For wine lovers, October is Merlot Month and time to refamiliarize yourself with the Merlot grape. For eight years, wine enthusiasts and producers have joined together for #merlotme to promote this noble red grape. Merlot went out of favor when in 2004, the movie Sideways snubbed the grape while bringing notoriety to Pinot Noir and

Long Meadow Ranch: Full Circle Farming At Its Best
Long Meadow Ranch is a pioneer in the concept of full circle farming. This notion plays a vital role in every aspect of their enterprise. This family-owned agricultural estate grows grapes, olives, fruits, and vegetables produces wine and olive oil as well as raises cattle, sheep, and chickens. Combining organic and sustainable practices to achieve

Titus Vineyards: Half a Century of a Napa Vineyard
Celebrating fifty years of growing grapes in Napa Valley, Titus Vineyards shows us that a family’s determination to hold on to the land they purchased in 1968 and still sustain the quality of wine that Napa is known for can prevail. Today in Napa we see many wineries selling out to the big conglomerates. It

Stars of Napa Valley: Presenting the best of Cabernet Sauvignon
In terms of wine, it was a star-studded event as there were many new shining wine faces to meet at Stars of Napa Valley, a wine tasting put on by WineLA. The tasting mostly featured red wines from Napa with a concentration on Cabernet Sauvignon. Napa Valley Wineries Although I love to visit my old

Wine to enhance the holiday spirit
Thanksgiving weekend brought some very special wines to our table. These wines will enhance any holiday get together or special occasion. Each wine merits mention on their own and are excellent examples of their varietals and style. The perfect appetizer goes with is a sparkling wine. Chandon Blanc De Noirs with its sweet and savory

Stars of Cabernet: A tribute to Cabernet Sauvignon
Yearning to discover a new winery can be the most intriguing part of attending a wine tasting and this year’s Stars of Cabernet, presented by WineLA, provided an opportunity to experience some superb wines from wineries not yet on Written Palette’s radar. There were six wineries that made an impression along with one old favorite.

Rombauer Vineyards: Sharing the joy of making wine
For many in the Napa wine industry, life began in the 1970s. You had the Judgment of Paris, which essentially put Napa Valley on the map from the world’s perspective, but at the same time, you had many lesser-known pioneers who were forging their way to make their statement in wine. One family that moved

Arcudi Wines: The wine behind one man’s leap of faith
Life takes many twists and turns, and for many winemakers, their career beginnings drove them down quite a different path. Besides the approach to winemaking, it is this past that can also define the future of their style of winemaking and especially true for Tony Arcudi, Arcudi Wines. Being of Italian descent, Tony grew up