Off the Via Domitia

March 8, 2020 15

KITÁ WINES: FOR NATIVE AMERICAN WINEMAKER TARA GOMEZ, DREAMS DO COME TRUE

By the time Tara Gomez graduated from high school in 1991, she knew she wanted to be a winemaker. In many ways, she had been preparing for that role her whole life. But, she probably never imagined she would be making wine for her tribe, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in the American Viticultural Area (AVA) of Santa Barbara, California, or that she would also co-own a nearby winery, Camins 2 Dreams, with her wife Mireia Taribó, a winemaker, that specializes in natural wines. Dreams do... [...]

March 15, 2018 16

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
HOW MARKUS NIGGLI VENTURED INTO MAKING EUROPEAN-STYLE WHITE WINES IN LODI, CALIFORNIA

Markus Niggli—founder of Markus Wine Co. at Borra Vineyards in Lodi, California-- is an exceptionally talented and savvy winemaker who started making his own small-production line of edgy, artisanal white wines in 2010. He was not quite 40 years old [...]

October 30, 2017 12

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
NAPA’S KALE ROSÉ GOES TO PROVENCE

Rosé continues to take the United States by storm. France drinks the most rosé by a long shot, accounting for 35% of world consumption or 8.5 million hectoliters (mhl) of rosé, but the United States comes in a second (3.4 mhl). A distant second, yes, but we drink 14% of the rosé consumed by the world. That’s nearly 453 million bottles of rosé a [...]

June 19, 2017 14

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
THE RHÔNE RANGERS RAISE THEIR GLASSES IN HONOR OF SONOMA RESTAURATEUR SONDRA BERNSTEIN

It was the perfect assemblage to honor the woman who created the “Rhône Alone” wine list: an unusually glorious June day in San Francisco; the Golden

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October 29, 2016 22

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
IT ALL STARTED WITH A WHITE CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE

When I attended the Wine Bloggers conference in mid-August in Lodi, California—one of the largest appellations in California and one intricately tied to Old Vine Zinfandel wines—I did not expect to visit a winery dedicated to producing [...]

March 27, 2016 9

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
THERE’S VIOGNIER AND THEN THERE’S CONDRIEU

It was love at first sip. I was visiting the Tardieu-Laurent cellars in Lourmarin for a barrel tasting with Bastien Tardieu, lead oenologist for this renowned Rhône Valley négociant firm founded by his father Michel Tardieu and (former partner) Dominique Laurent. Jerry Clark, PWZ [...]

June 1, 2013 8

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
TO GASCONY AND LES VINS DU SUD-OUEST: LA DOUCEUR DE VIVRE

We always harbor the hope that we will discover a good wine at a really reasonable (read: cheap) price. Who doesn’t?

We’ve had some real duds in this quest—wines that wouldn't even qualify as marinades and went straight down the kitchen sink—and we’ve made some terrific discoveries. The wines from Gascony and its neighboring appellations definitely fall into the latter category. [...]