Aren't there enough wineries in Northern California? Do we really need another? Especially when it could mean the death of a redwood forest? As the LA Times reported in August, Codorniu’s Artesa Napa Winery and Premier Pacific Vineyards plan to build two new wineries in Annapolis will "clear-cut over 1,900 acres of these redwoods." In addition to killing off a forest in the process of replenishing itself (the area was hit hard by the logging industry), it would also be built on the burial grounds of the Kashia Pomo tribe (where they still live and worship) and possibly harm the Gualala River, "home to endangered salmon and other at-risk wildlife." more ›

In yet another in a long string of victories for California winemaking (you've all heard about the famous Judgment of Paris upset in 1976, right?), three Napa Valley wines placed in the top five at the World Series of Wine in Cleveland, Ohio, with the 2005 M by Michael Mondavi coming in first. At $200, that bottle retails for less than half the price of second-place French finisher, the 2006 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac ($500), or fifth-place finisher, the 2006 Chateau Margaux ($500). The value winners here would be third and fourth place finishers, two Cabs by Emblem Wines in Rutherford that go for $49 apiece... at least, they did until today. more ›

Having made about a hundred and nine trips to wine country, we're definitely over the big name, flashy, tchotchke- and gift-laden tasting rooms serving up merely drinkable wine at high-end prices. Give us a shitshack or a shed and some amazing wine and we're happy. more ›

The truth of the matter is, you can drink almost anything with turkey dinner -- most full-bodied, earthy, or well-balanced red wines, and many German, or Rhône-style whites will do the trick just fine. So many diverse flavors mean that many wines are bound to taste good with at least something you have on your plate. more ›

Not that long ago, the idea of respectable non-jug, non-box wines for under $10 -- the kind of wine you could bring to a foodie dinner party without feeling like a cheap asshole -- was pretty unthinkable. Enter Trader Joe's and BevMo and suddenly there's a lot of truly decent cheap wine out there, and we're not just talking about Two-Buck Chuck. more ›

In our search for small-scale wine producers to visit in our nearby wine regions, we're always glad to find start-up wineries making excellent wines to a small, devoted audience. Astrale e Terra on the Silverado Trail is one of those wineries. The name translates as "heaven and earth," and we encountered their wines at an event in San Francisco a month or two back, and thought they were on to something special. more ›

A couple weeks back we filled in the Friday Drinks column with a post about Cline Cellars, and today we're back with the launch of a new column about local wineries which we're going to call Wednesday Wine Tasting until we come up with something better. more ›

The first annual SF Street Food Fest went down on Saturday, and pretty much half of San Francisco showed up to the one-block-long festival. The thing got a ton of buzz, a piece on NPR, links on a hundred websites, and as we all know, street food and nonstaurants are all the rage right now. As the folks at Beer & Nosh put it, "It was crowded, expensive, and with long lines for food that wasn't exactly street food. Yet the crowds were docile and friendly, the food delicious, and in spite of all of the problems, it seemed like a good time was had by all." We give special props to Jamie Lauren's gourmet sausage dog from Absinthe and the BBQ chicken sammie from Zella's Souful Kitchen. Also, KQED has a nice slideshow. more ›

We're taking a break from the regular cocktail column today to highlight one of our favorite wineries in the Greater Bay Area, Cline Cellars. Situated at the south end of Hwy 121, just past the Infineon Raceway, it's a mere hour's drive from SF. Given that their tasting room stays open until 6 p.m., it makes for a convenient last stop on any Sonoma wine-tasting trip, and one that will likely make you a devoted fan. more ›