The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

This interview conducted by Millbrae Community TV with yours truly at the Millbrae Arts & Wine Festival aired live on September 3, 2011 on local Bay Area cable. The topic of conversation was "Pairing wine with Chinese cuisines".

This is a guest post by my friend, wine and food gourmand - Dan Snyder, from his September 2011 visit to Ridge. A gorgeous September afternoon in the Santa Cruz mountains, fall releases, two great vintages of Ridge Monte Bello, wood fired organic pizza, and Paul Draper mingling with his huge snowball of a dog. There was a lot to like about the Ridge fall release party! The highlights were the 1992 and 2008 Monte Bellos side by side. '92 is of course a legendary vintage and kinda kicked off the "new age" of sought-after California cabs. Kudos to Ridge for keeping pricing in line and sticking to their style. The similarities were striking in the wines -- although sixteen years apart. Good earthy, loamy, mushroomy minerality are threads throughout. The '08 of course being younger, wilder and sexier. The '92 was still absolutely gorgeous and at a great balance of fruit and development. 1992 Ridge Monte Bello  -  80% cab, 11% merlot, 9% PV. Effusive nose of cr...

For Jewish New Year a couple of weeks ago, Evan (5.5mo old) and I got into our newly renovated hot tub and celebrated with a glass of the always reliably delicious Ca'del Bosco Franciacorta - one of Italy's top sparkling wines. The little one approved. Salute!

The Institute of Masters of Wine Annual Champagne tasting event comes to San Francisco each year in September. Hosted in the beautiful Ferry Building at Embarcadero, with an eye-popping view of the Bay and the Bay Bridge, for $50 it is one of the greatest values you can find of any wine events in the Bay Area. You get to taste hundreds of Champagnes, many costing in triple digits, poured by Masters of Wine, the rare and highly respected breed of only 300 in the world, who can answer any wine questions you can ever think of (although asking them for a champagne recommendation can be exercise in futility). Starting at 5, the room stays relatively light until about 5:30, when crowds rush in. If you are able to navigate your way through until about 7:30, the place lightens up again, and you get unobstructed (and repeated, if I might say so) access to most of the wines. Needless to say, my friends and I take full advantage of the opportunities and delights this event affords ...