The Gift Exchange

In the past several years,  I’ve noticed how I feel and think about wine has totally changed. When I first starting drinking wine in my early 20’s, my husband and I would go to the store, find the cheapest, biggest jug of wine we could find, and then feel all super classy while drinking it…ha [...]

Showcased in one of our most popular luxury wine gift baskets, Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon is often said to be a wine that needs no introduction. While this may be true, there certainly is a rich history behind the wine and it all starts with one word: Charles. Before there was Caymus, there was the Wagner family [...]

The term “wine thief” is a clever name for a glass pipette that winemakers use to extract a small amount of wine from a cask for testing. Typically a wine thief is anywhere from 12 to 24 inches in length and is easily inserted through a hole in the wooden barrel where wine is fermenting. We [...]

When I first started working here, I would get calls from customers who kept telling me we needed to carry this fantastic chardonnay by Cakebread Cellars of Napa Valley. Since I love wine, and kept hearing about how delightful it is, I decided to try it for myself. I was in love at first sip! [...]

Exciting news! Wineries in certain parts of Sonoma and Napa began harvesting grapes this week for this year’s wine production. So far it has been an excellent growing season in California with no major problems like late frosts in spring or sudden intense heat spells in the summer, and many wineries are looking forward to [...]

Every serious wine lover has at some point contemplated the difference between a very good wine and a wine that is truly exceptional. Of course there are wine ratings and monetary values which we can assume help the average wine consumer or purchaser of wine gifts to determine a wine’s greatness, but there are also [...]

Summer is finally here, and the warm nights are ideal for al fresco meals highlighting summer’s bounty of fresh produce and delicious meats and fish cooked to perfection on outdoor grills.  This welcome change of menu, however, often makes food and wine lovers wonder if they should be making a change in the wines they [...]

Many wine purists insist that single variety or varietal wines are preferable to blended wines, but limiting yourself to varietal wines for wine gifts and personal consumption often means you are missing out on some delicious and skillfully combined blends. Sure, it’s important to be familiar with varietal wines and to know, for instance, that [...]

Today is Earth Day, a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. While many of us are following through on our individual pledges to be more conservative in our consumption or more active in our recycling efforts, one easy pledge to follow is to drink and buy eco-friendly wine gifts. There are [...]

This year I’ve been invited to attend 10 weddings so far. Yes, ten weddings and one of them is my brother’s! For each one I have to find a dress to wear and of course, a wedding gift. I usually freak out about the gift giving process because I’m constantly worried that they might not [...]