You want 25 cases of high-end Cabernet from a great Napa Valley Vineyard? I thought I heard you right. Just give Crush Pad a call, they'll do the rest... all it takes is about $10,000...

More than ever wine and web seem to be mixing in new and interesting ways. Just recently Jeff Playter, the founder of RadCru, emailed me to let me know that an event dubbed Wine 2.0 will be taking place on Nov 2 at the Varnish Fine Art Gallery and Wine Bar. The goal of the conference (which ... and discuss the ways wine producers, retailers and media are “using technology to change the way wine...

We had a very nice meal at the Crush Wine Bar last week. What I like best about the wine program is that the list is quite broad covering old and new world but not so huge that you need 45 minutes to find the right bottle. The prices appear to be double the LCBO/retail pricing. Any list ... on the 2004 Chave St. Joseph but in hindsight, this wine really needs several years before it should...

El Bloggo Rollo this morning popped up two very nice reviews: Dezel over at Virginia Wine Spot reviews our 2005 Canterbury Vineyards Viognier (and this may be the first time a rubber chicken spitting a cork has ever been caught...

Well, I have survived day one of the Penner-Ash crush. Today I spent a lot of time on the sorting line, which, for those of you who are not familiar with harvest operations, is where the under-ripe, overripe and rotting grapes, twigs, sticks leaves, bugs and other bits of debris are removed before ... talk to people on the line and, well, you are part of the wine-marking process. Unfortunately...

... and it is enjoyable because the smell of the newly fermented wine hitting the oak barrels is lovely. Other than ... these days, so I will end the entry here, but expect more details about various crush processes over the next...

... of wine… or, to be more accurate, tons of liquid that are in various stages from sugary juice to raw, cloudy wine. For those of you who are not familiar with the process of making wine, here is how it basically works: Grapes are harvested and brought to the crush pad in bins holding 500-800 lb bins ... and texture to the juice. Once the wine maker decides the cold-soak has gone on long enough...

Last weekend I judged the Riverside International Wine Competition.  I find the judging valuable ... not help sell wine like they did 20 years ago, but for two other things.    One: We judge (smell & taste, spitting out the wine the whole time) about 100 wines a day.  (A beer sure taste good at the end of the day, you will always find the palate wasted judges in the bar or around the pool...

Lange 2005 Pinot Noir: Holy crap. That's a good wine...

The New York Times has an excellent article [free registration required] about the whole sphere of the 100-point wine scoring system. Required reading for any wine enthusiast...