Category: Wine People

It would be difficult to top the San Francisco International Wine Competition ‘2014 Winery Of The Year’ award. Maryhill Winery followed up this year in fine fashion. First, the Wine Press Northwest Magazine named Maryhill as 2015’s Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year. See the press release, and a good background on Maryhill Winery at the Wine Press Northwest magazine’s website.

And now, you have a way to taste some of those award winning wines, that we wrote about last year, and tasted this year. Maryhill Winery opened their Reserve Room, a 1200 square foot room that offers tastings of a rotating selection of their best wines. Of course, there is an additional charge, but visitors can apply the $20 fee towards purchase of the wines.  Continue reading “Maryhill Winery Follows up in 2015”

This is one of the most intriguing wine stories of the last 500 years! The Dalmatian Coast (formerly part of Yugoslavia) of today’s Croatia has long-been a favorite vacation spot, and a great wine-growing location.

Today, the wine world is re-discovering Croatia’s wonders.

Among those discoveries: Five wines are the same, or are direct descendants of one grape, as proven by DNA testing (you can still call the USA wine Zinfandel):

• Primitivo is Tribidrag, transplanted from Croatia to Puglia (Italy’s boot heel) in the late 1700s;
• Zinfardal (the original spelling of Zinfandel) is Tribidrag, brought to the USA from a Viennese Empire greenhouse in 1823;
• Crljenak Kaštelanski is Tribidrag, and was lost for years; it has now been found and DNA-matched in a vineyard near Split, Croatia;
• Tribidrag is now the accepted name for this grape and wine, because it is the oldest name; traced to Croatia in the 1500 (thus the 500 years in the title of this article);
• Plavac Mali is the Croatian son of Tribidrag and Dobričić, a red grape from a nearby island.

Visiting the Source
After helping to organize a 2013 conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we spent a day of wine tasting on the Dingac peninsula (thank you again, Mladen Radujković!), visiting a half dozen wineries.  Continue reading “500 Years Of Great Wine, Born In Croatia”

This post is about both people and places. Mat Lewis is The Man From Margaret River, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Rose and I had decided to visit Australia again. In prior trips, we’d been around the Eastern and Southern edges, and met many wonderful people. This time we wanted to visit the interior, see Uluru (Ayers Rock), and head to Perth, then to Margaret River.

Preparing for the trip, we websurfed to learn more about Margaret River. Already familiar with the wines, especially the Cabs from Devil’s Lair (and their bargain Fifth Leg), and from Leeuwin Estate, we figured we could find some less-discovered wines.

I came across the website for Margaret River Wine Club (no longer available), and signed up on the spot. Immediately I received a gracious response, saying “if we were ever in the neighborhood, to let them know”. I immediately replied that we were on our way there in the next month. That’s when the fun began!

Mat Lewis, the proprietor of the MRWC, had worked with many of the wineries in the area, and ran a creative graphics business as well. He set up for us a range of “insider tours”, then arranged for special accommodations for our last night in the area. Continue reading “The Man From Margaret River”