Tasting Notes

Tasting notes for individual wines.

Sparkling Wine for the Holidays featured photo

Bubbles for Your Holiday Celebrations

The holiday season is upon us and that means more gatherings with family and friends than usual, which also means more opportunities to enjoy sparkling wine. We have four sparklers to share with you today that we received as tasting samples. I hope you have your wine glass ready. Côte Mas Brut NV St. Hilaire, Crémant de Limoux — medium […]

German Wines

Two Styles of German Wine and a Meal for Both #winePW

Every time we participate in a Wine Pairing Weekend (#winePW) event it is a learning experience with regard to pairing food and wine. I learn from my successful pairings and from those that are not so successful. I always learn about wine too. This month’s theme, German Wine Exploration, was particularly challenging for me. I admit to finding German wine […]

Three dry German wines paired with Chicken Piccata

A Preview of Our German Wine Exploration for Wine Pairing Weekend #winePW

The anticipation is building for this Saturday’s Wine Pairing Weekend (aka #winePW) Exploration of German Wines. Behind the scenes we’ve all been very busy. Food and wine pairings have been prepared. Bloggers have taken photos of their delicious pairings, done their research and written posts about their experiences. We will all publish our posts between Friday, December 7 and 8:00 […]

Harney Lane wines featured photo

Harney Lane Wine for the Holidays and Everyday

I’m willing to bet that you closely associate Zinfandel with the Lodi wine region. Many wine drinkers do. But, you might not associate Chardonnay with Lodi. We’ve only tasted a few Lodi Chardonnays, but recently we had the opportunity to taste the new release Chardonnay from Harney Lane Winery & Vineyards along with their Old Vine Zinfandel sourced from the […]

J Mc Clelland and 50 Harvests featured photo

J. McClelland & 50 Harvests: A Taste of Napa from Scotto Cellars

J. McClelland and 50 Harvests wines are the top tier of wines crafted by Scotto Cellars. Both are sourced from Napa Valley vineyards and made at the Scotto’s Napa Valley winery, Steel Canyon Cellars. Winemakers Mark Smith, Mitch Cosentino and Paul Scotto collaborate on these wines, which we received as tasting samples. The J. McClelland brand pays tribute to John […]

Sonoita sign featured photo

A Wine Sojourn to Sonoita

The Sonoita AVA is the first Arizona AVA we visited, so it will always be special to us for that reason. That was back in 2011 and I remember being astonished to discover high-elevation grassland in Arizona dotted with windmills, grazing horses, cattle and antelope. I was even more surprised by the sight of vineyards growing in what looked like […]

Failla Hudson Vineyard Syrah and Lamb Tagine featured photo

Failla Hudson Vineyard Syrah & Moroccan Lamb Tagine #WinePW

The theme for our November Wine Pairing Weekend (#WinePW) event remembers the devastating wildfires that have struck many wine regions around the world recently. The topic for this month’s wine and food pairings comes from Gwendolyn Alley who blogs at Wine Predator. The title of her invitation post: Together We Rise: Wines from Fire Struck Regions in CA, Chile, Spain, […]