Wine Sediments

The Rutherford Dust Society embodies a true devotion not only to cabernet sauvignon, but to the earth that creates it. The Society is an organization founded in the Napa Valley’s town of Rutherford to pay “tribute to the legacy of our grape growing and winemaking forebears.” The cutesy name is based on a […]

You would think that being just up the road from California’s Napa Valley would mean something, right? At least one new winery in Yolo County is hoping that it does. According to the Sacramento Bee’s Mike Dunne, a family who has been farming in the area for five generations (the Romingers) and their […]

The Sacramento Bee’s Mike Dunne reports that the Governator, I mean Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently signed legislation “to prohibit the use of ‘Sonoma’ on bottle labels unless at least 75 percent of the grapes that make the wine are grown in Sonoma County.” He points out that the label at right will […]

Living in Sacramento, California, I am in the enviable position of being smack dab in the middle of the Wine Country and the Gold Country. Napa Valley is 45 minutes in one direction and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada are 45 minutes in the other direction. Normally, when I’m in the mood […]

Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee recently felt the wrath of those who love their chardonays oaky after writing that no-oak chardonnays were gaining in popularity. In a debate whose intensity seemed more fit to a discussion of important social issues, Dunne heard from many of his readers:
A couple of them were irked […]

In a recent Food Section article, the Sacramento Bee’s Food Editor Mike Dunne explored the practice of wineries buying grapes from farmers then putting the name of the vineyard on the bottle of wine produced. According to Dunne, this practice is “one reason wines with vineyard names are on the rise.” Dunne also cites the […]

Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee made an interesting discovery last week when touring the Finger Lakes region of New York. While the Supreme Court’s decision lifting restrictions on the shipping of wine interstate was met with glee by many wineries, some are still confused about the practical application of the decision. The […]

“Sharpshooter” is a dirty word in California’s Temecula Valley. Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee recalls a time seven years ago when “the glassy-winged sharpshooter was proliferating in Riverside County, especially in the Temecula Valley, where it was spreading Pierce’s disease, which clogs the circulatory system of grapevines, blocking their flow of nutrients and […]

I live in a state where the Legislature takes time out from battling poverty and crime to pass Senator Carole Migden’s SB 1253, which designates Zinfandel as California’s “historic wine.” The bill was passed by the state Assembly “on a bipartisan 46-20 vote on August 10 and now awaits Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature to become […]

According to the Sacramento Bee’s wine expert, Mike Dunne, the practice of avoiding fermentation and aging in oak barrels for chardonnays is on the rise. To determine the effect of this trend, Dunne tried two chardonnays, both from St. Supry Vineyards & Winery in the Napa Valley. The first was St. Supry’s 2005 Napa Valley […]