You’ve probably noticed that things have been a little quiet here as of late. I’d like to think of it as the calm before the storm. Yes, change is a-coming at WineExpedition.com… and it’s a good change!

That’s right, get ready for ‘WineExpedition 2.0′- more great wine tasting and travel videos, more exciting wine discoveries and recommendations and lots of informative and educational content geared towards people that want to learn about and enjoy wine. We’ve poured over emails and viewer feedback (we’ve poured a glass or two of wine in the process), and we’re excited about the improvements to come, so stay tuned!

By the way… in spite of the less frequent posting, we’ve still managed to open up a few bottles of wine… So, ‘what have we been drinking lately’ you ask?

A few weeks back, my buddy Fernando stopped by the house, and wouldn’t you know, we opened up a couple of Central California wines that I was pleasantly surprised to have found at my local Pavillions supermarket. They’ve always had a decent wine aisle, but as of late some really interesting bottles have been popping up.

The first bottle was the 2007 Qupe ‘Central Coast’ Syrah. Qupe’s owner/winemaker Bob Lindquist always shows up with good grape juice, and this bottle was no exception. Mostly Syrah with a dash of Grenache (2%), the grapes for this wine are sourced from both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County. To quote the winery: “…The wine is essentially a blend of cool-climate Santa Barbara grapes and warm-climate Paso Robles grapes. The cool-climate fruit gives spice, acidity and balanced alcohol while the warm-climate fruit give softness, roundness, ripeness and more up-front fruit flavors and aromas.” I have to say that I definitely got the softness… several Syrahs I’ve had of late have been big and bold, and this one was much more elegant and graceful. Lots of red berry and cherry aromas and flavors, with a hint of pepper buried in there somewhere and oh-so-smooth tannins.

The second bottle that was cracked that night was from the same part of California: the 2008 Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir. Au Bon Climat is located on the renowned Bien Nacido Vineyard, and owner/winemaker Jim Clendenen is a contemporary of the aforementioned Mr. Lindquist (they share a wine-making facility). This Pinot is simple and tasty- strawberries and plums with a dash of spice; balanced and refreshing. Wine & Spirits gave it a 92.

Speaking of Pinot, just last week I was at my friend Doug’s house, and he popped the cork on this tasty bottle from the Anderson Valley.

The 2007 Drew “Fog Eater” Pinot Noir This little number was NO JOKE. Anderson Valley is the hot spot for Pinot these days, and Jason Drew set up his boutique winery smack dab in the middle of it. The grapes in this one are grown about 6 miles from the ocean, and the coastal qualities shine through. A floral nose of cherries and herbs is followed by layers of flavors: juicy red berries, cherry cola, and exotic spices. The mouth-feel is sublime; silky yet crisp, nice round tannins and a lingering finish. It got a 95 from Wine Enthusiast and 93 points from Wine & Spirits Magazine. We drank every drop.

That’s all for now… Cheers!

It’s been an interesting week for wine news…

The New York Times ran an in-depth story about Napa in 2010. The downturn in wine sales as a result of the recession combined with a surplus in grapes has been a tough pill to swallow, and many wineries are trying to reinvent themselves, with a focus on direct-to consumer, wine club and e-commerce. A sobering quote: “…in 2009, sales of wines priced at $25 and above dropped 30 percent nationwide, according to Nielsen. While global wine sales increased, California wine shipments fell for the first time in 16 years.” Read more at NYTimes.com.

In other news, a French court has convicted 12 French winemakers for selling millions of bottles of fake Pinot Noir wine to the U.S. wine giant E&J Gallo. Apparently they were barreling up cheap Merlot and Shiraz and calling it Pinot. The French authorities caught on because they noticed that the amount of Pinot, which was being shipped from the Languedoc, exceeded the amount of Pinot grown in the region. The nearly $10 million scam ran from 2006 to 2008 and apparently the phony wine was sold under the Red Bicyclette label. Nobody at Gallo caught the mistake. Uhh…. Whooops? Read the whole story here at AOLNews.com.

By the way, if you like the wacky little wine napkin pictured above, you can purchase a pack of 30 for $3.95 at TrueFabrications.com. Cheers!

Yup… it’s finally here. The wine film you’ve all been waiting for, Blood Into Wine. Tool front-man and Caduceus winemaker Maynard James Keenan let the cameras come and capture he and vineyard partner Eric Glomski’s adventure in making Arizona wine.From the press release:

Blood Into Wine, the forthcoming documentary about Maynard James Keenan (front man for Tool, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle) and vineyard partner Eric Glomski’s mission to bring notoriety and credibility to Northern Arizona’s burgeoning wine industry, begins its theatrical run on Feb. 19 at select theaters across the United States.

Blood Into Wine was co-directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, the team behind critically acclaimed documentaries Moog and The Heart Is a Drum Machine).

While the film focuses on Keenan’s winemaking, Blood Into Wine gives a larger picture of the often reclusive singer. “Maynard is as mysterious and complex as rumored so we don’t know exactly why he allowed our cameras and questions into his world for the winemaking year of 2009,” explains co-director Page.

“But once we got past his pitbulls and his crossbows we were surprised that Maynard was open with us challenging the perception of him as a celebrity winemaker and the notion that making wine in Arizona is like making wine on the moon. Maynard and Eric continue to surprise the winemaking world right now,” co-director Pomerenke adds.

Here’s the schedule thusfar (additional screenings will be announced shortly).

Albuquerque
Mar. 13 – Guild Cinema

Austin
Feb. 19 – 20 – Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek

Boston
Feb. 26 – 28 – Somerville Theatre

Davenport (IA)
Feb. 19, 21, 26 – The Capitol Theatre

Houston
Feb. 19 – 20 – Alamo Drafthouse West Oaks

Los Angeles
Feb. 25 – 28 – Laemmle Sunset 5

Minneapolis
Mar. 4 – Riverview Theater

Phoenix
Feb. 19 – Blood Into Wine Premiere at the W Hotel (Scottsdale)
Feb. 26 – Mar. 4 – Valley Art Theater (Tempe)

Salt Lake City
Feb. 19 to 25 – Tower Theatre

San Antonio
Feb. 19 – Alamo Drafthouse (The Market at Park North)
Feb. 20 – Alamo Drafthouse (1255 SW Loop 410)

San Francisco
Feb. 25 – Viz Cinema (Noise Pop Film Festival)

Sonoma
Feb. 19 – 21 – TBA (Healdsburg, CA)

Watch the trailer here.

…we got a little preview of this weekend’s LA based Pinot Days extravaganza at the K&L Hollywood store last night. Wines were poured by Ken Brown, La Fenétre, Keller Estate and Willamette Valley Vineyards. If you make it to Sunday’s tasting in Santa Monica, there will be at least 71 more Pinot producers lined up to give you a taste, so If you’re in LA on Sunday, come on down to Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Click here for details and click here to contact us if you want a 10% discount on the ticket price. Also, Neil will be there and if you hit him up you might even get a WineExpedition t-shirt. It’s like a dream come true, isn’t it?

And we couldnt’ be more excited. If you’re planning on being in the Los Angeles area anytime between Thursday January 14th and Sunday January 17th, then you my friends, are in for a treat. The good folks at Pinot Days have a slew of events lined up, and each will be centered around tastes of wonderful Pinot Noir. A 10% discount on all of the festival’s spectacular events has been extended to WineExpedition fans and friends. We will be emailing this offer to everyone on our mailing list over the weekend, so if you’re not on the list, go to our Newsletter page and sign up.

The schedule of events is below. NOTE: Neil will be at the Grand Festival on Sunday January 17th in Santa Monica; come say hello (if you’re one of the first to do so, they’ll be a WineExpedition T-Shirt in it for you)!

Grand Festival, January 17th

The Grand Festival is the most comprehensive gathering of pinot producers ever, featuring over 75 producers of domestic pinot and pinot from around the globe. We’re excited to say that WineExpedition friends Sojurn Cellars and Archery Summit will be there; a complete list of participants can be found here. Come meet the winemakers, hear their stories and immerse yourself in the noble grape- located at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

Winemakers Dinner at the Peninsula, January 14th

Enjoy an incredible, pinot-paired dinner and eighteen different pinots, as well as the colorful, gifted winemakers who create them. Executive Chef James Overbaugh’s culinary style emphasizes fresh local seasonal ingredients, creativity and flavors from around the world. His career is long and illustrious, and his accolades include a near-perfect score of “28” in Zagat’s America’s Top Restaurants guide. This four-course dinner will knock your socks off, and is not one you want to miss!

Winemakers Dinner at Sage on the Coast, January 16th

Chef Rich Mead is a mastermind of pairings, and Sage is his realization of his dream. The key, he says, is sourcing local farmers to supply the highest quality ingredients, and then combining them in a way that allows their true flavors to come through. Chef Mead’s fresh ingredients and light touch make him the perfect chef to create courses that complement pinot noir. Enjoy an incredible, four course, pinot-paired dinner and eighteen different pinots, as well as the colorful, gifted winemakers who create them. The winemakers will move seats with every course so that they are able to share their stories with attendees.

Retail Store Tastings, January 14th-15th

In order to let wine lovers know about pinot and Pinot Days, three in-store tastings have been arranged at wine retailers in the days preceding the Pinot Days Grand Festival. On average, four producers will pour their spectacular pinots to customers who come to taste, as well as those who have the good fortune of wandering in at the right time. The pinots you taste will impress you, lead you back to the retailer for more, and tempt you to join 75 such producers at the Pinot Days Grand Festival. The scheduled tastings:

K&L Wine Merchants Hollywood - 1400 Vine Street, Hollywood, Thursday, January 14th, 5:00pm-7:00pm Cost: $25

Wine Exchange - 1500 E. Village Way, Orange, Thursday, January 14th, 4:00pm-7:00pm Cost: $20

Wine House - 2311 Cotner Avenue, Los Angeles, Friday, January 15th, 7:00pm-9:00pm, Cost: $25

Click here for prices and more info. Again, this weekend we’ll be emailing a 10% discount offer on all event tickets, so if you’re not already signed up, go to our Newsletter page and register. We hope to see you there!

That’’s right…. the film is almost here. Rock Star/Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, whom you may know from his musical endeavors (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Pucifier) and his wine-making partner Eric Glomski want you to know that there’s some seriously good wine coming out of Arizona. So they teamed with documentary filmmakers Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke (Moog, The Heart is a Drum Machine to create Blood Into Wine which premieres at the W Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ on Feb. 19 at 7:00 pm.

Keenan owns Caduceus Cellars and Glomski owns Page Springs Cellars and together they own Arizona Stronghold. The two have ‘toured’ together across the U.S. to introduce their wines to the public, conducting tasting on-the-air at radio stations and meeting fans in person at retail locations including Whole Foods Markets. The film follows their trek across the country and reveals the difficulties they face in producing wine from a relatively unknown wine region with a pretty harsh geography.

Nationwide screenings will be announced soon with a DVD release coming Spring 2010; we will keep you posted. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer here.

After stuffing myself with a fantastic Thanksgiving meal and some great wine (I’ll tell you about the wine on Monday), do you think I jumped in the car to camp out in front of my local Best Buy to take advantage of the great Black Friday deals?Hell no. None of the ‘deals’ were good enough to get me to break out the camping gear and set it up in the mall parking lot. In the age of internet shopping it’s not that hard to find a good price on a flat screen TV or a GPS unit. And I have no patience to deal with the insane crowds of people; once again, internet shopping allows me to bypass all that craziness.

Instead, I sought out a deal on a nice rosé (yes, a rosé; it’s still in the high 70’s here in Southern California). I found this little gem, the 2008 Celler el Masroig “Les Sorts” from the Montsant region of Spain, on sale at K&L for 1/3 off. Now that’s a deal! 90% Grenache and 10% Carinena; a nice, light taste of strawberries and berries, and a good bottle to have on this balmy day in Los Angeles.

K&L has a fresh lot of wines in their ‘inventory clearance’ section, so if you’re in the mood for getting some wine deals on this black Friday, that would be a good place to grab a bargain from the comfort of your home.

Other places to check for bargains include at your local Ikea, where a set of 6 ‘SVALKA’ red wine glasses is only $1.99, today only. Also today only, Wine.com has ’select holiday gifts’ up to 25% and Winemonger.com is offering some black Friday deals for today, and some that continue through the weekend.

Enjoy your black Friday. Open a nice bottle that you got on sale and heat up some leftovers. That’s what I’m doing…

In an announcement yesterday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone revealed plans to release two wines (a pinot noir and a chardonnay), provided by winemakers Crushpad and in association with Room to Read, a charity organization.  The wine, named Fledgling Wine, is available now for pre-sale and is available in limited quantity.

“For each bottle you buy, $5 will be donated to Room to Read, a transformational non-profit that brings books, libraries and ultimately literacy to people in the poorest areas around the world. The efforts of Room to Read will benefit literacy, and in doing so they’ll allow Twitter to grow. Because if you can’t read you can’t Tweet!”

For more information, visit Fledgling Wine.

Let us know in the comments what you think about this, and if you plan on ordering some bottles, we’d love to hear what you think.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, we went Back To School, but this wasn’t Grand Lakes University; rather it was Wine School… Spanish wine school that is. Thanks to our winning blog post in the CataVino contest we recently headed down to San Diego to attend the 3 day course, put on by the Wine Academy of Spain, and our palates would never be the same.   Or should I say, “Nuestro paladar no sería la misma”?

We trekked down Interstate 5, and as they say ‘have cameras, will travel’… (yes, webisodes will be coming soon), and those cameras would be busy in the days to come as we multi-tasked like never before, to point, shoot, taste, and absorb a plethora of Spanish wine knowledge simultaneously.

Professor Esteban Cabezas

Spanish Wine Master/Professor Esteban Cabezas delivered the course with an urgency and my pen was flying across my notebook as I furiously took notes. It became apparent pretty quickly that he had a reason to speak so fast…. there are A LOT of Spanish wine regions, wine grapes, wineries etc. and he could have kept talking for a week, let alone 3 days. It was nearly overwhelming, and at one point I wondered to myself, “…do they do anything else in Spain besides make wine?”

In 2.5 days (the test was the last half of day 3), we tasted 83 wines. That’s right, you read correctly, 83 WINES!!!!

The class was a blast: it reinforced my fancy for Spanish wines. Needless to say, I added a ton of new information to the ‘Spanish wine drawer’ in the file cabinet in my head.

Some highlights:

-Spanish Cava is pretty damn good. Whether you love sparkling wine or not, you’ve got to tip your hat to Cava. It’s no joke. The 2004 Juvé & Camps Reserva de la Familia was a standout.

-Sherry baby…! I’ve didn’t think I was a sherry fan, but I was converted in San Diego. Esteban poured some Sherrys that were insane; a couple of great Olorosos and the Gonzales Byass ‘Apostoles’ Palo Cortado was ridiculous.

-Speaking of Sherry, while everyone knows about Sherry, I bet a lot of folks aren’t aware of the other wines Andalusia has to offer. We tasted some amazing still wines from the DO Sierras de Málaga, Vino de la Tierra Cádiz and Vino de la Tierra Contraviesa-Alpujarra. I particularly enjoyed the 2008 Jorge Ordoñez & Co, Botani Moscatel Seco from Sierras de Málaga, the Gonzales Byass Moncloa Cabernet Sauvignon from Vino de la Tierra Cádiz and the 2005 Bodega Dominio Buenavista ‘Nolados’ blend from Vino de la Tierra Contraviesa-Alpujarra.

-Some tasty whites from Rueda (loved the Analivia Verdejo from Felix Solis) and Rías Baixas (equally loved the Fillaboa Albariño).

-Some excellent reds from Priorat (the Scala Dei Prior was a good one), Navarra (dug the 2004 Viña Magaña ‘Baron de Magaña’) and the DO Montsant (I’m a big fan of the Can Blau).

-I could go on and on. We tasted some great wines from Rioja, like the ‘05 Dinastía Vivanco Colección Vivanco 4 Varietales. There were also several wines from Ribera del Duero, like the 2007 Bodegas Conde “El Arte de Vivir”.

At the end of it all, we tasted a lot of wine, and really broke down the long list of Spanish wine regions. the various wine-growing climates and the countless grape varieties grown there. I enjoyed learning about the rich history and wine making traditions that each of the regions had.   It was remarkable to note the difference in the way a Tempranillo drank from area to area, and depending on which area we were talking about, the Grenache grape had several different names. It was a wealth of information and I soaked it all in.

My workspace.

By the way, after lunch on Day 3, we were given a hefty test. I felt good about the blind-tasting portion, and I think I did well on the written part as well, though I did spill some Grenache from Priorat on page three…  I’m eagerly awaiting my results. In the mean time, I’m on the hunt for some more Spanish wines.

Hasta luego.

It’s fun for the entire family, and everybody is doing it.  So you should too… CLICK HERE (of course you need to be on Facebook to participate).