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February 07, 2010
One hour to the Super Bowl. Time for a checklist:
- Get munchies... check
- Get beer... check
- Pick some wines to drink... partial check
- Make sure I know who is playing... check
Posted by matchvineyards at February 07, 2010 01:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2010
Why does Snoop Dog carry an umbrella?
Fo Drizzle. Well, I thought it was funny. Thanks to my son for that one. It's quite appropriate given Northern California weather this week.
And continuing the totally useless, non-wine-related theme of this blog entry...
I stumbled upon this interesting site: One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence.
Posted by matchvineyards at January 21, 2010 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 14, 2010
Going to Mexico is dangerous
Well, at least the coming back home is. James Suckling, Bureau Chief of Wine Spectator Magazine and Editor for Cigar Aficionado Magazine, shares on his blog what happens when you try to return having forgotten a couple of Cubans and wine in the car. Read the very interesting -- and a bit harrowing -- story.
They're serious about those customs laws.
Posted by matchvineyards at January 14, 2010 08:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2010
Support Doctors Without Borders in Haiti
Posted by matchvineyards at January 13, 2010 09:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2010
Palin to speak to WSWA???
The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America announced that Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker for their convention in April 2010. The WSWA is the national trade organization representing the wholesale tier of the wine and spirits industry.
This is a truly an appropriate pairing.
Gov Palin is a noted expert on wine, wine distribution, and viticulture having for several months governed a state that borders British Columbia, a producer of ice wine.
I believe the organization will be changing their name to WTFWSWA.
Posted by matchvineyards at January 12, 2010 02:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 25, 2009
Video blog by Judd Finklestein will make you chuckle
The Finklestein Family is Napa Valley wine royalty. Okay, perhaps they're more like the wine court jesters. They are fun, funny, eccentric, and make life in wine country just a little bit more interesting. Art and Bunny Finklestein created Whitehall Lane and then moved on to found Judd's Hill. Their son, Judd, follows in their footsteps running the winery now. Check out Judd's off-the-wall video blog: Judd's Enormous Wine Show. I especially like Episode 2. I'm ready to order tshirts for every kid I know.
Posted by matchvineyards at December 25, 2009 05:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 08, 2009
It got a little cold at Butterdragon Tuesday morning
Posted by matchvineyards at December 08, 2009 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2009
I am not in this calendar and you should be glad... Napa Uncovered
The 2010 Napa Uncovered Calendar is now available. From their website:"it is a 12 month calendar featuring Napa Valley farmers and ranchers as you have never seen them. The proceeds from this cleverly revealing calendar will support the efforts of Napa County Farm Bureau to protect the agricultural land that provides a high quality of life for all rural and urban citizens of Napa County."
I'd like to support the Farm Bureau, but am not sure I am secure enough to start using the calendar.
Posted by matchvineyards at November 21, 2009 09:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2009
Credit Card companies attempt an end run around new regulations
Earlier this year, Congress passed credit card reform with the aim of preventing card companies from predatory and unfair practices. The changes were scheduled to take effect February 2010. One can guess why the companies received such a long lead time before the regulations started. They are big contributors after all.
The credit card companies are rushing to jack up rates and tack on additional charges ahead of these new regulations. This week I noticed that both Chase and Citi had jacked my interest rates on personal cards to above 20%. This is in spite of exemplary payment history. In fact, it's extremely rare that I even carry a balance. Nevertheless, as a business owner, when it gets more expensive for consumers to shop, it hurts me. What a stupid thing as we approach the holiday season when we hope the American consumer is able to return to the stores.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives has voted to rush implementation of some of the regulations and freeze rates by December 1. The Senate should do the same. The Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, has a form letter than you can fill out to be sent to your Senators or you can find your Senator on your own and voice your opinion.. Let him or her know how you feel about the delay in credit card reform and urge them to join the House in pushing up enactment.
And watch your mailbox. Don't be surprised if you get a little notice from your credit card company that you're getting screwed too.
Posted by matchvineyards at November 19, 2009 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 05, 2009
Play Wine Tycoon. It looks less expensive than doing it for real.
I've got to admit it. I'm tempted to spend the $20 to order this game.
From plant to pick to press to pour, run your very own French vineyard!Create the vineyard of your dreams in 10 of the most important wine regions of France. Commanding operations from your very own French chateau, build your winery, plant and tend your vines through all four seasons of the year, and hire staff to harvest and process your grapes. Produce 50 French wines such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Pinot Gris and Champagne from more than 40 different grape varietals, all in the ultimate goal of becoming a wealthy wine baron!
-Wine Tycoon Website.
Please note, I have no connection with nor is this an endorsement of this game.
Posted by matchvineyards at October 05, 2009 09:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 26, 2009
Random Playlist for a Saturday AM
1. Hard Habit to Break - Chicago
2. Happy Xmas (War is Over) - The Moody Blues
3. Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele
4. Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
5. Coming Home - Fleetwood Mac
6. One Irish Rover - Van Morrison
7. The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
8. I Think I Smell A Rat - White Stripes
9. Lady Madonna - Beatles
10. Bye Bye Love - Simon & Garfunkel
Feel free to share what happens when you hit "shuffle" on your iPod/MP3 player.
Posted by matchvineyards at September 26, 2009 08:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 07, 2009
We only make it for special holidays.
This morning we discovered we didn't have enough challah to make french toast for Labor Day guests. We started calling around St Helena. Sunshine Grocery? Nope and in fact we couldn't find anyone who knew what challah was. Model Bakery? Nope. Safeway? Nope, but the gal checked and found out that the Safeway bakery does make it but she explained they bake challah "only on special holidays... you know... like Christmas." LOL.
Posted by matchvineyards at September 07, 2009 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2009
Instant wine collection and nice book available for $1 million.
Actually, at today's exchange rate, the as-yet-unpublished 640,000 British pounds book comes out to $1,036,811.40 but who wants to quibble over pennies? British publisher Kraken Opus will be producing an 850 page book which features the "100 top wineries in the world" as selected by an unnamed panel of experts. The book will be accompanied by 10 bottles of wine from each winery and only 100 books will be produced.
So, if you've got a mil just burning a hole in your pocket, you can pick up 600 bottles of some undoubtedly great wine and undoubtedly a very pretty book. Or you can order 13,888 bottles of Match. Heck, I could probably even be persuaded to do a volume discount on an order that size.
Posted by matchvineyards at August 27, 2009 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 22, 2009
Iona or "Once when I felt stupid while naked"
Think Napa Valley. Think wine. Think food. You should also think "spa." Nothing refreshes the body after a strenuous day wine tasting and eating like a massage, mud bath, aroma therapy, or some other rejuvenating technique from the non-traditional healing arts. Between you and me, I just like it ‘cuz it feels good. It’s really nice that there are a lot of places in the Valley that one can get a massage with little notice. This story has to deal with one such visit.
But first, the stage must be set. One should not forget that the Napa Valley, with all its “landed gentry” feel and wine country lifestyle, is definitely located within Northern California. You’ve heard of Northern California? You know, where Berkeley is located. We won’t be getting in to politics here, but it is important for one to understand two things: a) my previous perception of someone working as a massage therapist is that they were probably not leaning really far to the right and b) I’m a talker during a massage and the last thing I want to be thought of while lying there in my birthday suit is that I’m uncool.
Anyway, one day I “assumed the position” on my stomach in a massage. The therapist came in and introduced herself as “Iona.” This didn’t phase me at all. If one gets enough massages, he runs in to many Crystals, Sunshines, Harmonies, Starrs, etc. Just par for the course here in Northern California where the name you were born with is actually just a suggestion on what you should use for the rest of your life.
“Nice to meet you, blah, blah, blah…” I drifted off into a peaceful state, but before long, my mind wandered back in to reality and I started wondering to myself, “hmmm… Iona. I wonder where that comes from.” Asking her the origin of her name would reveal me both as enlightened and cool. I expected some story – just a little flakey – about how it was Celtic for “Wise Searcher” or Wapoo for “Evening Dew.” You get the idea.
Iona, without skipping a beat, explained. “Well, I’m from the Midwest. And when I was born, my father didn’t know what to name me. He looked outside and there sat an old, rusted out International Harvester tractor. But most of the letters had rusted away. What was left was IONA.”
Posted by matchvineyards at July 22, 2009 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 12, 2009
The "glamour" of Wine Country living
Ah, the glamour! They never show this stuff on the TV travelogue In Wine Country.
Our garbage collection is on Tuesday and as we mainly spend weekends up in Napa, I usually take the cans down to the main road before departing on Sunday. I decided to be lazy and rather than rolling them down through our meadow, I would load them on our little 6 x 4 John Deere "Gator." I was not dressed for farm work wearing shorts and flip-flops.
I rolled one of the cans towards the gator and looked down. A small rattlesnake, about a foot long, had been hiding under the can. So much for rattlers avoiding humans! This one was hanging out 10 feet from our front door. Fortunately, he seemed as determined to get away from me as I was of him. I ran to the shed and grabbed a spade and (voila!) I had dispatched my first rattlesnake. It was a youngster, with just two sections on his rattle, but he was definitely striking at the spade. I learned later that the babies are more dangerous because they tend to inject a full load of toxins when striking while adults may not release poison at all.
It was with just a little bit of swagger that I called and told my son that I had killed a rattlesnake. (The rattler may have grown in length and ferocity in the telling.)
What is really weird about this encounter with the wild is just a few hours before, as I was moving some wine around my wine storage room, I noticed that I had apparently stepped on (and killed) a scorpion.
I think it may be time to sell it all and give up this glitzy life.
Posted by matchvineyards at June 12, 2009 07:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2009
A long day of wine in Wine Country
Last Friday -- I think I'm just now recovering a week later -- was quite a day of wine tasting. I never take notes during such experiences but do try to at least write down the names of wines I would recommend for my own purchases and others. If I mention the wine, I would recommend it but an * indicates that I found the wine particularly outstanding. Note, I only tried a fraction of the wines available at these events. One would have to be some sort of super taster on a paid vacation to work through all offerings.
Taste Napa Valley - part of the Napa Vintners' Auction Napa Valley. This event featured numerous wineries pouring their current releases, many local restaurants offering wonderful edibles, the closing hours of the online e-Auction with computers set up for last-minute bids, and the barrel auction of future releases. Personal observation and confirmed by several vintners was that bidding was down from previous years. Many bidders at the barrel auction were able to pick up some future cases of quite renowned wines for less than the ultimate release price. I was pleased however with our E-Auction lot which went for $5101. Ultimately the auction raised $5.7 million for local Napa Valley non-profits. This is a little more than half of what was raised last year.
Bottled Highlights:
*2007 Truchard Roussane
*2008(?) Heitz Grignolino Rose
2007(?) Broman Sauvignon Blanc
2007 Madonna Estate Pinot Grigio
*2005 Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon
Barrel Highlights and there were many reflecting the excellent 2007 Napa vintage:
2007 Blackbird Contrarian Bordeaux Blend
2007 Crocker Starr Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 DR Stephens Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Etude Cabernet Sauvignon
*2007 Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Keenan Cabernet Sauvignon
*2008 Mi Sueno Cabernet Sauvignon - if you don't know Mi Sueno's wines, you should
*2007 Realm Beckstoffer Dr Crane Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Roy Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
*2007 Sonador Cellers Cabernet Sauvignon "The Dreamer" - a winery I'd never heard of but I think one to watch, very charming, lush, approachable, and I believe they said the price point of this wine is in the $50's
*2007 Viader Cabernet Sauvignon
Next, it was on to Herb Lamb tasting at Acme Wines in St Helena. They were pouring their 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, 2006 EII Red Wine, and *2005 HL Cabernet Sauvignon. All were good to outstanding. If you've not had a chance to meet Jennifer and Herb Lamb, do it. They were wonderful, down to earth, and charming people. It was also a pleasure to meet face-to-face winemaker Michael Trujillo after so many years. His wife planned my wedding back in 2001.
Cheers St Helena - this is the first year for this event held the first Friday of each month (starting last month and ending in October). The merchants of St Helena stay open late and most have a winery pouring inside plus many have restaurants providing munchies. Tickets are $5 a taste, $35 for a VIP one night unlimited tastings, or $100 VIP unlimited for the whole season. This is not your run-of-the-mill wine festival. They limit the number of winery participants to 50 local wineries and there is a waiting list to participate. (I know, I'm on it.) This differs as usually these types of events are begging for participants. Sign of the times, I guess.
Highlights:
Scott Harvey Wines - a new one for me. I liked their 2007 Jana Rose (Napa) and their *2005 Old Vines Zinfandel (Amador County)
2006 Chappellet Mountain Cuvee - "hot" nose, but delicious taste
*2005 Venge Vineyards "Scout's Honor" Zinfandel blend
2006 Bouchaine Pinot Noir Carneros
*2007 Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc
2006 Miller Wine Works Grenache Shannon Ridge Vineyard, Lake County - another new one for me. I'm not normally a big Grenache drinker but thought this one was quite attractive
2006 Pride Cabernet Sauvignon - undoubtedly this will be a great wine but it's almost painful to drink now. Honestly, I'm surprised they would choose such a baby to show at this sort of mass venue.
I finished up the evening with the delicious Oysters Bingo and the Brutus Caeser sitting at the bar of Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. One final "new" discovery, 2006 Six Sigma Sauvignon Blanc (Lake County) by the glass and a small taste from a neighbor's bottle of *2006 Inman Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.
And then I slept.
Posted by matchvineyards at June 11, 2009 09:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 10, 2009
Is "reblog" a word?
I hope so, because that's what this is. I am editing (or in my mind, reblogging) my very first blog post that was originally published on our site on March 1, 2005. That's back when we first launched our site... back right before we released our first wine. It seems longer than 4 years ago.
In March 2005, I struggled to capture with bits and bytes the passion and experience that we wine enthusiasts share. Wine is personal. Whether as part of a big celebration or an intimate evening, a bottle of fine wine adds far more than just liquid refreshment. I thought that a blog would be a great way for me to share our story with you and provide a forum for you to share your's. Many of our friends old and new wanted to know what it was like to start and run a winery. Well, a lot has changed in the online world in those four years. (A lot has changed in our wine world as well, but we'll save that for later posts.) Blogs have gone from being a quaint piece of software supplementing a web site to being major media and information sources. The Presidential election of 2008 proved that blogging had gone mainstream -- or perhaps I should say Mainstreet.
And now we have Social Media. I'm not sure if anyone can predict where Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and all their e-kin are headed. I know many folks think of these apps as toys or a waste of time -- if you're reading this, you probably aren't in that group -- and many who think they represent the biggest advance in digital interaction since email. We'll see. But one thing is clear. Businesses (including tiny wine businesses) ignore all of these new communication avenues at their own peril. A business will risk missing a whole generation of customers if they simply decide that a static webpage, word-of-mouth, and traditional print media will bring success.
On the back of our bottles, we mention that there are stories behind every bottle of wine. With the relaunch of our Vintner's Journal blog tied in with our new Facebook page, we're starting a new chapter in our story and a new way of telling it. I hope you enjoy.
I'll be reblogging (with some edits) several old posts over the next few months.
Posted by matchvineyards at June 10, 2009 06:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 04, 2005
Our dog is the cutest ever.
Should I have anything else to say about other topics, I'll be sure to post it here.
Which reminds me... have you seen a picture of our dog?
Posted by matchvineyards at May 04, 2005 06:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
