Wine Recommendations

For three decades Cambria Estate Winery has helped define the Santa Maria Valley. This Chardonnay offers a bevy of subtlety; lemon-lime, guava, honeysuckle, granny Smith apple and white peach. Nothing here is over the top. Four different clones were used on their estate property. “I sourced mainly...

Though Napa is undisputed cabernet sauvignon country, zinfandel actually has a longer heritage in the valley, though still receives little fanfare. Good thing then that Frank Family still keeps at it. This offering is all zinfandel with 11% petit sirah added in, then aged 16 months in a combination...

You may be familiar with the Decoy label, which has been around since 1985. Affordable and well-produced wines, they have earned a loyal following and are certainly ubiquitous. Now they have launched Decoy Limited, a step up from the Decoy wines, still reasonably priced but with a big bump in...

According to winemaker, Cecilia Leoneschi, “2015 was a textbook vintage.” The first thing you notice of her wine is the color - a brick red beauty, with lovely notes of raspberry, pomegranate, strawberry compote, cherry, cedar, redwood, light tobacco and great, balanced acidity. In the dry clay and...

In Napa there are well known wineries, and then there are a few that have reached iconic status. Dalla Valle is one of those, and with good reason. One of their secret weapons is their Cabernet Franc, which expresses itself in the 2015 Maya. According to winemaker Andy Erickson, it is the Franc...

Blending Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese is nothing new. The made-up term “super Tuscan” has been used for years to describe it. In essence it means a wine from Tuscany that includes non-indigenous grapes, such as Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah. Similar to France, Italian winemakers were stymied by...

Though Whitecliff Vineyards started in 1990 using vineyards in Australia and New Zealand, it was only 2020 when their wines came to the U.S. market. And it’s a good thing, too. What’s interesting about this Sauvignon Blanc is that, though it comes from Marlborough, it lacks some of the traditional...

Grown at 2,200 feet on limestone soils, and using the Calera clone, there is an immediate understanding of the depth of the fruit with this wine. Deep rich black cherry, blackberry, red raspberry and strawberry along with blueberry, boysenberry all vie for attention. But these are not bright fruit...

When I was on the island of Crete, I put my hands on trees that were planted well before Jesus was born. And there were lots of them. Known as the Olive Trees of Vouves, they are gnarled, twisted, malformed things that are, to me, so beautiful. It’s no surprise to most of us that trees can live...

Our tastes change, our bodies change – change is inevitable. Many people find they don’t want to overdrink and over eat, especially during the holidays, therefore portion sizes become important. And it’s true with wine. Many people I speak with tell me they only want a little bit of wine with...