Elaine Marshall

2 Articles

Elaine Marshall, Director of Wine Development at Signature Wines, founded the First Street Wine Company in Livermore, California. A former restaurant sommelier, Marshall has over 10 years of experience in the wine industry and is an Advanced Certified Wine Professional of the Culinary Institute of America. A specialist in New World wines, especially Syrah/Shiraz, Marshall has studied extensively the wines of California, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest. Accepted to the Institute of Masters of Wine program in 2006, she tastes hundreds of wines annually. She has served as a wine judge for many California wine competitions. A graduate of the University of California at Davis, she has produced and bottled her own private-label wine for four vintages. Her wine reviews have been published in Diablo Magazine and in various on-line newsletters, including Sunset Magazine.

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Articles

Road Shows: Greece 2007

While no match for the fickle flip of fashion rags like Vogue, nevertheless, wine publications have a tendency to declare a new “wine darling” seemingly every year. From Gruner Veltliner to the rebirth of Riesling, or the rise of Spain to the fall of Australia, wine fashions ebb and flow with the tide of sommelier fancy and corporate marketing. For the last few months, I’ve been noting that more and more publications have been talking about Greece. So, when the “All About Greek Wines” tour (sponsored by thirty-one producers to promote Greek wines in North America) came to San Francisco in April, the time seemed ripe to check out what the latest media starlet had to offer.

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The Rhône: My Own Pilgrimage

Last year, I had the unique opportunity to attend a trade tour of the Rhone (even better, it was on someone else’s dime!) The itinerary covered vineyards from north to south, with the majority spent in the Cotes du Rhone Villages within mini-bus distance of southerly Avignon. But the brief days I spent in the Northern Rhone were a heavenly slice for this Syrah-lover. The Northern Rhone region of France is my Mecca for Syrah. Considered wines that “stand shoulder to shoulder with the Crus Classes of Bordeaux in terms of pure quality” by influential authority Tom Stevenson, the deep purple colored reds of Cote-Rotie and Hermitage are sought out by many as standard-bearers of the true expression of traditional Syrah.

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