by Christina Waters | Jan 18, 2011 | Home |
Savannah-Chanelle is one of the top Santa Cruz Mountain wineries, and their elegantly robust red wines usually end up on our table on a regular basis.
I made a very happy discovery this past weekend as I ate plate after plate of local Dungeness crab (somebody’s gotta do it) as a judge for the SCMWA’s Wine & Crab Taste-off.
There were the S-C folks pouring an unoaked, non-malolcaticized Chardonnay. The grapes hailed from the celebrated Tondre’s Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands, so I was very intrigued. I fell for it immediately. No huge overinflated toast and butterscotch. No over-the-top oak koolaid flavors. Just crisp acidity and sparkling notes of stone fruit and minerals.
The 2009 Savannah-Chanelle Chardonnay is a very very appealing wine, one that actually partners food brilliantly. It’s enough to make a grown woman put down her Sauvignon Blanc! (Well, almost.) It retails for a budget-friendly $24 too.
Definitely one to try.
by Christina Waters | Jan 12, 2011 | Home |
Painting in a dozen shades of sepia, the Coen brothers take us back into the last century when there was plenty of frontier still left in Arkansas and the law was still a gleam in Wyatt Earp’s eye.
Our first glimpse of Jeff Bridges as the “one-eyed fat man” Rooster Cogburn is a long slow shot across a smoky courtroom. You have to look twice to recognize him through the unmistakable ghost of John Wayne, who is given a moment of homage by the Coens in their slim, lyrical telling of Charles Portis’ tale.
Sticking close to the book in words and unvarnished attitude, the Coens and their cinematographer Roger Deakins take us into what must have been an all-too-common world of of post-Civil War desperation, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Jan 12, 2011 | Home |
Devotées of Randall Grahm’s unquenchable and distinctive gabbiness will want to feast over the latest e-blast from the man who gave us Bonny Doon Vineyard and all of its delicious acts of terroir.
Check this link to read more than you ever thought possible about the state of RG’s new San Juan Bautista vineyard.
by Christina Waters | Jan 5, 2011 | Home |
I know I’ve over-used “the deal of the century” and other hyperbolic aphorisms, but I gotta tell you this luscious Bordeaux blend called Skyline, from Thomas Fogarty will take your breath away.
I love this wine! Love it.
A solid marriage of cabernets and merlot, with four years of bottle age and enough tannin to move your senses through some leather, roses, black tea and cassis.
Now. Make sure you’re sitting down: you can pick up a bottle of Skyline for $11.99 @ Shoppers.
Yes. You heard me. Now just go and do it. Thank me later.
by Christina Waters | Jan 3, 2011 | Home |
Chia Stimulus Program: Hoping to jumpstart the green hair thing, we popped our Chia Obama into a plastic “greenhouse” to bathe in a moist soup of chlorophyll and liberal vibes.
