Vanessa, 38, joins her sister Lorena and brother-in-law, winemaker Rolando Herrera, as CEO of  their Napa Valley winery, Mi Sueno. Mi Sueno, founded in 1997, means “my dream” in Spanish. Before reeling through the Q&A, here’s a recap of Vanessa’s backstory. Vanessa, you recall, turned heads when she was president [...]

28-year-old Henry "Hoby" Wedler may be blind, but he’s also a visionary. It’s not surprising Forbes magazine picked Wedler in the Food & Drink category. The Petaluma-born wine educator has been leading blind wine tastings at Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville since 2011. He blindfolds the unsuspecting and leaves [...]

Uncorking a great bottle of wine while watching a sentimental movie has become a rich tradition at my house. I’m confident you’ll have fun with these pairings.

Every year, without fail, there’s someone at the Holiday table with the wrong politics. It begins as an annoyance, a nuisance, an irritation. But if the conversation goes on too long it becomes a full on debate and then a filibuster. Wine, thankfully, can be used as way to change [...]

The SOMM sequel kicked off of the Napa Valley Film Festival, and 750 people were packed in Napa’s Uptown Theater to see what boy genius Jason Wise had come up with next for oenophiles. Wise said part of the impetus for making the sequel was to satisfy those who felt [...]

Sonoma County's Geoff Kruth takes viewers into the grueling world of wanna-be sommeliers in "Uncorked," a new reality television show premiering on the Esquire Network on Tuesday, Nov. 10. This six-episode series follows a group of talented sommeliers (Jack Mason, Yannick Benjamin, Jane Lopes, Dana Gaiser, Josh Nadel and  Morgan [...]

If you watch the hit television series “Walking Dead,” you don’t have to imagine a zombie apocalypse. All you need to do is ask yourself this question: Do I have the right wines stashed for one? Personal Wine (www.personalwine.com) is offering its four-bottle series, and then I’ll tell you about [...]

At 1,000 pages, this is one of the most comprehensive books on wine you’ll ever come across. It’s also a great read because author Karen MacNeil isn’t just a great reporter, she’s a writer who knows her craft. MacNeil’s line about chardonnay, for example, is: “It’s the Marilyn Monroe of [...]

Halloween enthusiasts love tricks or treats – especially when they’re bottled. Here are a few great trick bottlings: A Halloween staple is the Poizin brand encased in a wooden coffin. It’s produced by Healdsburg’s Armida Winery and it has a great sense of humor. Uncorking this brand has become a [...]

Tomatoes, it seems, have a bullhorn of screeching acid, which makes a wine pairing seem like the odd couple. But there are ways to tame the acid and this past weekend at Kendall-Jackson’s Tomato Festival two savvy tomato-tamers revealed their tricks. K-J Winemaster Randy Ullom and chef Zoi Antonitsas shared [...]