A few years before I started writing about wine for a "living", I visited Freeman Winery just outside of Sebastopol in the Russian River Valley. Freeman was a relatively new producer back then (it was founded by Ken and Akiko Freeman in 2001), and I spent quite a bit of time with Assistant Winemaker Eric Buffington, whom I have mentioned before in this space.

Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few have been given as gifts).

While sitting around to see if the power goes out, I thought I would provide a bit of a different Sundays Are For Sebastian today and offer an update to his basketball season. Sebastian is already the school's all-time leading scorer and should become its first player to reach the 1,000 point total for his career sometime this week. He is already the school's all-time leader in every meaningful category: games played, games started, games won, points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.

This past fall, I was out in Sonoma County for an event, and a good friend of mine, Chris O'Gorman, invited me to stop by Rodney Strong (where he is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications) to taste some new and pretty special wines. Rodney Strong released three wines to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Davis Bynum label, and, by extension, five icons of Sonoma County and Russian River Valley winemaking.

Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few have been given as gifts).

It is time for another edition of “Random Samples”–I occasionally get samples from marketing agencies and/or producers. These can often be grouped together into some sort of overarching theme: Muret-Gaston is French for Old Friends (not really, but it should be), The Rise of Australian Wine Beyond Shiraz, Some Wines from Victoria, If It Doesn’t Sparkle, It Doesn’t Matter…

At this point in my life, I am ready to admit a few facts: I am never going to race in the Tour de France, I likely will never see my face on any legal tender, and I am a wine snob. Any casual reader of this blog knows that I am not just a wine snob; I am a 

Last Fall, I had another Zoom tasting with the fine folks from Merriam Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. As I normally do, before the call, I did a bit of research and discovered that Peter Merriam, who founded the winery with his wife, Diana, is a native of the great state of Maine. Some of you may recall that I did my undergraduate studies in the Pine Tree State, and I still consider it my second home, even though I only spent a few years there.

Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few have been given as gifts).

It is time for another edition of “Random Samples”–I occasionally get samples from marketing agencies and/or producers. These can often be grouped together into some sort of overarching theme: Muret-Gaston is French for Old Friends (not really, but it should be), The Rise of Australian Wine Beyond Shiraz, Some Wines from Victoria, If It Doesn’t Sparkle, It Doesn’t Matter…

Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few have been given as gifts).

This is the fourth in a series of articles as I look back on the year that was 2025. Once again, I tasted over 1,000 wines in the previous twelve months, which boggles my mind a bit since that averages out to about three a day. As I contemplate the state of my liver, I also like to reflect on the top wines that I was fortunate enough to taste over the course of the year.

This is the third in a series of articles when I look back on the year that was 2025. Once again, I tasted over 1,000 wines in the previous twelve months, which boggles my mind a bit since that averages out to about three a day. As I contemplate the state of my liver, I also like to reflect on the top wines that I was fortunate enough to taste over the course of the year.

Happy New Year everyone! On this first day of 2026, I am celebrating a new article in the Spring Branch Plus. In the article, I put forth ten resolutions when it comes to wine. Go check them out (I got two pages: 20-21), adopt one or more, and let me know what you think!

This is the second in a series of articles when I look back on the year that was 2025. Once again, I tasted over 1,000 wines in the previous twelve months, which boggles my mind a bit since that averages out to about three a day. As I contemplate the state of my liver, I also like to reflect on the top wines that I was fortunate enough to taste over the course of the year.

This is the first in a series of articles when I look back on the year that was 2025. Once again, I tasted over 1,000 wines in the previous twelve months, which boggles my mind a bit since that averages out to about three a day. As I contemplate the state of my liver, I also like to reflect on the top wines that I was fortunate enough to taste over the course of the year.

Sebastian is our seventeen-year-old son, and he says some of the funniest things–we have no idea where he gets his material since his mother and I are rather boring, serious people. I was on my way back from the mall, having completed some last-minute Christmas shopping, which, truth be told, is the only kind of Christmas shopping I do.

Merry Christmas! If you celebrate the holiday (or even if you don’t), I hope you are surrounded by people you love (or at least are able to tolerate) and some good food and wine!

Two weekends ago, I conducted another Blind Tasting at our humble little abode here in Houston, to which I invited other wine writers from the area. This most recent iteration was the eighth annual tasting of American sparkling wines. All of the blind tastings (now 25 in total) have produced some surprises, which is, quite frankly, why tasting blind from time to time is healthy.

Last Saturday, I conducted another Blind Tasting at our humble little abode here in Houston, to which I invited other wine writers from the area. As you may recall, I conducted a tasting of American True Rosés in the Spring, and the second was this Fall when I tasted American Pinot Noirs. All of the blind tastings (now 25 in total) have produced some surprises, which is, quite frankly, why tasting blind from time to time is healthy.

This past weekend, I conducted another Blind Tasting at our humble little abode here in Houston, to which I invited several other local writers to help me go through the 38 bottles of domestic sparkling wine, but when all of them called in sick, I was on my own. All of the blind tastings (now 25 in total--I also conduct blind tastings of American rosé in the Spring and American Pinot Noir in the Fall) have produced some surprises, which is, quite frankly, why tasting blind from time to time is healthy.

This past week, I conducted another Blind Tasting at our humble little abode here in Houston, to which I invited other wine writers from the area. Originally, there were going to be three other writers joining me, then there were two, then one, and finally, on the eve of the tasting, the last writer dropped out, all succumbing to a rather nasty bug going around Houston.

On my visit to Corte Fusia this past summer, I mentioned to co-owner/winemaker Daniele Gentile that I was off to Alba, in the heart of Piedmont, for the next four days. Before asking me anything about my plans (I really had none, but that is beside the point), he stated that if I didn't go anywhere else, I had to visit Bruna Grimaldi in Grinzane Cavour.

As many of you know, I spent the last week in Paris and, as such, I neglected this little site a bit. It's not that I am not grateful for all you faithful readers out there (which have increased rather substantially over the last two years, by the way), I am. But, well, Paris. One of the more "regular" posts that I "forgot" to publish was the link to my weekly column in a (really) local magazine here in Houston, …

Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few have been given as gifts).