California

So we had this to close-out our visit to Napa wineries (we being me, Chris Tucker and Caroline), at the new vegetarian restaurant in …

If I hadn’t already put some space aside for this one, I wouldn’t have bothered once it became clear that the label was going …

This was going to be the vintage of Mistral that went into the 2nd Optimor Wine Club case, but the lads ended up with …

Cracked another bottle of this to see its evolution, and to welcome Lucy, my 1-month flatmate! I’d say that this is coming pretty close …

And then Tracey and Dante flourished this from their collection, so we had to have a return visit to “Giuseppe & Luisa” in memory …

When I was young (10-12) Ridge wines were the first Cali wines I knowingly saw in UK, so I assumed that this was how …

On reflection, a bit of a ‘tasters’ wine rather than a ‘drinkers’, perhaps, as its weight made the second glass a bit hard work. …

Was really pleased to see this on sale in Berry Bros’ Dublin shop, having enjoyed the ’96 so much, and having heard that ’97 …

Held onto this for 6 months or so, but got impatient to try it. In fact, it probably didn’t have much long-term ageing potential …

One more bought from the vineyard. The ’97 was excellent, so I left the ’99 for a year or so first. Good, but early …