Last Thursday night’s tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton featured wines from South Africa. George and Gail, owners of the wine shop, visited South Africa several years ago and shared their experiences and a bit about the history of wine making in the region with us.
Pete’s sister, Marie, recently invited us to lunch at her home in San Francisco. The occasion was a visit with Pete’s son before his return to Rio de Janeiro. Seth mostly lives in Rio, but had been in San Francisco visiting and working.
In a continuing effort to find great-tasting, moderately-priced wine the theme for the Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was Crozes-Hermitage. This AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) is located in the Northern Rhone region of France, adjacent to the very prestigious Hermitage AOC.
The theme for Thursday night’s wine tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was “Summer Sippers”. George and Gail put together a group of six wines that meet their definition of Summer Sippers, that is white wines with lots of flavor, good acidity and not much perceivable sugar.
May is Finger Lakes Wine Month, a month-long celebration of the wines and wineries of the Finger Lakes AVA (American Viticultural Area) in New York state. As part of the promotion of this celebration, the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance organized an online tasting of wine from five Finger Lakes wineries.
Just about one year ago, we tasted a selection of saké made by SakeOne, a premium saké brewer located in Forest Grove, Oregon. We were sent several samples of infused saké which we tasted on their own and used to make cocktails. We wrote about that experience in a prior post.
We recently received four tasting samples from SakéOne and participated in tasting via Twitter. We learned quite a bit about SakéOne and saké.
St. Jorge Winery – Portuguese Varietal Wines in Lodi. We recently had the most interesting visit to this picturesque Lodi winery. St. Jorge Winery (1) produced its first vintage in 2008. We have tasted St. Jorge wines in the past. Several times someone has brought a bottle to an annual crab feed we attend. We have always liked the wine, usually a Verdelho, and have been curious to try their other wines. We decide to take a trip out to the winery to see what their wines are all about.
Thursday night at Fine Wines of Stockton we tasted wines from the Rhône River Valley. The valley is long, stretching from just south of Lyon, along the river to the Mediterranean, some 150 or so miles (3). Over twenty grape varieties may be used to produce wines in this region, with specific requirements for individual AOCs (appellation d’origine contrôlée).
On a recent spring day, I took a trip to Napa Valley with friends to do some wine tasting. We wanted to stop at a winery we had not visited before, and chose Clos Du Val. Located on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap District AVA (American Viticultural Area), Clos Du Val was established in 1972 by American entrepreneur John Goelet and French winemaker Bernard Portet. The pair made an extensive search for the perfect location to produce Bordeaux and Burgundy style wines and chose what would become Stags Leap District and Los Carneros AVAs.
The Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton featured Zinfandel. We live in the heart of Zinfandel country. Lodi, just 15 minutes north of Stockton, has significant plantings of Zinfandel as do the Sierra Foothills. The tasting included five wines from the Sierra Foothills and one from Lodi. It was our mission to identify the Lodi wine in the group.
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.
