A pickup party is one of the standard perks of wine club membership. Usually 3 or 4 times a year, club members who live close enough by, or who happen to be visiting the area, pick up the newly released club selections on a special day at the winery. Lots of wine is poured (of course) with...

Taking a large group or even hiring a bus for a trip to Sonoma? IntoWine.com has scoured Sonoma County to find the wineries best suited to host large groups. The list below is in no particular order. Imagery Estate Winery Glen Ellen - The vibe at Imagery is one of wine, art, and nature. Imagery is a biodynamic winery so a huge emphasis is placed on preserving and embracing nature. Nature lovers will love walking the grounds to discover and encounter the bio-diversity. The tasting room is as much art gallery as it is wine bar as dozens and dozens of paintings adorn the walls. Imagery is known for its unique artist-commissioned wine labels so it is a must visit for label collectors. As for the wine, Imagery is a biodynamic farm with an emphasis on rare grapes and diversity in their wine offerings. More...

On a warm Tuesday in June, my wife Emily gently told me she thought she might be pregnant with our first child. We hadn’t planned this, and I was having trouble adjusting to the idea. The next evening I was eating Chinese food , and when I opened the fortune cookie, I decided to interpret the fortune in light of whether Emily was pregnant.

This is the second article ( Part one is here ) in an investigative series on Sicilian wines. Part Three of this series will be a focus on the Sicilian palate, foods and wines from the southern most region of Italy. My wife’s cousin, Fabio, navigates the winding roads up the east side of Mount Etna as naturally as the breeze follows the Sicilian coastline. We are en route to the small mountain town of Randazzo where Fabio’s friend is the winemaker at a winery called Gurrida . Over the course of an hour, we have passed thousands of acres of vineyards and citrus groves and several ancient villages carved (literally) out of lava.

There are some Sonoma wineries that simply have the good fortune of being located in a prime spot for visitors to take in a grand view. IntoWine.com has scoured Sonoma County to find the wineries that are worth checking out if only for the view. The list below is in no particular order. Marimar Torres Estate Sebastopol - Nestled in the rolling hills of western Sonoma County, Marimar Torres Estate off the beaten path for winery hoppers but worth the trek out of the way. The grounds and the views at Marimar Torres are splendid, particularly during the Spring/Autumn seasonal changes. More...

You did want to know how to say, “Trockenbeerenauslese,” didn’t you? Auslese - OWS-lay-zuh Beerenauslese - Buh-air-en OWS-lay-zuh Deutsche Landwein - DOYTCH-uh LANDT-vine Deutsche Tafelwein - DOYTCH-uh TOFF-el-vine Eiswein - ICE-vine Kabinett - Kahb-in-ET Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete -...

Germany’s wine styles can be difficult to understand. This is due partly to the fact that you can’t automatically tell how a German wine will taste by reading its style on the label. Unlike French wine styles, which are based on terroir, or Italian wine styles, which focus on geographical zones and specific blends of grape varieties, German wine styles are based on grape ripeness. Add in the long style names – how do you pronounce Trockenbeerenauslese, anyway? – and it’s easy to see why many wine drinkers stop trying to learn more about German wines.

CHEFS AND OTHER WINE PROFESSIONALS REVEAL THEIR FAVORITE PAIRINGS Locating wineries that offer wine and food pairings, especially in their tasting rooms, is not easy. But when you light on such an establishment, you are in for a treat. My first such discovery was when I was casually wine tasting with a friend a few years ago and stumbled on J Winery.

You know how they say you can’t really understand the ins and outs of winemaking until you’ve walked a mile in an underground cellar, surrounded by 3000 gallon holding tanks and palettes of oak barrels - what, you’ve never heard this? Well, it’s true, because no matter how much you read about the winemaking process, or hear winemakers talk about their craft during barrel-tasting weekend, you cannot appreciate the art and science that is winemaking until you’ve experienced it firsthand. This is why, come end-of-summer, so many devoted wine geeks sign up to work crush at a winery. And this is why I ended up at a certain small-scale winery one recent Friday morning.

Something about August makes summer’s days feel numbered, though here in California the hot weather often lasts all through October. The combination of the back-to-school buzz and department stores’ jump-start on fall fashions gives you the sense that summer is already a thing of the past. And while I’m a big fan of autumn’s allure, there’s also much to be said for enjoying the radiance and candor of a summer day. And what better way to complement the delicious spirit of waning summer than with a picnic and a cold bottle of Vinho Verde?