California

• Amador County
  • Shenandoah Valley
• Carmel Valley
• Carneros
• Central Coast
  • Edna Valley
  • Mt. Harlan
  • Paso Robles
• Contra Costa County
• El Dorado County
• Lake County
• Lodi
• Mendocino
  • Anderson Valley
  • Yorkville Highlands
• Monterey
• Napa Valley
  • Atlas Peak
  • Best of Napa
  • Calistoga
  • Conn Valley
  • Diamond Mountain
  • Howell Mountain
  • Mt. Veeder
  • Oak Knoll
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  • Rutherford
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  • St. Helena
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  • Yountville
• North Coast
• Santa Barbara
  • Santa Lucia Highlands
  • Santa Rita Hills
  • Santa Ynez Valley
• Santa Cruz
• Santa Maria Valley
• Sierra Foothills
• Sonoma County
  • Alexander Valley
  • Bennett Valley
  • Best of Sonoma
  • Dry Creek Valley
  • Fort Ross/Seaview
  • Moon Mountain
  • Pine Mountain - Cloverdale Peak
  • Russian River Valley
  • Sonoma Coast
  • Sonoma Mountain
  • Sonoma Valley
  • Knights Valley

With more than 30 years of winemaking experience behind him behind him, David Hopkins still visits vineyards and winegrowers every week to taste grapes and begin to formulate his blends, something he has become well known for. An avid surfer and scuba diver, Hopkins oversees the 105 acre estate at Bridlewood Winery crafting blends and wines from the California Central Coast with fruit from Santa Barbara to Monterey County. What prompted you to pursue winemaking as a career? If not winemaking, what path would you have chosen and where do you think you would be right now? I happened upon winemaking somewhat accidentally. One Friday afternoon at Fresno State, my microbiology class ended early and my lab partner asked me if I wanted to help him rack wine barrels at the student winery. Four hours later, I emerged from the winery completely enthralled with the experience I just had. Monday morning, I was standing in front of the Enology department’s chairman asking him how to get a job in the wine industry. I think it was the unique combination of agriculture, food science and the art of wine tasting that really drew me into the world of wine, and I haven’t looked back since. If I had not agreed to help my lab partner that day, I would have likely pursued a career in floriculture, specifically in studying tissue culture for orchid production.

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.

Wines to Go Buy This Week: A Carneros Pinot Noir by Truchard and a South African Bordeaux Style Red by the (barely pronounceable) MR Mvemve Raats. As frequent IntoWine readers know, in November we are launching our own wine club, The IntoWine Club , in partnership with the California Wine Club (more info on the club here if you are interested). While there are a lot of moving parts, how it works is that the folks at California Wine Club ship me wine samples that are being considered for future club shipments and then I provide feedback and such about the wines that will be included in those shipments. Recently I received my first batch of samples and, let me tell you, I am thrilled about the quality of the wines. I simply can not wait for our club to launch in November. With this in mind, I give you this week's installment of "Wines to Go Buy This Week": Truchard Pinot Noir 2006 - Was going to wait to recommend this until our IntoWine Club launch the first week of November but I'm gonna let the cat out of the bag early. This Truchard Pinot Noir is one of the wines being considered and I could not be more pleased to share the news that this wine is going to be in the inaugural IntoWine Club shipment. So what about the wine itself? For me a tell-tale sign of a good wine is that it is delicious and easy to drink from the first sip to the very last and always leaves you wanting more . The Truchard Pinot Noir passes that test with flying colors. From the Carneros region of Napa, Truchard Pinot Noir is an ideal wine for anyone curious about discovering Northern California Pinot Noir. It's also reasonably priced at approx $35 retail. "Reasonable" is relative of course as some might say $35 for a wine is outrageously expensive. For a quality Carneros Pinot though, this is priced more than fairly as you can certainly pay much more than this for a similar wine. As for the IntoWineClub, you can sign up here if you are interested.

James P. "Bo" Barrett has been the Winemaker at Chateau Montelena Winery since 1982. Bo’s career in the wine industry began in 1972, right after he graduated from high school, when his family purchased Chateau Montelena. He spent the first summer pulling star thistle in the old vineyard and picking up rocks in preparation for replanting. In 1976 Bo transferred to Fresno State University, where he was an honors student in Viticulture and Enology. 1976 was a crucial year, one that would forever change the perception of American wine when a Chateau Montelena Chardonnay bested French White Burgundies in a blind tasting, known as the Judgment of Paris. As 1981 drew to a close, Chateau Montelena’s original winemaker left to pursue other opportunities and Bo was offered the job by his father, the winery’s Managing General Partner. The rest is, as they say, history. Certainly the “Judgment at Paris” where the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay surprised everyone and took top honors, has become a seminal event in American wine history. But at the time, was the whole experience even relevant to you and your family? It was extremely important as soon as it came out in Time Magazine, The LA Times, etc. The hand crafted Napa Valley wines were only being recognized on the West Coast and it was tough to get the other U.S. markets like New York, Boston, and Chicago to take us seriously, and even tougher to sell wines there; no matter how good they were. You have to remember that the center of American winemaking at that time was Modesto! That Napa won both the red and white wines at the Paris Tasting was catalytic to the formation of Napa today. So hell yes it was relevant!

Raymond Twomey Duncan first came to the Napa Valley in the late 1960s and within a year began purchasing land in the Napa and Alexander Valleys. Along with the late Justin Meyer, they founded Silver Oak Cellars in 1972 with a single goal: create the best Cabernet Sauvignon. After selecting Daniel Baron to succeed him as winemaker in 1994, Justin Meyer sold his share of Silver Oak to the Duncan family in 2001. Today, the Duncan family leads Silver Oak forward, maintaining the vision established by Ray and Justin more than 35 years ago. David Duncan serves as the winery’s President and CEO, overseeing production and operations. Today Silver Oak is regarded as one of the top Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the Napa Valley, earning legions of fans and a near cult-like status. Silver Oak makes only one wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, and you are known for this. When the idea first started with your dad, was there any concern that you would not be able to make a name for yourself with just a single wine? It is hard to appreciate from today’s “cab is king” mentality but we really stepped out and took a big risk with our singular focus on just one wine. I don’t think we were too worried about making “a name,” just making great wine.

Tom Lane began his winemaking career at Navarro Vineyards in 1985, then moved to winemaker position at Concannon Vineyard in 1992 where it was twice cited as “Winery of the Year,” before he joined the family-owned Bianchi Winery in Paso Robles. While at Concannon, Tom helped the winery earn hundreds of accolades, including Wine and Spirits Magazine Winery of the Year in 1995 and 1997. Tom’s educational background includes Bachelors degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Chico State University, a Master's degree in Biology (Plant Taxonomy) from Kansas State University, and further graduate studies in Botany at Ohio State University.

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.

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:

Originally from Australia, Daryl Groom has held numerous positions in the wine industry including Vice President of Winemaking & Operations for Peak Wines International, and Beam Wine Estates, and both Senior White Winemaker and then Senior Red Winemaker for Penfolds Wines in Australia. His foundation was producing Penfolds famed red wine, Grange, which he oversaw from 1984 until his move to the U.S. in 1990. He has been named ‘Winemaker of the Year by the LA Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, the Huston Chronicle, Quarterly Review of Wines, and others. He currently produces his own label, Groom Wines. He judges six international wine shows annually and has been on the NBC Today Show and a repeat guest on E! Television in the U.S.

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