In Vino Veritas

It has been a little while since I last wrote. Which is a bummer, because I have had so many fun wine experiences lately. The problem is that I have just been enjoying them for myself. I went tasting in Napa on several different occasions, and hit up some faves like La Rochelle, Darioush, Honig, Frog’s Leap, Round Pond, and Signorello. I had wonderfully friendly experiences at all of them. I have also had so many kooky ideas rattling around…

You are in for a treat. This post comes from one of my favorite wine writers. He wrote this just for our enjoyment, so without further ado... Robert Vardanian's first Weeklygrape article. Today we discuss a very specific and highly fantastic wine called… Williams & Humbert “Jalifa” Amontillado VORS Williams & Humbert is a large firm that produces wines throughout Spain as well as brandies, rums, and most importantly… sherry. Sherry is essentially a wine…

The other day some friends and I went up to Lompoc. Now I know what you’re thinking… Lompoc?, but they only have a prison and a military base. I went there for neither. I went for the relatively new phenomena, the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. As bizarre as it may seem, a group of wineries opened tasting rooms in a warehouse complex that enables a visitor to taste a plethora, a veritable…

Hello, my fabulous readers. It is I, Jonathan Hood, and I would like to introduce you to your new favorite wine writer. Her name is Chloe Dickson and she is British. Now I know what you're saying to yourself subvocally as you read this... British!?! Is she going to have a funny accent in her writing? My answer to you is... yes. There. I've said it. Now, without further…

What do Danny DeVito, Steve Martin, and Kyle Maclachlan have in common? Besides being really down to earth, easy going individuals, I’ve helped them all pick out wine recently. It’s fun having a surprise guest that you’ve admired for years randomly show up and interact with you. Kyle Maclachlan of Twin Peaks fame has his own wine label from Washington that’s killer good. Pursued by bear and Little Bear are his two flagship labels. When asked where the name came…

It was a day like any other. The sun came up as usual. The Earth was spinning near the equator at 465 meters per second like it does as it's whipped around the galaxy. Americans drank another 400 million cups of coffee as they do every day. I woke up as I do most days, but this day was different than most. It was different because I was going wine tasting while most of the world was working. I guess…

I went paragliding between skyscrapers yesterday. It was late bordering on early. A few of us broke into the Arco tower in Downtown LA. That was a chore in and of itself, with two guys on security lookout, one relooping footage, one attending the locks, and the last of us sporting the gear. We reached the roof in twelve minutes, and then spent the next ten toasting with wine atop the LA skyline. Using Go cameras strapped to our helmets…

Disclaimer: there is only a little bit about wine in this one I was driving on the freeway today, as I do every day. Heh, that reminded of Pinky & the Brain… “What are we going to do tonight Brain? Same thing we do every night… try to take over the world!!!” So, I was parked on the freeway in rush hour traffic, and I listened to comedy. Ah sweet comedy. I told a friend that I like to imagine giant…

I’ve been asked how I choose what I write about, and my response is usually that I write about freedom, justice, life, and three legged pigeons… okaaaay, maybe not so much the first three. I have a hard time grasping the fact that anywhere up to a million people read what I write. I see the numbers and it’s staggering. I think to myself “Self… how should you entertain such a vast sum of people? Should I just write about…

Life has been odd lately. I think I'm heading in one direction and then the earth heaves beneath my feet tossing me in another direction altogether. I thought for a short while that wine would be pushed to the back seat for the time being, and then out of the blue plans changed. I moved from Los Angeles to the North Bay and then just moments later the Earth shifted and I found myself rolling back down the Pinball machine smack…

    Aging wine is a tricky practice. How many times have you been so enthralled with a wine when you went wine tasting that you bought a whole case, or maybe you just purchased a few bottles because the price ticket was exorbitant? This is kind of like when I tasted the 2003 Lazzarito vineyard Barolo by Ettore Germano. The grape is Nebbiolo and it was giving off intense lush aromatics that I…