California Dreamin’, the US Winebloggers Conference ’08

Just back from the US Winebloggers conference in Sonoma, CA and what a fabulous weekend. It was so nice to be in the California sunshine. Having attended both the European Winebloggers Conference and the US conference, I couldn’t say which was better. It’s like asking a mother to pick her favourite child, impossible....

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Wine speed dating at the USWBC

Live wineblogging at the US Winebloggers Conference – more like wineries trying to speed date me. 14 wines, 14 producers, 5 mintues each, all trying to get me to love their wine. Or at least take them out on a date. Was I able to make a sound judgement of the wines? Only as much as you can expect in 5 minutes.  Did I want any...

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Mexican Wine – Estapor Venir Mezcla Tinto ’07

Yes, that’s right, the heading says Mexican wines and that’s exactly what I had the other day. Now, don’t go pulling funny faces, there is such a thing and it’s not bad. People used to snicker about English wine but whose laughing now that English sparkling wines have shown that they can compete with the...

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’08 US Winebloggers Conference, Oct 24-26, Sonoma, CA

As some of you may know, I attended the first annual European Winebloggers Conference (check out my September archive for posts on that ) in Rioja this past August. Well, it was so much fun and I had such a positive experience that as soon as I got back to London, I logged onto OpenWineConsortium and signed up for the US...

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Clos du Val Merlot 05, Cab. 05 – Napa Valley

Getting a winery tour or tasting can be difficult with some wineries requiring reservations up to 3 months in advance! Fortunately, many have tasting rooms that don’t need any such thing. Driving down the road, you just look for the little A-board signs sitting by the roadway, inviting you in for a taste. Clos du Val was once...

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A swing by Napa Valley

Since I’m out on the West Coast visiting family, I thought it would be nice to take a short trip over to Napa to do a bit of compare and contrast with European wines. First stop was Darioush Winery. A rather OTT sight greets you as you turn off into the driveway. A forest of Persian columns topped by two headed horses leads...

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