Favorite California Sparkling Wines

Since it's New Years Eve I'm in the mood to talk about sparkling wines. For some reason this is about the only time of year Americans drink bubblies--a mistake IMO.

Some of my favorites:

Wine & Food Pairing - Acidity, Salt, Sweet, Fat

There's a lot of mystery concerning what wine you should drink with a certain meal. It can be as simple as white wine with white meats, red with red, but that's too simple to really work. At the other end of the scale it gets too complicated worrying about seasonings, what's in the sauce, and how it was prepared.

Where Does the Most Drinkin' Happen?

According to a study by Match.com (?) the booziest city in the U.S. is Austin TX with Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) CA at number two. 

Unique/Innovative Wines of Sonoma County

Tired of the same ol' Chardonnay and Merlot off the shelf from the local store? Following are some interesting wines you may want to try. You'll probably have to order from or visit the winery to find them. These wines may be low production and sell out.

Will you love them all? Probably not, but if you're the curious type and want to seek out new things then give it a go!

Wine News for 2015

The top wine stories of the year as seen from a California perspective.

Sonoma County's Historic Wineries

There are a number of 19th century wineries in Sonoma County still operating today (although all haven't been in continuous operation). Visit the early days of California's wine history!

Grand Theft, Napa Style

Last Monday a "gang of three" hit up a Napa wine shop and made off with $4,000 in twelve bottles of wine (yes, 12 bottles can equal $4k in Napa). Police found a total of 60 bottles of high-end wine in their vehicle and, oh yeah, some narcotics.

Best quote from the news story:
"She (a witness) said she saw the men run out of the store to a getaway car. One of the suspects didn't catch his ride. They took off and they were dragging him as the car was moving." Some friends they are.

Article from KTVU News 

Gallo Expands in Napa Valley

2015 has been a busy year for E&J Gallo. In Sonoma County they've bought J Winery and the old Asti Winery. J is into premium sparkling wine and Pinot Noir. Asti is a large production facility. Gallo is the largest vineyard owner in Sonoma County (with Kendall Jackson a close second).  In Monterey County Gallo bought Talbott Winery with over 500 acres of vineyards.

Next door in Napa Valley Gallo already owns Louis Martini and William Hill wineries plus about a dozen more premium West Coast operations.

Using Wine to Find Friendship Matches

What someone is drinking tells you a lot about what type of person they are. Looking for friendship (or more)? You don't need Match.com. You can still do it live and in person! This handy guide will help you in social settings. Also, keep this in mind if you're on a first date so you don't make a bad impression!

Truett-Hurst Winery Troubles

You may have heard of Sonoma County's Truett-Hurst Winery. They've done some unusual things for a small winery like going public with an IPO a couple years ago. Their stock has never done well.

Now the partners are taking their problems public with a court battle.

I think the moral of the story is the wine business isn't like other businesses and definitely not like the high tech world.

North Bay Business Journal article on Truett-Hurst from a couple years ago explaining their business.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat article from this week on their troubles.

Food/Wine Pairing for International Cuisines

It's pretty easy to figure out steak and chicken pairings, but when you get into the more "exotic" foods what do you do for wines? These are suggestions; some place to start.

There will be a lot more wine drinkers in the U.S.

Per Wine Intelligence, a marketing research firm, young American adults and those still in their late teens will lead a large growth in the number of wine consumers in this country. Currently there are 93 million regular wine drinkers (not sure what a "regular" wine drinker is). Their research says in ten years we'll have 109 million. That's a 17% increase.

This is good news for the wine biz, but will it be good for everybody?