Calwineries

Every year, winemakers, vineyard managers and owners answer the critical question; ‘when is the right time to pick?’ This decision can make or break the vintage. There are a multitude of factors that the winemaking team has to take into account, and all of them play a role in the decision.

There are only a handful of people in the world who have more experience making this decision than Heidi Barrett. Adopt a Grape recently published a video of Heidi talking about how she makes the decision to pick. Enjoy.

In the spirit of Dr. Debs’ fantastic blog, Good Wine Under $20, I thought I’d post 5 of my personal favorite California Syrahs for under $20. This list is by no means exhaustive, but represents some of the excellent values I have come across. If you have any to add, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

As most of you probably know, Gary Vaynerchuk appeared as a guest on the Conan O’Brien show last night. There was quite a bit of buzz flowing through the internet about Gary making the jump to network television. A post about it even made onto the front page of the popular socially driven news site digg.

Conan O’Brien is a celebrity talk show host; movie stars, models, professional athletes, famous authors, politicians, Nobel laureates, and … Gary Vaynerchuk … What?!? About a month ago, we covered a story about a wine v-logger going mainstream. Well, it turns out that Gary V’s article in TIME was only the beginning. On Wednesday, August 1st, Gary is scheduled to be one of the featured guests on the Conan O’Brien Show.

The Napa Valley is a beautiful place. And with good reason, it has become one of the premiere tourist destinations in the United States. If the wine doesn’t inspire you to come out and visit, hopefully these pictures will.

© The New Yorker Collection, 1998. Michael Maslin from cartoonbank. All Rights Reserved.

Blogging was once a phenomenon, but has recently made the transition into mainstream media and the lives of people around the world. According to business week, there are over 15 million active blogs as of March 2007. This number seems a bit low, considering anyone with a MySpace account has a blog.

Have you ever dreamed of owning a vineyard in the Napa Valley? Does the thought of waking up and walking through rows of Cabernet Sauvignon vines make you happy? If so, now seems to be the perfect time to buy. There are quite a few Napa Valley Vineyards on the market that seem to be moving slowly and are ripe for the picking.

To many, the United States wine industry began with the 1976 Judgment of Paris. To some extent, this is true. Some important aspects of U.S. wine were born that day. But grape growing and winemaking began long before that.

Because California produces ninety percent of U.S. wine, it’s easy to think that wine production began in the golden state. But it didn’t, the original home is Jamestown, Virginia; where John Smith planted grapes and made wine in 1607.

Pinot Noir has been vinified for centuries and is one of the world’s noble grape varieties. But what is it about Pinot that allows it to make wines that have such haunting finesse and concentration? While its greatness has often been attributed to the muses, there are some definitive things that set Pinot Noir apart from other red grapes.

Pinot Noir is a thin skinned grape with lighter pigments than most other red varieties. This is because Pinot Noir lacks acylated anthocyanins which most other red grapes have. (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc.) These tannic compounds are responsible for much of the pigments in red wine. Pinot does contain the other major tannic compound called polyphenols, which gives it sufficient structure.