Ancient ruins of Carthage and seaside landscape. Tunis, Tunisia, Africa

Off The Beaten Path: Tunisia

In our previous Off The Beaten Path post, we spoke about Corsican wines and the multitude of influences that created the modern day scene there.  If you noticed, there was one or two strange places to have brought winemaking influence to Corsica.  One of which was Tunisia. Sadly,…

Corsica Wine region landscape panorama

Off The Beaten Path: Corsica

Coat tailing off of our Understanding AOC series and introducing the Off the Beaten Path series this April, we are taking a look at one of the lesser-known regions of France, the Island of Corsica. The simplest way we can generalize Corsica for those unfamiliar with the island…

Three wine sangrias, both red and white wine, with fresh fruit garnish

It’s National Sangria Day!

A (brief) history of modern day sangria: The desirable beverage’s history stretches far back into the tomes of history, most likely in the Greek or Roman times to a wine-based beverage by the name of Hippocras.  It was often times served warm and could be the origin of…

Riedel Stemware Tasting Seminar Recap

At the end of last month, our whole staff had the pleasure of attending the Riedel tasting seminar at Dutton-Goldfield Winery in Sebastopol, CA.  We enjoyed their Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah out of proper and improper stemware (complete with Lindt chocolates for pairing – more on…

Decoded: Blends

Let’s talk blends, and what the language your local wine shop representative uses actually means. At the top of the blending language list we have Champagne and Bordeaux. The word Champagne is synonymous with being expensive, of quality, for celebrations, and from Champagne, France.  Champagne is generally made…

Decoded: Blending

Blending is essential for all wines.  It can be argued that if it were not for blending by way of cross pollination or grafting of rootstocks most varieties of grapes that wines were originally made from would have gone extinct at this point in time, replaced by a…