I have been admiring the little 2-ounce Trou du Cru at cheese counters for years. They look adorable, like little caramel-colored pastries in muffin cups, and just the right size for two. With Valentine's Day on the horizon, it seemed like a good time to...

Sparkly things - and we're talking in the wine realm here - are almost mandatory to help lift a Valentine's Day celebration. Sometimes, though, you want to acknowledge not only a special person but also a special year. That's the virtue of vintage Champagne....

Too often we jump to conclusions when matching wine to food, as though we were Betty Draper scrambling to wrap up another task before picking up the kids. Chianti with that pasta? Done! Half the fun is the adventure along the way. That might explain why my...

How do you get from Napa Valley to Lake County? Just follow the Mayacamas Mountains - and the smart money. Experienced Napa growers have been flocking to the region north of Napa in search of prime Cabernet Sauvignon-growing conditions at a much cheaper...

Many people enjoy pairing wine and food, while some folks feel that as long as you eat what you want and drink what you like, everything is good. I fall into the first category, so I'm happy that I'm beginning new installments of my Pairings column that start...

A few weeks ago I mentioned the rise - again - of retail as one of the trends for this new decade. Big retailers have been with us all along, of course, but increasingly there is virtue to the local shop with perhaps 100 bottles that proudly displays its...

The wine industry received sobering news this week: California shipments dropped in 2009 for the first time in 16 years. Sales figures from Woodside wine research firm Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates show that consumption is up 2.1 percent nationally, but...

Gruner Veltliner was supposed to be the Great White Wine Hope. Just a few years ago it could routinely be found on the tip of wine directors' tongues - the great converting wine to trim away the ranks of Chardonnay drinkers. Its success has been sustained,...

We may have found wine's new killer app. The realization came last month, when Jancis Robinson announced that she would let readers access her reviews via CellarTracker. Launched in 2004, CellarTracker (cellartracker.com) has become a powerful clearinghouse...

If John Steinbeck were alive today, he'd surely be writing "Winery Row." It would be set not among Carmel Valley's coterie of precious tasting rooms, but in his very own "Valley of the World." Until recently, River Road, following the Salinas River between...