The idea for the #PinotNoir Twitter smackdown was hatched over wine and wings in my basement with Joe (@SuburbanWino)  and was later fleshed out further over crawfish and shrimp at the Crawfish Shack on Buford highway.  There's just something about filling our gullets with food that really gets the creative juices flowing.  Throughout the entire pr...

One of the most engaging and interesting winemakers/owners I had the pleasure of meeting in Washington was the vibrant and tanned Jay Soloff who was also sporting the sharpest goatee.  It was immediately obvious how passionate and knowledgeable Jay is about wine and Washington state and we really appreciated his openness in sharing the history of...

… It's The Only Thing. If you ain't first, you're last. Shake. And. Bake. That.  Just.  Happened. Ladies and Gentlemen… The wine world will have its eyes on Pinot Noir and the omnipresent Twitter tasting community this coming Thursday, July 15th folks and you won't want to miss it.  Between the hours of 5-7p PT/ 8-10p ET it's a...

After a wonderfully moderate and chilling-on-the-patio afternoons last weekend, the entire east coast is now in the midst of a heat wave this week.  Afternoon temperatures have been constantly in the 90's, with some places pegging 100F.  If you've purchased wine from a winery during the summer months or are club members of any wineries...

The sprinters battle at the finish line of yesterday's short stage, was a bit uneventful for me as Mark Cavendish let up at the end with only a few hundred meters to go after he was caught by surprise by a strategic sneak attack from behind by Alessandro Petacchi, who took his second stage win

Join the Twitter Tasting with Halleck Vineyards! Open any bottle of your Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir on July 15 th at 5 – 7 pm PST.   Taste.  Tweet with others all over the US. Ross and Jennifer Halleck are hosting a Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir tasting at:           Aubergine Café and Bar         755 Petaluma Ave.        

With less than 10 days left until the hammer drops on what promises to be the most entertaining Twitter wine tasting extravaganza with regional bragging rights at stake, do you know where your Pinot Noir is?  If you are in the Atlanta metro I sure hope you were able to RSVP to our local venue,

Yesterday the Tour started officially with the 1st stage, because the prologue is a time trial and not considered specifically a "stage," which took almost 200 riders from Rotterdam to Brussels, Belgium.  Yeah, the Tour de "FRANCE" is still not yet in the country it is named after. Though the northerly latitudes and colder climate makes...

When most people think about Washington state, they are likely to conjure thoughts of the dreary, rainy confines of Seattle.  This makes sense as nearly 75% of the state's population reside in the Puget Sound Lowlands.  However, when talking about winegrowing, 99% of the state's grape production comes from vineyards east of the Cascade mountains...

1. Almost setting the kitchen of 633 Pearson St. on fire during "Club Pearson" freakfest Friday night 2. Zombie teeth 3. The UNconference patio where worldwide wine sharing and true networking occurs 4. Meeting "friends" for the first time and feeling like I've known them for years 5. Open sharing of wine and trading – some were pleasantly su...

The bus ride to the Yakima Valley was simply breathtaking.  Mainly an  agricultural area, cows, apple and fruit orchards and, now, more and more vineyards line both sides of the highway and are further surrounded by green and brown rocky and rolling ridgelines.  The sky was clear and blue with temperatures in the low 80's.

Today we're talking about Languedoc-Roussillon, which is a region in the south of France along the Mediterranean Sea that runs from the cities Perpignan, up through Montpellier and to Nimes.  You might be surprised to learn that it boasts the world's largest vineyard area totalling about 750,000 acres.  As you can imagine, being along the Mediterra...

Poor ol' Pinot Grigio.  The pale yellow stepchild of the wine world that sommeliers love to hate continues to have a curse against it when compared to many other higher quality white varieties.  The grape has been called "innocuous" and tasteless by many and is often considered to be made only for those wine drinkers who don't like...

If you are a certifiable Pinotphile, then you have absolutely no excuse for missing this exclusive Twitter Community Wine Tasting event!  On the heels of successful tasting events #Chardonnay, #WAMerlot and #WAwine, Pinot Noir lovers will have their day this summer.  It has been shown that these events have created hundreds of thousands, if not...

The 2010 Wine Blogger's Conference is nearly upon us.  This will be my second and it feels good that I won't have that freshman feeling walking around campus with a map in my hand and propeller on my head.  Nope, no longer a noob.  A lot has happened in the past year since WBC09 in

On our way up to the North Georgia mountains for a wine festival, we passed by a cabin rental business named "Hatfield's."  What came to mind as I drove by was the well-known story of the feuding families of West Virginia and Kentucky, the Hatfield's and McCoys.  It is appropriate on this day for it

  Do you wonder how that wonderful purple (or golden) juice in your glass came to be?  Long to work where the vineyard and mountain vistas seemingly go on forever?  Here's a chance to learn how to make wine in Chile at Lapostolle as a winemaker's apprentice.  This may just be one of those rare opportunities to

   Visiting a winery is one of the great adventures any wine lover should strive to experience at least once.  Every continental state has a winery now, so it should be fairly east to find wine country near you.  We try to take a wine country vacation at least once a year to detox from the