Wine Recommendations

Back in 1912 Ernest Wente persuaded his father, C.H. Wente, to import Chardonnay cuttings from a nursery at the University of Montpellier in France to their Livermore Valley winery. Today roughly 80% of all California Chardonnay stems from what is now called the “Wente Clone.” There is a reason...

The Burgundy region of France makes some of the best wines in the world. The reds are mostly made from Pinot Noir and the whites are made from Chardonnay. And, the region of Beaujolais, whose wines are made from the Gamay grape, is also part of Burgundy. I was lucky enough to be able to sample some...

Sherry (the wine from Spain) can be confusing to understand, much less choosing a bottle in a store. Like most things in life, however, choosing a bottle of Sherry can be understood once one realizes at almost every step, it’s about dividing the choices into two categories and moving on. Of course...

List of the top ten Pinot Noirs from the US that we opened in 2019.

In California the best-known Pinot Noir producing area is, by far, Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. In Oregon it’s the Willamette Valley. The Willamette has just under 16,000 acres of Pinot Noir planted. The next most planted grape here? Pinot Gris, with less than 4,000 acres, so Pinot Noir is...

The top Cabernet Sauvignon tasted and reviewed by Loren Sonkin in 2019.