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Imagine you were invited to a Pub crawl, only there was no beer and no Pub but in its place there was gourmet Tapas and Albariño, my kind of night!

And so starts a cool spring night in San Francisco where a collection of wine writers, bloggers, geeks, and PR professionals gathered to spoil themselves with great food and Rais Baixas’s top Albariños’ from the 2008 vintage. On the agenda were three diverse restaurants meant to highlight the varieties affinity with a diverse array of foods

We are particularly excited about this podcast because we get to discuss a topic that is not usually associated with this region, and that is value. Join us as we taste through 3 wines; a white, rose, and red wine from the broader appellations of Bordeaux. All of the wines we taste are in the sub $15 range and deliver on the promise of good QPR (quality price ratio).

ChrisO interviews Jay Kell from Verge Winery at the 2010 Hospice du Rhone Grand Tasting. Find out what this wine has in common with Queen Latifah and Burning Man.

Help us stop HR 5034, a bill submitted to the House of Representatives in Washington DC. HR 5034 is a bill that threatens to end direct shipping of wine from wineries to consumers.

It is an act of anti-commerce and fear mongering by wine wholesalers and distributors. Contact your representative to vote NO on HR 5034.

FYI not your plumbers Bud break either:
Contrary to popular believe not all the action in the winemaking process happens in the cellar, some of the most fascinating activity takes place in the vineyard throughout the four seasons. Take a quick look at this short video on the life cycle of the vine so that you can better understand what is going on in the vineyards year round. For more detailed info see below:

Ever wondered why and when you should decant a wine? Check out our latest video and find out.

We’re brining Malbec back. Them Argentines don’t know how where its at. Mendoza let us make up for the things you lack. (Sung to the tune of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back”)

If you think you know Malbec and have not yet tasted the Malbec based wines from Cahors, you have missed out.

Alto Adige/Südtirol meet wine lover, wine lover meet Alto Adige (aka Südtirol). Now the two of you may not have ever met before or perhaps you just met in passing, but it’s about time you get to know each other better! That is why I am so excited to be writing this post. You see I love introducing you to new things. Now you may be saying, wait a minute, Alto Adige is not a new thing, and you would be right, but what is new is the newfound passion for producing fresh vibrant white wines and deep inky reds from both local and international varieties.

Switzerland is not generally known abroad for its wines. Several factors contribute to that: the climate is much different from that of sun-drenched California, production is expensive due to the cost of real-estate and labor costs are well above the EU, and especially South America. In a world accustomed to increasingly powerful wines at competitive prices, Swiss wines will have a difficult time against wines from Argentina, Australia and Chile, for example…. Read more

All sorts of things probably spring to mind when I say Texas – big, oil, Houston we have a problem, wide open spaces, women with big hair, Texas twangs, over the top state pride, cowboys, former presidents who are cowboys – but my guess is that wine probably doesn’t really make it onto most people’s list.