Wine
While wine can be made from many types of fruits and flowers, it is iconically produced from fermented grapes. Wine production dates back at least 8000 years, and today it is produced in quantity in more than 70 countries, with Italy, Spain, France, and the United States the largest producers of wine today. The world of wine is vast and complex, with more than 10,000 grape varietals in existence. This is largely due to experimental cross-breeding and grafting that has taken place for millennia, and such experiments have led to some of today’s most popular grape varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The primary styles of wine today include red, white, and rose. While almost all grape juice itself is white, red wine is made by allowing the juice from black (aka red) grapes to ferment in contact with its skins, while white wine is usually (but not always) made from white grapes. Rose wine is made from black grapes with limited skin contact, which provides the pinkish color.
Top Wine Posts:
Understanding the Wines of France
Wine and Beer Touring in California’s Paso Robles, 2017
Touring and Wine Tasting in California’s Anderson Valley
Harvest in Chile’s Casablanca Valley – A Dusty Paradise
Chateau Montelena’s Dream Tasting: A Retrospective of Five Decades of Wine
Exploring Port Wine: Touring Porto and the Douro Valley
Visiting Tuscany’s Tenuta dell’Ornellaia
It’s time for another round with one of our favorite Anderson Valley wineries, Domaine Anderson, which focuses on chardonnay and pinot noir. Today we consider four bottlings, all from the 2022 vintage and released at the tail end of 2025. 2022 Domaine Anderson Estate Chardonnay – Surprisingly clean, surprisingly plain considering how this wine normally presents…
This 2020 vintage cabernet from Drinkhacker standby Rodney Strong is a current release as of early 2026, but despite its advanced age and Reserve status, the wine — crafted from Sonoma County fruit — is available for a mere 60 bucks. There’s no word on varietal additions beyond cab, but it’s aged 24 months in…
This bottle of My Favorite Neighbor literally fell through the cracks, so we failed to include it alongside our review of the Booker Wines brand’s recently released chardonnay. Sorry! Fruit-forward and quite young, this remains a lively and exuberant wine that shoves all thoughts of tannins to the side in favor of bright notes of…
You surely know Penfolds as an Australian winery with both heavy hitters and everyday drinkers in its arsenal, but of late the Aussie empire has stretched its arms to California winemaking, too. This blend of 66% cabernet sauvignon and 34% shiraz is a reported 20-year-long endeavor and is the result of (some) grapes grown in California…
Central California’s Carmel Valley is home to Bernardus, a long-running winery with a particular focus on chardonnay. Ingrid’s Vineyard is planted directly on Bernardus’s property, growing Dijon clones 76 and 95, the finished product aged in 100% new French oak. Only 1470 bottles were produced from this 2023 vintage. Notes of coconut and lemon curd…
Wow, the last time we reviewed this wine was in its 2010 vintage release. For those out of the know, Marchesi de’Frescobaldi is one of the pinnacles of Tuscan winemaking, yet you can readily find affordable bottlings like this one on the market with little effort. 2022 Frescobaldi Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina Review This year’s…
Returning to Cantoro Market feels less like a sequel and more like checking back in on a place that never stops evolving. The scale is still mildly overwhelming, the shelves still bowing under the weight of Italian specialties you didn’t know existed or needed, and the wine section continues to emanate a low-grade sense of…
We cover the wines of Paso Robles’ Ancient Peaks with regularity, so these 2026 offerings should not come as a surprise. The value present in these bottlings, however, is more of a shock… 2024 Ancient Peaks Sauvignon Blanc Paso Robles – Quite tropical at first, this wine moves into grassier territory, with a slight astringency…
Sonoma’s Anaba is one of the most reliable pinot noir producers in the county, yet it habitually flies under the radar (perhaps due to its odd location south of the beaten path if you’re visiting the area. This expression of pinot hails from the Felix Hunter Vineyard, which is in the Sonoma Coast AVA, just…
Sonoma-based Foppiano Vineyards has a history dating back to 1896, but it’s still innovating in 2026, with new wines, new branding, and an updated vision that includes a remodeling of the Foppiano Estate. We haven’t had a chance to visit of late, but we did receive two new release wines for review, both designed with…