Before you read our point counterpoint, check out this video about biodynamics. Here's the link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid11892244001?bctid=18117378001For a clash of views points on biodynamics, we have Stuart Smith, vintner of St. Helena's Smith-Madrone Winery and Mike Benziger, winemaker of Imagery wines, a brand produced by Glen Ellen's Benziger Family Winery, on [...]

In The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell refers to "the level at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable." There are signs pointing to a paradigm shift, with restaurateurs more intent than ever on courting wine-lovers in this economic downturn. #1 A new survey of restaurants in 10 major regions [...]

We pay exorbitant real estate prices to live among the vines, but what exactly is this place we call Wine Country? What gives it its uncanny sense of place? I decided to go on an architectural dig of sorts to see what artifacts would turn up in our wine culture. [...]

Morgan Twain-Peterson was a precocious child. At age 5 he could distinguish between a merlot and a zinfandel. Today the 28-year old co-founder of Bedrock Wine Co. in Sonoma can distinguish between more than varietals. Try fact and fiction. Peterson says he's no different from his fellow Millennials, the offspring [...]

Matt Lapides is a real live Millennial, a 23-year old Sonoma State student who lives in a house with a make-shift cellar: his bedroom closet. There are traces of "twenty-something" throughout his house: a refrigerator covered in chalkboard, a glow-in-the-dark fireplace, a brand new, prized decanter on his desk. Q: [...]

By the end of the month restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday is expected to have Franzia's Coastal Vines on the menu of its 850-plus eateries across America for $10 a bottle. In January the chain began a pilot program in various parts of the country, including Massachusetts, Minnesota and Georgia."Ten restaurants [...]

Can you find tasty domestic wine for $5 a bottle?It's a quandary, according to local retailers, who say most domestic wine begins in the $8-range while tasty imports from Spain, Chile and Australia can be $5 a bottle.And yet, the answer is a resounding yes. As long as you shop [...]

The couple was sitting on a wooden bench near the Point Reyes lighthouse. The man was looking through binoculars, hoping to get a glimpse of a whale, when I stepped up and asked if they'd like to partake in a blind tasting.They said yes without hesitation.Dale Carlson, 53, is a [...]

With the rainy season nearly behind us, sun-seekers are shaking off their umbrellas and beginning their tasting quest through Wine Country in earnest. Particularly the twenty-somethings, the offspring of the Baby Boomers, who are drawn to the wine culture in Napa and Sonoma. This tasting room tour -- an occasional [...]

One couple from Ohio left the Wine Road Barrel Tasting in a huff, saying they will never take part in the event again because of the antics of the younger crowd. They said it was more of a raucous party than a wine tasting.Who are these brash drinkers? A suspect [...]