Katarina's Blog

Buying the land 25 years ago, we were driven by the beauty of Dry Creek Valley and a deep interest in wine. We had taken serious classes in wine tasting but we knew nothing about what really goes into the process of farming, winemaking, packaging of wine products and the many obstacles in the winery industry. Luckily. As we walked the vineyard after taking ownership, our vineyard manager told us about all the diseases, pests, insects, frost, rust etc. that can obliterate a harvest. What had we done? Read on to find out.

Was there an "aha!" experience that changed your perspective about wine? One that drove you to expand your interest in and enjoyment of wine? West Wines Tasting Room Manager, Dave Wertzberger, goes back in time to share his "aha!" experience.

The holidays are filled with good food and drinks. The challenge is that there are so many different flavors in the food that we serve during this time of the year which makes it hard to pair with a single wine. So how do we go about it? Well, you can of course make a buffet of different wines too! If you are just a few people, which will be the case for many during 2020, that will probably be too much wine (though a tasting party is never a bad option.) But if you are looking for one or two wines to pair, I am sharing some ideas in the article below.

Chile is the wine country that can brag about rediscovering the Bordeaux grape Carménère. I visited wineries there in January and got a very warm welcome and a cool story. After the phylloxera bug killed off a lot of the vineyards in Europe in the late 19th century the Carménère grape was not replanted in Bordeaux since it was already hard to get to flower and ripen in the cool and humid Atlantic climate. It was thought to be mostly extinct when it was rediscovered in 1994 in Chile. The warm and dry climate in the middle of Chile has proven ideal for this grape and beautiful wines are produced now that the varietal is allowed to ripen to its potential. Read on for more on this story and some winery reviews.

Our barrel room is filled with barrels of wine from 2019, 2018 and 2017. Some just came in after harvest and some are ready to be bottled in a couple of months. Every month we say hello to every barrel, tasting and testing how they are doing.