Our Sediments Exactly.

A Piece of California History

2009-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Magnum of 1961 or 1962 Heitz??Probably one of our greatest joys is crawling around old cellars finding amazingly cool treasures. you never know what you're going to discover, and it might not even be wine. We've found guns, Japanese sake, some..um..interesting books....and even vintage dated granola!!We've been working on the acquisition of a very large old cellar that is jam-packed with crazy

Arkenstone- A Howell Mountain Gem

2009-03-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

As a retailer and local guy, you'd think that we'd be able to keep up with all the new winery projects going on in the works. But alas, it is nearly impossible to keep up and we reserve our visits and "closer inspections" to what we think is the real serious stuff. Projects like Futo, Seven Stones, Ovid and others that are pulling out all the stops, going for a true long-term "estate" approach

Dinner with Friends and My Wine of the Year (So Far)

2009-02-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Had a nice dinner with some clients and friends this weekend. I didn't take any notes but I'll try to give my best recollection of the wines.1964 Deutz Champagne - still very alive. Light spritz in the mouth. lots of secondary notes and some oxidation but still very nice.1978 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlegmagne- funky nose (not in a good way) but much better on the palate. Great acidity and

Premier Napa Valley

2009-02-19T14:19:00.001-08:00

We have a very busy week due to Premier Napa Valley, with 3-4 tastings a day and dinners at night. I'll try to take pictures and give updates on some of the wines that we are tasting.We had a blind tasting this A.M. of 16- 2005 Napa Cabernets at the Rudd Center. I can't release the results but can say that the 2005 Vintage will be one to look out for. Love the facility!! Great for TastingGotta

Heartbreaking...47 Petrus leakers

2009-02-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

These arrived in a cellar recently. Vandermeulen bottlings.Corks had slipped on the reefer truck ride. The pics are hard to see the fill levels, but one was 3/4 gone, the other was about 1/3 gone.Other random weirdness - one bottle had jagged broken glass under the capsule...not broken recently but almost like they had used a broken jagged bottle when they bottled it.We drank what was left of one

Sunny Day In St. Helena

2009-02-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

My February goal is to post once a week, so here we go!I was riding my bike around the vineyard during my lunch break and took some pictures.These are of the Library Vineyard in St. Helena.I believe this is Petite Sirah (correct me if i'm wrong)Crazy weather right now! 71 degrees in February

A Day at Ovid.

2008-09-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Andy Erickson-Winemaker-talking about the 2008 vintage.Ovid. What an awesome property. Perched on the eastern Pritchard Hill cliff overlooking the valley, it takes some time to get your bearings. Dana Johnson--one half of the husband wife ownership--was a great host as well as a fascinating person. Everything is state of the art, and the crew was crushing Cab franc, which tasted great.A view

BPWine is SMOKING HOT.

2008-08-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

Cory and I split a nice automatically loading food smoker ($300 at Home Depot) and it has been a fine addition to the BPWINE family.Cory sticks a whole chicken in there in the morning, and voila, at 1PM you have a nice rich, toasty smoky, utterly juicy chicken. Put some veggies in with the drippings and you are good to go. My favorite so far is this:Sort of Salmon CandyCut fresh salmon (the

Guigal, Gaja, Harlan, Mordoree, Pavie, Buccella, Evangile, etc...

2008-08-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Short notes from my dinners this past weekend:1996 Pascal-Douquet Blanc de Blanc - My first encounter with this growers champagne, and it was an excellent, creamy, and bright perfect starter.2001 Mordoree Reines du Bois - At first there was some panic. It seemed pruney and porty, overripe or possibly cooked. But this totally blew off in about 5 minutes. The wine became a gorgeous, sexy beast.

The Doctor Is In.

2008-08-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

A few of us strolled over to Go Fish here in St. Helena yesterday to taste through a prepossessing panoply of current release wines from the one and only Ernst Loosen, Dr. Ernst Loosen that is. We cruised across fourteen wines while eagerly indulging in the ever-flowing assortment of wasabi-cream topped crabcakes, nori-rolled tuna hand wraps, and pepper-crusted shrimp (spicy!) in between sips.

Ridge Happens.

2008-07-11T11:26:00.001-07:00

Stefan popped the cork on a miraculous 1969 Ridge Geyserville yesterday...inspiration ensued.