Contrary to some knee-jerk reports, the wine sky is not falling on Napa Valley, although a quarantine has been placed on a portion of its viticultural area in order to halt the spread of the...

See full tasting notes on Purple pages .   California wine can be frustrating for those of us who live outside the United States. Thanks to recent swollen crops and...

From $32.99, £28.49, Can$48.95, also in Denmark, Sweden and Liechtenstein Find this wine   I have long been a fan of Ridge Vineyards in California. They featured in...

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s 2009 Preliminary Grape Crush Report, released yesteday, shows that the 2009 vintage is the second-largest wine grape crop in California’s...

Since its first all-aboard in 1989, the Napa Valley Wine Train has been both a rail spike to the heart of Napa Valley residents who perceive it to be a touristy Disneyland-like ride, and a...

The super-fastidious New York Times published a story on Sunday in which writer Frances Dinkelspiel detailed the opposition in northern Sonoma County to Jess Jackson’ s bid to have Black...

In Europe, the enforced shrinkage of EU vineyards summarised in Dec 2007 in  EU reform - as good as it gets is already having an obvious effect, while the signs are that in the much freer...

Although the US is now one of the three most successful exporters of wine to the UK, thanks chiefly to the extraordinary success of brands such as Blossom Hill and Gallo, It's not that easy for us...

Low tech, high tech, is how Paul Draper (pictured here) described their approach at Ridge in the Santa Cruz mountains. Low-tech winemaking with straightforward equipment on one side of the wall...

As I reported here , in a 24-hour period in mid October, between 2 and 10 inches (5–25 cm) of rain fell in central and northern California vineyards, and it continued to rain, lightly, for four...

On 13 Oct, one week ago, the Napa Valley Vintners Association presented its 2009 harvest report to the media. Winemakers hailed the vintage as phenomenal: even, steady, no frost damage nor smoke...

I recently received the following touching email from Rheingau-raised California winemaker Walter Schug and thought it appropriate to publish it on the same day as my tasting notes on German...

How's this for an idea? You raise a few hundred million dollars from a pension fund. Invest it in top American West Coast vineyard land. Plant vines there and sell their produce at top dollar on...

(See this comment on the forum about Cigare Volante) In rather convoluted celebration of England’s regaining the Ashes, I offer up the following tasting notes on wines made at...

Vintage reports are more interesting if they come with a story, and this one does. When members of the Rutherford Dust Society - growers and winemakers in the Rutherford appellation of Napa...