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…

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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…

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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…

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