Hold Onto Your Glasses: you could be in for the tasting of your life—or be completely ignored.

Columns to Savor
Michael De Loach

What's the Newest in "Green Wine Designations?, Wine Consumption is Up in the US, Wines for Summer.

Are Any Wine Books Worth Reading?, Of Points, Pundits and Profiteers, and What Wine Beginners Really Want to Know, But "Experts" Never Tell You.

Wine Experts?, Wines for Spring, and Wine
Hunting 104

More Wine Myth Busting, To Cork or Not to Cork, and Romatic Wines for Valentines

New Stuff for the New Year, and Shut Up and Drink

Champagne and Sparkling Wine, Starbucks—The REAL Reason Americans Have Switched to Wine, The Annual Holiday Wine Gift Hot List

Sweet Relief, Another Wine Myth Bites the Dust, and The Basic Types of Wine Shoppers

Reading Wine Labels, The Real Meaning of "Sideways", Picnic Essentials for Harvest

The Truth about Sulfites and Headaches,
The Mystery of the Disappearing Sommelier,
and Wine Cocktails

Proliferation of Brands, Picking for a Party, Pink Prejudice, and Follow your Bliss

The Home Wine Tasting Myth, and Why Most Wine Rating Systems are Basically Worthless

Wine Expert
Michael De Loach

Inside Secrets:

The right way to visit wineries this season.

From now until October, wine country will be packed with tourists and wine freaks from all over the globe intent on getting that rare glass of wine or a glimpse of that superstar winemaker. Rather than being stuck in a traffic jam on Highway 29 all weekend, there are much better ways to experience harvest season this year. Following, a few strategies for a leisurely yet well-paced wine adventure.

ESTABLISHING YOUR BEACHHEAD: ATTACK FROM THE NORTH
Today’s savvy wine traveler knows to avoid yesterday’s congestion centers. Napa and Sonoma, both in the southern ends of their corresponding eponymous counties, no longer serve well as headquarters for a wine country tour. Although the town of Sonoma is close to a handful of older famous wineries, newer, more fashionable vintners lay sometimes as much as an hour’s drive away within the same county.

It’s not from Napa?

Other places where they make wine in the US.

People are nearly always stunned when I tell them that wine is made in all 50 states of the union now; it’s just not always made from grapes. For instance, in Hawaii, although the Tedeschi Winery has been making Cabernets lately, they’ve made their famous Maui Blanc out of pineapples for years. I could probably write a book (hey, there’s an idea) about traveling the US tasting wines, beers and spirits made locally, but in this article I’ll concentrate on just a couple of popular tourist areas you might visit this season.

The New Ratings System on the Block:

Why justwinepoints Might Just Take
Over the World

Remember back in January when I told you about all the new stuff happening in 2007? Well, a new publication (online, or sent directly to your PDA or cell via paid subscription) arrived in March. As the name suggests, justwinepoints offers practical, to-the-point, numbers-only wine ratings—and people love it. Not only does this newcomer already have more than a quarter-million enthusiastic registered users and over 90,000 paying weekly subscribers, but is has wineries and retailers going ga-ga as well.

Who are the only folks who seem to have their noses out of joint? You guessed it: wine snobs; the same ones who laughed at the new publication and called it “a joke.” And it’s a hoot to read their blogs now, carrying on about how this new group of wine critics, previously denounced as goofy and irrelevant, is suddenly going to sully the “honor” of the 100-point wine rating system.

Barbara Adams Beyond Wonderful features large recipe collections of full-proof quick and easy recipes, classic family favorites, global cuisine, and party ideas. Get illustrated cooking tips and techniques,cooking for beginners, food features, and expert advice on baking, cheese, produce, and wine.

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