The Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge's "Naked" wine. The judge who said the top winning wine – the Beaulieu Vineyard, 2009 Tapestry Reserve – was so great “just pour it over my naked body” was Bob Foster, assistant editor of California Grapevine wine newsletter. An outrageous comment?

"The Drops of God" -- have you read this hot graphic novel about wine? I heard about this New York Times best-selling comic book from a friend who said he loves learning about wine from this series that was created in Japan.

At Auction Napa Valley bidders had an appetite for goodwill, raising a record-breaking $16.9 million. Pocket change for the well-heeled? To capture the color of the auction weekend – the fashion, the humor, the bidding mentality – here’s this year’s list of “bests,” from best dressed, to best lot, to best dish.

From the road the property may seem like a traditional Napa Valley winery, but when you step a little closer you begin to see the exotic in this place. Right now the winery is prepping itself to host today's Napa Valley Barrel Auction so it’s in the spotlight – a [...]

From an impressive pool of wine the sweepstakes and the gold medal winners have now been selected, but they won’t be announced until June 5th in the Press Democrat. And you can’t coax the information out of any of the judges because we weren’t told who the winners were when we left the sweepstakes round this morning. We are, in short, just as curious as you are.

The group is hosting a Rhone rosé event this Saturday at Quivira Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg. There will be about a dozen rosés poured at the event from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and it will be an opportunity to see what producers can do with Rhone varieties.

From the road the property may seem like a traditional Napa Valley winery, but when you step a little closer you begin to see the exotic in this place. Right now the winery is prepping itself to host today's Napa Valley Barrel Auction so it’s in the spotlight – a [...]

The theme is Sonoma Somba so expect plenty of Carmen-Miranda look-a-likes at theSonoma Wine Country Weekend. ( See details below regarding tickets and the full weekend roll out Aug. 30 to Sept. 1st.)

Rick Tigner, president of Kendall-Jackson Winery, will appear yet again on the CBS reality series Friday, and this episode will feature the most intriguing bossses from the four season series.

The documentary SOMM trails four people and the high drama that goes on behind the scenes as they’re preparing to pass the Master Sommelier exam, which by all accounts, is killer. Take a peek: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/somm/