That instant when you first saw the man who would become the love of your life.  The exact time when your baby was born, and you first cradled her in your arms.  Your life is marked by significant moments that change your course and become indelible memories. Like people, wine countries have a life cycle.  And just as in our lives, there are significant events that can make a really big difference.  For three of California’s wine regions, a single event catapulted each from obscurity to fame.    For Temecula Valley Wine Country, the date was July 9, 1976.  On that day, at a luncheon at the ... Continue reading...

A few years ago (OK, more than a few), when I was just North of legal drinking age, I attended a wedding where the only beverage served was rosé Champagne. I thought it was the fanciest thing in the world and drank way more than my fair share, something I regretted mildly the next day until my Advil kicked in.  Those intoxicating little bubbles were irresistible. How exactly do bubbles end up in some wine but not in all? Is it like soda, where the carbonation is forcibly added to the liquid?  Surely not. Wine snobs would never stand for something so crass. As it turns out, the soda pop method ... Continue reading...

Gary Eberle is a friendly guy who likes to sit on his front porch with his two black poodles by his side and a glass of Cabernet in his hand. That’s who he was when I met him last month during the Vintage Paso Festival.   Gary Eberle is also perhaps the most well-known trailblazer in Paso Robles wine country. He is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of Paso‘s burgeoning wine industry, and his resume is filled with firsts and surprising accolades.  Gary's path to the front porch of one of Paso Robles' most iconic wineries is anything but typical.  Along the way, he sacked future ... Continue reading...

March Madness has begun. Water cooler conversations center on Cinderella stories, acrobatic alley-oops, downtown treys, and gravity-defying hang time. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara wine region has no hometown favorite to cheer, but does have a different kind of hang time to celebrate. Compared to other wine regions, the growing season here is longer, meaning that fruit has a considerably longer “hang time” on the vine.  An East-to-West oriented coastal valley, which is unique among California wine regions, allows a deep inland flow of cool, moist ocean air.  The lengthened ripening pattern and ... Continue reading...

On a recent trip to Napa, I tasted a Cain Five Cabernet, and for me it was a sublime moment.  Here are some other moments in wine history that are of note:     8000 BC -- The earliest known wine production occurred in Colchis, now known as Georgia.  No, not the Georgia next to Alabama.  The Georgia next to Azerbaijan.   4000 BC -- Discovered in Armenia, the ruins of the oldest winery are believed to date back to 4000 BC, and some historians believe they may date back to 7000 BC.   20 to 30 AD   -- Jesus turns water into wine while attending the Wedding at Cana.  The miracle is known as the ... Continue reading...

Last Saturday afternoon, February 23, a few hundred people visited the top floor of the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa County.  A few hours later they left, but not until they had purchased some Napa wine.  $3.7 million worth of Napa wine.   "Premiere Napa Valley" is the annual auction of one-of-a-kind Napa wine selections in lots as small as 60 bottles and no larger than 240.  This year's auction featured 187 lots, mostly from the 2017 vintage, the year of the North Bay Fires.  The October fires wreaked havoc on the Valley and some surmised that the 2017 wines would be ... Continue reading...

It's big. It's loud. It has a stripper pole. And it's coming to a winery. It's probably not coming to the winery your friends told you about... the one that has the award-winning wines, spectacular ambiance, and engaging hospitality staff. Nope, it's not coming there, because it's banned. Um, this is a capitalist society, and business owners want customers, right? What winery would say "no" to fun people - people with wallets - who want to sample their wares? Most of them, and more every day. Take a look at this example from one winery's website: "...we take a very aggressive position towards ... Continue reading...

...and that's a big deal, for several reasons. Yesterday morning, calls and emails from wineries started coming in to Grapeline. "We're closed due to rain." First off, don't panic and change your plans if you're coming out on a wine tour. One of the advantages of a tour with a wine country insider is that they will know exactly which of California's 3,700 or so wineries are closed on any given day. Rain is a big deal in California Wine Country, and really big rain is a really big deal. The reason for the closures - many along rural routes like the Deportola Wine Trail in Temecula Valley - was ... Continue reading...

"Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words." Titus Maccius Plautus said that. You probably have never heard of Titus. Me neither. But when I googled “wine, romance, quotes,” I found his little Valentine's Day aphorism, and it was the perfect sentiment. Titus was a Roman playwright who penned enduring comedies 200 years before Christ was born. Even way back then, as now, wine and romance went together like chariots and horses; like marble statues and columns, like empires and slave labor. So, if you’re still fretting over what to do on Cupid’s day, just put a little vino in your ... Continue reading...

Life is fun. Spending a day in wine country is more fun. Spending a day in wine country when the Vintage Paso celebration is in full force is extra more fun. But if you want your Vintage Paso experience to be the extra more funnest, you should try it the Grapeline way. What is Vintage Paso? It's a three-day celebration of wine, that used to be called Zin Fest, but apparently the other varietals complained about not having their own Fest. So in a nod to political correctness, the name is more generic. But the idea is the same. Three days celebrating (mostly) the heralded Zinfandels Paso is ... Continue reading...