Fumé blanc. Sounds interesting and a little exotic, doesn’t it? You may have seen a few bottles of it the last time you were perusing the “American whites” section of your local wine shop. Almost identical in body and color to sauvignon blanc, fumé blanc is the creation of Robert Mondavi in Napa. Mondavi...

On the world wine stage, Washington's a relative newcomer. Not long after settlers started moving to the Pacific Northwest in great numbers in the late 1880's...along came Prohibition to throw a big ol' monkey wrench into the works. Once the Dark Ages were over, Washington started cranking out some

So, I get mail... Vine reader Steve K. asks: "You go through a lot of wine, and you seem to like most everything. I get it -- there's a lot of good wine out there. But do you ever get surprised by a wine at this point?"

As we close the decade, I figured we'd finish out with the traditional holiday drink. After all, what's a party without a little bubbly… Champagne is the region in France where this celebration-and-headache-inducing wine originated. "Champagne," in common parlance, has come to mean just about any sparkling wine. The only wines...

When I started this little endeavor, I wanted to provide a resource for basic, everyday people to find basic, everyday wine. I was having a conversation with the Sweet Partner in Crime the other day, and she made a suggestion: "Why not do wine basics? If people have a base to work from, they'll appreciate it even more." There's a reason she's the smart one in the relationship...

When I started drinking wine, I thought that red wine came from red grapes and white wine from white grapes. I was a little surprised when I saw a picture of ripening sauvignon blanc grapes next to some cabernet sauvignon grapes. They're practically identical...

Let's now explore the differences between wines made from the same grape. While it's easy to tell a pinot noir from a syrah, learning how a single grape like pinot noir can differ gives you an opportunity to find a wine you really like and to find the perfect wine for a specific occasion, food, evening, gathering, person, etc...

As talented as he is experienced, local actor Brian Mani has had countless impressive performances over the years in a number of different theatre groups. His most memorable performance last year was the male lead in Renaissance Theaterworks’ The Dig. There was a brilliant subtlety to his portrayal of a brilliant man who has retreated within himself as seen on the intimate stage of the Broadway...

If you've walked into a wine store anytime since November 16, you've undoubtedly seen a brightly colored display, proclaiming "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!" filled with a bunch of fancy bottles, likely from Georges DuBeouf. I'd be shocked if you haven't seen it. A Vine reader asked me if I was going to write about this year's crop of Nouveaux, so let me...

The slide from Thanksgiving to New Year's is not just party season. It's also "DOORBUSTER DEALS SEASON!!!" How much footage have we seen of people lined up outside Best Buy at 4 am to snag a $50 Wii, outside a Hummer dealership for a free year of gasoline with the purchase of an H3, or outside...