Cline Nancy’s Cuvée – With Tuna Soufflé

As you enter Sonoma county from the south on California 121, one of the first wineries you encounter is Cline Cellars, and there could hardly be a better introduction to the Carneros AVA. Even as a young teenager, Fred Cline learned to make wine from his grandfather, Valeriano Jacuzzi (yes, he of the hydrotherapy tub, as…

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Buena Vista La Victoire Champagne

There are a number of French Champagne producers who have operations in California, such as Roederer (whose California wine I prefer over the French, and it’s half the price). But here’s a twist: a California winery with a genuine French champagne. And this isn’t just any winery; Buena Vista is the second oldest in the…

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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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Kalin Cellars – The Story Of Excellence

“Produce No Wine With Less Character than Yourself” – The Kalin Credo Kalin Cellars is a winery in California’s bedroom community of Novato, Marin County just north of San Francisco. In 1986, when I first learned of Terrance Leighton’s Kalin Cellars winery recommended by the Winewrights newsletter (an analogue newsletter from postal days when deliveries…

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The Great American Road Trip

If you’re planning to create your absolutely perfect road trip across the United States of America, the best tip I can give you would be to break it down, USA is a massive country with a lot to offer, fortunately, the country has already been broken down for you, take each part of your road…

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