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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.paraduxx.com What do you get when you combine the two most notable red grapes of California into a well-crafted bottle of vino? You get a wine like the 2009 Paraduxx C-blend – one that combines Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel in a very tasty way. Technical Data: Appellation: Napa Valley Harvest Date: [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.hartfordwines.com If ever there was an appropriate name for a wine, it’s this “Highwire” from Hartford Family Wines out of Sonoma. It is, quite simply, one of the best Zinfandel’s I’ve ever had as it completely embodies everything I adore about this varietal. The spice, texture, aromas and that sense of [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.paraduxx.com Paraduxx wines have been a Napa favorite for years now – they combine Zinfandel with other red varietals into very expressive, “California-style” red blends. Technical Data:  Vintage: 2009 Varietal: 72% Zinfandel, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon Aging & Oak: 16 months in oak 100% French oak 60% new Appellation:  Napa Valley Harvest Date: [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.pedroncelli.com/ Most wine drinkers love a refreshing rosé during the summer and many also like Zinfandel with the many grilled foods they make. This dry rosé of Zinfandel helps cover both of those bases. It’s priced very well and has some good quality to boot. Technical Data:  Appellation: Dry Creek [...]

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By Duane Pemberton It’s always good to find some “go-to”, everyday wines to help take the edge off your day and to help keep from draining your budget. These two popular red blends from California each feature Zinfandel – the darling red wine grape of California. 2009 Apothic Red – W.E.P. Rating: 60% Technical Data: [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website:  www.stfranciswinery.com St. Francis has been at it for over 35  years, producing wines from some of Sonoma County’s better appellations. It has clearly evolved into being considered by wine snobs as a “grocery store wine”, however, the past several years it has started to turn that image around by making [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.kenwoodvineyards.com Kenwood Vineyards is one of the most iconic producers in the greater Sonoma region of California. It’d been a staple, go-to-brand for millions of red wine drinkers from all over the world. There’s no doubt that it has played a large role in contributing to California’s success as a [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.pedroncelli.com The Sonoma region of California produces some of the best Zinfandel in the world – it’s really refined great Zin, almost to a science. The combination of weather, soil and elevation all play into creating distinct Zinfandel and the Pedroncalli Family produces some very tasty ones at prices that won’t [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.deerfieldranch.com/ Even though Paso Robles has garnered a lot of well-deserved attention these past few years for its Zinfandel, the Sonoma region has long been held as the benchmark for quality zins. This 2007 Zin from Deerfield Ranch brings out all the classic things I love about Zinfandel – fruit, [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: www.napacellars.com/ Regardless of what time of the year it is, I still love a good steak that’s been grilled outdoors. While it’s so easy to reach for the classic “cab and steak” combination, there are many times – depending on the way I season it – that I’ll pick a [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.donandsons.com Don Sebastini and Sons is a huge wine producer in California that owns a lot of “grocery store” wines that most folks would recognize the brand of – one of those labels is Smooking Loon. This Old Vine Zinfandel comes from a variety of appellations withing California from a [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.crystalbasin.com/ While many people may think of Paso Robles and Sonoma for great Zinfandel, there is a region out near the Sierra Foothills called El Dorado  - it’s elevation helps to create cooler nights than some of the hotter areas of California and that helps instill different flavors into the [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.ridgewine.com There is perhaps no more of an iconic zinfandel producer in the world than Ridge Vineyards. Its pedigree of producing quality zins in the quantities it does is a bit mind-boggling – year after year, they’re consistently good. In this review, I take a look at three of their [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.hartfordwines.com For Hartford winery, based in Forestville California, it’s all about pinot noir, chardonnay and zinfandel – three grapes that California does very well with. They focus on single vineyard sources and very limited bottling which in turn has panned out well for them as they typically have no issues [...]

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Paraduxx winery is an off-shot of the infamous Duckhorn and is till headed-up by members of the Duckhorn family to this day. It’s goal is simple – take top-shelf California Zinfandel and blend it with bordeaux varietals to come up with wines that taste better than the sum of its parts.  For a number of [...]

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By Darin Pemberton Its spring! Trees are budding, bulbs have pushed through the soil. Kids are playing in the streets and yard of our neighborhood. The wind makes sitting on the porch just a little chilly – not quite California weather – but pretty darn good for South East Michigan, in early April. Thanks to [...]

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I freely admit that I can be a grilled-food junkie – I’m not at all one of those “fair-weather” grillers – you know the kind. Those that profess they love grilling, however, only do it from June-August *cough* pansies *cough*. I suppose it’s fair to say that because I do love grilling that it’s easy [...]

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The husband and wife team of Optima Winery in Healdsburg California started in 1984 and has remained a relatively small, family-run winery that produces premium wines. Its mission is quite simple – work with top vineyards in and around its local regions and help them each showcase those particular vineyard sites. Mike Duffy is the [...]

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Without a doubt, Ravenswood Winery is one of the most well-known Zinfandel producers in the United States and the world. Its owner and winemaker, Joel Peterson, most likely bleeds zinfandel. It’s his unadultered passion for this noble grape is one of the primary reasons behind it and he has made it his mission to bring [...]

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If you were to have the chance to meet the winemaker at Four Vines in Paso Robles, Christian Tietje, and ask him what his style was, he’d most likely say “to make wines that do a kick-ass job of representing their varietal composition”. His fresh, bold attitude is, fortunately, one that we’ve been seeing more [...]

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