This past weekend I had a pleasure of visiting Halter Ranch Vineyard in Paso Robles. The flight opened with the biggest surprise of all…a spectacular Rhone white blend called Synthesis. Synthesis is a blend of 46% Viognier, 35% Rousanne and 19% Marsanne. I termed this the biggest surprise because I usually pass on the whites […]
Our Lodi wine tasting adventure continued to the Harney Lane Winery. Unlike our first stop, Delicato Family Vineyards, Harney Lane is an intimate, boutique winery. Great architecture, warm interiors, expansive exteriors, everything comes together to create a personal interaction with the wines. And the wines! Much fun was in store for us. The beautiful tasting […]
The results of the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition have been announced. This was a very good year for Livermore Valley wines and wineries! 37 Livermore wineries received a total of 178 medals. Here is the complete list of Livermore Valley winery winners. In many cases, we have previously written about visiting these winning […]
Our Lodi wine tasting adventure began with a stop at Delicato Family Vineyards outside of Manteca. Unlike many of our winery visits, we were not stopping at a “mom and pop” winery. Quite the opposite. Delicato Family Vineyards (Delicato from now on) is the third largest producer in the U.S. and fifth largest in the world. […]
Following our fun- and fund-raising time at Swirl for a Cause, supporting the Tri-Valley Haven, we felt that we still had some wine tasting enthusiasm within us. Given our late start and leisurely pace at Swirl, time was of the essence. As we thought of wineries that we had recently overlooked, Page Mill Winery came […]
Another sunny January Sunday! Apologies to the rest of the country, but Northern California has the perfect winter weather: sunny, mid-60s and just enough breeze to keep the air fresh. We couldn’t let such an amazing day go to waste, so we decided to taste some wine in an outdoor setting. Sarah noticed that Swirl, […]
We were celebrating the arrival of 2015 the best way we could imagine: wine tasting. We started the day at Murrieta’s Well, and then drove around the corner to the Steven Kent Winery. Another wonderful experience ensued! It has been several years since we visited Steven Kent. Considering the quality of wine and amazing ambiance […]
What better way to welcome the new year than to go wine tasting? In our family, at least, this is pretty much a rhetorical question. The only serious question on the floor was the selection of wineries for our first outing of 2015. After some spirited discussion, we settled on a mix of old and […]
The morning of New Year’s Eve was clear and cool. Our household had a variety of plans for celebrating the arrival of the new year, but the afternoon was wide open and just aching for something fun. Once we discovered that our daughter’s boyfriend had never been wine tasting in Northern California we know what […]
We have been to the Occasio Winery before, but were shocked to discover that we had been away for more than a year. Happily, a recent weekend opened up and gave us the opportunity to revisit Occasio and catch up on everything that has happened since our last visit. Fun lighted purse hangers The tasting […]
What a challenge! We had a sunny Saturday in front of us, and we wanted to visit the Darcie Kent wine club release party, take advantage of a great-sounding port sale, and check in on some of the wineries we’ve missed in recent months. So much to do and so little time. Our only hope […]