Chianti Classico – Firenze – Memories

The birthdays of me and my wife fall sixteen days apart; mine the fifteenth of August and her’s the thirty-first. Instead of celebrating only on our actual birthdays we have declared a two week long celebration. What does this mean in terms of wine? It means we have a great excuse to pull out some [...]

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2005 Bella Dry Creek Valley Syrah Lily Hill Estate

Isabell has been cooking some short ribs all day and it smells amazing. Great food calls for great wine! I just opened a wine we got on our honeymoon in Sonoma: a 2005 Bella Syrah. The wine has a meaty aroma and nice cherry vanilla tasting notes. This winery stores in a wine cave built [...]

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New Beginnings: A 1st Child and South African Syrah

Last week my wife Isabell and I became proud parents of our first child, a baby boy. To celebrate this grand occasion – not to mention Bell being able to have wine again – we decided to open a unique bottle we have been saving for a while now: a 2004 Gilga Syrah from South [...]

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Dutcher Crossing 2006 Maple Vineyard Zinfandel

There’s a lot of great Zinfandel being made in the Dry Creek Valley, but I’d argue some of the best best uses fruit sourced from Maple Vineyard.  For a perfect example of this excellence, look no further than Dutcher Crossing Winery and its 2006 Maple Vineyard Zinfandel. Even hard-to-impress members of the Healdsburg wine community agree [...]

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Mazzocco 2006 Warm Springs Ranch Zinfandel

I’m lucky to have family in California’s beautiful Dry Creek Valley wine region. With the town of Healdsburg as a home base, I find myself down there at least a couple times a year. My most recent trip was back in late October at the height of the crush. Early one Saturday, my cousin and [...]

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