Sept. 30, 2012 Issue
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Tasting Reports
2010 rivals the great 2009 vintage for California Pinot Noir
Posted: September 30, 2012 By James Laube
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Cirq will debut with a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from the Treehouse vineyard
Posted: September 24, 2012 By James Laube
Michael Browne is stepping beyond, but not out of, Kosta Browne.
In 2014, the co-founder and winemaker at the Sonoma County winery synonymous with a stable of fine Pinot Noirs is adding a new wine called Cirq. The 2011 vintage is from Treehouse vineyard, which he and his partners lease in Russian River Valley.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Don't let the weight mislead you: Those ultraheavy bottles hold the same amount of wine as the rest
Posted: September 7, 2012 By James Laube
You have to wonder how many people really like those super-sized wine bottles that most of the ultra-high-end Napa Cabernets come in (though the hefty bottle phenomenon is by no means limited to California). I know many of the vintners who use them like them. Maybe they're saving money on a gym membership by hauling them around all day.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
On a weekend planned to celebrate the couple's success at Chateau St. Jean, they instead mourn the loss of their son
Posted: September 5, 2012 By James Laube
It was a weekend intended to honor two fine winemakers. Instead it turned into mourning for their loss. Margo and Don Van Staaveren were to be feted this past weekend at the Sonoma Valley Wine Auction for their contributions to Sonoma wine. No couple has ever been more deserving. But in as tragic a turn of events as one could imagine, the Van Staaveren's lost their only son, Coby, 22, on Thursday. He was killed in a skateboarding accident in San Luis Obispo, where he was a student entering his senior year at Cal Poly SLO.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Labor Day weekend brings out Napa's wild berry pickers and tomato lovers
Posted: August 31, 2012 By James Laube
The berry people are out, bacon sales are on the uptick and harvest widows (and widowers) are girding themselves for vintage 2012.
The berry people's numbers have been growing for the past few weeks. You see them mostly on back roads, picking the wild blackberries that grow on prickly tangled vines along the streambeds. Early in the season it's tricky finding the ripe berries, because even if they've darkened, they can be tart, as in mouth-puckeringly supersour. Those who prefer riper berries wait.
Aug 31, 2012 Issue
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Columns
Posted: August 31, 2012 By James Laube
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Pine Ridge Vineyards' latest offerings are some of the winery's best in years
Posted: August 29, 2012 By James Laube
Napa Valley's Pine Ridge Vineyards has recently made some of its best wines in years, and the 30-plus-year-old winery could be on the path to making even better California Cabernets and more.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
If recent trends continue, not for a very long time. And here's why
Posted: August 24, 2012 By James Laube
If you've noticed a proliferation of highly rated Napa Cabernets, here's one reason why: The subdivision of Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville has become the source of more and more Cabernets and, consequently, more and more highly rated wines.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
After a decade of mediocre wines, a turnaround
Posted: August 22, 2012 By James Laube
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars has cleaned up its cellar.
After nearly a decade of mediocre red wines, many flawed by the spoilage yeast brettanomyces, the owners of this once prominent Napa Valley winery have released the first vintage of what seem to be clean, complex Cabernets.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
The California wine industry is doing well, all things considered, thanks in part to American wine lovers' enthusiasm for trying new things
Posted: August 2, 2012 By James Laube
I've been surprised, though perhaps I shouldn't have been.
When I travel, the most frequent question I'm asked by friends is, "How is the wine business doing?" People seem genuinely interested knowing that I'm immersed in it.
My standard reply is that the wine economy more or less mirrors that of the U.S. economy. Some areas of the market are strong. Others are weak. The economy as a whole seems to be improving, if not as strongly as the California wine industry has been (value wines—including the improving category of box wines—inevitably bolster the wine market when the economy is down).
