Delicato Family Vineyards

A couple of weeks ago I went to the annual California wine trade tasting in Victoria to see what my fellow Californians were bringing over to the UK. I was expecting lots of Gallo and Echo Falls but actually, there was some great stuff on show. Cakebread Vineyards, Parraduxx, Shafer, Grgich,Hills, Boony Doon, just to name a very...

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The Winesleuth and Wine90 checking out the chards…

The Winesleuth (me, Denise) has joined forces with the always entertaining UK wineblogger,  Wine90 (Sarah Newton), for occasional forays into the world of video blogging or vlogs as they’re commonly known. So I called up Sarah and invited her over with a wine of her choice, something to compare and contrast with my white...

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’07 Qupe “Santa Ynez Valley” Marsanne

Whenever I need to get into Central London, and I have time, I prefer to take the bus. I don’t know why, the train is usually faster (unless someone has jumped on the tracks,which happens more often then you’d think) and anyway,  I just love watching the streets of London pass by. My bus, the 176, goes straight thru...

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A birthday wine – the ’99 Opus One

Last night’s wine was, among others, the ’99 Opus One. A gift from my good friend Nick, he insisted, “Denise, you must open this wine on your birthday”. Who am I to argue?   I was having a small dinner with a bunch of wine professionals and their partners so I thought it would be fun to do a blind tasting...

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Riedel at the Bluebird

I’m sitting here sipping the leftover ’06 Katnook Founder’s Block Chardonnay from the Guilty Pleasures dinner the other day and I’m really liking it. Could it have anything to do with the Riedel chardonnay glass I’m using? Probably, in my tastebuds opinion. Before the Riedel tasting at the Bluebird, I...

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Cline ’06 Ancient Vines Mouvedre – The video tasting

The other night, after we closed up the shop, I persuaded my colleague Ayesha to go halfsies with me on the Cline ’06 Ancient Vines Mouvedre.  I even talked her into doing a video tasting but she chickened out in the end so all you see is her hand. The Brixchicks out in Nor Cal  recommended this wine on their blog....

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