Although the term terroir gets tossed around like confetti at an Italian wedding these days, there are several (mostly family-owned and –operated) wine properties in Napa and Sonoma that are taking the idea seriously.

One such property is Benziger, who biodynamically farm grapes and make wine in a beautiful section of Sonoma County.  So much so that they’ve hired self-proclaimed terroir specialist Dr. Pedro Parra to help them analyze the soils and subsoils of their vineyard locations – involving scientific analysis and the digging of deep trenches at strategic locations in the vineyards to examine the soil profiles and root growth.  You can see some of this in the video coverage below.

General Manager Mike Benziger and I sat down last week at the family winery to talk about California wine, terroir, dirt, and Dr. Parra’s unique work, but failed to discuss the strange state of my wind-blown hair.  Enjoy!

Cheers!

The latest video edition of 1WineDude.com, in which I recap. my experience at the D.C. Toast of the Town event, and wax all googly-like about one of the most awesome Ports on the planet.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Wine Enthusiast’s Toast of the Town D.C.
• Erika Strum
• The Capital Grille
• Destination Riesling
• Quinta do Vesuvio
• Arrowine

Cheers!

In the latest 1WineDude video installment, I test out a sample of wine racks from GrottoCellars.com, act like an immature goofball, impose my will onto an unsuspecting Roomba robot vacuum cleaner at high video speeds, and tweak out my back.

Just another day at the office!

Cheers!

A very brief intro. into the 2010 International Malbec Days Festival. 

As for the event – great intro. to Cahors and its wines; confusing marketing strategy / message; terrible, terrible, terrible organization of events and logistics overall.  More to come (on all three fronts)!

Cheers!