One local organization, Serving Our Troops , flew over here last weekend with 7,000 steaks and a dozen chefs from several great restaurants in the Twin Cities. But unlike our own (ig)noble experiment, at least they haven’t crippled a burgeoning wine industry, the effects of which took generations to repair. MORE >>

Organic" WAS conventional, in that it was just-the-way-things-were-done, up until about a half century ago when chemical companies began calling on farmers (I interviewed one of the patriarchs of California agriculture recently, and he was the one who turned on that lightbulb for me. Main | Hearty Burgundy at Sanford? Do check it out. MORE >>

» Chardonnay in California: Part Five January 19, 2009 When I got this assignment a friend in Portland said, "Al, its going to kill you." Even though she didnt taste them all, but a good spectrum of about 50 wines from all over California, shes of the opinion that there are more styles of the wine available than a decade ago. MORE >>

don't write negative reviews about wine or restaurants unless I have enough context to be super-confident in my views. Or "I'm sending this guy my California Roussanne that I think he'll find interesting, based on the other wines he likes." I have no statement of ethics anywhere on my blog, but I'm going to add one today. doubt it. MORE >>

run a restaurant here in the East Village and do a lot of the wine buying. Stag's Leap is one of the most prominent wine producers in California. tend to focus on the under twenty-dollar range but if I were to go above such limits in the California category this producer would on the short list. I'm just a wine geek. Excellent. MORE >>