Winemaker’s Corner
The Culture of Aging of Wine
In my mind the aging of wine is definitely a culture. Just think about it. Is it so obvious that a wine will improve with aging? Quite the contrary. If you consider wine to be a food, like you should, the quality of all foods, without exception, will decline with...
The Art of Blending
I have some great plans for 2020. I am putting together a workshop to teach you how to make blends. But first listen to this: The tradition of making blends from different wine varieties, practiced mainly in the old-world wine regions, dates back to at...
The Gallery Collection Club – A Historical Perspective
Before I started the Gallery Collection Club in 2003, I looked around to see what other wineries were doing. I was surprised to find out that all they were doing was packaging 2 – 6 bottles of their regular wines that they were selling in their tasting room every day...
“Noble Grapes” and Other Wine Metaphors
Have you ever run across the term “noble grapes” and wondered what it means? I have, many times. And to be truthful I wasn’t so sure what it really meant until I investigated. I did not expect to find out that “noble grapes” is a term used to describe the grape...
Wine Snobs and their Cronies
I analyzed this subject very carefully and arrived at the conclusion that there are three kinds of wine snobs: The Regular Wine Snob, the Fake Wine Snob and the Wannabe Wine Snob. In this article I will describe each one of them at length.The Regular Wine Snob...
“2 + 2 = 1”…Our Newest Wine…A Fascinating Story…
I am very excited to introduce a new wine called “2+2=1.” This is serious, I am not joking. It’s the kind of math that only Einstein can understand. I created this wine in collaboration with JOLO, a very fine winery from North Carolina, recently nominated as one...
Terroir (Revisited) and how it relates to the culture of aging wine
While I already covered the subject of Terroir in my January 2018 Winemaker’s Corner, I decided to revisit this topic since I feel that I left this article somewhat unfinished. If you are interested in reading my first article, please visit my blog, which you...
Old Vines Make Better Wines – Myth or Reality
It’s quite common among wine drinkers to believe that “Old Vines Make Better Wines,” since this statement has been traditionally supported by many influential wine magazines and reviewers. In my opinion, this is not a question that can be answered with a “yes”...
Cloning – An Old Art in a New World
My winemaking career began in the year 2000 after my wife Elisheva and I decided to purchase 209 acres of raw land in the Shenandoah Valley AVA in El Dorado County. Within a couple of years, we built a winery and planted 20 acres of vineyards, which were expanded to...
Terroir… and AVA’s (American Viticultural Areas) Are they one and the same?
If you have been to any of my “Tasting with the Winemaker” sessions in our tasting room, chances are you heard me saying, “A wine has a sense of place.” What this really means is that a wine acquires some unique characteristics from the geographical place that the...