This time of year, the weather in the Russian River Valley can only be described as perfect. Nah, that doesn’t necessarily do it justice. Ideal? Boring. Ahhhh. Epic. The weather is epic. The sun combined with the lush scenery just begs you to take your glass of Pinot Gris (or pick your favorite poison) and enjoy an outdoor picnic with your family. (Insert record needle scratch sound here.) Did he write “enjoy a picnic with your family?” At a winery?

Much is written about the celebrated wines and terroir of Napa Valley and Sonoma County. Travel southeast from California’s “wine country” through the Central Valley and you will find a unique gem of a winery nestled in Madera County. Quady Winery has spent the past 30 years refining the art of dessert wines. IntoWine.com caught up with co-founder Andrew Quady (his wife Laurel is the other brain behind it) to talk about Quady’s California style dessert wines.

In the U.S. and abroad, the movement towards embracing organic foods is evolving rapidly. It seems a day can not pass without new information emerging concerning the health benefits of organic foods. Major grocers such as Whole Foods and Molly Stone’s are popping up in cities across the U.S. as consumers embrace the health benefits –and better taste – of organic foods. IntoWine.com recently chatted with Celine Guillou and Chris Tavelli, the owners of Yield , San Francisco’s first and only “green” wine bar, about “green” wine and the Yield Wine Bar experience.

So how many bottles of wine do you have? A few bottles? A case or two? Several cases? Do you really know? The first time I took inventory, I was a bit shocked at how many bottles we had accumulated. (And that was before we joined any wine clubs or mailing lists!)

It’s been a long day. At work, your boss yelled at you, at home your spouse snapped about the overfilled laundry hamper, and the cat just expressed her opinion all over the carpet. Nothing will sooth you more than a great glass of wine. But dinner is planned, and it’s not exactly beef bourgogne . So what’s a food-conscious oenophile to do? Here are a few suggestions for pairing decent or even good wines with classic comfort foods to create a fun, relaxing evening.

“I’ll try the Madeira” I said to the sommelier. After retrieving a new bottle from the back of the wine bar, she poured a glass of the deep red wine and set it down. As I made a motion to begin my first sip, I heard: “wait a second; I have something for you to try.” A small dish was placed in front of me, filled with brownish-black disks. “Its chocolate,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Oh, of course,” I responded, not totally understanding the pair of wine and plain pieces of chocolate. Then, as I tasted the bitterness of the chocolate combined with the smooth sweetness of the Madeira, I began to appreciate the origin of the slight smirk flashed by the sommelier. What a perfect match.

April in Carneros is an annual event held in the Wine Country north of San Francisco, hosted by wineries associated with Hospitality de Los Carneros. Regional events like this one are a bit like a pub crawl, as you tend to see and bond with other patrons following the same itinerary among the wineries. But you drive, not crawl between the wineries, and the collective deportment is more like you’d see at an art gallery than a pub. It’s a weekend worldly winery wheel, provisioned with food, music, and (of course) the proud presentation of the wines.

I'm often inspired by this illusive effevescent wonder. It makes the perfect start or finish to any dining experience and is a masterful accompaniment to meals designed not to overpower the delicate sparkling wine. A tall flute of prosecco is simple: visually perfect. Not much need be done to enjoy it, but it brings added pleasure to anything it is paired with.

Sometimes I think of my life here and wonder what it’s all really about. I wake up in the morning, in San Francisco, put on my “suit” and walk to work in the Financial District amongst strange varieties of faces and rhythms. Yet we’re all wearing the same suit, walking in the same time, working for the same hours, and then we come home. Tired.

Among Americans, the Loire Valley is most often associated with gardens and castles and not much else. We journey the 150 kilometers southwest from Paris and take a day or two visiting Chateau de Chambord and Chenonceau, all the while enjoying the delightful flora and thinking of bygone days when princes and noblemen still roamed the cavernous halls in this ancient land. But the French know better. They know what we foreigners are just beginning to discover—that some of the most interesting, delicious, and affordable wines in the world hail from the chalky soil on which those famous castles stand.