by Mike Dunne | Oct 3, 2022 | Blog
About midway through our first day of judging at the Sonoma Harvest Fair commercial wine competition last week, fellow panelist Mark Elcombe, “homeplace manager” for Sonoma-Cutrer winery of Healdsburg, mused that competitions maybe should come up with a clearer term...
by Mike Dunne | Sep 26, 2022 | Blog
Yes, I am spoiled. Even in a relatively small city like Sacramento, I can walk or cycle just a short distance to find an interesting wine for dinner. Some 15 farmers markets, grocery stores and wine shops are that close. They range from neighborhood corner stores...
by Mike Dunne | Sep 21, 2022 | Blog
With fall and the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic, students are back in school. I see and hear them during recess when I pass the school just down the street, a sight and sound both nostalgic and joyous. Occasionally, I retrieve a soccer ball or basketball and hurl it...
by Mike Dunne | Sep 21, 2022 | Blog
A few snapshots from three wine competitions, all drawing entries solely from vineyards and wineries of the Sierra Foothills American Viticultural Area, a long and thin belt of wildly varied topography, climate and soil stretching from California’s Yuba County in the...
by Mike Dunne | Sep 21, 2022 | Blog
For all you Californians moving to Texas and taking your buy-local consciousness with you: Yes, Texas has homegrown wine. Pinot Noir isn’t as big in Texas as peanuts and pecans, and cotton sits far higher than Cabernet Sauvignon on the list of the state’s more...
