American Wine

During the Age of Exploration, Spanish ships would carry with them bottles of Wine, leading to the first bottle of Wine on U.S. soil. It’s slightly unclear on a definitive answer for when Wine was first made in the U.S. but it seems to point towards the 1500s. Although we do know that the first…

Read More

Barefoot Winery of Napa Valley

I was getting into a doldrums finding American sparkling wines that peak my interest seeking the criteria of offering well made wines and delivering pleasure, with novel packaging. A tall order to request from any winery, much less discovered at a huge production facility in a region known for boutique wineries and prestigious wines. I…

Read More

Oregon Sparkling Wines Part II

I flew into Portland attending my brother’s funeral, he’d been in declining health for years stricken with failing organs, and cancer. We were brothers in the family but distant, as he was being married as an adult when I was invited to his wedding as an infant, accompanying my mother. Perhaps it was prescient having…

Read More

Oregon Sparkling Wines

Argyle Winery of Dundee-Willamette Valley, Oregon was the vision of winemaker Rollin Soles who earned his vinous chops via hard work, and sojourns from France to Australia. In South Australia, Soles worked with the highly regarded Brian Croser, Petaluma Wines owner. Croser demonstrated the single vineyard expressions of what Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills…

Read More

Northern California Sparkling Wine History

The Northern California Russian River Valley-Sonoma’s fallow land in the nineteenth century was a gorgeous and colossal wild refuge of Redwood & Pine trees. Clearing a natural resource bounty to natural supplies for building homes, and furniture, and drove an economy that was expanding to the west coast. The cleared land was destined for growing…

Read More

Gruet Winery & Tasting Room

I was eight years old traveling west on Route 66 with my parents on a summer road trip to the New Mexican Cimarron desert, exploring geologic formations that made this part of the United States. I’d sit in the rear seat thinking of observational games to keep my mind occupied, watching swift Roadrunner birds (made…

Read More