Wine Reviews

Rhone Ranger’s Vinthology, Winemakers’ Profiles: Holiday Books I like to think that wine lovers are also book readers, at least to feed their oenophilia. So, for holiday gifts I can guarantee that the following books will make your drinking buddies very happy.

Getty Heir, S.F. Mayor Test Waterless Urinals at Napa Winery I arrived at Napa Valley’s newest environmentally friendly winery in a two-ton SUV and parked in a space reserved for low-emission vehicles. The area was shrouded in fog, so hopefully nobody noticed.

Oldest Wine Auction Raises $7.5 Million on Demand for Burgundy The world’s oldest charity wine auction, held every year in France for the Hospices de Beaune, last night raised a hammer total of 5 million euros ($7.5 million) with fees, the second-highest in its 150-year history.

’Davos of Wine’ Connects John Wayne Jokes, Vintners, Physicists Piemontese winemaker Angelo Gaja paced back and forth, his hand stuffed in the pocket of his Brioni suit, as he addressed about 200 attendees for the first World Wine Symposium, dubbed the “Davos of Wine.”

Bone-Chilling Temperatures Make Great Canadian Reds, Sparklers Canada’s intensely sweet dessert ice wines have won well-deserved kudos over the last decade, but who knew that Ontario produces some first-rate dry whites and reds?

With $250,000 Grape Sorter, Napa Mountain Men Are Big in Valley Driving rain rattled the tin-roofed shed in Napa’s Spring Mountain wine district where I was playing grape picker and cellar rat during harvest. No picking cabernet at Cain Winery that morning. Sunny California was elsewhere.

Wine Auctioneer’s Nose Tracks Wall Street: A. Craig Copetas Anthony Hanson’s nose is a sobering economic indicator.

Italians Pursue ’Lunatic’ Sommeliers, Revive Indigenous Grapes Ceri Smith likes to fantasize about a world without the big three -- chardonnay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon.

Saint-Emilion’s Vaunted 2005s Are Bargains -- Seven Winners It is a good sign when you walk into a tasting and can smell the wines even before you see them.

Tuscany’s Forgotten Vintage, ‘97 Brunello, Returns From Dead I hope you haven’t drunk all the celebrated 1997 brunello di Montalcinos in your cellar, because if you have, you may have made a mistake.