Wine Producers, Growers, & Labels

In 1979 French Champagne house G.H. Mumm began its quest to find the ideal winegrowing area in the U.S. After a four year search the winery opened in 1986 in the Napa Valley. Armed with a thorough understanding of méthode champenoise production, Ludovic Dervin completed his winemaking studies in his native Champagne, France and worked harvests with Champagne houses Charles Heidseick, and G.H. Mumm, as well as California’s Piper Sonoma. Prior to joining Mumm Napa, Dervin polished his non-bubbly winemaking skills at Russian River wineries, Hartford Court, and Gary Farrell.

Seguin-Moreau is one of the premier cooperages in the world. Started as two different cooperages in the 1800s, they merged in 1972 to become a barrel powerhouse. Nicolas Mahler-Besse assumed the position of CEO of Seguin Moreau in 2011 and had worked for the last 14 years in the cooperage business for Radoux. Seguin-Moreau currently has more that 4,500 clients in 35 countries, making their domination of the cooperage business clearly evident With three cooperages in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Napa, do you foresee the need for other cooperages in emerging wine regions, and where might those be? For the moment there is no plan to build new cooperages as we are already in the main wine locations, we’ll see how we grow then determine business in other areas.

Say “vodka sauce” and I instinctively think “sexy”. But truly, the relatively recent classic dish, normally consisting of a tomato-cream sauce with fresh parmesan blanketing thick, penne pasta, warms me like a comfort food. Because vodka’s subtle flavor is drowned out by the other ingredients in a typical vodka sauce, cooks needn’t worry over what wine to pair with the vodka flavor. The necessary match is really between the wine and the tomato-cream found in most recipes. In fact, foodies often question why vodka sauce exists. Was this mid-eighties invention a fad, gimmick, or simply a vehicle for vodka pushers? Surprisingly, the vodka in the sauce serves a chemical role in creating complex flavors. The tomato is what is called alcohol soluble , meaning some of its flavor compounds are released to the palate only in the presence of alcohol. The best tomato sauces contain some kind of alcohol, whether wine or vodka; otherwise, the mixtures would be missing an appealing component. Vodka is the spirit of choice when wine would impart a more powerful note than desired.

WinoBot is a free app download from iphone that helps you pick out the best wine for you from the restaurant’s wine list. WinoBot does three things for the consumer: 
1. Recommends wine from the restaurant that she is at according to her preferences. 
2. Allows the user to see what her friends liked or disliked during previous visits at the restaurant 
3. Keeps track of all the wines she has rated for future reference and follow-on purchases from retail partners. For the consumer WinoBot is their personal sommelier. For restaurants it is their mobile app. For wineries it is a direct channel to reach the consumers. IntoWine recently caught up with Min Zhang from WinoBot to get his take on this inventive wine app that has taken the California restaurant world by storm.

What's an appropriate wine to serve at a Baltimore Ravens themed party? What wine would be a good gift for a hard core Ravens fan? Proud to Wear Purple It's safe to say that most football fans in Baltimore will never forgive football owner Robert Irsay for moving his Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis under cover of darkness in 1984, leaving Charm City without a NFL team. A city obsessed with football had to wait until 1996, when Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell brought his team to Baltimore, to break out the tailgating gear and cheer at a local professional football game. The Baltimore Ravens, named in honor of native son Edgar Allan Poe, were instantly embraced by their new fans, who happily traded Colts blue for Ravens purple.

Master Sommelier George Miliotes grew up around food. His family owned a restaurant in Orlando and it was while on a trip to Germany with his father as a teenager he first sample wines that changed his life. Miliotes began creating award-winning wine lists in the late 1980s and eventually created one, the first of its kind, for The California Grill at Disney World. He is currently Director of Beverage and Hospitality for the Capital Grille, a Darden restaurant concept, where he oversees the wine list for all 40 locations of the national steak house chain, with wine lists ranging from 300 to 1,000 selections. Miliotes is also the food and beverage director for the nationally recognized, Seasons 52 , with locations in Florida and Georgia. With so many wines relatively high in alcohol these days, how difficult is it for a restaurants’ wine-by-the-glass program to pair with delicate foods? I do not see this as an issue. There are appropriate wines for appropriate foods and a well set up wine-by-the-glass program makes sure these bases are covered. The reason that varietals like Riesling are on fire is that they are lower alcohol and can pair well with lighter foods. While red wines may be lagging a little behind in the balanced alcohol arena, I think there is an active movement for more balanced wines even with reds.

Jon Bonné is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine editor, responsible for the paper’s wine and spirits coverage and the annual Top 100 Wines list. Before coming to The Chronicle, Bonné was lifestyle editor and wine columnist for MSNBC.com and lived in New York. His work has earned him two James Beard awards and multiple awards from the Association of Food Journalists. Previously Bonné was wine columnist for Seattle Magazine and has written about wine for Food & Wine, Decanter, Saveur, and the Art of Eating. He has also reported for The New York Times, Court TV, and National Public Radio, and is working on a book about California wine. What wine varieties would you like to see the public embrace more fully? So many Italian white varieties should be better known. Vermentino could be a star in California. Ribolla Gialla. Friulano. Grechetto. Timorasso. Ditto Portuguese varieties, but we’re much earlier on the curve. What else? Grenache. It’s everything that people claim to want in red wine, and it doesn’t have Syrah’s years of baggage. For that matter, let’s add Grenache Blanc to the list. It’s remarkably user-friendly.

What's an appropriate wine to serve at a Pittsburgh Steelers themed party? What wine would be a good gift for a hard core Steelers fan? Steeler Nation Wherever you go in the U. S., you will find fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, the team is so popular that its fans are called the "Steeler Nation." You can join Steelers fan clubs in nearly every major U. S. city, including Atlanta, Kansas City and Tampa. Part of the reason for all of this enthusiasm is the team's long history; founded in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Steelers are the fifth-oldest National Football League team. The main reason, however, for the Steelers' popularity with fans is the team's outstanding record. No other team has won as many Super Bowls – six – as the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers' all-time roster includes some of the greatest names in professional football history: Ernie Stautner, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Greene, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, John Stallworth, Jack Lambert, and, of course, current quarterback "Big Ben" Ben Roethlisberger.

With the founding of Duckhorn Vineyards in 1976, Dan and Margaret Duckhorn played a pioneering role in establishing Merlot as one of North America's great premium wine grapes. Duckhorn Vineyards produces several single-vineyard Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons, as well as a highly regarded Sauvignon Blanc . Their work as wine industry leaders has been recognized on many fronts including the New York Times which dubbed Dan as “Mr. Merlot.” The Duckhorns took that same Merlot vision and applied it to Pinot Noir in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley with Goldeneye. In July, 2007, GI Partners , a private equity firm, purchased a controlling interest in Duckhorn Wine Company.

Mentored by his father, a technical director at Château Lafite, Bernard Portet grew up tasting each wine vintage. Born in Cognac, his family has owned vineyard property in France since the late 1600s. A firm believer that making wine is all about a specific place, Portet’s journey led him to the United States, Australia, Morocco, South Africa and South America. Due to the similarities of several of his favorite wine regions in France, it was California’s Napa Valley that inspired him. With a clear vision of the potential of the Napa Valley, in 1971 he co-founded Clos du Val. He pioneered several Napa Valley regions and developed a keen focus upon the Stags Leap region. Portet remained at Clos du Val for more than 35 years. His latest wine label, Heritance launched in 2011.