Bill and I are back. Pardon our absence as family needs took a higher priority for both of us lately. On this podcast we offer up a quick summary of what we have been doing during our hiatus. While we may have been busy handling family affairs we still found time to have an adult beverage every now and then. We’ll share some of those discoveries on…

As we head into springtime this year more wine and food events are returning to the our calendars. On this podcast Bill and I discuss our recent experiences at the Gambero Rosso and Slow Wine events both held in San Francisco. The Gambero Rosso was held at Fort Mason in the Marina District. The Slow Wine event was held at City View at Metreon in th…

Bill and I recorded this podcast the morning of the Super Bowl so good eats and adult beverages were front and center of our discussion. We go on a jag about the lack of places to find good bread in Sonoma County and come up with a pretty good impromptu list of great places to eat in Sonoma County. So if you have any plans to come to wine county th…

Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on the sale of the Robert Sinskey Vineyard Winery, tasting room and vineyards. However billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick elected to not purchase the brand. For the moment the Sinskeys plan to lease back the facility and continue business as usual. Press Democrat writer Sarah Doyle pens a pie…

With Christmas around the corner we put together a list of some of our favorite wines for the holidays. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes hasn’t slowed the uptick in wine prices. It can be fairly easy to blow up your wine budget with just one or two bottles of splurge purchases. Most of the wines on our list can all be had for un…

A recent article by Colman Andrews titled Paradise Lost: The Flame Out of Napa Valley’s Iconic Wine Country raised a number of eyebrows in Northern California. The article’s main themes being that the Valley’s growth has lessened its charm and that corporatization has made visits to Napa Wineries too expensive for most people. I just recently atten…

Do you prefer your wines younger or do you have a taste for aged wines? I’m firmly in both camps having developed a palate for both. As bottled red wines age they give up some of their youthful freshness, the tannins soften and the wines begin to display secondary aromas. On this podcast Bill and I offer our thoughts on aged wine, particularly Cali…

Bill and I get together for a new podcast after an extended absence. On this podcast you can find out where we’ve been, what’s new in wine country and what we’ve been drinking and eating. It’s summertime so we find ourselves drinking less red wine and more rosé and white wines. Our wine recommendation for this week is the Mönchhof Ürzig Würzgarten …

Consolidation in the U. S. wine industry continues at an unabated pace. Most of the mergers and acquisitions are followed weeks later by layoffs and closures of production facilities. Sebastiani, Coppola and Chateau Ste. Michelle are some of the most recent buyouts. Right now is one of the best times to be looking for a job in the California wine i…

A late frost in Europe is wreaking havoc on prized vineyards in France and Italy. Several consecutive nights of frost are causing lots of worry for farmers. In the coming weeks farmers will be accessing the damage, but early estimates pin losses in some areas at 50 to 90 percent of normal. Bill and I talk about wine aerators and decanters in refere…

Imported wine prices could be headed lower? Ursula Von der Leyen President of the European Commission and President Biden have agreed to suspend all tariffs with regard to the Airbus-Boeing dispute for four months. President Von der Leyen, the first woman elected to head the European Commission is responsible for setting the Commission’s policy age…

Constellation Brands executives must be elated to finally complete their sale of over 32 wine brands and five wineries to E. J. Gallo Winery. The $810 million deal was less than half of the $1.7 billion initially proposed in April of 2019, as the Federal Trade Commission insisted Constellations exclude their sparkling wine, brandy, dessert wine and…

Delivery startup Go Puff has just announced its acquisition of alcohol beverage retailer BevMo. While Bevmo already has an online presence and delivery service Go Puff’s network, which delivers convenience store items will make it even more opportune for people to channel their inner couch potato. Convicted wine counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan has fin…

The year 2020 represents our fifth straight year of devastating wildfires in Northern California Wine Country. Weeks removed from full containment of the LNU Complex Fire which burned 363,220 acres the Glass Fire started on September 27, 2020. The ignition point of the Glass Fire was in the hills northeast of St. Helena, east of Silverado Trail Roa…

Lately there hasn’t been much to celebrate about and as a result Champagne growers are facing challenges due to the pandemic and collapsing sales. So far the French government has not offered any actionable help. Can growers and winemakers work together to hold prices steady? Franzia is selling a backpack that holds an entire box of wine. As it tur…

The latest entrant into the celebrity wine business is Snoop Dogg. Bill has pledged to pick up a bottle and give it a review. Stay tuned. Jeff Siegel the Wine Curmudgeon thinks Bordeaux costs too much for the average person to buy. What do you think? Is the Bordeaux wine business in trouble? In Washington state some winemakers are thinking of skipp…

We have a new wine bar in Sebastopol. Region wine bar will specialize in pouring small production wines using self-serve wine machines. Cameron Diaz and Katherine Power have entered the celebrity wine business. Their wine brand Avaline, is entering a crowded market place. Years of consolidation by alcohol producers and wholesalers, uncertainty due …

After three plus months of shelter in place mandates with a significant portion of the hospitality and restaurant business in California throttled to an idle, wineries, brew pubs and distillers have been given the green light to host patrons again. The old tasting room model has been discarded in favor of new sanitation and social distancing protoc…

Bill and I have been on a brief hiatus. Let’s just say we have been adjusting to a new way of living our lives during the coronavirus pandemic. Walking into a wine retailer or visiting a winery tasting room has not been an option for us so in this podcast we spend some time talking about how and where we are buying our adult beverages. We both are …

Here in Sonoma County California we are under a Governor Gavin Newsom mandated shelter in place directive aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. What does that mean? Check out this link to get the details. Cancelled events, business losses and layoffs are starting to impact the wine business as Bill Swindell points out in an article …

Covid Corona BluesAv Vino101

It’s that time of the year again. Food and wine events are coming to our area in rapid fire sequence. Winemakers from abroad have a small window of time to meet prospective buyers, so instead of flying back and forth to the United States they cram in as many trade events as they can, usually in a one to two week window. Consequently we’ve been pret…

Wine industry experts are calling for grape growers to reduce the number of vineyards in production because of declining wine sales. We have already noticed some vineyards being ripped out and allowed to go fallow (at least for now) here in Sonoma County. Unfortunately for growers the oversupply of grapes is not a regional problem, but a statewide …

It’s been rather calm and quite in Northern California of late. Mother nature is giving us a break from natural disasters and has turned her hell raising ways onto the continent of Australia. For months now Australia has been suffering with continuing wildfires which have to date destroyed over 10 million hectares. Phoebe French provides a list of …

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Californians. Bill and I can add evacuee to our resumes as residents of Sebastopol and many other areas of Sonoma County were evacuated due to the Kincade wildfire. Firefighters made their stand at the edge of the foothills as the fires moved downhill towards the densely populated town of Windsor. Many lessons …

Sonoma County wine world recently lost another former winery owner. Chris Smith of the Press Democrat pens an obituary about Robert Rue, who was farming old Zinfandel/ field blend vineyards as a side hustle before the term was popular. We’ve suspected that litigation of this sort was on the horizon and now we have two sizable California vintners su…

Dorthy Vasser has been growing wine grapes in Redwood Valley for 53 years. Dorthy and her husband John started grape growing in 1964. John passed away in 2008 and Dorthy continued to farm their 26 acre Mendocino ranch. Dorthy has decided to sell her land and Lewis Perdue goes into great detail as to how Constellation Brands may have had a hand in h…

Wine journalist Jamie Goode recently posted a short blog about three of the world's largest wineries. Fred Swan felt that much of the criticism of the blog on social media was negative so he wrote a piece in defense of E.J. Gallo. Having visited several Gallo facilities in the past he offers some great insight into their operations. W. Blake Gray a…

Bill and I start this weeks podcast talking about British Master of Wine Tim Atkin’s article Why You Shouldn’t Care Much About Wine. Exploring various topics Tim’s tongue-in-cheek writing style will bring a smile to your face. Jillian Kramer writes a post about What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Drinking. We have a good discussion about all th…

It’s summertime and Europeans have experienced some extreme temperatures. Highs which have eclipsed the torrid marks set by the heatwave of 2003, that killed thousands of people. A lot has been learned since 2003 and the European countries seem better equipped to handle the large high pressure weather systems that cover the continent during the sum…

Dr. Vinny of the Wine Spectator fields a question about whether or not one should swirl a glass of sparkling wine. It’s a touchy subject with sparkling wine afficionados. Are you a swirler? For some reason not everyone can do the right thing when it comes to business. A Baltimore businessman whose job was to safeguard wine which his clients where p…

One of Sonoma’s favorite tourist spots the Ravenswood tasting room has closed. The Ravenswood brand was one of 30 that was spun off by New York based Constellation Brands and purchased by E&J Gallo, but the 12 acre property and the tasting room was not part of the deal. McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC are becoming increasingly more common sights in…

The final week of February 2019 was a disaster for Sonoma County residents and for business owners in the recently developed Barlow center in Sebastopol, California. The Russian River Valley suffered some of its worst flooding in decades. Bill and I both live in Sebastopol and we have a lively discussion about the floods and what the future holds f…

After 45 years in the winemaking business Merry Edwards has decided to slow down. Merry and her husband Ken Coopersmith have sold all their wine holding to the Louis Roederer Champagne house. Roederer, a family owned business already owns three wineries in Mendocino County and plans to keep Merry around through the transition. Bushfires in Australi…

The effects of climate change are prompting farmers to look more closely at how much water they use and need to sustain their crops. Bill and I start the podcast by discussing dry farming; the pluses and minuses. Have you ever opened up a bottle of wine, poured a glass, tasted it and thought meh? It just seemed like something was off, or worse yet …

After watching a video by Julien Miquel, Bill and I jump off onto the topic of cork taint. Julien’s insight on “What is cork taint? Why are so Many Wines Corked?” is a must see video. The iconic wine retailer Bottle Barn now has an online presence. If you already buy wines online, do yourself a huge favor and put them on your list of suppliers. The…

Have you ever wondered when is the best time to drink a wine and will it get better with age? This week Bill and I discuss an article written by Courtney Schiessl titled, how to tell if your wine will age. The Cotes du Rhone region is on a four year streak of excellence. For that matter so is much of Europe. Dave McIntyre pens a thought provoking p…

On this podcast Bill and I discuss the lawsuit involving Opus One Winery and one of their barrel suppliers. Joe Wagner of Copper Cane Wines keeps moving forward and is putting the finishing touches on a new bottling facility in Fairfield California. Will he continue to make and bottle his Oregon wines in California? As if you didn’t already know. S…

On this podcast Bill and I talk about the economic impact of the past few years of fires on the restaurant and wine business in Northern California. Our favorite billionaire, Liquor/ Indian gangster Vijay Mallya, who now resides in London, is vigorously fighting extradition back to India. So far so good for him and not so good for all the Indian ba…

We recorded this podcast on Veteran's Day weekend so a little politics weaved its way into the content. Bill and I talk about the wildfires we have experienced in California this year and eventually we got around to some wine talk. And yes we've got some good wine recommendations for you as always. Cheers! Referenced in the show For Veterans Day Wa…

Bill and I recently had the opportunity to chat with Alex Guarachi, founder of Guarachi Wine Partners. Guarachi Wine Partners represents sixteen brands from six countries. During our interview Alex shares how and why he entered the wine business and how he sees the industry changing. Even though he's been in the business over three decades now, his…

Jackson Family Wines makes another investmentin Oregon. What's driving the move north? Are there more mergers and acquisitions on the horizon? Alison Spiegel gets some of the nations coolest sommeliers to drop some insider secrets. Winemakers are preparing to mount a battle against the regional government in Chablis. A proposed tar plant is the sou…

The former owner of Premier Cru wines a now defunct retailer in Berkeley, California has pled guilty to running a wine Ponzi scheme and has cut a deal with federal prosecutors. There's gold in those hill. At least that's what famed grape growers Andy and David Beckstoffer are hoping for as they work to raise the quality and notorietyof grapes grown…

On the west coast of the United States it's fire season and the Soberanes fire near Big Sur, California and a wildfire near Prosser, Washington has caused lots of concern for farmers and winery owners. Antonio Galloni pens a wonderful piece, while offering a sobering viewpoint on the recent sale of one of Barolo's gems, Vietti Winery to American bu…

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates makes another investment in Northern California, while Jackson Family Wines adds to its portfolio of Oregon wine properties. It looks like the Robert Rue label has been retired as Venge Vineyards has purchased the property in Russian River Valley. We're number one or are we? Check out this graphic by Decanter Magazine hig…

Supermarket Champagne Deals How low can supermarket Champagne prices go in the UK and what will be the net aftereffect? Joyce Lin puts together a guide to help understand Champagne labels. Can you train your palate to get more out of the wines you drink? Rachel Signer asks some industry professionals that very question. Bill and I have a few sugges…

Bill and I consider what may become of the tipping tradition in America's restaurants. The ever widening wage gap between front of the house restaurant employees and back of the house workers, pending government mandated wage increases and uncertainty of the direction in which current immigration policy may head, makes operating a restaurant, risky…

Last week one of Napa Valley's legendary winemakers passed. Peter Mondavi Sr. was an innovator and was most proud of not having to sell out to corporate interest, he steadfastly worked to keep Charles Krug Winery in family hands. We send out our thoughts and prayers to the family. Open that bottle night has come and gone. Held on the last Saturday …

Chalone Vineyards has changed hands again. The new owner Bill Foley plans to put new emphasis on promoting the brand. Dorthy Gaiter interviews Michael Mondavi about the Mondavi clan, then and now. The way things have turned out may not be as patriarch Robert Mondavi had envisioned, but if he were here he'd probably be pleased. Tim Carl writes about…

Rachel Signer has a list of ten things every woman should know about wine, but her list could apply to guys as well. Michelle Locke offers up nine hacks to help you drink better wine by drinking it better. In the podcast Bill and I offer up a few ways to enhance your wine drinking experience as well. Is the age of the Sommelier coming to an end? So…