How many times have you been to Sonoma and Napa and tasted there? The greater risk to the fine wine market when it comes to new releases is the huge amount of wine that the baby-boomers have in their cellars and will never drink. There’s a new order at the Wine Advocate. His unedited replies follow below. And NFL? Twice. MORE >>

had a chance to visit the property and talk with the cellar masters this past spring. Today, the locus of Ridge’s single vineyard zinfandel production is their Lytton Springs Winery, north of Healdsburg in Sonoma. All too often, Zinfandel is a highway to a quick, cheap buzz. The lay of the land. But back to the tasting table. MORE >>

Of course my choice would be Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley or Russian River Valley, the home of some of the best wines in the world. Recently, the wife and I have been discussing a possible trip to California next year. few of the issues are for how long and where. Maybe we should wait until we can spend a couple of months and visit them all. MORE >>

Our patch of chardonnay just off Old Sonoma Road in Carneros is purring along. 2006 Turley Wine Cellars Howell Mountain Zinfandel "Rattlesnake Ridge" A whopping 15.9% It's turning out to be a late season, with some predicting we are already two weeks behind last year's late harvest, but veraison has finally come to Napa Valley. MORE >>

It has the mark of being made too easily (by picking out the best barrells in a cellar full of them) by a modest but artful and potent winemaker. The 2006 (which I had previously tasted blind against Danforth's 2003 Sonoma Syrah ) is blackberry in color with musk and blood and pure ripe fruit on the nose. In 2007, in which it rained 9.5 MORE >>