Wine Tasting and Touring

Now Open: AVA Santa Barbara's Wine Tasting Room A Great Place For Beachside Wine

Like a lead singer with a side solo project, AVA Santa Barbara is winemaker Seth Kunin's side gig. Because Kunin Wines is a well established Santa Barbara County-based brand -- known for its Rhone-style blend, Syrah and Zinfandel -- Kunin decided to create another label, AVA Santa Barbara, to explor ... More >>

Top 4 Weekend Food Events: Brunch Class, Bar Crawl, Coffee Talk Wine Tour

Brunch Cooking Class Learn to cook a Mexican-inspired brunch from Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. The chefs will demonstrate how to make Border Bloody Maria; guava empanada; heirloom bean and bacon tostada; Peruvian shrimp and grits; and La Bomba rice pudding. WHAT: Brunch Cooking Class WHEN: ... More >>

The Curious World of Wine, From George Washington To Emeril Lagasse

In The Curious World of Wine today, uncorking a bottle is often more an invitation for criticism than enjoyment. Was that $15 bottle worth a repeat buy? Did the pricey Pinot Noir you served for Thanksgiving do your heritage turkey justice? In his new book, Richard Vine, an industry consultant and ... More >>

Tijuana Grub Crawl: Where To Eat, Drink and Walk on Your Tour of TJ

See also: Anthony Bourdain Told Me to Go to Baja. So I'd Be OK There. Right? See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately See also: OC Weekly's Column Tijuana Sí! You're going to Tijuana, and you want to eat. That's a very good pla ... More >>

San Antonio Winery: L.A.'s Oldest Producing Winery Celebrates Its 95th Anniversary

There wasn't a drop of wine in that giant bottle of Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon at San Antonio Winery's 95th anniversary party. It was a cake -- Black Forest, with cherries inside instead of grapes. Beside it were two other mammoth cakes created for the celebration, one of them frosted with histo ... More >>

Q & A With Bill Owens: The American Distilling Institute Founder's Cross-Country Road Trip, Industry Trends His Favorite Spirit Stops

If you want to know what's really going on in the craft distilling industry, 74-year-old Bill Owens, president of the Hayward-based American Distilling Institute, is your (always chatty) man. He also happens to be quite an accomplished photojournalist, a skill that he says doesn't always work in h ... More >>

The Stonehaus: Coffeehouse and Winery Under Construction in Westlake Village

Did your plans for a summer vacation in Europe not pan out? Well, you can console yourself this fall by heading north on the 101 to Westlake Village. That's where you'll find The Stonehaus, a combo coffeehouse and winery with a European flair, which is now under construction on the grounds of the We ... More >>

Top 4 Weekend Food Events: Wine Tasting at the Royce, Hollywood Indie Night Market, Marcus Samuelsson at the Hammer Gertler Brothers Pop-Up at Shade Hotel

Wine Tasting Experiences in the Royce Royce manager and director of wine Eric Espuny will host a series of wine-tasting classes this summer where guests taste the best seasonal wine and focus on particular regions and varietals. In addition, guests will learn tips for ordering and buying wine. The ... More >>

Top 4 Weekend Food Events: Viña Montes Wine Tasting, Urban Roots Screening, L.A. Cocktail Classic L.A. Wine Fest

Viña Montes Wine Tasting The founder of Viña Montes in Chile brings his wines to Urbano Pizza Bar for a tasting complemented by pork belly skewers, duck confit sliders, vegetable antipasti, mozzarella on crostini, and onion confit tartlet. Proceeds support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. WHAT: Vià ... More >>

5 Dog-Friendly Winery Tasting Rooms

A love for wine and dogs can co-exist. People take their pets everywhere these days--dining and drinking out, no exception. Although Los Angeles has approved pets on restaurant patios (per the recent Squid Ink post), rules prohibit them inside. Nor are they welcome at bars or in the tasting rooms at ... More >>

Wine Cellar: Master Sommelier Richard Betts on "Feral" Chardonnay

We've long been keen on winemaker Greg La Follette's Pinot Noir style, his bagpipe back story and the Friday night Bingo shirts he sports at wine tasting events. He's also weathered the wine business long enough that he doesn't worry about telling the whole wine truth, and nothing but the truth (so ... More >>

Q & A with Drew Barrymore: L.A. Cravings, Dying Art Forms & Barrymore Wines

Drew Barrymore perks up when we start talking about Baja's wine country -- a topic that seems to be on everyone's lips since Anthony Bourdain declared it the new Tuscany. "That sounds so cool!" she says excitedly on the other end of the phone. "All I do is sit around and research what food adventure ... More >>

Boxed Wine That Doesn't Suck: Thinking Inside The Box With Colorado Wine Company

Kathy A. McDonaldDrink wine from inside the box​'Tis the season for imbibing. However with the economy being what it is, 'tis also the season to look for bargains when it comes to holiday wine drinking. For the budget conscious wine buyer, boxed wines are a bargain alternative. However, many b ... More >>

Top 5 Weekend Food Events: Michael Ruhlman, ColLAboration, Irregular Wine Tasting, Tonga Hut Reopening, Pig & Pints

Guzzle & NoshA pint of beer and a pig's head.​[UPDATE, 12.02.11, 4:56 p.m.: This weekend's ColLaboration Winterfest Beer Garden has been postponed due to the Windpocalypse.] In addition to the Master Food Preserver fundraiser happening on Sunday afternoon at Homegirl Cafe, there are plenty of ... More >>

Top 6 Weekend Food Events: Night at the Mausoleum, HallowedVine, A Dark Carnival II, Long Beach Farm Dinner, Day of the Dead Cooking Class, Bitter In The Mouth

Guzzle & NoshThe crowd at Villains Tavern, which will host Dark Carnival II this weekend.​Night at the Mausoleum Meet some of the Los Angeles celebrities who are now in permanent residence at the mausoleum beneath the cathedral. The guided tour of these hallowed halls is preceeded by an option ... More >>

San Antonio Winery Gets a New Look: Skylights! Giraffes!

Barbara HansenSan Antonio Winery tasting room​ "This is literally an adult candy store," said a customer walking through San Antonio Winery's brand new tasting room and store. That sounds a bit pornographic, and it is, if you lust for seductive wines, olive oils, candies and other gastronomic ... More >>

Silverlake Wine: Best Weekly Wine Tastings

Kathy A. McDonaldNo attitude, pretension-free wine tastings blow up weekly at Silverlake Wine ​Is Silverlake Wine a religion? Consider what makes it so: Devoted followers, a weekly schedule and a straight-up welcoming-to-all philosophy of no pretension at this neighborhood wine shop that speci ... More >>

So You Think You Can Eat

Hearst Ranch Winery: What Wines to Pair with A Castle Visit Free-range Zebras and Grass-fed Beef Burgers

Jeff KirshbaumBranding takes on its original meaning at the Hearst Ranch Winery ​ Free-range zebras, undeveloped California coastline as far as the eye can see and an epic house museum: Welcome to the Hearst Ranch Winery's neighborhood. Few California wineries can compete with the tasting room ... More >>

Support Your State: Drink California Wine During CA Wine Month

Kathy A. McDonaldLearn more about wine this month at a wine tasting seminar​These days, every foodstuff or drink gets a day in its honor. Did you know there's a National Pecan Cookie day (September 21)? One guess on how to observe either National Guacamole Day (September 16) or National Beer D ... More >>

Lompoc Wine Ghetto: Get Your Wine On Alternative

Jeff KirshbaumWinemaker Sashi Moorman of Piedrasassi New Vineland at work in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.​ Substance outshines style at Santa Barbara County's low-key Lompoc Wine Ghetto. A semi-industrial office park that's in the heart of land-that-time-forgot Lompoc, California, Lompoc Wine Ghett ... More >>

Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard's Latest Mission

Jeff KirshbaumFamed winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard at his winery's tasting room.​Bonny Doon Vineyard's founder and winemaker Randall Grahm wants to do something really different. Once he ran the 28th largest winery in the U.S.; these days he's on a quest to grow grape vines fr ... More >>

Your Memorial Day Weekend Wine Event Report

Flickr/Xipe Totec39wine glasses​ Beer and barbecue are definitely on the Memorial Day Weekend agenda but with three days to fill, make some room for a glass or two of wine. In Santa Barbara, one of the region's most illustrious winemakers Jim Clendenen opens a tasting room after decades in the ... More >>

Q & A With Municipal Winemakers' Dave Potter: On Surfing, Sourcing Grape Stigmas His New Tasting Room

JGarbee Potter In The Former Scuba Shop That Will Become His Tasting Room​If you need an excuse to for a coastal drive, winemaker Dave Potter is your man. He is the face behind Santa Barbara-based Municipal Winemakers, a small but mighty 600 cases per year operation that he tends to between ba ... More >>

DJs, Sips and Apps: Second Glass Brings Wine Riot to L.A.

​ Who said wine tasting had to be full of stuffed shirts? Add a few DJs, a photo booth, and snacks from L.A.'s cool food trucks, and you've got Second Glass's Wine Riot, wine tasting for the iPhone generation. And, yes, there's an app for it, too. "The average wine event was in a stale borin ... More >>

More iPhone Fun: "Wine Wherever" Tasting App

​You know how wine tasting goes. You spend a lovely afternoon sipping Chardonnay and Pinot, making mental notes of what you love. But inevitably, you find yourself in the liquor store a week later going, "Was it this vineyard's Syrah or Zin that we liked? And where did we have that great sp ... More >>

Wine and Art

IT'S NOT "CHOC-OHOLICS" — IT'S CHOCOLAT-ICS

GOLD DIGGER?

Happy Edgy Father's Day