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May 25, 2011
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...
May 4, 2011
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...
Mar 23, 2011
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...
Feb 23, 2011
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,...
Jan 26, 2011
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...
Jan 12, 2011
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...
Dec 29, 2010
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...
Dec 15, 2010
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...