Nightbird Marks 10 Years of Sustainable Deliciousness
Celebrating her San Francisco restaurant’s tenth birthday, Nightbird chef/ owner Kim Alter has achieved more than a milestone; she’s beaten[…]
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Category: The Tasting Panel
THE TASTING PANEL magazine is the most widely circulated trade publication in the beverage industry focused on beverages, the beverage trade and the people who make the industry tick. Print and digital editions published monthly with a combined January/February issue. www.tastingpanelmag.com
Madeira: The Wine That Inspired Revolution
There wasn’t an empty seat in the private room of San Francisco restaurant La Connessa when Cossart Gordon CEO Chris Blandy took the floor to present “A Toast to Independence with Cossart Gordon & Miles Madeira.” It was just one of many stops on a weeklong U.S. tour Blandy undertook to celebrate Madeira’s role in the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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Justin Chin Taking Flight at The Happy Crane
San Francisco native Justin Chin possesses an almost stubborn optimism
about the future of hospitality. As general manager and wine director of The Happy Crane in his hometown’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, he’s quietly shaping one of the city’s most innovative dining experiences.
Meet UC Davis Yeast Biologist Benjamen Montpetit
The University of California, Davis, has a long history of groundbreaking research that has significantly impacted the global wine industry.[…]
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Napa Valley’s Vincent Morrow Looks to Tomorrow
Morrow, who received MICHELIN’s California Sommelier Award in 2022, oversees the wine cellar at PRESS, which houses the largest collection of Napa Valley wines in the world and is focused on library wines. When adding a new bottling to the list, he looks for winemakers who have worked their way up at acclaimed producers and then started their own labels.
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Rare perpetural reserve a hallmark at Champagne Palmer
Beyond the soleras and the enviable Montagne de Reims terroir, the wines of Champagne Palmer’s Vintage Collection reveal a third strength: The cooperative of seven producers has not altered its vineyard sourcing since its founding in 1947, forming what Vervier calls the “DNA of the brand.”
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Sarah Vandendriessche on Guiding Environmental Stewardship in Napa Valley
Elizabeth Spencer’s Sarah Vandendriessche guides the Napa Valley Vintners’ environmental stewardship committee.
Read moreReproducing Kopke’s 50-year old Tawny Port
With the creation of a new Tawny Port and White Port categories in March 2022, bottles sporting a 50-year age[…]
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Markham looks to the future
In her role as head winemaker at Markham, Kimberlee Nicholls directs an all-female team that includes assistant winemaker Abigail Horstman, enologist Patricia Sciacca and viticulturist Taylor Abudi. The collaborative culture that thrives at Markham is a direct result of how she prioritizes the professional growth of her team.
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Alvarinho’s Authentic Terroir
Alvarinho produced in its native terroir is incomparable to expressions of the variety grown elsewhere. But it may ultimately prove to be on a trajectory similar to that of Pinot Gris, which is renowned for producing light, delicately floral wines in Italy’s Collio region and wines of great mineral intensity and fruit purity in Alsace. Time will tell.
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Emilia-Romagna: The Enticing Italian Flavors and Rich culture of Bologna
Best known by Americans for its iconic food products—namely prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Balsamic vinegar, and its effervescent Lambrusco wines—there’s far more to Emilia-Romagna than these familiar tastes.
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A Home for “The Prisoner”
From the moment its first 385-case lot was labeled, The Prisoner has been an outlier in the California wine industry.
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Cabernet with a twist
The practice of finishing whiskey in wine barrels has been around since the 1860s, when scotch producers first utilized Sherry[…]
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Big data supports expert wine tasters
In the course of developing software for predicting consumer wine preferences, a Houston-based start up, VineSleuth, shed new light on[…]
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Sparkling Toast to a Still Future
The Los Carneros was pioneered twenty five years ago by sparkling wine producers who brought cache and joie de vivre[…]
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On Either Side of the Andes
Visits by two winemakers who work on either side of the Andes provided some perspective on the terroirs being targeted in Chile and Argentina for ultra-premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and cooler-climate varieties, including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
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A Prima Vista
A prima vista [at first sight] is an Italian saying that typically applies to love, or—in our case—a first encounter[…]
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Journey to the west
San Francisco has long been a destination for travelers. Some, like Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, arrive and spend a lifetime realizing[…]
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Eclectic, Electric Lodi Zinfandel
Lodi has long been synonymous with Zinfandel. The region which is defined by seven sub-regions produces 40 percent of the[…]
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A Rising Tide: Rosé Carries the Reds of Northern Provence to Shore
A rising tide lifts all boats is an aphorism that neatly applies to the winegrow- ing economy of Provence. The[…]
Read moreAn Oakville Retrospective: A Look at 19 Vintages of Groth Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
For the maker, wine requires patience; it seems to mark time at a different pace than much of the[…]
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Sprucing Up The Goose: A New Chapter For Goosecross Cellars
“We’re in pop-up mode,” said vintner Christi Coors Ficeli who purchased Goosecross Cellars in 2013 and broke ground on a[…]
Read moreFanfare for Castello di Nipozzano’s Vecchie Viti
Story and photos by Deborah Parker Wong
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Anderson Valley’s Pinot
Many Anderson Valley Pinot Noir producers time the commercial release of their wines around the annual Pinot Noir Festival and[…]
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Rutherford Dust 2010
We’re kicking up the dust once again with the 2010 vintage presented by the Rutherford Dust Society at a blind[…]
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Grands Crus Classés of Saint Émilion 2010
It’s alive! Unlike its Left Bank counterpart, the Saint Émilion classification is indeed a living thing. The promotion of 17[…]
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Turning Data into Dollars
A virtual tidal wave of data is fueling the race toward accurately predicting consumer preferences and buying behavior. With intelligent[…]
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Going to Extremes
On the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, a cold, dry Zonda or rain shadow wind swept down[…]
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Long-lived Lake County
Wine quality has been on the rise in Lake County and winegrowers there have their sights set determinedly on the[…]
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Blind Wine Review: Premiere Napa Valley’s 2013 Multi-Vintage Perspective Tasting
While it’s possible to barrel taste recent vintages at many of the preview parties that take place around Premiere, the[…]
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Blind Wine Review: That Rutherford Dust
For this inaugural Blind Tasting, I delved into my notebook for highlights of ten wines that came out on top[…]
Read moreEyes on the prize
Once you’ve made the decision to pursue a professional certification, there’s more to making the grade than meets the eye.[…]
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The Undiscovered Burgundy
Visually, Burgundy isn’t a particularly mysterious place; the low-growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines hunker over the earth in their[…]
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It Takes A Village
Large or small, via négociant or sold direct, Right Bank producers continue to make quality a priority. With the purchase and renovation of[…]
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Journey up the river: The Loire Valley from Nantes to Sancerre
It can be said that each wine region of France has a personality, one dictated as much by the winegrowers[…]
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The language of the Languedoc
The AOC winegrowers of the Languedoc are an eclectic group: genteel local families, pioneers from France’s most prestigious wine regions[…]
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