Want to know more about wine? Dan Berger has the answers.
From the Napa Valley Wine Insider Digest: Nov. 13, 2021 series
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Award-winning wine columnist Dan Berger has been writing his nationally syndicated column since 1979 and continues to be one of the most outspoken and informative people writing about wine today. Here are his latest wine recommendations and insights from his "On Wine" column.
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To decant or not to decant? Dan Berger explores the complexity of the question: when does it help and when does it harm wines?
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There’s no question that wine greatness now is available in places throughout the United States that once made only mediocre plonk, but how can you find out about them?
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The chestnut colt Rich Strike won the Kentucky Derby, at odds of 80 to 1, making him one of horse racing’s most unlikely winners ever. The phrase “unlikely winner” applies also to several dozen superb wines are regularly bypassed – and for reasons that have nothing to do with good taste.
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"Warning," writes Dan Berger. "Lesson ahead. But trust me, it’s not painful and doesn’t entail calculus, NFTs or annuities. What follows leads to great red wine values."
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In most fine wine districts of Northern Europe, varietals are, by law, specified to be only those that are approved to be grown there. By contrast, in the U.S. no formal link between place and grape varieties exists, and any grape can be planted anywhere. Which approach is best?
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It's less common today but cork taint and other flaws still turn up in wines.
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Most quality wines are served with food, a marriage that helps enhance the enjoyment of both. And some of the most mundane experiences can be elevated to the sublime when all the pieces fall into place.
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Dan Berger begins a series looking at grape varieties, varietal authenticity and the complication of "eccentricities and vineyard mutations or adaptations."
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Dan Berger looks at the power of names like Napa Valley and Champagne — and Petaluma Gap.
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For a variety of reasons, wines are being sent to market on schedules that are far less predictable than ever before, but this may not be a bad thing for consumers.
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Some of the “innocent” fibbing that goes on in this industry
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Gloria Ferrer has launched a new chef dinner series taking place on the first Friday of each month
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From gold-flecked labels to ultra-heavy bottles to holographic images, we face all manner of false signs and detours in our quests to get a decent quaff.
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"It's alive!" is a phrase that also applies to wine, a living product that can change over time — sometimes in an unpleasant way. Changes can encourage some wine lovers to strategize how and when to drink them.
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After a life making wine Charlie Tolbert is unwilling to call it a career. It’s been too much fun.
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With his Popeluchum project, Randall Grahm is attempting what no vigneron has ever attempted: to propagate 10,000 new grape varieties, from disease-resistant progenitors, with the aim of identifying one or more new ‘genius’ grape varieties.
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Wine lovers who are searching for specific bottles last week got a huge assist with the launch of a new search engine oriented to them that will make finding wines that much easier. It's called pix.com.
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Winemakers in the United States can become stars, a phenomenon that doesn’t exist in Europe. Is it because they know that at least half the credit for a great wine should go to growers?
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"But beyond all the young wines that I evaluate and the ancient ones that I love, there is a third category of wine: middle-aged," writes Dan Berger. "I rarely pay enough attention to this third kind of wine. Yet those wines that are not really young or old can be a delight."
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"I used to like Zinfandel," Dan Berger writes. "He was an engaging, humorous fellow who often regaled us with silly jokes, had razor retorts for hecklers who disliked his brand of humor, and usually was the life of the party. Then arrogance set in..."
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Many wine lovers will realize that the gift-giving season ain’t always a blessing. Dan Berger suggests gifts to give yourself: three outstanding books on wine.
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Sonoma County vintner Tom Simoneau has chosen his best white wines of 2021.
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Is terroir dead? Dan Berger argues that "certainly it’s in the intensive care ward and the nurse is named Ratched."
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Colombard, as most people call her, has been overwhelmingly disparaged over the decades
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One of the most mystical aspects of aging wine is part of a process that has rarely been investigated by science. Because all wines age differently depending on many factors, it's advisable to remember the old saying: there are no great wines, only great bottles of wine.
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Over the decades, beer scientists have worked diligently to solve many of the problems associated with making tasty beers that have less than 0.5% alcohol.
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Putting wine away for a child’s 21st birth-year celebration calls for serious investigation before you simply buy something that tastes great and stash it.
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How can you tell that a red wine that tastes great when it’s young will be sublime and display excellence when it’s older?
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In general, the colder a region is, the more divergent its wines are. And diversity can make wines that are fascinating.
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California’s 2021 harvest will prove to be smaller in size statewide than the average of the last six years, but quality looks phenomenal, almost across the board.
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In Napa they are once more celebrating the 1976 Judgment of Paris, but are the Napa Cabernets of today anything like those that triumphed in Paris 45 years ago?
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Dan Berger has been evaluating wines since the 1970s. Here, he explains how it does it, what matters, and what doesn't.
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Wine “experts” come in all shapes and sizes, from generalists to specialists. What constitutes expert knowledge in one area of wine may have no meaning in other areas. This is one aspect of wine that makes it such a complex and difficult subject to master.
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What lies ahead for wine consumers looking for bargains? Answers usually come down to a category-by-category analysis.
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Scientists who delve into how people taste food and drink say that about a quarter of all of us detect bitterness at very low levels, which limits what we can appreciate, including in wines.
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Vintner Dave Stare kicked off the 50th harvest at Dry Creek Vineyard by opening a bottle of the 1972 Fume Blanc from the his first harvest.
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Learning about wine can be an unending journey. Are there general rules to make this quest simpler? Not really.
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Putting water or ice cubes in many wines is a great idea.
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When someone lifts a glass and offers a toast “To your health,” the message isn’t merely a salute — it’s a medical fact. Evidence of that appeared last week — for something like the 100th time — when University College London released yet another study that said wine has health benefits.
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Some people complain about this inevitable transformation in wine over time. Fruit lovers occasionally want that fruit to remain forever. But we understand it when our children grow up and evolve, so why don’t we all remember that wine also is like that?
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Dan Berger writes an introduction to wine diversity for the Chardonnay-weary.
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The heat dome that hit Washington and Oregon is harbinger of the impact of global climate change, giving the wine industry a warning shot and a chance to assess what winegrowers face down the road, said environmental scientist Greg V. Jones.
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Nothing justifies all the extra glass in heavy wine bottles. Ultra-heavy bottles do not protect the wine any better than do lighter bottles, but the environmental and health drawbacks are huge.
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Americans have been taught over the last three decades to desire red wines that are akin to ultra-sweet cappuccinos; and lovers of unadorned espresso made from great coffee beans are a fast-shrinking minority.
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It would take a large book to deal with the many spoilage elements that may be found in wine from brettanomyces to smoke taint but these are a reminder of the challenge of turning grape juice into a sublime potable beverage.
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Sugar sells, writes Dan Berger, and this is leading to a widespread use of sugar in wines that once were dry, but which now aren’t? What can you do? One idea he suggests is try Cabernet Franc.
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Before there was the Judgment of Paris, before there were 100-point scores, before elixirs bore price tags few could afford, before you needed a second mortgage to dine out, life in Napa Valley was simpler. Dick Peterson, celebrating his 93rd birth, was a part of this time.
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Dan Berger pays tribute Jim Clendenen and Dr. David Bruce, two passionate pioneers of Pinot Noir in California.
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Getting a glass of wine at a restaurant usually isn’t a chore, but as we return to dining out and resume frequenting restaurants that have been closed for the better part of the year, several wine-by-the-glass pitfalls may become evident.
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U.S. appellations, as they pertain to fine wines, can mean a lot or nothing. Which clearly means that some appellations are consumer-friendly and helpful, but others offer nothing except confusion.
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Dan Berger explains his skepticism of unidentified red wine blends: "They’re usually a mélange of unrelated grape varieties assembled in a hodgepodge-y manner. I usually have no interest in such wines because I can’t figure why they exist."
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A few grapes make great wines and the rest of the world’s thousands of grapes make ordinary wines, most people say. But not Randall Grahm, says Dan Berger. "Grahm sees grape varieties as blank canvases bursting with potential, waiting for inspiration to sculpt something, much the way Rodin viewed an chunk of raw marble."
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One of the wine industry’s Achilles heels, and a topic no one ever talks about, is that domestic wines’ retail prices always seem to go up and almost never come down.
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If you drink a glass of wine per day or more and fret about your weight, how’d you like to avoid ingesting tens of thousands of calories a year and not give up your wine?
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Dan Berger makes the case for Riesling as" probably was the world’s greatest grape" that makes dramatic and sublime wines – with both elements occasionally seen in the same bottle.
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A New York wine store is carrying a French wine from the 1990 vintage for which it is asking approximately $1,000 per bottle.
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Bill Davies' new wine brands harken back to the nascent days of the Napa Valley wine industry's revival in the 1960s and '70s, both in style and in the varieties of grapes he is seeking out for his Bill D and Ramble brands.
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One of the ways people learn about wine is to pay attention to the region from which it comes and how it relates to its grape varieties. Learning about wine entails getting to know something about the appellations and sub-appellations where wine is impacted by its home soil.
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Winemakers have more headaches than you’d imagine — and up to 200 decisions to make for each of their wines. The key is knowing when to do what and when to do nothing.
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As restaurants begin to reopen and diners decide which wines to order, it's important to know how the wines were stored during the pandemic shutdowns, according to Dan Berger.
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You won't find many grape growers who’ll say that climate change is a hoax, but it is too simplistic to say the industry is in dire straits because of it.
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Wine consumers don’t often see the real-world consequences of corporate business deals, but E&J Gallo's acquisition of wine brands from Constellation may benefit those who regularly buy those and other Gallo-owned wine brands.
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Sure, there’s a certain comfort in sameness. Fear of the unknown and unpronounce-ability keep most safe-leaning wine buyers from venturing far from beaten tracks, but they’re missing interesting alternatives.
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Knowing what experiences a wine went through from grape to glass — including trans-Atlantic travel — might explain why one person tastes a different wine than the one that was rated where it was produced
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These writers’ paeans to wine inject vivacious illusions that animate and illuminate lifeless liquids.
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Yes, half bottles (375 milliliters, 12.68 ounces) cost slightly more than half the price of full bottles, but a half bottle allows us to experience two different wines in an evening without having to worry about leftovers.
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Michael Mondavi lifted a glass of a fine red wine, poured in a hefty slug of ice wate and took a sip. It was the start of his keynote speech at an international wine marketing conference and his topic was the demystification of upscale wines.
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Since oxygen is one of the worst enemies of opened bottles, two vital strategies are (a) keep oxygen away from the liquid and (b) refrigerate everything until later — especially red wines.
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Recent changes in the tax law are taking away the incentives for making lower-alcohol wines, and this affects how many glasses of wine a day you should be drinking.
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What constitutes a good value to you could be another person’s splurge but here are some tips for searching for bargain wines.
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Large vineyards generally produce lots of wines that have uniform -- but rarely distinctive -- characteristics in contrast to small blocks that can have exceptional potential to produce classics.
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In a year when more than 200,000 Americans died because of a rampant virus; and when normal life nationally was shattered by wide-ranging weather catastrophes, a bad vintage in wine country might seem trivial.
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Definitions of success in wine often relate to how much a wine costs, how hard it is to find, or how many points a reviewer gave it. But if the wine is a varietal, shouldn't success be determined how authentically it conveys the aroma and taste of that varietal?
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Clear glass wine bottles can let you admire the color of a wine but exposure to sunlight poses problems.
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As with many such preferences we all have, it often relates to how we were reared, going back to our earliest days after we are born -- and perhaps even prior to that.
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When setting guidelines for alcohol consumption, it's important to distinquish between beer, wine and spirits, which are all consumed differently.
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The definition of “wine” really is more complicated than most people realize. In some places, “wine” may refer to something unfamiliar most Californians – and here it gets murky.
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Many details of a wine’s production can help consumers refine their purchasing decisions – and almost none of it fits on a wine bottle back label.
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"Shelf-talkers," a small sign that conveys information about a product someone wants to sell you, abound in wine shops. But who wrote them and how much can you trust them?
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Probably no grape variety has ever been so disparaged and then so appreciated as has Sauvignon Blanc.
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Trying to put a single number on the quality of a vintage covering large wine regions is fraught with generalizations that obviate usefulness.
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In mysterious ways, Riesling stands apart from all other grapes.
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Cheaper versions of the classics that once were good value are disappearing.
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The quality of Pedroncelli wines keeps increasing, much faster than the prices.
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Dan Berger looks at how one rare grape -- gamay noir -- can make great wine when people pay attention to its character.
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June 13 is National Rosé Day, not that you need a reason to enjoy this popular style of wine.
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What clues help when searching for real wine deals in discount stores?
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Are you enjoying wine the way the winemaker expected?
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The problem of “bottle variation” happens a lot more often than anyone is willing to admit. It means that average wine consumers occasionally get stuck with bad wines. Most do not know it.
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Numbers for wine act as a soporific, obliterating any need for potential buyers to think critically. The ultimate short-hand, they do an injustice to all wines, and to any wine lover with a brain that he or she might like to exercise.
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Mysteriously enough, Pinot Gris’ various shortcomings can actually make it a fascinating wine for those who are willing to try to understand it. Which isn’t easy.
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Social distancing has radically changed the way we dine – which affects our normal wine consumption patterns.
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If the coronavirus pandemic is inspiring you to begin a wine cellar, Dan Berger has some timely tips.
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Michael Broadbent, one of the greatest wine experts in history and a man who understood the soul of wine better than most, has passed away at age 92, leaving behind an astounding legacy based on the notion that the best wines of all time are those made to be aged.
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Cabernet Sauvignon is hot and getting hotter -- but rarely do current vintages resemble a classic Cab.
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There’s no question that wine is a complex subject. How complex? We’ve all been there: We’re standing in a retail store, facing a wall of 100 domestic Chardonnays. And we realize how confusing it is. Oh, the questions we could ask!
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Today’s “adult beverage” market, driven largely by millennial buyers has roiled the market in unpredictable ways but changes have some benefits for wine consumers.
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Dan Berger, who met Joe Coulumbe in the 1970s, shares his memories of the founder of Trader Joe's and a foodie before the term was coined.
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Dan Berger offers tips for successfully navigating wine lists and wine shops and making a satisfying choice.
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Dan Berger traces the rise of New Zealand wines in the 21st century.
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Grape growing and winemaking in remote places have become sophisticated -- good news for adventurous wine drinkers.
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Any wine lover who dines out knows that most of the time they’re paying far too much for wine.
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Over the decades, I’ve noticed a lot of wine with common flaws, such as oxidation. And I’ve also noticed that most people do not see the flaw -- or even know it is one.
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It wasn’t just hyperbole when I recently said that two of the best Cabernet Sauvignons available in the Napa Valley were from Australia. But p…
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In this Series
Napa Valley Wine Insider Digest: Nov. 13, 2021
1
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Atlas Peak wine event raises $170,000 to fight wildfires
2
Updated article
Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak AVA rebuilds, rebounds
3
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Complex mountain cabs from Atlas Peak
10 updates
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Catch up on the wine stories you may have missed in the Napa Valley Wine Insider!
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- Dan Berger On Wine: Cabernet on the rocks?
- Dan Berger, On Wine: New York Riesling, Part 2: Paul Hobbs' Finger Lakes project
- Dan Berger On Wine: Grievances of a wine nut
- Dan Berger On Wine: Dining outside the box
- Dan Berger On Wine, Go west: The acidic appeal of Sonoma Coast wines
- Dan Berger On Wine: Aussie white wines take center stage
- Dan Berger On Wine: Hope for Cabernet lovers
- Dan Berger On Wine: Pine Mountain Cloverdale Peak AVA: Could their Cabs rival Napa?
- Dan Berger On Wine: You brett your life
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