed some metaphors, the facts are simple: Carpenter is the senior winemaker for Australia’s Tintara Winery. He grew up in the
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This Week’s Wine September 25, 2006
David Graves and Dick Ward were classmates at the University of California-Davis back in the 1970s, when the school was home to the Holy Grail of Winemaking. By 1981 they were business partners and owners of a Napa Valley winery they named for George Saintsbury, an English writer whose classic 1920 book, "Notes on a