Updates from The Greats – Donelan Family Wines

  If you have plans for being in the Sonoma area in early August, add this event to your itinerary, NOW. For ME, when it comes to selecting the top 5 or so greatest experiences my palate has enjoyed, considering wines from America, there will simply not be a better offer to come our way [...]

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TODAY’S REBELS OFFERING A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Back in 1994, I joined a small, dedicated French-wine import company that would later change its name from International Gourmet Corp – as we moved away from including olive oils and vinegars in our offers – to European Wine Group. Our focus was bringing to America what we discovered in the artisanal, family-owned and operated [...]

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DONELAN FAMILY WINES – CHATEAUNEUF AND HERMITAGE FROM AMERICAN LEGENDS

  If price alone predicates your daily “quaffer” selections, vinously speaking, then perhaps this collection will fall somewhere outside your comfort zone. But for ME, when it comes to selecting the top 5 or so greatest experiences my palate has enjoyed, considering wines from America, there will simply not be a better offer to come [...]

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THE IMPORTER’S WACKY, THE WINE’S WONDERFUL

  Yet another bottle that exemplifies one of my proverbial answers to that almost weekly question posed by friends and family, “Hey Christopher, what ‘cha drinkin’ these days?” I once shared the tale of a full afternoon tasting event that involved several wines from this importer, an afternoon degustation that I can still taste on my palate and [...]

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AmByth Estate – Biodynamic Beauty

While on our recent tour in search of the perfect location for our next venture, I took a few moments one early morning to check the hotel computer, just in case my in-box had any surprises for me.  My passion for the world of biodynamic wines has me sharing every tidbit of information I come [...]

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Tomorrow’s 1st Tasting at the “New Winery”

Afternoon, Well it’s certainly been interesting out here for the past few weeks, that’s for sure!  I’ve witnessed countless hours of research, paperwork and travel, all aimed at the final goal of launching a new winery permit.  For the folks following the blog, you’ve come to understand the heartaches, the headaches and the occasional triumphs [...]

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Houston Wine Idealist Introduces French Country Wines (The Shop)

One of the finest aspects of this country’s fourth largest city, this city known as Houston Texas, is its inhabitants’ eager ability to embrace new and exciting trends.  “Feast”, that funky, fantastic creation by the eclectic, tattooed English duo of Knight and Silk, where diners will be just as shocked as overjoyed by the culinary [...]

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HWI’s Latest Favorite in More Ways Than One

Continuing now with the reviews of locally available GREAT wines at smokin’ prices, I stopped by what promises to become my personal wine shop yesterday.  Having not yet informed the proprietor of my intentions, thus thinking perhaps I should ask for his permission before blurting his name out in these pages, I rang his bell [...]

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HWI’s First “Official” Review

  25 years in the wine business now find me authoring a blog about wine from a very different angle.  I’ve been writing for more than a decade, as authoring prose represented my most successful means of marketing to my customers.  Now, however, I’ve become a sort of consumer’s proponent; I’m now reviewing wine, local [...]

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Thinned-Skinned – One Man’s Journey through the Wine Biz

A new series launches this week, poised to recapture a snapshot or two of this journey I’ve been on for more than two decades now.  A journey that began innocently enough at the hands of folks who somehow, even to this day, seemingly – as I read their never ending monthly newsletters – continue to [...]

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