Katarina's Blog

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.

In the middle of harvest, when evenings are getting a bit darker, I enjoy cooking while sipping a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon which also will accompany the dinner later. Read on for suggestions of my recipes to go with our various red wines.

The amount of rain and how well it stays in the soil as well as how much sun the grapes get, all impact the flavor of the wine. After a rainy winter the season is just getting started with bud break and both past, present and future weather will impact the flavor of 2019 wines.