Every now and again, having a wine column. Not long ago, out of the clear blue, came an email telling me that "Seven Hills has begun shipping wines to Wisconsin" and would I please review some of these wines? And, by the way, we're happy to send you samples...

I never thought this would be a difficult entry. I estimated it would be easy enough to put together a Hallow'een-themed wine column. I figured there would be any number of selections easily lending themselves to the cause. A quick trip down the beer aisle would keep me in business for weeks...

When I last wrote about Argentina, I mentioned chardonnay as their premier white grape. During a warm, albeit rainy and dreary stretch in January when neither of us really felt like leaving the house, we recently sampled a few bottles of Torrontés, long considered their signature white and now finally arriving in the States...

One of the first wines I every wrote about on the Naked Vine was malbec, not long after having discovered it initially. Since then, I haven't had much of an opportunity to natter on about this until-recently-overlooked varietal. Lovers of French wine know...

Maybe Maynard Keenan is just being prescient. Keenan (lead singer of Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer) writes a song in the mid-90's about Los Angeles sliding into the ocean. At around the same time, according to the trailer for the documentary "Blood into Wine," he has a vision about growing grapes and making wine on an Arizona hillside. A continuation of the same dream? Whatever his motive...

I've had a chance to dig into the mailbag and give some well-deserved recognition to some of the readers who have graciously added their suggestions. Without further adieu Cycles Gladiator 2006 Merlot - When a bartender gives an honest recommendation, listen. Jen C. mentioned this merlot and I decided to give it a swing. Cycles Gladiator was...

Ah, summertime. Fresh vegetables and herbs. All the natural yumminess you'd ever want, right there for the taking at your local farmer's market or in your backyard if you're lucky enough to be able to keep things a'growing. I know that I focus a lot on what to eat with grilled food during seasons like this, but I'm just as likely to want something light...

I was recently asked, "So…Wine Guy…what wines do you usually have just sitting around to drink at home?" Aside from the sheepish little grin I still get when someone calls me "Wine Guy," the question got me thinking. Honestly, there hasn't been much of anything resembling a "house wine" around the Vineyard for quite awhile...

On July 14, 1789, violence broke out in France when overtaxed, angry Parisians stormed the Bastille prison. It was a symbolic and bloody start to the French Revolution, a tumultuous conflict of class warfare between the rising bourgeoisie and the established nobility punctuated by the...