Scribner Bend Vineyards
9051 River Road, Sacramento  
916-744-1803

 from cathryn brannon, assistant winemaker

1. “The grapes hanging on the vine right now will make up the 2015 vintage. ‘Vintage’ refers to the year that the grape is harvested.”
2.  “If there’s a year printed on the label, it’s a vintage wine, which means it’s primarily made of grapes grown and harvested from that specific year.”
3. “When the grapes are on the vine they’re referred to as a ‘variety,’ similar to having different varieties of apples (i.e. Fuji, gala, Granny Smith). A varietal is a wine made from a single specific variety of grape.”
4. “A wine with ‘estate bottled’ printed on the label means that 100 percent of the wine came from grapes grown or controlled in the same viticulture area and that they were crushed, fermented, aged and bottled on their premises in a continuous process.”

Michael David Winery
4580 West Highway 12, Lodi 
209-368-7384  

Michael Phillips, Owner And Ceo; Melissa Phillips Stroud, V.p. Sales And Marketing; Dave Phillips, Owner And President

1. “It’s a common myth that only green grapes are used for white wines, and red grapes are used for reds. Some people are surprised to learn that you can make white wines from red grapes, such as Pinot Noir!” —Michael Phillips
2. “On one of our famous Central Valley summer days, stick a bottle of red wine in the fridge for about 45 minutes, just prior to serving it. This allows just enough chill to set in, so the wine can sit out for a while without getting warm and keeps the wine’s flavor profile where it should be, instead of falling flat due to heat.” —Melissa Phillips Stroud
3. “We believe there’s no ‘proper’ way to experience a good wine—however you choose to open a bottle or taste your wine is fine by us, just as long as you enjoy yourself!” —Dave Phillips

Lone Buffalo Vineyards
7505 Wise Road, Auburn
530-823-1159

Phil and Jill Maddux with Zoe

from Phil Maddux, owner/winemaker  

1. “Wines are never naturally sweet or dry—they are made that way—so when wine tasting, you should never shy away from a wine because you think the varietal is sweet or dry. You might miss something wonderful!”
2. “Don’t get stuck in a Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir rut! These can be wonderful wines, but, as a rule, they do not excel in the Sierra foothills. Be adventuresome and discover the wonderful Mediterranean varietals, which DO excel in the foothills, such as Tempranillo, Barbera, Syrah and Viognier.”

Rock Hill Winery & DuPont Estate Vineyards
2970 Del Mar Avenue, Loomis
916-410-7105

from Donald F. DuPont Jr., owner/winemaker

1. “Chill red wines to about 60 degrees, and then allow the wine to breathe and raise in temperature to 65-67 degrees. For perfect Pinot Noir, drink it at 62 degrees.”
2. “Warm wine to the proper drinking temperature by holding the glass with your palm up at the top of the stem, between your fingers; this allows your hand temperature to raise the wine’s temperature.”
3. “To avoid wine drips, cut the foil at the top of the bottle, hold the remaining foil and rotate it with your hand, pull the foil above the top of the bottle approximately 1/4 inch, and pour the wine. The foil lip will act as a drip shield.”
4. “A quick way to aerate wine is to pour a glass then insert the cork back into the bottle and shake it. The wine will mix with the oxygen in the headspace, resulting in a softer glass of wine.”
5. “When having wine before dinner, pair it with a small amount of French bread and olive oil. The wine experience will be much better, and the olive oil will reduce the effect of the alcohol in the wine.”

Wilson Vineyards & Muddy Boot Wine
50400 Gaffney Road 
Clarksburg  |  916-744-1456

from David Ogilvie, vineyard manager and winemaker 

1. “When ordering wine at a restaurant, the best values are the red blends. This is where the winemaker gets to make their mark showing how the resulting wine is greater than its parts.”
2. “Use the wine stewards in stores and restaurants—it’s free advice. If you see them regularly, they’ll keep a memory of your likes and dislikes and will lead you to better wine.” 
3. “Decanters aren’t just for expensive red wine—they work great at softening a cheaper Cabernet too and will bring out a lot of fruit in a wine.”
4. “Unfinished red wine doesn’t need to go into the fridge, unless you know that it will not be finished within 48 hours. If you’re going to finish the bottle the next night, leave it on the counter with a stopper.”

Wise Villa Winery
4200 Wise Road, Lincoln
916-543-0323

Owner, Dr. Grover Lee with Winemaker, Kevin Luther

from Kevin Luther, winemaker and manager

If you’re looking to cool down a wine bottle in a hurry, you can’t use ice, because it would water down the wine. So what’s a thirsty wine lover to do? The traditional technique is to get a small bucket and fill it with ice and water, which chills it down fairly rapidly. If you add salt to the ice-water mixture, it will make the water even cooler and your wine will chill even faster! If you don’t have a bucket and ice around, there are fun plastic ice cubes, or another simple trick is to leave an otter pop in its packaging and slide it into your wine bottle or glass of wine—the frozen otter pop will cool down your wine in no time!

• “Many ask ‘Why do they give me the cork and pour me a bit of the wine and then stand there staring at me when I order a bottle of wine at a restaurant? What am I supposed to do?’ The reason is simple and practical: They’re giving you the opportunity to check that the wine is good, which is to say not spoiled. There are a few major causes of wine spoilage that you should check for, and you don’t have to be a wine expert to spot them:

• The wine smells or tastes vinegary. This should be obvious right off the bat. If the wine smells like vinegar, nail polish remover or paint, send it back. If you aren’t sure, and it tastes fine, then drink to your heart’s content!

• The wine smells like sulfur. Does this wine have bold notes of burnt garlic, burnt rubber, cooked cabbage and dog fart? Then it has unacceptable levels of sulfur compounds, and you would be well advised to tell the staff that the wine is undrinkable and to please bring you something delicious instead. Most reputable producers would never release a wine with this level of stinky sulfur, but there is still a lot of French wine out there, so you might run into this now and then.  

• The wine smells like wet, moldy cardboard. This is why they bring you the cork. The wine, and the cork, will sometimes smell like moldy cardboard. This is known as ‘cork taint’ and it creates an unpleasant smell of moldy cardboard in your wine. It used to be very common (roughly one in 10 bottles in the olden days) but now only occurs in roughly one percent of bottles, and is almost nonexistent from high quality producers such as Wise Villa Winery. This ‘cork taint’ is caused by a mold and fungus creating a chemical called trichloroanisole, or TCA, which is responsible for the unpleasant moldy smell.”
  

“Hot summer days can destroy the wine you have laying around the kitchen. Daytime 

 temperatures above 70 or 80 degrees are likely to turn your wine to vinegar. To avoid this and other issues, keep wine at a constant temperature, ideally in the 55-65-degree range. They sell wine refrigerators that keep your wine at the perfect temperature, but if you aren’t ready to invest in your wine habit, here are some other options:

• If you have your house thermostat set in the 60s or low 70s, it should be fine, but make sure to store wine in a closet or other dark place that’s low to the ground (since heat rises, higher shelves will be too hot), and never in your kitchen (it gets too hot when you’re cooking). 

• If you don’t have central AC, simply store your wine (including red wine) in the refrigerator. Take red wine out an hour before serving, and it will be perfect. You don’t want to serve any wine, including a red wine, at Sacramento ‘room temperature.’ White wine is best served between 40-55 degrees and red wine between 55-65 degrees, which equates to being just above refrigerator temperature for white wines and slightly chilled for red wines.”