Is It White? Is It Rosé?
By Glen Frederiksen Ask a winemaker the questions posed in the headline, and it’s enough to make him or her blush. Most casual wine drinkers know the basic differences between red wine and white wine. Aside from color, they know that red… Read more
San Antonio Winery: A Hidden Gem in Downtown Los Angeles
By Glen Frederiksen The greater Los Angeles area, also called “the Southland,” is the second largest major metropolitan area in the United States. Today, it is nothing but houses, businesses, and skyscrapers jammed together in a… Read more
Fans of Fortified Wine Should Get to Know Blandy’s
By Glen Frederiksen Quick now: Name the three most common fortified wines. For most, it is fairly easy to tick off the top two. Port, whether made in Portugal or in any number of New World appellations, quickly comes to mind. Likewise,… Read more
Lawer Family Wines: Scents and Sensibility from a Small Family Estate
By Glen Frederiksen The 1980s saw a boom in the California wine industry, especially in the North Coast regions of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. A few hundred family-owned wineries and vineyards there had trebled to a thousand, and there… Read more
From the Wine Lines Archives: Valentine’s Day 1998
(Ed. Note: One of the really fun aspects of developing the Wine Lines Online website involves digging into our extensive archives and unearthing features, essays, columns and reviews that haven’t seen the light of day for a long time. The column… Read more
A Toast to the Coming New Year: Sparkling Wines for the Big Celebration
By Glen Frederiksen For generations, Western culture has gathered together in a festive way on the final day of the calendar year and, as the minutes and seconds ticked down until the next year, fellow partiers would raise a glass of Champagne to… Read more
Book Review: Red, White, and Drunk All Over/Natalie MacLean
(Editor’s Note: This review was originally published in the High Desert Wine Explorers Newsletter in March, 2007) By Glen Frederiksen Like the movie Sideways, this is a book that speaks in wine geek, yet is still able to bridge the chasm to… Read more
Book Review: The Sub-Title Is Misleading, But ‘Unquenchable’ Delivers Plenty of Reading Enjoyment
By Glen Frederiksen A few years ago, Canadian Natalie MacLean streaked across the wine world sky with her first book, “Red, White, and Drunk All Over.” It was a compilation of anecdotes and memoirs of her seduction and intoxication by the… Read more
Pinot Noir Showdown: Burgundy vs. California
As the Wine Lines Thanksgiving Day Food and Wine Pairing Extravaganza Countdown (or WLTDFAWPEC for somewhat short) continues, you’ll notice that Pinot Noir emerges as a dependable, “go-to” choice if you’re going to be uncorking only one red… Read more
Zraly’s Book Continues To Impress, But Can It Do Even Better?
By Thomas Madrecki Let’s get this out of the way first: There may be no better introduction to the basics of wine making and wine tasting than Kevin Zraly’s best-selling Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. The world of wine is… Read more
