Summer is finally here! While its stays nice and chilly in San Francisco, we have heard that the heat wave has already started in other parts of the country. When the weather turns warm, I turn to lighter wines served chilled. For those white haters out there, don’t despair, there are red wines that can be served chilled and roses to try. Here are our picks for wine to try this summer: …Read More

Another pick from Trader Joe’s. This wine was purchased for $9.99, a steal for a Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley, which is near Santa Barbara California. For those of you who remember, this region was part of the Sideways journey. I am pretty picky about Pinot and this is one of the growing regions that I think produces some of the best Pinot Noir in California. My fave is Russian River and the Santa Maria Valley isn’t far behind. …Read More

Easter is around the corner and you might be asking yourself what wines to serve to accompany Easter dinner. We know that a number of you maybe serving ham and chicken. There is no better combination than pork with Pinot, and it goes pretty well with chicken as well. We say Pinot, we are talking about the major players in the Pinot family, which includes the famed Pinot Noir, the sublime Pinot Grigio, also known as Pinot Gris in some circles, and the elusive Pinot Blanc. Notice that these are the main players in the family. Like the popular playboy, Pinot Noir gets around, resulting in a number of mutations and crosses with other grapes. It certainly keeps it interesting. …Read More

This week’s Wine Wednesday is the 2010 Stoneleigh Pinot Noir and it hails from Marlborough New Zealand. While we receive this wine as a sample, it appears to retail from $9.99 to $17 and at $9.99, just sneaks into Wine Wednesday. There have been many a wine from Italy and Spain featured in the Wine Wednesday column, but not so many from New Zealand. While the wines from New Zealand aren’t overly expensive, they generally don’t fall into the $10 and under category. But, a number of them can be had in the $10 to $20 range and are still a good value at those prices. …Read More

Cooking My Way Back Home has an amazing array of recipes, all of which would make great accompaniments to booze, whether that be cocktails, wine or beer. It’s the perfect food to serve at a boozy dinner party. Personally, those are my favorite kind. There is nothing better than spending an evening with friends around the table with platters of delicious food being passed and free flowing wine and cocktails. I can guarantee that the recipes in this book will not disappoint! …Read More

With much fanfare, Wine Spectator announced their top 100 wines of 2011. Not surprisingly, the list was dominated by American, Italian and French selections, as well as representations from a number of other countries, such as Spain, South Africa and Australia. The majority of wines were in the $50 to $100 range with the top price topping out at $175 and the lowest at $9. …Read More

We put together an eclectic list of wines in our attempt to cover all parts of the meal, as well as making sure that there is something for everyone. …Read More

We are launching a new series for your wine consuming pleasure! This new series is based on one of my favorite concepts – High/Low Wine. …Read More

We received a care package for Halloween from our friends at Hob Nob Wines with some vino and candy (two of our favorites). One of the wines was a 2010 Pinot Noir from the South of France (where after some research, it appears all the Hob Nob wines come from France). From reading this article, you may also remember how much I adore Pinot Noir wine and how difficult it is to find Pinot Noirs … Read more