Blog entries

Napa Valley Burger Battles..Calistoga!

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:28:32 +0100

The Weekly Calistogan featured our competition recently:

Burgergeddon' heats up

Hydro Grill's dubbed best burger in Calistoga; can Alex conquer Napa Valley?
By John Waters Jr.
Editor
Thursday, July 15, 2010

There’s a new battle being waged; not over oil, or gold, land water oRead More...

Burger Battles

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:19:38 +0100

written by Martin Reyes

On May 31st, Memorial Day and the last day of the little-known “Burger Appreciation Month,” a small group of hungry gatherers met at St. Helena Wine Center with only one thing in common: a deep love of burgers. They were to become eight judges on a valuable mission; their Read More...

Sibling Rivalry: Napa Vs. Sonoma Syrah!

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:03:51 +0100

Sibling Rivalry, Napa Syrah vs. Sonoma Sryah.

The third tasting in our series was all about Syrah. Syrah doesn’t really face a challenge with geography as much as it faces the challenge of recognition. While people clamor to fill their glasses with Cab, Zin, Pinot, or Petite Sirah, they often Read More...

Sibling Rivalry Napa Cab. Vs. Sonoma Cab-THE RESULTS!

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:35:24 +0100

Thanks to Andrew Healy and his brilliant scoring method, we were able to release the results of the judges scores early on at the Sibling Rivalry: Napa vs. Sonoma Cab event on Sunday, Feb 21. The highest scoring wine was a Sonoma wine, Stryker Sonoma. The two second highest scoring wines were Rutherford Grove and Ehlers Estate, both from Napa.&nbRead More...

ZAP!

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:15:40 +0100

ZAP!

I happily attended the Grand Zinfandel Tasting at the ZAP festival on Saturday. Fort Mason was brimming with sunshine, excited zinfandel fans, taxi cabs waiting in line, taco trucks, grass skirts, leis, tribal masks and wine overflowing in two buildings. A-G in one, H-Z in the other. We were on the hunt for small wineries with great zin. ZAP didn't disappoint! I handed out quite a few business cards, hoping at least a few will beRead More...

Sibling Rivalry Napa Vs. Sonoma Zin..THE RESULTS!

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:34:57 +0100

Sibling Rivalry: The Results I know everyone is dying to know about the results for the Sibling Rivalry Tasting so I’ll get right to it. The judges judged ten wines listed below in the order in which they were tasted. #1 ’06 Woodenhead Martinelli Rd Old Vine Zin/Sonoma County/Russian River #2 ’07 Bonneau Dry Creek Valley/Mauriston Vineyard/Sonoma County/Dry Creek Valley #3’07 RobeRead More...

Small Lots Big Wines' Wine Star Awards

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:57:10 +0100

Man of the Year: Aaron DeBeers, Verismo Winery.

We chose Aaron for being a "can do" man. When the D'Ambrosio family asked Aaron, their vineyard maRead More...

Happy Trails

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:39:18 +0100

Wines That Give Back

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:52:04 +0100

The holidays, ready or not, are upon us. Tis the season to give, and give, and give. For me, this has always been stressful. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, love watching the excitement in my kids faces as the big day approaches, love spending time with family, and most importantly, love the reason behind Christmas. But as a single mom tRead More...

The Soil of My Soil

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:34:33 +0100

Chase cellars helps out their friends by crushing grapes before the rain

The title is from a line in a song that I’ve always liked. “The soil of my soul.” While the song is not about wine, the line reminds me of many vintners who, with each planting, ripping, and harvest, leave a bit of their soul behind in their vineyardRead More...

Nomadic Wines

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:06:20 +0100

About 10 years ago I became obssesssed with researching my eastern european heritage. During that research I learned about a group of people called Rusyns . This is a slavic group of people who have their own culture, own language, their own super star (Andy Warhol was Rusyn) and yet have never had their owRead More...

Rustic Wines

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:53:45 +0100

Rustic Wines
Perhaps one of the best things about small production wineries is the variety in the types of experiences you can have at one. There are those wineries where a wealthy individual purchases his dream wine estate, buys the best equipment, builds the most beautiful building, and hires the best people to make the kind of wine he/she likes. Rudd and Hartwell are examples of this type of winery. The experience at these wineries is elegant, and can be a little surreal, as if for tRead More...

Welcome Home

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:52:49 +0100

The theme of this month's tour is "respect the white." In honor of both the word "Respect" and for white wine, I thought I would share this story with you.

If you've read my posts before or are my facebook friend, then you know I am not very good at keeping my personal life completely separated from business. One thing I have shared with everyone is that I have a son who was in AfghanistaRead More...

Jeans and a T-Shirt

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:57:46 +0100

Jeans and a T-Shirt

The first time I visited Black Cat Vineyard, Tracey Riechow, owner and winemaker, compared her Syrah to a little black dress. It's the type of dress you can pull out of your closet for any occasion. Her Syrah could also come out of the closet for any food occasion. But not every meal is an occasion (though Tracey might argue with me on that point). As a matter of fact most meals are...well..they are Jeans and a t-shirt. It's your meatloaf, lasagna, and....hot dogs.

In Defense of Napa

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:39:54 +0100

Tasting at Summit Lake Vineyards...this is the REAL Napa

In defense of Napa:

I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations with people regarding their impression of Napa. I’m often saddened by what I hear. There are many misconceptions about Napa that I am here to dispel.

Napa is all CorRead More...

Balancing Act

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:04:08 +0100

Balancing Act

Wine is a lot like potato salad. A really good deli will offer many different types of potato salad. There's old fashioned, sour cream, dill, red potato, oil and vinegar, or the green bean and crispy fingerling potato salad we feature on SmaRead More...

Wow Wines

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:23:53 +0100

(my thoughts following last week's dinner)

Every month I do a private dinner for members of the winery whom I feature on the monthly virtual tour. Chef Elizabeth Binder does the cooking and the wine pairing. It seems like each time we do this I lRead More...

Timid Tasting

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:31:04 +0100

Do you sometimes feel intimidated when tasting wine with certain groups, people, or wineries? Believe it or not, I do too. Even though I've grown up in this valley, worked in the industry, and have this cute little website, I still can feel less then wine savvy amongst certain groups. Just the other day I was at a tasting with some others in the industry. They went into lengthy descriptions of the fruit, acid, feel, etc. Then they began comparing it to French wines, "BeRead More...

Be Your Own "Emperor of Wine"

becky@smalllotwinetours.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:44:48 +0100

Amazon.com and credit cards are dangerous things when you are home sick with the flu. As I sat on my couch this past winter fighting an onslaught of vicious viruses I found myself bored to death with TV. Besides, this website has sparked a hunger in me to learn more about wine. However, not in a way you may think. As I peruse Amazon’s pages and pages of wine related books, I find it hard to find a book that sparks my interests. Books on hRead More...