Santa Cruz Mountain AVA      The Santa Cruz Mountains comprise some of the most important places in California wine history. While Napa and Sonoma are more famous today, this rugged, alpine region, with vineyards planted above...

EPOCHAL BARREL FERMENTED ALES This month we have a trio of unique barrel-aged ales from a brewery that focuses on a style of ale that was popular in the late 19th century: Stock Ales.  While...

Allouchery-Bailly & Barrat-Masson First off, apologies for the lag of this here communique. I received and rang these selections last week, and intended to have the notes ready to go shortly thereafter, but couldn’t finish before...

While most are familiar with Bordeaux or the Armagnac made in the Gascogne region, not as many are aware of the wines of this corner of France. The Sud Ouest is nestled between the Atlantic...

TOSCANA Of all the convoluted, impenetrable, byzantine, clarity-hostile, sense-taunting barriers to understanding that the wine world tends to construct, the whole ‘Montepulciano’ pre-fab may be the most gratuitously unhelpful. Years ago, it even almost derailed...