Is My Wine Corked?

When you get a bottle of wine home and pop it for guests, dinner or a special occasion the last thing you want is to have the wine be bad. When there's a fault with the wine you want it to be the winery's fault and not yours. The most common term people know for a bad wine is that it is corked. Corked wines were an all too common thing 15-20 years ago. The problem is still around, but only affects a small percentage of wines.

Napa Wineries Using Sonoma County Grapes

Our neighbors to the east in Napa using Sonoma County grapes is nothing new. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay of Judgement of Paris fame was mostly Sonoma fruit.

Over the years since others from Napa have used Sonoma fruit, often because it was less expensive or maybe because it was a grape variety not too plentiful in Napa. Nowadays it's more for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

One of the better known ones is Duckhorn's second label, Decoy, that gets most of its grapes from Sonoma County and is known as a value wine especially when compared to the Duckhorn Napa Valley prices.

Others include Aubert, Chappellet, Palmeyer, Joseph Phelps, and Hall who has two tasting rooms in Sonoma County.

Frank Pastori, 1920-2020

This is a story of old-school Sonoma County and the Italian families that made the county what it is today, but without the $100 wines, $50 decanters, or $30 tasting fees. Things used to be a little more rustic and Mr. Pastori was part of that.

Click on this link to read more
From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Some Interesting Graphs

As Rod Stewart would say, "Every picture tells a story, don't it?"

We're Drinking More

Compared to about twenty years ago we are drinking a lot more alcohol according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. We binge drink more, more people die from alcohol-related deaths.

Try Not to Laugh

This one is for locals when they talk with visitors, but maybe out-of-towners could learn from this, too.  :)

Try not to laugh at out-of-towners trying to pronouce Guerneville or Healdsburg.

Try not to wince at visitors asking for Pinot Grigio.

Try not to laugh at tourists saying they are going to the Russian River Brewery at 3 pm on Saturday afternoon.

Try not to wince at out-of-towners saying they are going to the Russian River Brewery on Saturday evening after wine tasting all day.

You may not be able to hold in the groan when they talk about how much they are loving Napa.

Why Visit Sonoma (in Pictures)

"Every picture tells a story don't it," says Rod Stewart. So we'll let photos tell you why you should visit Sonoma County. Some are mine, a couple by others and labeled for reuse.

New Grape Varieties Out of the "Lab"

Not exactly out of a lab, but five new varieties have been bred by UC Davis. The reason is resistance to something called Pierce's Disease that kills grapevines and costs vineyard owners a lot of money.

There are two new whites and three reds. I don't know if these will show up much as bottlings on their own or mostly in less expensive wine blends. The wines are the standard Vitis vinifera grapes crossbred with a grape grown in the Southwest U.S. and northern Mexico, Vitis arizonica, that is resistant to Pierce's Disease. This has taken about twenty years to develop. It will be awhile before any show up in your local store.