Ryan Sherman loves to talk wine, but he loves making wine even more. He grew up in Lodi which means an exposure to vineyards and winemaking was inescapable. He grew up with kids whose parents were farmers and winemakers, though his parents were not. Ryan’s family was in real estate and he pursued a career in commercial real estate himself. He eventually circled around to winemaking, establishing Fields Family Wines with partner Russ Fields in 2008.
What a spectacular day! The weather was much too warm for early April, but perfect for an outing to the Richmond side of San Francisco Bay. Can’t say I had ever been to Richmond before, just driven through the city on the way to somewhere else. So, when I noticed the Rhone Rangers celebration was to be held in part at Craneway Conference Center and Pavilion at Ford Point, Richmond I was curious.
Wine and cheese can be a great pairing. Read about our recent tasting of Lodi wines with cheese from around the world. It left us wanting more of both and planning a visit to downtown Lodi.
We recently had a great vineyard tour at Stolpman Vineyards, located in the Ballard Canyon AVA within the Santa Ynez AVA. It was a warm December afternoon and we were met by Joe Neenan who took us on a driving and walking tour of the vineyards. We wrote about that tour in a prior post.
Wine tasting is fun any time of year, but tramping through a vineyard in December? It might sound crazy, except that we recently did just that and had a great tour thanks to Joe Neenan, ‘Passionista’, from Stolpman Vineyards.
This is the second post reviewing a group of South African wines we received as tasting samples from Cape Classics, an importer of South African (and French) wines in to the US, with distribution in 49 states. We dedicated the prior post to the white wines in the selection.
Tom Hoffman wasn’t always a winemaker. He used to teach, in South America. But, eventually he was drawn back to the family farm, to manage the vineyards. For a while he was a home winemaker. His interest in winemaking eventually became Heritage Oak Winery, located within the Mokelumne River AVA of the Lodi appellation. The winery opened in 2007.
Karyl Wilhelm, winemaker at Wilhelm Family Vineyards, is a woman on a mission. She makes an astonishing number and variety of wines. Her husband, Kevin, is the vineyard manager. They planted their vineyard in 2005. The quality and quantity of their vineyard has improved every year as Kevin learns what works best in the vineyard.
This was our second visit to Dos Cabezas WineWorks. In 2011 it was the first Arizona winery we visited on our first tour of the Sonoita wine area. Six wines were on their tasting sheet that August, all red, one a fortified dessert wine. This year we enjoyed tasting through the since-expanded tasting sheet, eleven wines in all.
Kent Callaghan listens more than he talks. He’s reserved and unassuming. He’s had his hands in the dirt of his Elgin vineyard since at least 1990. I’m guessing he has learned something about that vineyard every day since. It’s reflected in the wine he makes. If you have visited his winery and tasted his wines, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
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.