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 [...]

I was strolling through Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa the other day and I noticed a display of budget wines with an ever-growing selection of imports. It occurred to me that those on a tight budget who like to shop Sonoma County wines have a dilemma. Most of the Sonoma [...]

The other night I was tasting a glass of pinot from Peay Vineyards and I began to wonder where is the chosen spot for pinot? The Peay 2007 Pomarium, Sonoma Coast is both intense and elegant. It's earthy and ripe, and yet it has refreshing acidity. Wine critic Robert Parker [...]

In Wine Country we consider vino full of intrigue, the making of great film noir. But apparently the producers of Platinum Weddings, a reality show which airs on WE T.V., don't find as much drama as we do in the glass. In a recent taping Randy Ullom, the winemaster at [...]

Part with a glass of wine?"That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard," as Groucho would say.The online banter in our global village continues to be about that British study that found one glass of chardonnay, a single beer or any other type of alcohol a day poses a cancer [...]