Thomas Rivers Brown and his wife Genevieve Marie Walsh have quickly made Rivers-Marie one of California’s most sought after Pinot Noir labels. The winery was founded in 2002 and the first release was the Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir. Other Pinot Noirs from Rivers-Marie include the Silver Eagle, Gioia and Occidental Ridge. Rivers-Marie also does several single vineyard Cabernets and…
Dunn Vineyards is located east of St. Helena in the town of Angwin on Howell Mountain. The Winery was established in 1979, with the first harvest of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. In 1981, the first release consisted of 660 cases of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Howell Mountain vineyards. In 1982, Dunn released a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Dunn is one…
The 1997 Cepparello was the leading vote getter in the October installment of Pick My Next Bottle. The wine garnered a score of 96 points from the Wine Spectator and was wine #3 in the Wine Spectator top 100 of 1999. The bottle was decanted for 30 minutes and and paired with homemade pizza. Paolo di Marchi has run Isole…
Previously known as Grand Rêve, Force Majeure was founded in 2004 by Paul McBride and Ryan Johnson. Force Majeure pairs some of Washington’s highly acclaimed winemakers with fruit from one of Washington’s highly acclaimed vineyards, Ciel du Cheval. The winemakers contributing to the Collaboration Series is a Who’s Who of Washington winemakers including Ben Smith, Carolyn Lakewold, Chris Gorman, James…
Leonetti Cellar was founded in 1977 by Gary and Nancy Figgins. Leonetti, along with Quilceda Creek and Woodward Canyon put premium Washington Cabernet Sauvignon on the radar of wine consumers across the United States. Leonetti also produces one of the very best domestic Merlots. Leonetti is near and dear to me as a wine consumer as well, and I have…
Ravenswood was founded in 1976 by Joel Peterson. The winery is a pioneer in producing single vineyard Zinfandels from some of Napa and Sonoma’s most treasured vineyards, including Dickerson, Old Hill, Cooke and Belloni. I used to regularly visited Ravenswood in the summer, when they released their single vineyard wines. Back in the day they also had a BBQ out…
The October installment of Pick My Next Bottle focuses on 1997 Super Tuscans (see the July installment for background on this series). I plan on opening the winning bottle on October 25th and publishing an in depth bottle note on the 27th. Back in the late 1990s, 1997 Tuscan wines were widely proclaimed by both producers and reviewers as the…
NFL Super Bowl Champion, All-Pro wide receiver and 1996 number one draft pick Keyshawn Johnson has joined other NFL greats like Drew Bledsoe and Terry Hoage in the winemaking business. Johnson has partnered on this project with R.C. Mills, a Los Angeles restaurant industry veteran. The first release is the 2007 XIX Cabernet Sauvignon from the Eastern Oregon area of…
Christian and Julien Barrot’s Domaine La Barroche arrived on the scene with some very good 2004s, and sensational 2005s, most notably the amazing 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Pure. The Pure cuvee is made from 100% old vine Grenache planted in sandy soils not far from the legendary Chateau Rayas. It is aged totally in old wood foudres. I decanted this…
Since I launched Zinfandel Chronicles in June I’ve written about some of my favorite Zins from the likes of Turley, Carlisle, Bedrock, Outpost, Brown, Black Sears and Williams Selyem. All of these wines are hard to come by as they are sold primarily through mailing lists, and even then the top bottlings from these producers regularly reach the $50 price…