In Paso Robles, the name Neil Collins is associated with quality wines and a couple of wineries come to mind - Tablas Creek and Lone Madrone, which are located just down the road from each other. After visiting Tablas Creek and tasting many of their Rhône style wines, it was a no-brainer to...
As we were departing Justin Vineyards, the tasting room staff offered us suggestions on destinations to visit next. We were looking for some small to medium-sized gems that would offer us the most unique experience, and one place that topped that list was Halter Ranch Vineyard. Halter Ranch is...
Located off California Highway 128 is Storybook Mountain Vineyards, the family-owned estate and organic winery at the northern end of Napa Valley. I'll be honest - I had never heard of Storybook Mountain prior to a friend introducing me to their elegant Zinfandels. My friend, John, is a...
After our trip to Chateau Montelana, we drove down the Silverado Trail in search of a short pit stop at a small winery to kill some time. We had no idea what we were about to encounter when we came upon Lava Vine's tasting room. Located in the heart of Calistoga, the driveway to the tasting room...
Founded in 1996 and producing their first vintage in 1999, Quixote Winery is one of the Stags' Leap District's hottest new wineries. Carl Doumani, owners of the neighboring Stags' Leap Winery, wanted to create a small, boutique winery that focuses almost exclusively on one of his favorite...
One of the highlights of our recent trip to Napa and Sonoma was Stags' Leap Winery. The first thing that a lot of folks I speak to say is, Yea, the Artemus right? No, not THAT Stags' Leap. My fiancé likes to remind people that this particular Stags' Leap positions the apostrophe after the S (not...
During our most recent trip to Napa, we came across a little time to take a stroll around St. Helena. This is a gorgeous, small town located in the center of historical Napa Valley that provides visitors with boutique shops, restaurants, and cafes along the route to the surrounding wine country....
A local wine shop in our neighborhood in Northern Virginia by the name of Swirl & Sip often hosts winemakers from every corner of the Earth to pour and discuss the wines that they produce on a regular basis. We had the pleasure of meeting Dan Zepponi, proprietor of Valley of the Moon, at a...
When most visitors arrive at a winery, the last thing they really focus on is the history of the land... unless they are visiting Scribe Winery. Most wineries also have tasting rooms where large groups flock around a small bar, jam through the doorways, litter the grounds with blankets, or stand...
As we left our tour of San Francisco (cut short by the desire to explore wine country) and headed North, we passed the Welcome to Sonoma sign and were greeted to our right with Ram's Gate Winery high on the hillside - the first winery just over the Sonoma line (from San Francisco). The land of...
Many of my articles are focused on Virginia wineries or wineries in whichever state I have the luxury of traveling to during my work trips. For those who are not aware, I grew up in the smallest state in the United States - Rhode Island. When most people think New England, they think cold...
One of the first wines I ever tasted from Paso Robles was the Justin Cabernet Sauvignon. This rich, velvety, complex, age-worthy Cab was packed with layers upon layers of fruit, and it completely caught me off guard. When we made our excursion from Napa down to Paso, Justin Vineyards was, of...