Bubble, Bubble - No Toil or Trouble!
filed under: Winning Wines

A big thanks to Jessica Yadegaran over at the Contra Costa Times for interviewing me for her very cool piece on cheap New Year's bubblies. Check it out at InsideBayArea.com, and in the event this catches you before you're off to buy your NYE bubbles, hopefully you'll find a few suggestions to your liking for fewer than 20 bucks. Highlights include domestic bubbly from New Mexico, Cremant from France (looks and tastes a lot like Champagne but costs less than half as much) and my all-time favorite bubbly, sweet red Brachetto d'Acqui from Piemonte. Most of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's to making '09 a banner year, no matter the economic clime. As my mother likes to say, "this, too, will pass..." In the mean time, we've got wine. ;)
Image: Donna Mehalko, illustrator, Hip Tastes: The Fresh Guide to Wine
Posted by Courtney
at 04:20 PM •
One Ginormous Step Forward for New Yorkers
filed under: Regional Spotlight
Hey all you New York readers out there - great news is just about to fall on your winter-embattled doorsteps. That's right, if NY Gov. David Paterson's revenue-raising proposal passes the state's legislature, you'll soon be able to buy wine at grocery stores - just like the rest of us in the 35 states that already allow it. Yay! The move is expected to bring in $100 to $200 million additional in franchise fees each year from merchants, and it should also make wine prices more competitive across the board (note: a slight tax increase on wine will accompany these changes). Your wine buying options will also swell from an estimated 2,400 retailers (liquor stores) to nearly 20,000 as supermarkets come on board with the booze sales. Bravo!
Posted by Courtney
at 09:00 AM •
Sexy New Winery Dubuts In the Snow
filed under: Regional Spotlight

Those of us living here know it's been positively FREEZING the past few days in San Francisco, but little did we know it's actually been SNOWING in wine country. Check out these pics of soon-to-be-opened, Gold-LEED certified winery (word has it it'll be the only one in Cali), Cade. A new venture from the PlumpJack Group (Go Gavin & fam!), Cade is slated to open its eco-friendly doors to invitation-only guests beginning in March 2009. Their PR team sent me these snaps of snow that fell on the gorgeous winery earlier today, and I just had to share. Clearly, the Juan Carlos Fernandez/Lail Group-designed facility - which is being billed as "one of the architectural showplaces of Northern California's wine country" by PlumpJack's PR machine - is a stunner. Can't wait to check it out myself - albeit in better weather.
Click "continue reading" for another snap.

Posted by Courtney
at 06:17 PM •
Comments (0)