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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Traverse City and Petowsky Bay, Michigan Wineries

It was a lovely early fall wedding. I was the best man for a SF roommate and his bride to be in Traverse City on the banks of Petowsky’s scenic Lake Michigan waterfront. A more idyllic location or weather could not have been ordered! The wedding was to occur on 2001, September the 9th. More…

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New York Finger Lakes District Sparkling Wines

New York Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes District Flying into John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) airport was a moment that bred expectation and potential. I loved the heightened frisson anticipation, and my lack of really understanding how far apart NY state distances really are. When I arrived taking the transit bus from JFK, I was dropped…

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The Back Half Revolution Of California Sparkling Wine

Domaine Chandon of Yountville-Napa Valley The Moët & Chandon Grandes Marque post 1960’s saw immense growth through diversification, and acquisitions of new distribution sales: Marie Brizard liqueurs, Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch, and of course venturing into the New World territories. The splashiest New World winery opening happened in Yountville-Napa Valley at the Domaine Chandon Napa…

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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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