ShareYou’d think that Tablas Creek’s remote location, more than a half hour’s drive into the oak-dotted hills from Paso Robles, would deter people. But no. In fact as we drove up, a stretch limo was disgorging a leesy troop of bachelorette-partiers; I worried they might be examples of the wine tasters gone wild phenomenon. Indeed, [...]

ShareBy spousal order, I’ve had to limit my membership in wine clubs to two. So after an excruciating process of elimination, I came up with a pair of desert-island wineries. I didn’t pick them because they make my favorite or most prized wine. (That’s what mailing lists are for, and thankfully Alice didn’t say anything [...]

ShareWine tasting — or gymnastic event?
That’s what I was wondering as I watched Steve Martell of Kaleidos climb up between two stacks of oak barrels, stacked three high. That and gee, I hope Paso Robles isn’t hit by the next Big One, right now.
But the earth stilled beneath our feet, and Steve’s thief sucked up [...]

ShareThe only cult cabernet I buy every year is Shafer’s Hillside Select — I love drinking it, and it’s the only example of this rarified category I can afford. Not that it’s cheap. But compared to Screaming Eagle at $500 or Harlan Estate at $350 per bottle, a $200 Hillside Select is a bargain. Plus, [...]

ShareThe first thing you notice about this wine is its aroma. Even as the wine is poured, and even if it’s not decanted, you can catch a whiff of what’s to come when you get to immerse your nose in the glass: a fresh bouquet of charred wood, tar, violets, pepper, and the alluring perfume [...]

ShareI confess I love Wine Spectator magazine. I know it’s biased toward domestic wines. I realize its 100-point rating system (which it stole from Robert Parker) oversimplifies. And it really irks me that all the featured critics, every last one of them, is male. (I mean, come on guys, in a wine world populated by [...]

ShareAs Maya put it in Sideways, wine is a living thing. And she’s right: as it arcs through a youth, a middle age, and its golden years, every wine changes. And then, like all living things, it dies. So in the case of a good wine, or more specifically a fine wine that’s meant to [...]

SharePeople often ask me what my favorite wine is. I hate to be a killjoy, but I have to say, it depends. I’ll be drawn to a type of wine because of what I’m eating, what time of day it is, where I am. Sometimes I’ll get on a wine jag because I saw somebody [...]

ShareThis deep, dark red wine tastes really expensive. But it’s not. Thanks to its semi-obscure Iberian birthplace — how about that for a hint? — this old-school red delivers the quality of an old-vine, well-aged, and perfectly oaked Northern Italian Barolo or Barbaresco, but at $9.99 at about a tenth of the price. It’s got [...]

ShareThe first thing I did when the 2003 Quilceda Creek cabernet placed dead last in a blind tasting I attended Wednesday was think, shoot, I have a case of this wine in my cellar! I didn’t say it out loud; I’m no fool. I spent $110 per bottle on that wine on the recommendation of [...]