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East Bay Wine Country
The Huffington Post recently declared Oakland as "wine country." Wine columnist Mary Orlin wrote: "When you think of Oakland, the other city by the...
Thinking Small at Toast Wine Lounge
The owners of the new Toast Wine Lounge (5900 College Ave., Oakland) met ten years ago while walking their Labradors down the road near...
Dusty Old Sherry Shuffles off the Back Shelf
The New York Times wrote last week that "fuddy-duddy sherry is taking its turn as a new hip thing." Apparently the drumbeat has been...
Mua, Pican, and Ozumo: A Cocktail Crawl in High Heels
One night last week I picked the ultimate place to tip, toe, and trot rather than crawl: three restaurant-bars in Uptown Oakland — which,...
Discovering Argentinean Reds
It seems all my friends and family either have recently been or are imminently headed to Argentina. No mystery there: It's an incredibly romantic...
New Zealand Floral
I was heading back home to New Zealand for two weeks and instead of writing this column before I left, I thought how very...
Zinfandels: Of Mountains and Monopoly
We headed off to Tahoe for skiing this week amid code-red storm warnings and high winds. In the end, the drive was an easy...
Chardonnays: Butter, Fruit, or Tin?
It's high-time to take a good, hard look at Chardonnays. They are not my favorite type of wine; I prefer Sauvignon Blancs, which are...
