My Wine 101 eBooks (Moscato, Grenache, Tempranillo) are now available!

This versatile red superstar with roots in Spain offers something for an array of palates. From big, bold, fruity styles to notes of dried herbs and leather, you’ll find a range of food-friendly flavors – or a wine just fine to stand on its own. Wine writer Shannon Borg gives insight into the grape’s history, the effects of its many monikers and where it flourishes today.

Okanagan Days

We finally have summer—the days are dry and even what you might call hot. I’m off on my friend Danielle’s annual birthday wine tasting trip—two years ago we went to Willamette Valley, and last year we went to Chelan. This year, the four of us ladies, of various ages and positions in life, agreed wholeheartedly on B.C.’s Okanagan region, just north of central Washington.

Old-school organic in a new-school recyclable bag-in-a-box

Bill Powers has been growing grapes here since 1977, and has been organic almost that long. He says he was putting all these chemicals on the vines, and his boys were doing the work. He didn’t want the kids to do it, so he was doing it and not liking having to use these chemicals – so on a trip to California, he talked to some hippie grapegrowers who were farming organically, and they encouraged him to do the same, and so he did...