Agustin F. Huneeus, President of Huneeus Vintners, invites you to join him live on Friday, February 10th at 6:00pm PST on the TasteLive Special Event Channel for the introduction of Veramonte’s Ritual 2010 Sauvignon Blanc and 2010 Pinot Noir. These wines represent the family's quest to produce exceptional wines from the family’s Casablanca Valley Estate located northwest of Santiago, Chile situated between the soaring Andes Mountains and the rugged Pacific Coast. TasteLive will be announcing Ritual's wine blogger panelists in the coming days.

Vermonte's Casablanca Valley Estate

In the 1990’s, Agustin Huneeus, Sr. identified Casablanca Valley as having potential to become a world-class wine appellation. Featuring a moderate climate with gentle Pacific breezes and early morning fog, Casablanca Valley is ideal for producing fresh, crisp, white varietals that produce wines with minerality, bright fruit flavor and balanced acidity. Huneeus also discovered that the higher elevations were ideal for producing world-class Pinot Noir.

Ritual 2011 Sauvignon Blanc
Ritual Sauvignon Blanc was created as an elegant, yet approachable interpretation of the varietal. Only the finest estate-grown fruit from vineyard blocks known to produce intense fruit flavors and higher acidity are chosen for this wine. The resulting Sauvignon Blanc is medium bodied, featuring a rounder, more textural mouth feel with balanced acidity. Intense flavors of ripe tropical fruit mingle with hints of citrus in structured complexity from 5 months of French Oak aging. The experience ends with a long, smooth finish.

Ritual 2010 Pinot Noir
Partnering with renowned American winemaker Paul Hobbs and applying the same time-honored viticulture and winemaking methods as those used in Burgundy, Huneeus set out to produce Pinot Noir of superior quality, structure and elegance. Fruit for this wine is selected from 3 distinct vineyard sites within the estate. Hand harvested in small batches in the cool morning fog, fruit from each vineyard contributes unique qualities to the finished wine in the form of character, dimension and personality. Together, they create a beautiful, elegant expression of Pinot Noir from Casablanca Valley.

Meticulously hand-crafted, the harvested fruit enjoys cold maceration for 3-5 days for color extraction before whole berries are fermented with wild yeasts to increase depth and intensity. Frequent, gentle punch downs in small open-top tanks bring out deep color, while malolactic fermentation and aging up to 14 months in French oak barrels (40% new) add complexity and elegance. The resulting wine brims with bright fruit aromas and flavors of black cherries, blueberry, raspberry and plum.

We invite you to subscribe to TasteLive's blog for the latest updates on events and news!

The Wineyard at Santa Rosa Vintners’ Square hosted its trade and media sneak preview on Tuesday, December 20^th 2011 with a TasteLive streaming webcast featuring The Wineyard's four mirco-wineries SRJC's Shone Farm Winery, Flocchini Wines, Atascadero Creek Winery, and Jazz Cellars. Wine bloggers Amy Corron Power, Joe Power,Grace Hoffman, Dezel Quillen, Lain Bradford and Beau Caruful joined us virutally to sample and comment on the wines. Below are the TasteLive interviews with winemakers and proprietors shot live by Scott Eason of Smiling Tiger Video with support from CellarPass and Mutineer magazine.

The Wineyard and The Hopyard at Santa Rosa Vintners' Square are now the home base for TasteLive streaming events. To learn more, read our recent news release. If you're a winery, chef and/or musical artist that would like to sponsor or be part of our 2012 programming, please contact Joel Quigley at joel@creativefurnace.com.

FEATURED VIDEOS

Chef Josh Silvers of Petite Syrah & Jackson's Bar & Oven, Dino D'Argenzio of The Wineyard with Joel Quigley of TasteLive

Winemaker Chris Wills of Shone Farm Winery with Joel Quigley of TasteLive

Proprietor Andrew Flocchini of Flocchini Wines with Joel Quigley

Winemaker Bob Appleby of Atascadero Creek Winery with Joel Quigley of TasteLive

Co-founders Bob Smith & Joe Lazzara of Jazz Cellars with Joel Quigley of TasteLive

We invite you to follow The Wineyard on Facebook & Twitter.

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news!

In addition to the special invite only event, The Wineyard at Santa Rosa Vintners' Square and TasteLive have announced a strategic partnership to promote the expanding urban wine village's facilities and give TasteLive a home base to produce its interactive wine, food, and music webcasts. Click here to read the complete news release. To Celebrate, the companies will host a live streaming demonstration webcast and virtual tasting with wine bloggers Amy Corron Power, Joe Power, Grace Hoffman, Dezel Quillen, Lain Bradford and Beau Caruful during the open house from 6pm to 7pm on TasteLive's Special Event Channel!

During the tasting, we'll meet members of the D'Argenzio family who will share the story and vision of The Wineyard. The Wineyard, and the entire Santa Rosa Vintners’ Square, is one of the most progressive examples in the trend of adaptive reuse in commercial real estate: converting a former strip mall into an urban winery village. Much of the venues materials, such as barrel staves and bar, have been reused from former projects and buildings. This is a great story of restoration, reuse, urban redevelopment and destination.

We'll also meet the winemakers and taste wines from The Wineyard's first coopertive winery members: Atascadero Creek Winery, Flocchini Winery, Jazz Cellars and SRJC's Shone Farm Winery. More are on the way...

FEATURED WINES

Shone Farm Winery 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley

Flocchini Wines 2006 Pinot Noir, Andrea La Rue, Sonoma Coast

Atascadero Creek Winery 2008 Zinfandel, Haun Ranch, Russian River Valley

Jazz Cellars 2007 Syrah, Las Madres Vineyard, Carneros

We invite you to follow The Wineyard on Facebook & Twitter.

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news!

NEWS RELEASE ~ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Joel Quigley, President & Co-Founder, Creative Furnace
Business Development, TasteLive
Ph: (707) 495-0831 / email: joel@creativefurnace.com

THE WINEYARD AT SANTA ROSA VINTNERS’ SQUARE & TASTELIVE ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

The Wineyard, The Hopyard and Rustico Cibo Restaurant Venues to be TasteLive’s Home Production Site for Interactive Streaming Webcasts

Set to Open in Early 2012, The Wineyard & The Hopyard are Wired with High-Speed Internet, Sound, Cameras and Televisions for Wine, Food, Music Events

(Santa Rosa, CA, December 13^th 2011) – The Wineyard at Santa Rosa Vintners' Square and TasteLive announced today a strategic partnership to promote the expanding urban wine village's facilities and give TasteLive a home base to produce its interactive wine, food, and music webcasts. TasteLive is a real time event-based Social Media Network offering exclusive branded channels and production for Social Media events. The fully independent platform is integrated with Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media sites to provide extended “reach” across multiple networks.

“This is a win win for both companies,” said Dino D’Argenzio, Co-founder of The Wineyard at Santa Rosa Vintners’ Square and Senior Real Estate Advisor and Partner at Keegan & Coppin. “By working with TasteLive’s management team at Creative Furnace, we’ve designed our new spaces for today’s special event market. It’s no longer simply about providing the best services for onsite events; it’s also about offering turnkey, state-of-the-art, multimedia capabilities. By creating this partnership, we can virtually export events to trade, media and consumers worldwide.”

“From the day TasteLive added streaming broadcast capabilities in 2009, we’ve been virtual nomads, traveling to sites to produce interactive webcasts,” said Cailyn McCauley, Co-founder of Creative Furnace and Managing Partner for TasteLive. “We’ll continue to offer such services, however, we can now present clients with a home base for our productions. This is especially important for rural wineries, and those without facilities, that don’t have the technology or bandwidth to host such events.”

Santa Rosa Vintners' Square is already home to three outstanding wineries with production facilities including, founding winery D'Argenzio Winery, Krutz Family Cellars and Sheldon Wines, as well as Squire Cigars. The urban wine village is expanding with its cooperative The Wineyard tasting arena to include Atascadero Creek Winery, Flocchini Winery, Jazz Cellars, SRJC's Shone Farm Winery, and more to be announced soon. The Hopyard will act as the center’s special event and live music venue, with local microbrews featured at its bar. Rustico Cibo Culinary Kitchen is designed as a working restaurant as well as demonstration kitchen with built in digital cameras and televisions.

TasteLive, launched in 2008 with an initial core focus on fine wine, has produced more than 250 online events hosted with some of the world’s top winemakers, trade groups, and importers. The platform is primarily used for virtual blogger tastings, interactive sales and marketing team events, virtual wine club tastings, and on-location webcasts.

To learn more about TasteLive, contact Joel Quigley at 707.495.0831 or email joel@creativefurnace.com. To learn more about The Wineyard, contact Chris O'Connell chris@santarosawineyard.com or (707) 934-5002.

Interviews and high-resolution photos are available upon request.

Follow The Wineyard on Facebook & Twitter

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news!

December’s TasteLive Tuesday event, Get Ready to Sparkle with Freixenet and Gloria Ferrer, is a very special holiday celebration featuring wines from the world’s leader in the making of traditional method sparkling wine, méthode champenoise. The Tuesday, December 13^th event at 6pm Pacific will showcase three sparkling wines: Freixenet Cordon Negro Cava, Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut, Segura Viudas Brut Rosé Cava, each paired with a classic, delicious cheese.

If you’re on the run this holiday season and need a quick wine and food pairing to bring to a party, these wines and cheeses are of excellent quality, yet readily available. They’re also guaranteed to be the hit of any gathering.

A Brief History of Freixenet
Freixenet (pronounced "fresh-eh-net"), best known for its "black bottle bubbly" Cordon Negro, is a family-owned company that grew from humble beginnings in rural Catalunya. The roots of Freixenet stretch back to 1861 and are embedded in the history of two longstanding winemaking families, the Ferrers and the Salas, whose expertise, determination and ingenuity would intertwine to form the foundation of the company today. While Freixenet may be the largest maker of traditional method sparkling wine, quality remains their number one objective. The company focuses solely on méthode champenoise wines, and continually innovates and invests in the latest winemaking technology to ensure a consistent, excellent product.

With 150 years of history under its belt, the family-owned Freixenet Group has become Spain's top beverage exporter, with the production of Spanish cava (sparkling wine) remaining at its core. The Freixenet Group is also involved in the production of high-quality sparkling and still wines beyond the borders of Penedès, making top notch wines in other prominent winemaking regions of Spain and in countries around the world, which brings us to Gloria Ferrer. In 1986, José Ferrer realized his father's cherished dream of making sparkling wine in the United States. He purchased land in California’s Sonoma Carneros Region. He planted vines, built cellars, and christened the winery with the name of his wife, Gloria Ferrer.

(source: http://www.freixenetusa.com)

Get Ready to Sparkle With Freixenet and Gloria Ferrer
TasteLive invites you to join Cindy Friedman, CWP of Freixenet USA, and our panel of guest bloggers in tasting three distinct sparkling wines from Spain and Sonoma, along with recommended cheese pairings to get you in the holiday mood! Below is the list of wines and cheese pairing, blogger panelists. And to help with you holiday planning, here’s a link to Freixenet USA’s store locator to purchase wines from your local retailer. To RSVP for the event, visit TasteLive’s Special Event page.

FEATURED WINES

Freixenet Cordon Negro Cava
Produced in Penedès, Spain. This black bottle Cava is a blend of three white Spanish grape varieties called Macabeo (35%), Xarel-lo (25%) and Parellada (40%). It is medium-bodied with a palate of apple, pear and bright citrus flavors. Amongst its loyal consumers it is considered an affordable luxury that consistently delivers on quality. 

Cheese Pairing recommendation: Manchego or Parmigiano Reggiano

Click here for the store locator to purchase wines from your local retailer.

Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut
Produced in the Sonoma Carneros Region of California. This sparkling wine is a blend of 91% Pinot Noir and 9% Chardonnay. On the palate, one finds lively citrus, toast and apple flavors overlaid with persistent effervescence, a creamy mid-palate and toasty finish. Sonoma Brut has received multiple awards for its commitment to quality and clear fruit expression.

Cheese Pairing recommendation: Brie cheese with green apple slices

Click here for the store locator to purchase wines from your local retailer.

Segura Viudas Brut Rosé Cava
Also produced in Penedès, Spain, this boutique sparkling wine is a blend of  90% Trepat, 10% Garnacha and is a  perfect example of what a Cava Rosado should be like, with its intense fruitiness, on nose and palate, its lively color, and its finesse. It is considered a best kept secret in the Cava region and is just waiting to be discovered by you.

Cheese Pairing recommendation: Soft goat cheese with cracked pepper

Click here for the store locator to purchase wines from your local retailer.

TASTELIVE BLOGGER PANEL

William Allen > @SonomaWilliam
http://www.simplehedonisms.com

Frank Morgan > @DrinkWhatULike
http://www.DrinkWhatYouLike.com

Thea Dwelle > @winebratsf
http://www.lusciouslushes.com

Bean Fairbanks > @WineBeerWA

http://wine-beer-washington.com

Katie  Pizzuto > @gonzogastronomy
http://www.gonzogastronomy.com

Meghan Malloy > @traveleatlovemm
http://traveleatlove.com

Beau Carufel > @UCBeau
http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com 

Pamela Heiligenthal > @enobytes
http://enobytes.com

Dan Goderis > @DanGod1
http://www.crwinenuts.blogspot.com

Megan Kenney > @Sonadora
http://www.wannabewino.com

Lain Bradford > @winereview

 http://www.winetalk.org

Matthew Horbund > @mmwine
http://agoodtimewithwine.com

Michael Gorton > @michaelgotonjr
http://undertakingwine.com/author/undertakingwine

Amy Corron Power > @WineWonkette
http://www.anotherwineblog.com

Joe Power > @HustonWino
http://houstonwino.blogspot.com

We truly look forward to sharing comments, ideas and photos with everyone!

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news!

Tuesday, November 15th: Comprehensive Blogger Panelist Tasting

Tuesday, December 6th: Virtual Dinner Party with Wine Loving Foodies

Rodney Strong Vineyards, located along the Russian River in beautiful Sonoma County, is hosting two TasteLive events on its new exclusive channel for the holiday season. The first event on Tuesday, November 15th will be a comprehensive wine and food pairing tasting with wine the team at Rodney Strong and bloggers across the States. The second event, a virtual dinner party, will feature the same wines and recipe pairings, but this time will include bloggers, their followers, and Rodney Strong wine club members. The vision here is to have our guest blogger panelists take in the experience, and then, instead of just sharing the story with their followers, invite them to live the dream several weeks later!

The events are also designed to help with holiday menu and gift giving ideas, especially for your "wine loving foodie" friends and family members. Rodney Strong Vineyards is featuring four great tasting food friendly wines for both events, including its 2009 Chalk Hill Chardonnay, 2009 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, 2009 Knotty Vines Zinfandel and red Meritage, 2008 Symmetry. To make life a bit easier, the first three wines are attractively assembled as a gift pack for the holidays and available for doorstep delivery (where legal). The two pairing recipes come from Rodney Strong’s Down Home Downtown cookbook by Wine Country Chefs Jeff Mall and Josh Silvers.

Below we've listed the recipes and key links to RSVP for the December 6th virtual dinner party event, and to help guests secure the wines locally or by ordering directly from the winery:

Links to Join the Party
Click here to purchase wines directly from Rodney Strong Vineyards
Click here for our store locator to purchase wines from your local retailer
Click here to create a TasteLive account
Click here to RSVP for the November 15th event
Click here to RSVP for the December 6th event

Down Home Downtown Recipes

Click here to order the complete Down Home Downtown Cookbook

Roasted Butternut Squash & Apple Soup by Chef Silvers of Syrah Bistro & Wine Bar
Paired with Rodney Strong's Chardonnay and Zinfandel

Click here to download:

ROASTED_BUTTERNUT_SQUASH_–_JOSH_SILVERS(2).pdf (219 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

ROASTED_BUTTERNUT_SQUASH_–_JOSH_SILVERS(2).pdf (219 KB)

Apple Wood-Smoked Pork Chop by Chef Mall of Zin Restaurant & Wine Bar
Paired with Pinot Noir and Symmetry

Click here to download:

APPLE_WOOD–SMOKED_PORK_CHOPS_–_JEFF_MALL(2).pdf (208 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

APPLE_WOOD–SMOKED_PORK_CHOPS_–_JEFF_MALL(2).pdf (208 KB)

TASTELIVE BLOGGER PANEL

Frank Morgan / @DrinkWhatULike
http://www.DrinkWhatYouLike.com

Dan Goderis / @DanGod1
http://www.crwinenuts.blogspot.com

Megan Kenney / @Sonadora
http://www.wannabewino.com

Grace Hoffman / @cellarmistress
http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com

Lain Bradford / @winereview
http://www.winetalk.org

Matthew Horbund / @mmwine
http://agoodtimewithwine.com

Michael Gorton / @michaelgotonjr

 http://undertakingwine.com/author/undertakingwine

Amy Corron Power / @WineWonkette

http://www.anotherwineblog.com

Joe Power / @HustonWino

http://houstonwino.blogspot.com

We truly look forward to sharing comments, ideas and photos with everyone!

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news! 

Broadcasts Hosted by Alan Kropf of Mutineer Magazine to Feature Winemaker, Chef and Special Guest Interviews with Virtual Wine Blogger Tastings 

(NAPA, CA, November 2^nd 2011) -- CellarPass and TasteLive announced today its live streaming broadcast schedule for the 2011 Napa Valley Film Festival. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Alan Kropf of Mutineer magazine, the one-hour daily broadcasts from marquee Napa Valley Film Festival events will take place on November 10^th, 11^th and 12^th and feature a who’s who in regional winemaking, the culinary arts and special guests. Wine bloggers from around the U.S. will join the shows virtually to taste wines, post comments, and ask questions of guests.

“We’ll be producing five shows in three days,” said Kropf, “so we’ll be running the gauntlet of tight timelines and pushing the threshold of live-stream broadcasting. Along with our scheduled line up, we’ll be inviting talent off the red carpet for spontaneous interviews, and responding to questions posted by our blogger panelists. It’s going to be a bit of a thrill ride that should deliver some sweet surprises.”

Guests wishing to join the conversation can create an account in advance at TasteLive. Visitors traveling to the Napa Valley Film Festival are encouraged to use CellarPass’ industry-leading winery reservation system to book movie-inspired wine tasting itineraries and experiences and enter its sweepstakes to win an exclusive VIP trip to Napa Valley.

Napa Valley Film Festival TasteLive / CellarPass Streaming Broadcast Schedule

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10^th 2011

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Robert Mondavi Winery, Oakville
8:00pm to 9:00pm
Go to TasteLive Event Page

Featured Winery & Wines
Robert Mondavi Winery
2009 Fume Blanc Reserve - $40
2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - $135

Blogger Panelists
Bean Fairbanks, @WineBeerWA, http://wine-beer-washington.com
Beau Carufel, @ucbeau, http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com
Dennis Atick, @decaturwinedude, http://www.decaturwineandfooddude.com
Dezel Quillen, @myvinespot, http://www.myvinespot.com
Grace Hoffman, @cellarmistress, http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Lain Bradford, @winereview, http://www.winetalk.org
Matthew Horbund, @mmwine, http://agoodtimewithwine.com
Megan Kenney, @sonadora, http://wannabewino.com
Thea Dwelle, @winebratsf, http://lusciouslushes.com

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11^th 2011

CALISTOGA WINE PAVILION
Mount View Hotel, Calistoga
1457 Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga CA 94515
12:00pm to 1:00pm

Go to TasteLive Event Page

Featured Wineries & Wines
Mumm Napa
Brut Reserve Rosé NV - $36

Merryvale Vineyards
2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - $65

Tedeschi Family Winery
2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - $58

Blogger Panelists
Bean Fairbanks, @WineBeerWA, http://wine-beer-washington.com
Beau Carufel, @ucbeau, http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com
Dennis Atick, @decaturwinedude, http://www.decaturwineandfooddude.com
Thea Dwelle, @winebratsf, http://lusciouslushes.com
Dezel Quillen, @myvinespot, http://www.myvinespot.com
Grace Hoffman, @cellarmistress, http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Katie Pizzuto, @gonzogastronomy, http://www.gonzogastronomy.com
Lain Bradford, @winereview, http://www.winetalk.org

ST. HELENA WINE PAVILION
Carnegie Building, St. Helena
1360 Oak Street, St. Helena, CA 94574
3:30pm to 4:30pm

Go to TasteLive Event Page

Featured Wineries
Savour St. Helena
2008 Ramian Canard Merlot - $TBA

Clif Family Winery
2008 Kit's Killer Cab, Napa Valley - $38

Raymond Vineyards
Raymond 2008 Reserve Selection Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - $35

Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards
2008 Trilogy Napa Valley - $65

Blogger Panelists
Bean Fairbanks, @WineBeerWA, http://wine-beer-washington.com
Beau Carufel, @ucbeau, http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com
Dennis Atick, @decaturwinedude, http://www.decaturwineandfooddude.com
Dezel Quillen, @myvinespot, http://www.myvinespot.com
Grace Hoffman, @cellarmistress, http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Katie Pizzuto, @gonzogastronomy, http://www.gonzogastronomy.com
Lain Bradford, @winereview, http://www.winetalk.org
Matthew Horbund, @mmwine, http://agoodtimewithwine.com
Megan Kenney, @sonadora, http://wannabewino.com
Thea Dwelle, @winebratsf, http://lusciouslushes.com

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12^th 2011

YOUNTVILLE WINE PAVILION
V Marketplace, Yountville
1870 Parking lot, 6525 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599
12:00pm to 1:00pm

Go to TasteLive Event Page

Featured Wineries
John Anthony Vineyards
2010 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc - $20
2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - $56

Jessup Cellars
2009 Napa Valley Red Wine, Estate Grown - $TBA

Chiarello Family Vineyards
2008 Roux Old Vine Petite Sirah - $46

Blogger Panelists
Beau Carufel, @ucbeau, http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com
Dennis Atick, @decaturwinedude, http://www.decaturwineandfooddude.com
Dezel Quillen, @myvinespot, http://www.myvinespot.com
Grace Hoffman, @cellarmistress, http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Katie Pizzuto, @gonzogastronomy, http://www.gonzogastronomy.com
Lain Bradford, @winereview, http://www.winetalk.org
Matthew Horbund, @mmwine, http://agoodtimewithwine.com
Megan Kenney, @sonadora, http://wannabewino.com

NAPA WINE PAVILION
Napa Oxbow Wine Pavilion
COPIA Center, 644 1^st Street, Napa, CA 94559
4:00pm to 5:00pm

Go to TasteLive Event Page

Featured Wineries
Swanson Vineyards & Winery
2009 Napa Valley Pinot Grigio - $21
2007 Oakville Merlot - $38

Saintsbury
2009 Lee Vineyard Pinot Noir - $45

Pine Ridge Winery
2007 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon - $80

Blogger Panelists
Beau Carufel, @ucbeau, http://beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com
Dezel Quillen, @myvinespot, http://www.myvinespot.com
Grace Hoffman, @cellarmistress, http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Katie Pizzuto, @gonzogastronomy, http://www.gonzogastronomy.com
Lain Bradford, @winereview, http://www.winetalk.org
Matthew Horbund, @mmwine, http://agoodtimewithwine.com
Megan Kenney, @sonadora, http://wannabewino.com

Contact:
Sarah Elliman, CellarPass, Inc.
(707) 255-4390
Email: selliman@cellarpass.com

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news! 

TasteLive Tuesdays Bacchus Selections "Stock Your Cellar" Holiday Tasting

Tuesday, November 8th ~ 6:00pm to 7:00pm PT

If you're anything like me, you love the hunt that comes with discovering new wines. You also love the deal. And when you combine the hunt and the deal with discovering a delicious new wine, then you are most happy. Of course, as we all know, this can be a hit-and-miss process and potentially expensive. The expensive becomes even more expensive when it's a miss, both financially and mentally.

The traditional and most affordable way to hunt is to attend wine tastings with multiple producers, find some favorites, and then join the wine club for discounts (the deal), with the added bonus of invites to special events. Today, with the growth of direct-to-consumer sales and the power of the Internet, we can join membership groups like Bacchus Selections to do the advance work for us. As they put it, "Our team discovers intriguing wines for its membership’s refined palates by rigorous screening and selecting the top 2% of wines based on intrigue, quality, and value." This process dramatically increases the hits, drastically reduces the misses, while also offering exclusive wines that we'd never see at the aforementioned wine tasting events.

Yes, they also negotiate the deal!

This hunt and deal process truly gets amplified as we roll into the holiday season, which is why we're so pumped that our November TasteLive Tuesday event is featuring four wines from Bacchus Selections. These exclusive wines, offered at amazing values, are the just kind of special wines you want to drink with holiday meals, share as gifts, and put away in your own cellar. Did I suggest you buy yourself a gift for the holidays? You bet.

Currently, Bacchus Selections membership is complementary, so click here to register. The evening's featured wines are listed below. You can click on each wine link to learn more and order the wines!

Join Us Thursday, October 27^th for a Comprehensive Tasting with Winemaker & Farmer Guy Davis of Davis Family Vineyards

The team at TasteLive first met winemaker and farmer Guy Davis of Davis Family Vineyards through our good friend Ziggy, The Wine Gal back a couple years ago at one of her superb “house parties” in Sonoma County. We’ll never forget when she pulled us aside from a carnivorous pack of guests circling the BBQ ribs platter and said, “You’ve got to taste Guy Davis’ estate Zinfandel.”

That was if for us — we’ve been fans of Davis Family Vineyards ever since. Oh, you should know before you get too excited: the Old Vine Zinfandel is made from vines planted in 1896 on the family’s ridge top estate in the Russian River Valley, so they only make a handful of barrels each vintage, and most years only enough bottles for their wine club members. Of course, the solution to access is pretty clear, right?

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago: Guy sent us an email letting us know that he had a promotional program he’s developed that has taken on a life of its own. You see, “Davis” is the 6^th most common surname in the United States, so each year dozens of visitors to the tasting room and at special events would say to Guy, “Hey, I’m a Davis, too.”

Guy’s entrepreneurial instinct kicked in and he started the “Hey, I’m a Davis, too!” program and Friends of the Family Wine Club with a host of special benefits. It took off, and now he’s expanding the program through Social Media outreach and adding contests that will include hosting wines for winning Davis family reunions and select charity events. If you know any “Davis” friends, share the word and stay close to them, because Guy has made it clear that, “Adoption is not an option.” [Insert smile.]

In his email, Guy also said that he wanted to engage with TasteLive to help reach more of the Davis Clan, as well as introduce his earth-friendly, micro-lot wines to a new generation of influencers in today’s wine culture, i.e., wine bloggers. Far be it from us to get in the way of a good plan that calls for tasting fine wines from a great winemaker and sharing the news with our friends. Let’s get to it…

(Read the news release announcing Guy's move to take the "I'm a Davis, too!" program to Social Media Networks.)

The Wines of Davis Family Vineyards

Though it’s true that Guy focuses on creating micro-lot wines sourced from the family’s organically farmed estate — and select vineyards owned by a few close friends — which can be scarce like his Old Vine Zinfandel, there is good news. He’s one of those rare winemakers who consistently makes great wines from a wide-range of varietals. From Riesling to Chardonnay (and rosé) to a handful of Pinot Noirs to Cabernet Sauvignon to an estate Syrah that is one of the finest examples of the grape, in our opinion, out of California.

Guy has also dislayed a deft hand at blending, with his 2008 Cuvée Luke (49% Roussanne, 37% Marsanne, and 14% Viognier) awarded top honors at the California State Wine Competition with 94 points, Best of Class and Best of Region. His Barn D’Or, a Cab/Syrah blend, continues to win accolades and consistently making “Best Buy” lists.

As you can imagine, choosing a selection of just six wines for the Davis Family Vineyards’ inaugural TasteLive event was challenging, especially from a winemaker and farmer with innate desire to share his wines and break bread with everyone he meets. But he did it, with just a little emphasis on his 2009 new releases of Pinot Noir from the family’s Russian River Valley Estate.

So we invite you to join us on Thursday, October 27^th at 6:00pm PT, as we taste through the wines with Guy and our TasteLive blogger panel, and discuss his deeply passionate and hands-on farming and winemaking practices.

Guy, can we please reconsider the adoption issue?

Davis Family Vineyards Featured Wines

2009 Cuvée Luke, Sierra Foothills  $26 (new release link coming soon)

2008 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley Estate  $36

2009 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley Estate  $40 (new release link coming soon)

2009 Pinot Noir, Sole Patch, Russian River Valley Estate  $42 (new release link coming soon)

2008 Syrah, Russian River Valley Estate, Guyzer Block  $38

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley  $50

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news! 

TasteLive Tuesday, October 11^th 2011

As summer heat gives way to balmy autumn days and cooler evenings, the crew here at TasteLive begins to crave deeper, richer wines to sip and pair with the more robust foods of the harvest season. There is certainly a sense of indulgence that comes with the bounty of harvest, and perhaps this is why small-lot, Cabernet Sauvignons from the north coast of California are at the top of our list for satiating our desire for hedonistic celebration. These are wines made with special care and selection, and in very limited bottlings, making them as fleeting as the long days of summer past. So along with being rare in numbers, these wines, with their rich, velvety, lusciousness, are a must have for those special holiday occasions that call for serving up the best-of-the-best.

Our TasteLive Tuesday event for October features four such Cabernet Sauvignons, two from a pair of micro-wineries, Krutz Family Cellars and Chateau Felice, and two from a pair of larger wineries that have very successful small lot programs, Rodney Strong Vineyards and Wente Vineyards. The wines range in price from $50.00 to $75.00 per 750ml bottle and are sourced from four distinct regions on the north coast of California: Livermore Valley in Contra Costa County, Napa Valley, and Alexander Valley and Chalk Hill in Sonoma County.

Below are the featured wines listed in alphabetical order with links to explore more deeply. We encourage you to RSVP for the event by clicking here. We’ll be announcing our blogger panelists in the coming days…

Chateau Felice
2007 La Craie, American Celebration, Chalk Hill  $50

Krutz Family Cellars
2007 Stagecoach Vineyards, Napa Valley  $75

Rodney Strong Vineyards
2008 Alexander’s Crown Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley  $75

Wente Vineyards
The Nth Degree, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Livermore Valley, San Francisco Bay  $60

TASTELIVE BLOGGER PANEL

Dan Goderis / @DanGod1

www.crwinenuts.blogspot.com

Bean Fairbanks / @WineBeerWA

wine-beer-washington.com

Katie Pizzuto / @gonzogastronomy

www.gonzogastronomy.com

Dezel Quillen / myvinespot

www.myvinespot.com

Beau Carufel / @UCBeau

www.beausbarrelroom.blogspot.com

Megan Kenney / @Sonadora

www.wannabewino.com

Grace Hoffman / @cellarmistress

www.cellarmistress.com

Lain Bradford / @winereview

www.winetalk.org

Pamela Heiligenthal / @enobytes

www.enobytes.com

Amy Corron Power / @WineWonkette

www.anotherwineblog.com

We invite you to subscribe to the TasteLive blog for the latest updates on events and news!