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Wine of the Day, No. 184

I’m about to do that thing, you know, the thing where I recommend a wine you probably can’t find because it’s a limited release from a tiny winery that produces only a few hundred cases annually....

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50 Great Wines of 2016

So, here it is, My Readers, the annual “50 Great Wines” roster, presently for the past year, that is, 2016. Not the “Greatest” of all wines or the “Best” of all wines, but a selection of 50 products...

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Weekend Wine Notes: 15 Sauvignon Blancs

A passel of sauvignon blanc wines today, most from California, but one from New York, a pair from Chile and one from New Zealand are included. With three exceptions, these are from vintage 2016. Prices...

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Some Pinot Noirs of Jed Steele

Jed Steele is assured a place in the annals of the California wine industry — and in the chronicle of American consumer taste — because he formulated the character of the Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s...

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Wine of the Day, No. 316

Here’s a wine that would handily serve as your house red through the Fall and Winter, priced to buy by the case. The Shooting Star Merlot 2015, Lake County — a second label of Steele Wines — sees a...

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Weekend Wine Notes: A Case of Sauvignon Blanc

We touch on several regions today on this brief survey of sauvignon blanc wines: Lake County, Monterey, Napa and Sonoma in California, the poetic Horse Heaven Hills in Washington, the North Fork of...

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Wine of the Day, No. 357

Jed Steele made only 400 cases of the Steele Cabernet Franc Rosé 2017, Lake County, and we are all the worse off for the short availability of this seasonal wine. It’s 100 percent varietal, made all...

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Weekend Wine Notes: 14 Reds, Aglianico to Zinfandel

What you will not find in today’s roster of 14 red wines is a mention of cabernet sauvignon, merlot or pinot noir. There is life, as you well know, beyond that dominate triumvirate. Even the 14 grape...

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Weekend Wine Notes: 10 Big Reds for Cook-Outs

You’re thinking, “Hold on, FK, ’tis merely the hump of the week. Why are you posting a Weekend Wine Notes today?” Well, Curious Reader, because this post started back before Memorial Day and was not...

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Wine of the Day, No. 463

You say that you like your sauvignon blanc fresh, breezy, snappy and fruity, but maybe not excessively fresh, breezy, snappy and fruity the way they emerge from New Zealand? Well, friend, I have the...

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Weekend Wine Notes: Nine Robust Reds for Superbowl Snacks

Oh, sure, you’re thinking, “Hey, F.K., this is America! We drink beer when we watch the Super Bowl!” All right, I understand the issues involved, but even when you’re talking about barbecue nachos,...

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Wine of the Day, No. 478

Here’s the first sauvignon blanc from vintage 2018 that I’ve tried. The Samuel Charles Sauvignon Blanc 2018, High Valley, derives from a vineyard in Lake County that lies at 2,000 feet elevation. Made...

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Wine of the Day, No. 484

The Red Hills AVA in Lake County was established in 2004. The soil is volcanic; Mt. Konocti, considered an active volcano, is nearby. Vineyards lie at elevations between 1,400 and 3,000 feet. Jed...

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Weekend Wine Notes: Some Syrahs You Would Not Be Sorry to Sip

Or: Some Shiraz You Would Not Be Ashamed to Share. We could do alliteration all day around here. As usual in these Weekend Wine Notes, I dispense with technical data and information of a geographical,...

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30 Great Wine Bargains of 2019

______________________________________________________________________ In a sense, the “30 Great Wine Bargains of 2019” is more instructive that the “50 Great Wines of 2019” that I posted a few days...

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Steele Wines: Three Zinfandels

Two of these three zinfandel wines from Jed Steele are from century-old vineyards, give or take a few years, while the first of the trio is from relatively younger vines, planted in 1980. The...

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Hawk and Horse Cabernets: 2016, ’15, ’10, ’09, ’08

Hawk and Horse Vineyards is owned by the Boies and Hawkins families. The 1,340-acre ranch in the Red Hills AVA of Lake County — directly north of Napa County — ranges in elevation from 1,800 to 2,200...

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Wine of the Day, No. 615

It’s not easy to make an inexpensive pinot noir. The grape is finicky and unforgiving, demanding to be grown in exactly the right type of soil and the right micro-climate — terroir, in other words —...

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A Case of Interesting and Diverse and Mostly Excellent Red Wines

This post was intended to be the Weekend Wines Notes for the just completed weekend, but matters intervened, so I’m posting it today, not under that label. The point is to offer 12 red wines that...

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50 Great Wines of 2020

_____________________________________________________________ This annual post looks back at all the wines I wrote about in the previous year and singles out 50 that I thought were great wines....

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