While in Virginia on vacation, I picked up four bottles of Virginia wines, figuring I would try all four and choose one to review. Tonight I opened up the second bottle and had maybe the best white wine find of this summer, a 2006 Michael Shaps Viognier from the King Family Vineyards. The wines are produced with a traditional old-world style. MORE >>

White Springs was the first booth I visited at a recent Winefest and the last one I visited that day to pick up what I believed were the best whites at the festival. Well it's time to try a new wine, at least new to me. Before now I have never tasted Gewurztraminer. Please, no comments on that issue. Great Buy! MORE >>

The first 4 pairings with various Salumi: Ruffino Chianti Superiore DOCG 2008 From the Poggio Casciano Estate vineyards in Chianti, using choice grapes during the harvest, as per the Superiore and Chianti Classico production standards, and aged for seven months in stainless steel tanks and two additional months in bottle. MORE >>

One of the highlights was the Cote Rotie Brune Et Blonde 2004, a very elegant wine culled from syrah on both the Cote Blonde (southern part, with soil consisting of gneiss covered by a top layer of siliceaous calcareous soil) and Cote Brune (northern part, with schist mixed with mica and iron oxide). Imagine yourself in Ampuis in 1781. MORE >>

It is a new release called La Bout du Clos, a wine made entirely from that same vineyard in Ambonnay, from the 2004 vintage. This bottle comes entirely from 2008 and is a blend of equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. would never have picked that wine, and wow, was it a great pairing. Well, of the last few months anyway. MORE >>