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Q&A with Chef William S. Bloxsom-Carter: Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director for the Playboy Mansion West

Chef William S. Bloxsom-Carter has worked as the Executive Chef, and Food and Beverage Director for the Playboy Mansion West for over two and half decades. A frequent wine judge he constantly looks for wines to pair with his foods for the multitude of foods he presents to guest at the Mansion; this can mean an intimate dinner party of 12, or upwards of 1,200 people. Complementing his responsibilities for Playboy Enterprises, Chef Carter has prepared winery dinners in Sonoma County, Napa Valley, Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley as well as special events for high-profile clients throughout the United States, focusing on the importance of food and wine pairings and extraordinary hospitality service. Additionally, Chef Carter is a recurring featured guest on numerous radio shows syndicated nationwide describing and promoting California wines and foods.

You routinely plan food from appetizers to entrees for up to thousands of guests at the Playboy Mansion. With so many people, is it ever difficult to pair wines with the diverse variety of foods you prepare?

When I’m evaluating and selecting wines for events, I take copious notes based on flavor profile, nose, finish, integration/body, visual clarity and any perceptible flaws. Depending on the demographic for an event dictates the food and wine selections. Like with food, seasonality also plays an important role when selecting wines. At the Playboy Mansion, I have the liberty to create and select food and wine based on many variables. Some may look at it as a challenge; I look at it as a way to offer every guest an impeccable hospitality experience based on the bounties of the harvest.

Q&A with Mike Benziger of Sonoma’s Benziger Family Winery

by Michael Cervin

Mike Benziger leads one of the most prominent and one of the last in-tact families in the wine industry. Based in Sonoma, the 30-year old Benziger Family Winery is widely known for their pioneering exploration and practice of Biodynamic, organic and sustainable agriculture and grape growing. Though they did not start out this way, as time evolved, they began to embrace a different way of farming. The validation of this, is high scoring wines in the national press and medals at wine competitions.

Wines to Go Buy This Week: Sonoma Pinot Noir by La Follette, MacPhail, and Freeman

by Brad Prescott

Since I wrote last week about how much I (used to) hate chardonnay, this week I am turning attention to the varietal I love: pinot noir. Friends and acquaintances frequently ask me for my favorite wine producers -and the list is long- so I am going to focus this week on my favorite Sonoma pinot noir producers. There are numerous producers of fantastic pinot in Sonoma so I'm sure I will get plenty of emails from people wondering how I could leave out so and so or who are incredulous that my recommendations exclude "less expensive" options.

So let me respond in advance: The threshold for inclusion on this list is that the wine must be in regular rotation in my house and be the "go to" bottle of Sonoma Pinot Noir to serve to guests or to uncork to celebrate small victories (a concept I enthusiastically embrace..... life is too short not to celebrate good days with a fantastic bottle of wine. Who wants to die with a huge collection of great wine aging in the basement?). Must a good Sonoma pinot noir cost $40+? Of course not, though so often they do. With that said, the three wines to go buy this week are:

Best Sonoma White Wines Worth Seeking Out (for the money)

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best Sonoma County white wine for the price:

Sonoma’s reputation for making ultra premium wines does not come without merit. Sonoma has history of making focused, sumptuous wines from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Bordeaux varieties. Recently, I came across Leo Steen’s Chenin Blanc. The wine proved to an honest expression of the classic French variety, with hints of citrus and island fruit. The palate is rich, with a clear acidity that carries through to the finish. The grapes for this wine come from a small sustainable vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley. The sandy, stony soils contribute to the vitality of this unique white wine which would pair well with just about any seafood, salad, or chicken recipe. (About $20) – Ben Spencer is a diploma student with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and an IntoWine Featured Writer.

Best Sonoma Red Wine Worth Seeking Out (for the money)

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best Sonoma County red wine for the price:

Sonoma seems to always have an uphill battle as its sibling, Napa, constantly gets the spotlight. But there are exceptional wines coming from this region. The Clos Du Bois Reserve Tempranillo ($22) is ripe with blackberry, black plums, soft and spicy blackberry, blueberry and black cherry positioned correctly with oak and acid. One-fourth of this wine is cabernet sauvignon, which builds a dense, strong structure most tempranillo’s do not have. Layered with a juicy fresh crushed dark fruit mouth feel, this is a surprisingly commanding wine that at first blush seem like it might have come from Napa. But no, Sonoma wines stand on their own. - Michael Cervin, Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

Sonoma Chardonnay Vintage Charts

by Loren Sonkin

Sonoma Chardonnay
2009	89	D
2008	94	D/H
2007	92

Sonoma Cabernet Vintage Chart

by Loren Sonkin

Sonoma Cabernet
2009	89	D/H
2008	91	D/H
2007	95

Q&A with Duckhorn Wine Company's Migration Winemaker, Neil Bernardi

IntoWine recently caught up with Duckhorn Wine Company's Migration winemaker, Neil Bernardi to discuss wine making and his thoughts on current trends in the wine industry.

What prompted you to pursue winemaking as a career?

I got into winemaking very early, almost out of sheer luck. I attended UC Davis intending to study Italian, without any knowledge of its reputation in the wine industry. On the first day of freshman orientation, I was walking through the halls of the Winkler Building, which I would come to know and love, and met Jim Wolpert, then chair of the Viticulture and Enology department. I must have looked lost because he struck up a conversation, and suggested I take a look at studying wine. I was intrigued, and was impressed by the major’s field of study. I was attracted to the diverse and extensive coursework, including plant biology, fermentation science, microbiology, physics, economics, business, and foreign languages, and added V & E as a double major. I was hooked after my first harvest internship at Gundlach Bundschu and knew that wine would be my life’s work.

Q&A with George Levkoff of george wine company

IntoWine recently caught up with george wine company's winemaker and founder, George Levkoff to discuss wine making and his thoughts on current trends in the wine industry.

What prompted you to pursue winemaking as a career?

I became a winemaker as a result of an epiphany I had at dinner in late 1994. The restaurant was Joe’s in Venice, CA, and the meal was tuna foie gras. My friend Mark brought along two bottles of pinot noir from Williams Selyem, Rochioli Vineyard 1991 & 1992. The meal which I had many times before, never tasted better, and I proclaimed that one day I would make wine like this in Healdsburg, a town I had never visited. Four years later I sold my house and quit my job, and moved to Healdsburg.

La Follette Wines: Greg La Follette Discusses His New, Eponymous Wine Venture

by Brad Prescott

It's not often you get to witness the beginnings of greatness. In the wine world, most consumers don't discover the best small production wines until they are either priced out of reach or available at the end of a very long waiting list. Wine lovers: here is your chance. Greg La Follette, one of California's (and perhaps the world's) finest makers of pinot noir and chardonnay has launched his own label, the eponymous La Follette Wines, and for perhaps the first time in his career is able to focus purely on making great wine for his own label, without distraction. Buy now or forever hold your peace.