Wine Wanderers 7
Wine-based cocktails from the American Civil WarVeins and Vines: A Historical Perspective of Winemaking in the Sierra FoothillsPart 2: The Civil War and the Rise of the Zinfandel GrapeIngredients for homemade liquor-Union Army-bark juicetar-waterturpentinebrown sugarlamp oilalcoholDeep, grey clouds unfurled in the early morning of April 12, 1861, the skies becoming a deep burgundy, the dawn air clouded with the miasma of war as Confederate troops marched against the Union stronghold of Fort Sumter. The cannon fire that smashed against

Wine Wanderers #6
Toogood Estate Zin Chic Old Vine ZinfandelVeins and Vines: A Historical Perspective of Winemaking in the Sierra FoothillsPart 1: Gold and the First Wine Makers of the Sierra Foothills.Eureka!Gold mining and wine making. The two professions may seem utterly alien to each other, but a decade before the American Civil War in Northern California’s Sierra Foothills, they not only were two occupational mainstays that have defined the area’s historical legacy, they have also contributed to California’s rich cultural identity.The news of James Marshall discovering gold at Sutter’s Mill in the late 1840s electrified the nat

Wine Wanderers #5
Farneta 2006 Primitivo (Sonoma-Carneros)The Legend of the PrimitivoThe road to into Amador County slinks through a large, open, golden field, sporadically studded with lonely, deep emerald clusters of oak trees. It’s empty. Our wheels are digging up the asphalt, following the stream of the road, coursing along beneath us to the soft, reverberating, percussive twang of Johnny Cash’s guitar. His golden whiskey voice is rich, soft and lingering; heart all filled with rusty nails and beer bottles.The next turn, and the sun sinks into the horizon, breaking open like the yolk of an egg, spreading orange and red over a big sky, and the distant, reso