If you are in wine country now, keep all of your senses alert. Harvest is now. If you visit most California wine regions, you can tell there is a lot happening. I've been to something like 11+ California wine appelations in the month of October and the same thing is happening everywhere. You can see it with the tractors driving on the main roads, and in some cases, loaded up with bins of grpaes, just harvested. It can be heard from the back of wineries, as barrels were filled, and fork lifts brought in grapes. It could be smelled ...

I just returned a few days ago from a half day in Napa and two days in Sonoma. I'd been to both regions before, but not during harvest. This time was different. It could be seen with the tractors driving on the main roads, and in some cases pulling grapes in loaded bins just harvested. It could be heard from the back of wineries as new barrels were filed and fork-lifts brought in grapes. It could be smelled around the tasting rooms, that harvest was here. I could sense, see, and hear from winemakers walking by, with a disheveled ...

It's that time of year when the grapes are being harvested and wine is being produced. It's also a time of celebration of the harvest, to enjoy the outdoors with good food and wine, while we still have great weather.

On October 8th, the Santa Barbara Vintners Association put on the annual Celebration of Harvest, held at Rancho Sisquoc winery, in Santa Maria Valley. There was no shortage of media covering this wine event, and I saw many familar friendly faces. Chris Czar was out with his crew taking footage for a television show, while local photographer Bob ...

This is a phrase many of us in the US have heard and used; so please anyone outside the US that might be reading this I am not a cross dresser. I have visted over 100 tasting rooms so far in 2011 from Washington State down to Temecula CA, and had the pleasure of venturing out to nearly a dozen wine festivals. This does not make me any kind of expert, other than I'll have to have a glass surgically removed at some point. This is a simple title to let you know these are some of the wines ...