Wine

L.A.'s Wine Bars Are Better Than Ever. Here Are Our Seven Favorites

Q & A With Lou Amdur: Glazed Hams, Slutty Chardonnays What to Drink at Easter

See also: L.A.'s Wine Bars Are Better Than Ever. Here Are Our Seven Favorites Lou Amdur, may have sold his cozy, Laundromat-and-Thai massage parlor adjacent Hollywood strip mall wine bar, LOU, last March. But he still has that gift for being able to effortlessly hold forth on all things wine and fo ... More >>

Behind the Wine List: David Myers' Hinoki & The Bird

A restaurant is in many ways like a party: You need atmosphere, music, good food and choice of drink. At the recently opened Hinoki & the Bird in Century City, the party is in full swing: entrance jammed, bar, dining room and patios full, and the cocktails and wine are equally flowing. Begin with ... More >>

Q & A With Costco's Syd Birenbaum: Best Bargain Wines, $18,000 Sales His Cure For Your Never-Ending Headache

If your wine-buying strategy at Big Box discount stores typically involves grabbing a case and getting out poste-haste, you might want to reconsider sticking around for a chat with Syd Birenbaum, the unexpected wine specialist at the Costco in Marina del Rey (known as the Culver City branch). Biren ... More >>

Making Wine on Catalina Island: The Rusack Family's Santa Catalina Island Vineyards

Wine as an expression of a specific locale or terroir is what countless skilled winemakers strive to achieve. A noble goal to be sure, but one winery has taken the task a step further, specifically 22 miles further, offshore on Santa Catalina Island. Buffeted by salty ocean air, the island makes for ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Discovering Rhone Wines at Decouvertes

Découvertes en Vallée du Rhône is a biennial wine event held up and down the Rhône Valley for four long, thrilling days, involving the systematic tasting of mostly red wine by thousands of eager tasters from all over the world, and the systematic inebriation by same each night. Each day, is roug ... More >>

5 Crisp White Wines for your Spring Table

I don't know about you, but this is the week that spring fever has officially kicked in, for me. The sun feels higher in the sky, the backyard patio beckons, the fruit trees are blossoming, and everything feels more redolent and alive. It's time to lock the wine cellar door -- leave the reds to lie ... More >>

Balance: A 2013 Conference, an Achievement in California Wine (and a Calder Mobile)

For the past three years, a small group of California chardonnay and pinot noir producers has gathered for a conference and tasting called In Pursuit of Balance. In past years it's been staged in San Francisco and New York; in 2013, for the first time, they brought their wines and their message to L ... More >>

New Zealand Pinots To Drink Now

At the New Zealand Consulate in Brentwood last week there was a wine tasting of that country's pinot noir. There were just 18 wines in the seminar, curated by British Master of Wine Tim Atkin; and yet this amounted to a quietly nuanced performance, demonstrating the strides that country has made wit ... More >>

5 California Winemakers On The Best "Ripe and Fleshy" Valentine's Chocolate Wine Pairings

Chocolate and wine. Could there be a more classic Valentine Day's pairing? There's one small problem: "The flavors of [dark] chocolate and wine aren't always that compatible," as a Food and Wine article summarized. Sure, there's that tannins on tannins thing, a double hit of bitter acidity in the c ... More >>

Maggie Harrison of Antica Terra: Manfred Krankl's Wayward Disciple

Oregon's Willamette Valley has been luring California winemakers for the better part of two decades -- Andrew Rich, Tony Soter, Robert Brittan, and Cheryl Frances all come to mind as not so recent transplants -- but Maggie Harrison, of Antica Terra, represents a kind of special case. In 2005 Harriso ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Saying Ja to Austrian Wines

The arrival of Beirbeisl in Beverly Hills as a pristine example of Austrian cuisine -- check out Besha Rodell's review, out today -- comes as Austrian wines enter into a kind of renaissance in California, a blossoming of popularity, a flurry of import activity, and the thrilling entry of red wines t ... More >>

Naked Wines: Invest In A Winemaker (And Drink The Benefits)

If your resolutions include expanding your wine fridge offerings beyond Trader Joe's corporate specials, UK-based Naked Wines opened a Napa outpost last year with a wine program that, in theory at least, makes small-batch bottles straight from winemakers more affordable. The California winemaker's ... More >>

Colorado Wine Company: A New Location in Eagle Rock

Six weeks into their new Eagle Rock location, Colorado Wine Company buzzes. A customer asks for a "yummy" Prosecco; another wants a well-priced Chardonnay. Owner Jen Nugent quickly obliges and welcomes a couple who've arrived for the weekly Friday night wine flight tasting. At the same time the Mand ... More >>

A Sparkling Wine Holiday Guide: Bubbles Occasions, or Occasional Bubbles?

It's something of a pity that most Americans think of sparkling wines as wines of celebration -- that extraordinary act of niche marketing has rendered these complex and versatile wines into an unfortunate pigeonhole, when they can, and should be enjoyed anytime, anywhere. Nevertheless, here we are, ... More >>

Drink This Now: 2011 Dirty and Rowdy Skin and Egg Fermented Semillon

OK, lovers of truly weird wines, have I got a doozy for you. A cloudy, funky, Napa Valley partially skin-fermented 100% Semillon. It was described to me by a woman at a wine store as "a beer drinker's wine." Others have compared it to orange wine. When first opened, it smells intensely of jalapeños ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/5- 11/9

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "For many years, American chardonnay has been a wine category that cognoscenti love to hate, a wine whose ubiquity, confected stylings and bloat have more or less condemned it to a reputation for mediocrity, a wading pool of a ... More >>

Chardonnay? Yes, Really: 5 Great Chardonnays for the Holidays

For many years, American chardonnay has been a wine category that cognoscenti love to hate, a wine whose ubiquity, confected stylings and bloat have more or less condemned it to a reputation for mediocrity, a wading pool of a wine, epitomizing the shallow waters of American taste. And for many year ... 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 >>

Serge Hochar and Chateau Musar: Wine From the Cradle of Civilization

If you're into wine and were in Los Angeles this weekend, you were probably hovering around the Wine Spectator's Wine Experience, a wine affair that sponsors compelling panel discussions (another excuse, like you need it, to drink in the morning) and splendid wine tastings involving California's an ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Peel Me A Grape

Across the state, harvest is upon us. California winemakers either are readying their crush pads for what appears to be a fairly large crop, or are out among the vine rows, tasting fruit, rolling it around on their tongues or between their fingers to determine if it's ready to pick. Last week I was ... More >>

Celebrate International Grenache Day: Party in Paso #GrenacheDay!

You'll miss no work, and the kids will still head off to school. There'll be no moment of silence, nor office parties, nor gifts exchanged. Nonetheless today, Sept. 21, is a holiday. It's Grenache Day, fool -- that one day of the year on which highly privileged people all over the world who happe ... More >>

Hope for Zinfandel: 1999 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs

Most American Zinfandels fall into two categories, explained to me recently by Doug Nalle, a Dry Creek Valley winemaker and a bit of a Zin Master in his own right. "There's BHT and AHT," he says: "Before Helen Turley, and after Helen Turley." Turley is the American winemaker who famously amped up ... More >>

Serious Drinking: My Sherry Amor

As a wine, as a beverage, even, fino sherry seems like it comes from a place that time forgot. The lightest and driest of all sherries, it's as if that strange, inimitable beverage from a hot corner of Spain has been created miles from any other wine or spirit, bred in isolation until it bears no re ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Sherry Marcona Almonds

There are many perfect food pairings in the world -- Sauternes and foie gras, Muscadet and oysters, Champagne and potato chips, Barolo and truffled anything -- but no pairing in the world is so perfectly simple as the pairing of Marcona almonds and fino sherry. These are the rich, flavorful almond ... 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 >>

Wine Whine: What Does "Not Too Expensive" Mean To You? How About To Your Sommelier?

Last week I had a frustrating service experience with a sommelier at one of L.A.'s most highly regarded restaurants. It's something that's happened to me before, and has to do with what the definition of "not too expensive" means to different people.

Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival: The Wine Part of the Equation

The second annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival concluded Sunday, a slickly produced, three-day debauch mostly held in and around the capacious digs of L.A. Live and its Marriott property -- though neither conference room nor rooftop exhibition tent could adequately contain the assemblage of whit ... More >>

The International Pinot Noir Celebration: 300 Wines, 75 Producers, 700 Participants A Movie

While most of the city's denizens of drink were in NOLA celebrating Cocktail Tales and learning indelible lessons on what to drink when, and where, and in what century, I was in Oregon's Willamette Valley at the International Pinot Noir Celebration, an annual event now 26 years strong which does as ... More >>

Q & A With Shafer Vineyards' Elias Fernandez: Summer Wines, Cycling The Upside of High School Band Practice

Elias Fernandez has been the winemaker at Shafer Vineyards in Napa for 28 years -- a lifetime in winemaking terms. While some winemakers hop from winery to winery over their careers, Fernandez says he prefers "the community, the quality" of working for the same vineyard that snatched him fresh out o ... More >>

The Summer of Riesling: Los Angeles Edition

This year marks the fourth annual Summer of Riesling in the U.S., a hostage program established in 2008 by "Acid Overlord" Paul Grieco of the restaurant Terroir in New York, in which white wine by-the-glass programs are hijacked by what most sommeliers and wine professional think of as the most thri ... More >>

Shades of Rosé

For years, wine writers have been haranguing their readership to drink more rosé, a category that plainly couldn't catch a break either among macho types who opined that pink wine was too, well, pink, or the rest of the wine-drinking public, who assumed that, since the wine was the color of white z ... More >>

Natural Wine: An Explanation Where to Find It

What's in a glass of wine? The answer might be surprising. Wine is basically spoiled grape juice. (Whoever first ingested it millennia ago: hat tip.) But these days wine's ingredients can also contain a laundry list of adds in's: sulfur dioxide, egg whites, oak chips, water and numerous chemical ad ... More >>

Rhone Rangers Wine Tasting at Vibiana This Sunday

Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are the beloved trinity of most wine drinkers. There are many more varietals out there and this Sunday's (June 3) fifth annual Rhone Rangers Tasting at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles showcases wines grown from 22 American Rhone grape varietals. Chief a ... 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 >>

10 California Summer Wine Events

Summer is a wine-drinking marathon in California, and up and down the coast, each weekend brings pleasant opportunities to imbibe outside. The diversity of events reflects the state's varied wine-growing regions. Those on hotel grounds come with a room night package -- a smart way to go. Because i ... 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 >>

Everson Royce: Silverlake Wine's Pasadena Spinoff Now Open

Opened last Saturday, Old Town Pasadena's Everson Royce is not quite a sequel to Silverlake Wine. Think character spinoff. Two out of three Silverlake Wine owners are involved; approximately 25% of the same small-production wine brands are stocked. Potential customers are greeted immediately at the ... More >>

Amelia Ceja of Ceja Vineyards on Wine With Mexican Food

You've picked out a good Cabernet. What should you serve with it? Beans -- Mexican beans. That's what Amelia Morán Ceja would do. Ceja is the first Mexican-American woman to head a wine production company, Ceja Vineyards. "People never thought to pair wine with Mexican food until we came along," s ... More >>

Happy Hour: Vinoteca Farfalla in Los Feliz

The Place: Vinoteca Farfalla, 1968 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles; (323) 661-8070. The Hours: 4-7 p.m. every day. The Deals: Wines for $5 and $6, beers for $3 and $4, and discounts on the entire menu. The Digs: You might expect Vinoteca Farfalla, a wine bar about equidistant from hot spots The Alc ... More >>

Q & A With Christina Machamer: Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay, Heading to Napa Her Anti-Establishment Wine Tasting Tips

After winning season four of Hell's Kitchen, Christina Machamer became sous chef at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at the London West Hollywood. But these days, she's traded the rapid-fire kitchen life to become the wine educator and resident chef -- albeit one with limited kitchen opportunities -- at B ... More >>

Colorado Wine Company Celebrates 7 Years

There is no seven-year itch for the Colorado Wine Company. The Eagle Rock wine shop is more popular than ever with customers who are drawn to owner Jen Morgan and John Nugent's all-inclusive approach to selling wine and the unpretentious vibe of their weekly wine tastings. "I would say it's our rel ... More >>

Top 5 Pink Sparkling Wines for Valentine's Day (or Any Day, Really)

Bubbles are the spot-on match for Valentine's Day, and not just the holiday: Champagne and sparkling wine have the ability to elevate even the most ordinary moment. Kick that special moment up notches (Thanks Emeril!) with a rosé. From pale pink to rubyesque, rosé's signature light red color seems ... More >>

Ben Flajnik: Winemaker First, TV's The Bachelor Second

Sonoma MagazineIn the vineyard with The Bachelor and partners​Most people dream of quitting their day job to be on TV. ABC's The Bachelor Ben Flajnik says his reality star turn is a means to an end: His heart is in winemaking. (He auditioned for The Bachelorette originally as a way to pursue ... More >>

Meteorito Wine Is Out of This World, Literally

Sure, that nice vintage Cabernet Sauvignon you have sitting in your wine cellar may have notes of dark chocolate and hints of sweet cherries, but does it really taste out of this world? No? Well then, you may want to head to Chile for the Meteorito, a red wine that is infused with the potentially ... More >>

LudoBites 8: The Wine List

LudoBites 8 (with its eminently more sane booking policy) debuted last night, which means a new wine list curated by Domaine LA along with chef Ludo and his wife, Krissy. The big news: the wine list now includes beer and cider (a Normandy cide from Domaine du Manoir in Montreuil, France, to be preci ... More >>

Pinot Days Is Back: How To Fit 80 Wine Producers Into An Airport Hangar A Special Discount

JGarbeeThe Pinot Days Aftermath At Barker Hanger​With so many wine festivals and tastings out there these days, forking over $60 ($54 with the 10% discount code for LA Weekly readers below) seems somewhat excessive for your everyday Chardonnay and Merlot pours. But this is Pinot Days, the ann ... More >>

Glass of Red Wine a Day Could Keep Breast Cancer Away, Says New Cedars-Sinai Research

RadarOnlineDoctor's orders.​Does drinking wine affect a girl's odds for breast cancer? Battle of the studies! Just a couple months ago, Harvard University released some buzz-killing stats showing that "women who drink just four small glasses of wine a week increase their risk of developing br ... 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 >>

Wine Gifts From The Other Guy, Courtesy Of Your Humble Grower

Ah, the holiday party wine gifting season. That time of year when you'll inevitably spot a bottle of Shafer Hillside Select sporting a shiny red bow among the hostess gifts -- right as you hand over a $19.99 Cabernet you snagged off the Ralph's weekly special list on the way to the boss' house (but ... More >>