Steve Dutton and Dan Goldfield began their winemaking collaboration in 1998 and have never looked back. Steve grew up in the Dutton family vineyard in the Russian River Valley; today he farms more than one thousand acres of vines, mostly in Green Valley in western Sonoma County. Dan is from the East Coast and came to UC Berkeley to do …

I don’t suppose I have many of you checking this site daily for updates, but for those few regular readers who might have been wondering where your regular weekly news roundup and any other posts have disappeared to this week, I’m penning this little note to answer your question. Short stort: they’ve been pre-empted by Portugal. This past Sunday I …

Chelini made his name in Napa at Stony Hill, where he was a longstanding winemaker, moving there with his wife Kathleen and their family in 1972. Chelini began at Stony Hill in the vineyard manager role before becoming the winemaker. Born in Sonoma in 1948, he and Kathy came to Napa in 1970, beginning his wine career in the Valley …

The Last Call cocktail, a popular after-dinner choice on the list of the American Bar at The Savoy One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner,’ wrote Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Whether or not you choose to follow his advice, you’ll know the moment he’s referring to. That time at the table …

I can see why a certain kind of sommelier feels Bordeaux needs taking down a peg. It’s scarcely the wokest of appellations. There’s a temptation to see it as the choice of a mug with money. Security in the famous name. Reassurance in a hefty price. On some restaurant wine lists it seems that margins wax fat under the Bordeaux …

It’s never easy to veer from the path your parents have mapped out for you. So you can imagine that the young Gary Jordan must have felt somewhat apprehensive when telling his father that he didn’t want to follow him into the family’s shoe business. Not least because the business had been so successful that it had allowed his father, …

Philipponnat, Royale Réserve Brut Next to Champagne’s rare treasures, the humble term non-vintage doesn’t exactly stir the passions. Defining something by what isn’t there seems a strange approach. Even the French term ‘brut sans anne?e’ (literally, ‘brut without vintage’) sounds a little apologetic. But these are wines that are worth talking about. Changes are afoot in the region, and it’s …

Most wine businesses are happy to turn a profit and, ideally, leave a bit more for the next generation than they started with themselves. But Journey’s End Vineyards has loftier ideals. With MD Rollo Gabb at the helm, it has ploughed enormous amounts of time and, yes, money into its vineyards, winery and local community. In the process, it has …

If you want Ken Forrester to turn left at a T-junction, you should probably suggest to him that common sense, past experience and most experts suggest he should turn right, and then wait for the inevitable. Ken is, literally and metaphorically, very much someone who ploughs his own furrow, sometimes dangerously so. In 2019, a high-speed mountain bike crash, at …

The Decanter Wine Club’s holiday gifting is now open, allowing non-members to snap up a box of their holiday wines without subscribing, while stocks last. If you know someone who would love a selection of top-scoring wines, as scored by Decanters expert judging panel, then now is your chance to spoil them. This is the gift that keeps on giving …

A seductive red marked by smoked plum and smoldering incense, shored up by cast iron minerality and a fresh kick of black pepper. This wine’s textural purity is spot-on, with generous dried garrigue details and fine tannins gently keeping the reins. Grenache and Mourvèdre. Best after 2030. 700 cases made, 180 cases imported. Source : 0e2518f40ed6e1c5a70b4dd995fcf052

An elegant red, with fine tannins enmeshed with flavors of pureed raspberry and black plum reduction, soft fig, thyme and lavender accents, while a minerally underpinning echoes on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 10,000 cases made, 1,000 cases imported. Source : 0bf536b87aba506fe449e73fc73f88d9