When planning a meal do you start with the food or the wine? I may have just given away my approach by listing food before wine, but honestly sometimes we begin with the food and sometimes the wine. And, some food is more challenging to pair with wine, and some wine is more challenging to pair with food. But one […]
One of the many lessons I learned during weekly wine tastings at a local wine shop is that there are many very expensive bottles of wine that taste really good, especially from Napa Valley. It isn’t particularly difficult to find those wines, but what takes a bit more effort is to find those really good wines for less money. What […]
In the Northern Hemisphere summer officially begins on the summer solstice, June 20th this year. Temperatures have been summery for weeks where we live, and we are already regularly enjoying wine on the patio. So, the question of what to sip on warm afternoons or with a grilled meal is pressing. We have six choices from around the world, all […]
Today we are sipping Riesling from Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain District. I know Riesling isn’t the first variety you associate with Napa Valley, but the last thing Stu and Charles Smith seek to do is conform to the expected; if they did, Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery would be located on Napa’s valley floor. Once you taste Smith-Madrone’s Riesling, you too […]
It’s hard to remember a year more difficult than 2020. The loss of my parents marked the most sorrowful years for me personally, but collectively this is the most difficult year I can remember. The bad news has continued since February and the worst may not be behind us. Coronavirus, COVID-19, stay-at-home and social distancing became part of my everyday […]
Many wine drinkers stop sipping and pairing white wine with meals about the time the weather cools and they stop wearing white pants. That’s not the case in our house. We sip white wine all year long which means we’re enjoying them with meals year round as well. So, what wine is as easy to sip on its own while […]
Stuart Smith knew he needed to look to the mountains of Napa Valley, not the valley floor, to find a site that would allow him to make the elegant, balanced, acid-driven wines he enjoyed drinking. He found what he was looking for in a 200-acre property on Spring Mountain. The property had been home to a small vineyard in the […]
Riesling is Germany’s most-planted grape variety and likely originated in the Rheingau. It is capable of making wines in styles that range from dry to sweet. Riesling is beautifully aromatic and so delicious, but the trick is figuring out if the wine will taste sweet or not. Today we’re tasting two Rieslings, both of which were provided to us as […]
I experienced a crazy TV moment last week while watching the new season of the Netflix original series, Dead to Me. In the first episode of the second season orange wine is prominently mentioned. Granted, neither of the characters discussing orange wine knew what it was, but it got a mention. I guess that means at least scriptwriters have been […]
This is my happy time of year. The days are long, the weather is warm, and I’m including more white wine in my sipping rotation. Today we have five white wines from around the world that are perfect for summer. You may enjoy them so much you’ll want to sip them all year long like I do. We received these […]
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.
