TheWino.net

B Cellars - Wine Tasting Notes

B Cellars, located on Silverado Trail in Calistoga, has been making wine since '03 but just opened up this tasting room 10 weeks ago. They are a relatively small producer (3.5k cases a year) that has ambitions to be bigger (based on the money spent on the tasting room).

August Briggs - Wine Tasting Notes

August Briggs winery, located in Calistoga on the Silverado Trail, is a small producer (4kish cases a year) of mostly single vineyard Pinot's, Syrah's & Cabs. They also produce wine for Jeff Gordon on a separate label.

Barnett Vineyards - Tasting Notes

Barnett Vineyards, up on Spring Mountain Road (on the edge of Napa & Sonoma counties) is a small producer (4k annual cases) that specializes on mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.

Chateau Montelena Tasting

Visited the famous, thanks to Bottleshock and the Judgment in Paris, Chateau Montelena today for a tasting.

Solage Calistoga

An Auberge resort on the Silverado Trail in Calistoga, Ca, Solage Calistoga is a modern contemporary meets urban hip spa resort.

Avocado, Heirloom Tomato, Goat Cheese Sandwich

I love freestylin' foods, to me its the only way you discover new combinations and its essential if you hate wasting fresh stuff that's already in your house.    

Shrimp Ceviche: A New Love

This past Saturday while at our local market we came across a special on pre-cooked shrimp, the salad stuffing type.  So I picked up a pound and asked what dishes he liked to create with it, to which he quickly responded Ceviche.  So I looked up shrimp ceviche on epicurious.com and went from there.  

What came out was memorable.  Combining avocado, diced cucumber, a jalapeno pepper (my addition), white onion, organic ketchup, mexican hot sauce with some olive oil, salt and a bunch of lime juice created an incredible dish.  Served on top of good tortilla chips, we ended up eating this both Saturday & Sunday night and loving every minute of it.  

We had a central valley muscat canelli (Carvalho family wines) that nicely complemented the spice in the dish without overpowering it.  

The epicurious recipe will feed around 6 as an appetizer or up to 4 as a main.  If you want to tone down the spiciness you can ditch the jalapeno pepper.   

If you like shrimp, or kind of like it but hate the "fishy taste" some folks complain about, this dish will surprise you.  

Gundlach Bundschu Wine Tasting & Tour

We visited the winery, Gundlach Bundschu, just outside Sonoma, CA today for a tasting and tour.  GunPun.com, as they're trying to use as a funny short for their name, was founded in 1858 and has remained a family owned & operated business for the past 152 years.  

Three Wine Company Tasting

Wine tasting again in Clarksburg, Ca at the Old Sugar Mill. The first winery were tasting at is the Three Wine Company.

They source their grapes from out Northern California. Started by former Cline Estates owner Matt Cline and his wife Erin, they produce about 6k cases in a boutque fashion. Their tasting room is located in a great old sugar mill that has been renovated to be a wine tasting room.

Three Wine Company focuses on Zinfandel and old vine red varietals like Carignane & Mourvedre. Everything I tasted was consistent and mild, very good stuff. I loved their '06 S3X Riesling which is a nice alcohol 9% to sugar 12% ratio. It's a wonderful dessert wine for those that fancy it.

Williamson Wines Tasting

Williamson Wines is located just off the Healdsburg square in Sonoma County. Started by Australian transplants, Bill Williamson uses a French winemaking style to develop subtle, food friendly wines.

The winetasting experience is truly unique. The complimentary tasting includes a plethora of wines, each prepared with a tiny food pairing to bring out specific elements of the wine.

Overall the Williamson Wines tasting experience is incredible and highly recommended.