I grew up spending two weeks each summer going to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina with my family. The Lowcountry is a special place for me. Those summers were idyllic. I love the beauty of the marshes and the long, wide sandy beaches with sand dunes and sea oats. This is my second home (thanks Dad for retiring there!). I’ve always loved the easy, breezy Lowcountry beach lifestyle, perhaps even more now that I’m living on the west coast and don’t get to Hilton Head as often as I’d like. However, I’ve also fallen in love with the Wine Country lifestyle. After all, I did a TV show about it for 10 years, In Wine Country. So when I found out Robert Mondavi, Jr. and his wife Lydia were building a house and launching a home collection in Beaufort, SC, I had to find out more. The Mondavi name is…
A New Start With a First Crush at Continuum Estate
“This is from the first day of our first harvest in the winery,” says Tim Mondavi, holding a glass filled with a dark purple liquid. “This was one week ago today, Cabernet Sauvignon that’s just down the hill from here. It’s an early harvest for the vintage and it shows great promise.” Tim is speaking to the folks he and his family have invited to the blessing of the grapes for the 2013 first crush at the new Continuum Estate winery. It’s a family effort by Tim, his sister Marcia Mondavi Borger and Tim’s four children Carissa, Carlo, Dante and Chiara. This blessing of the grapes is not only a celebration of harvest, it is a milestone for Tim and Marcia’s family. The 2013 vintage is the 100th year anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s birth, the family patriarch. Thanks to Robert’s belief that his and other Napa Valley wineries could…
The Legacy of Prohibition on Wine 80 Years Later
There have been many books and films made about Prohibition, the era of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that banned the production of alcoholic drinks for commercial sale and transportation from 1920 until 1933. A new film focuses on how the wine industry rebuilt itself after Repeal and the effects and lasting legacy of Prohibition. Can’t get wine shipped to your house? Blame it on Prohibition. Can’t buy wine on Sunday? Another legacy of Prohibition. Today, December 5, 2013 is the 80th anniversary of Prohibition’s Repeal. “There is no question that the legacy of Prohibition continues,” says Carla De Luca Worfolk, director of the documentary America’s Wine: The Legacy of Prohibition. She wanted to look specifically at the wine industry. “We thought what would be most interesting and relevant to people is to understand the implications of that period and why that history is still important and relevant…
Uncellared: Tasting Notes on Wine and Style
Haute wine, E-Book Wine Launches, Pillow Talk…Tasting Notes on Wine and Style. Read more