We travel a lot to wine country and one thing for sure we can expect just about each and every time we visit a tasting room, a pitch to join the winery’s wine club. Why, because the winery makes a hefty profit from wine clubs, and the person giving the pitch will usually make a nice commission for getting you to join. I always have to laugh when the host tells us their wine club is free to join. Of course it’s free. The other big laugh is “you can quit at any time.” Of course you can.

There is nothing wrong with joining a wine club, just make sure it is the right one. We have been members of various wine clubs over the years, and we have certainly learned from these experiences what to look for. The first and most important reason for joining a wine club is that it will give you access to wines you enjoy immensely at a discount, and first dibs on any hard-to-get special wines. For example, we joined the Mauritson wine club because we wanted to be able to buy their line of Rockpile wines. These wines are bottled in limited amounts and are very popular. In addition, the winery also offer “Futures” on their Rockpile wines to wine club members. This is where you taste wine from the barrel and buy the wine well before it is bottled. “Future” prices are usually significantly discounted. Read the rest of this entry »

We dined at a restaurant that recently opened in our neighborhood in Burlingame. We’d heard good things about the restaurant so a group of us decided to celebrate a birthday and an anniversary there. The food was delicious but the wine list was marked up too high and the corkage fee was over the top at $25. Why gouge customers on wine; don’t you want us to return again and again?

Any good wine list should be well thought out and include good wines priced for all pocket books. At the low end there should be some decent tasting and enjoyable wines priced at $30 or under. At this restaurant there were no red wines to be had under $40 and the lowest priced white wine was $38. Worst of all, the markup was huge. Get this: I can buy a bottle of Robert Hall Cabernet Sauvignon at Trader Joe’s for $13. The price for this same wine was $40 on the wine list, a markup of almost three times retail. If you want wine loving-customers to keep coming back, a reasonable markup of 1.5 is just about right for the consumer. Read the rest of this entry »

This was the second annual tasting of Spanish and Portuguese varietals made by American wineries. There were about 40 participating wineries in this year’s event and they were pouring mostly Albariño and Verdejo in the whites, and Garnacha and Tempranillo in the reds. Most of the wineries were small and obscure wineries from California. There were a few Oregon wineries and one from Arizona. I would say that at least half of the wineries were new names to me.

Thank goodness I was in the pool of Press attendees who were allowed in two hours before the public. Building A at Fort Mason was jammed even in the press event. I concentrated on red wines only and was able to taste at least one wine from all the participating wineries. Here are my favorites of the tasting. Read the rest of this entry »

In my locality, the Trader Joe’s in Millbrae and San Mateo are carrying four terrific wine bargains. Watch for these wines at your local TJ’s, they may carry them and if not ask why not?

2003 Lorca Pinot Noir, Gary’s Vineyard $14.99
Gary’s Vineyard is located in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County and is owned and managed by two guys named Gary. They sell Pinot Noir and Syrah grapes to several premium wineries and their grapes are in high demand. Their client wineries include Copain Wines, Kosta Browne, Siduri, and Testarossa. The Lorca label is that of winemaker John Bolta. John is the winemaker for Conundrum Wines and Caymus. My feeling is the Lorca Pinot is equal to or better than many $30 Pinot Noir wines. You will be hard pressed to find a Pinot Noir any better at this price.
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On Thursday, a group of seven wine aficionados, who call themselves the Vintage Wine Tasters, gathered together to taste and judge six Zinfandel wines from the 2006 vintage priced under $20. This group of veteran wine drinkers and wine collectors have been meeting informally for years. After much serious discussion, the group determined they needed to impart their expertise and wisdom on the Web 2.0 wine world. This post marks the first official public announcement of their wine tasting and recommendations.

Why go public now? Time is ripe for a new breed of wine critics. People are getting tired of the Robert Parker and the Wine Spectators of the world. It is time for a new voice that rocks the wine world. The Vintage Wine Tasters have years of wine-tasting experience dating back to the days of Hearty Burgundy and Red Mountain wine selling for one dollar a gallon. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 21, 2008, we attended a Maurtison winery outdoor dinner for wine club members at one of their Rockpile Vineyards deep in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County. This is an amazing area of deep hillsides and rough terrain. We took a tour of the vineyards that sit high above Lake Sonoma. The air was clear and breezy and the views terrific. Two hours later during dinner, it was a completely different story. The entire area was filled with a haze of smoke. A wave of lighting strikes had set forest fires in Mendocino County and the winds brought the smoky air to the south. The smoky air lingered there for days as far away as the San Mateo Peninsula, but in Mendocino Country and parts of Sonoma County the smoky air was there for three weeks.

The 2008 vintage will begin to emerge soon with white wines. These wines should not have a problem with smoke, because in the winemaking process the juice is squeezed from the grapes and the skins discarded. In the case of red wines, the skin is in contact with the juice, and hence the greater chance for smoke taint. The 2008 reds are in barrels now and I imagine the vintners have a good idea of how these wines will taste. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of years ago I took at BBQ cooking class from Jamie Purviance, the author of several Weber cookbooks. Jamie showed us how to cook up a pizza on the grill, something I never thought was possible. Since then I have been hooked and now prefer a BBQ pizza to one made in the oven. The crust is thin, the cooking process is more fun and you don’t have to deal with smoky indoor issues that you often get cooking an oven pizza. I made plenty of errors in the beginning but now I have the procedure nailed down. If you like to barbecue, try a pizza on the grill. Here is how I cook it.

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