Day 1: Began when 18 WSET students landed in McMinnville at Hotel Oregon. Located in the heart of the Willamette Valley, Hotel Oregon is an authentic styled tavern and inn (circa wild wild west) that feels more like a guest house than a hotel. After a quick sip of house-made brew, we headed out for our first winery visit at one of the area's oldest wineries, Eyrie Vineyards. Founded by the late (and great) David Lett, the Eyrie tasting room and winery [...]

Whether you are hosting a gathering in your backyard or attending a city-wide event such as our Taste of Hudson and Taste of Cleveland, long weekends such as Labor Day Weekend always centers around food and wine. While we may consider ourselves a progressive  society, simple pleasures never change. We all gotta eat and we all gotta drink; perhaps not wine, but you get the picture. When it comes to food - politics, race, gender and religion (to some extent) [...]

Earlier this week, I tasted with Robert Hall of Robert Hall Winery in Cellar Door. He was visiting the area and brought several different flavors including a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc and a flavorfull Rhone Valley inspired blend called Rhone de Robles. While his wines impressed, it was the man himself that got my attention. A true grape farmer, Robert has been working among the vines since day one and knows exactly what is going on with each of his vines. [...]

This week starts my weekly blurb (Wine on the Wave) about wine on Cleveland's WNWV 107.3 FM jazz station The WAVE. While I have chatted wine on the radio many times before, I am very excited about this weekly session as it has the potential to provide a strong platform for wine education. Talking about wine or sharing thoughts about wine is an important part of wine appreciation and I cannot wait to nuture and grow Wine on the WAVE. Clevelanders can catch [...]

Chatting about value wines became trendy when the economy took a fall ,but most of us have been chatting about value wines for years. While it is easy to build a cellar with a wad of cash in one hand and a Wine Spectator in the other, buying wines that offer quality at a reasonable price takes more research and time. In fact, I love it when someone comes into Cellar Door with a value bottle to try. Personally, I like to taste [...]

While I am not a fan of extruded corks (hate the work involved in getting them off the worm) ZaZa from Spain exactly what one might expect in a festively named rose. Deep cranberry hue with loads of red flower, strawberry and juicy cherry aromas along with a hint of pepper spice. Dry with crisp acidity, the wine was quaffable and fun. The alcohol was a bit high (14%) but thankfully the wine has enough fruit to carry the extra [...]

When discussing the legs or tears of a wine, I often joke that "alcohol and sugar contribute to fat legs in women and in wine." It usually gets a laugh, but more importantly it makes people remember the note. So what do we mean by the "legs" of a wine? Basically, the legs of a wine refers to the tearing effect on the side of a glass of wine due to surface tension. Here's the Skinny Science you need to know: If water molecules had [...]

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Italy produces a lot of wine, not all top quality, but each year it vies with France as the world’s largest producer. In a country where wine is part of everyday life, Italian winemakers commonly placed quantity over quality by producing jugs of table wine rather than fine wine. Lucky for us, that attitude has changed. Gone are the wicker-covered bottles of Chianti that doubled as candleholders. Today the quality of Italian wines has never been higher making it an [...]

Got a visit today from Ayra Campbell, daughter of Patrick Campbell - owner and winemaker of Laurel Glen. She was in Cleveland for the day and I was happy to have the opportunity to sample their wines.  Known in the USA for their fantasticly balanced Cabernet Sauvignon, (think black fruit, velvety tannins, refreshing acidity, moderately high alcohol with a hint of Turkish spices and you'll get the picture) I was excited to taste their line up from Mendoza which included: Terra [...]