Street view of the town of Saint Helena California in wine country

St. Helena AVA

Welcome to beautiful St. Helena, located in the northern part of the Napa Valley, just north of Rutherford, south of Calistoga, and sandwiched between Spring Mountain to the west and Howell Mountain to the east. Home to over 80 wineries, the St. Helena AVA was blessed in the…

Delicious homemade tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on rye.

National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

It is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, and we decided to celebrate this year with Cameron’s favorite grilled cheese recipe and serving suggestions. Cam says, keep it simple! Too many folks nowadays use crazy cheese and fruit or protein combos.  That is fine, but to really enjoy a…

Understanding Italy: Super Tuscans

Super Tuscans are wines made in Tuscany, outside of the well known Chianti and lesser known Tuscan regions per DOC guidelines.  In the 1970s winemakers wanted to experiment with blending Sangiovese (the main regional variety) with the noble grapes of Bordeaux (and in a few cases Syrah from…

A glass of red wine with pieces of delicious-looking chocolate

Chocolate & Wine

Wine and chocolate… It sounds like heaven on Earth, but there are a few things to keep in mind with regards to this delectable combination to fully enjoy your experience.  Often times people will auto-pilot red wine with their chocolate, paying no mind to things like the wine’s…

Silhouette of the state of Texas with TX written, overlaid on a wine Texan vineyard background

TX Wine Facts

For Texas Wine Month, we’d like to share some information on the Lone Star state’s wine industry.  Hopefully it will inspire you to check out some wineries on your next trip to the SXSW festival or whatever brings you to the great state of Texas! Texas has 7…

Sunset shines through a sign welcoming visitors to Napa Valley wine country

Why Napa Valley?

Napa Valley Cabernet is synonymous with quality, luxury, scores, and of course, the subsequent price tags.  But what makes the wines from Napa Valley command such a market presence?  What actually makes Napa Valley wines so special? Let’s skip over the portion of history where its wines were…

Beautiful midday scene of Red Mountain winegrowing region

Red Mountain AVA

Red Mountain is the smallest AVA in the state of Washington, hovering around 1600 hectares (~4,000 acres), with around 240 hectares cultivated for winemaking purposes. A sub-appellation of the Yakima Valley AVA (which in turn resides within the greater Columbia Valley AVA), Red Mountain’s unique geographical location allows…

WA Cabernet Sauvignon

In celebration of Washington Wine Month (August) and International Cabernet Day, let’s take a look at a few Cabs from Washington that made the state internationally recognized. While Washington wasn’t built on a foundation of Cab, Merlot and Syrah, those red varieties have come to dominate in the…

Drawing of various wine bottle shapes and sizes

Decoded: Intro to Wine Bottle Shapes

In the world of wine, there are numerous bottle shapes and styles.  More recently, wineries have been doing some incredibly artistic things with their bottles with marketing and customer awareness in mind.  At a later date we will go into a much deeper dive on these shapes and…

Sommelier at work. Confident male sommelier pouring wine to decanter while standing near the wine shelf

Decoded: On Breathing & Decanting

Today we’ll learn about breathing and decanting wine. Most simply put, Breathing is allowing the wine to interact with Oxygen with the cork removed or poured into a decanter.  Decanting is the process of separating the sediment in your wine from the juice you desire (and possibly waited…