A Ruffino Retrospective

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Looking back, and ahead, with the iconic Chianti producer Lined up on the white tablecloth, the vertical Chianti tasting is a study in scarlet, from the deep ruby of the 2011 to the brick red of the 1977. It’s not every day you taste a nearly 40-year-old wine – for many

A fresh crop of Cape wines at Intellego

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
What's your image of South African wine? Big-boned, smoky Pinotage, highly extracted Bordeaux blends, or super-ripe oaked Chenin and Chardonnay perhaps? These were the wine styles that put post-apartheid South Africa on the international wine map. You might be surprised if you tasted Jurgen Gouws's refreshing bottles. Visitors were scratching

Lolea No. 1 and Lolea No. 2 Sangria

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
Casa Lolea, from Spain, produces a red and a white Sangria using their own family recipe. The packaging is just wonderful. The white, "Lolea No. 2," is in an off-white bottles with big red polka dots, and the red flips the script. Big bottles come with resealable tops like big

The PlumpJack Option

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
4 min read
The PlumpJack Group, the San Francisco-based hospitality organization that owns wineries, restaurants, boutiques and hotels, got its start in Napa Valley in 1995 with the purchase of Villa Mt. Eden in Oakville and the vines that went with it.  They re-named the winery PlumpJack after a Shakespearean character known for