BBQ season is here and the living is tasty. BBQ menus run the gamut from Hot dogs and Hamburgers to sophisticated dry rubs and other culinary grilled delights. In order to find the best wines to pair with your BBQ, first decide what you’re grilling.. 

Let’s look at some BBQ quick and easy’s Hot dogs and Hamburgers. Instead of beer for the Hot Dogs try a Dry Sparking wine. Remember Brut is the driest or less sweet of all the sparkling wines. Brut wines are also the lowest calories. An eight ounce serving of Brut is only 130 calories which is equal of less than your typical beer. One excellent go to Brut is Livermore Valley’s Wente 2009 Brut. You can order this wine direct from the winery at  https://www.wentevineyards.com/wines/2009-brut. Why not try this for a change of pace at your next BBQ?

Planning on BBQing something spicy? Pair these spicy and hot meals with a chilled riesling. The dry but subtle sweetness cuts the heat and amplifies the flavors of these dishes. Rieslings are also well suited for a wide variety of other foods. Here is a very good Riesling to add to your shopping list, http://store.storrswine.com/2012-viento-vineyard-dry-white-riesling-p170.aspx.

Finding a versatile red wine to go with your BBQ can be challenging but have no fear, SignatureWines.com is excited to share one of the best red blend wines for your All-American BBQ. Fenestra Winery’s True Red ,a non vintage red blend, goes amazingly well with a wide variety of foods ranging from wood fired pizzas to grilled hamburgers. Stock up on this wine here: http://store.fenestrawinery.com/product?productid=99DF11C0-164B-4657-924C-616E1B368BFD 

Some of my  other favorite red varietal wines for the BBQ are Zinfandels, Petite Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Zinfandels pair nicely with a wide range of grilled meats. Zinfandels and their fruit forward Jammy flavors compliment those smoky beef ribs and tri-tips. While I prefer Petite Syrah with BBQ pork and especially baby back pork ribs. The Petite Syrah flavors of subtle blueberry, chocolate, plum and black pepper play nicely with the savory and sweet smokiness found in pork ribs. 

It is my considered opinion that investing in wine should only be pursued if you have a passion for wine and enjoy sharing it with family and friends. Much like art, and the fact that art appeals to a variety of sectors each possessing widely differing tastes, inclinations, and personalities, wine itself is similarly varied and for the most part, what you will find wonderful about the wine you choose to appreciate is for the most part subjective. This is a fact that can make it difficult for wine investors to forecast a return on their investment. So the best advice is to learn what you like and why you like it, then to invest in what you like, whether your inclination is to favor a rich and bold Cabernet Sauvignon, or a sophisticated and intriguing Pinot Noir. In other words, the principle to put into play at the very beginning of your wine investment journey is to invest in wine that you would not mind drinking yourself. 

If you are serious about wine investing for profit, then educate yourself! Do your own research and then share your observations and opinions with other wine investors and wine appraisers. Be goal specific: What are you trying to achieve? What kind of return on your investment do you hope to achieve? Large and long-term? Or modest and short-term?Some say that if you are looking for a large return on your investment in wine then you should give serious consideration to purchasing well-known vintages that have received high scores from wine critics. Tip: When it comes to “wine-scoring,” the famed Robert Parker has been the go-to expert for more than 30 years. Investment-grade wine can be seen as a commodity that has a reasonable chance of appreciating in value over the medium-to long-term⎯typically at least five years. Scores above 95 are considered investment grade but you’ll soon come to see that the greatest appreciation in value occurs for wines that have achieved a perfect score of 100. 

Wine provenance, storage, tax, costs of acquisition and re-sale are all factors that need to be considered and planned for in advance in order to obtain the wine investor’s ultimate goal. Only 1% of wine production makes the cut for investment quality wine. Even at 1% that number is large. Every year over 34 billion bottles of wine are produced! Thus there are over 300 million bottles of wine that would make the investment grade cut. 

Like other alternative assets, wine is only worth what someone is willing to pay to acquire it.  Renowned critics can influence the value of the wine investment. A poor review and subsequent reduced scoring can cause the price of that vintage to plummet. The five-year appreciation with respect to the year 2000 vintage (since release) provides an example of the gains that can be realized with other good vintages.

If you are interested in learning more about wine investing, simply contact us and send us your question. We will do our best to respond. 

On May 4^th, 2015, a young mother and her 14-month-old daughter died and their loved ones, family and friends, as well as the local community and many beyond are now suffering from this senseless tragedy. A tragedy, that in hindsight should never have occurred, and could have been prevented, if, somewhere in this chain of events, a right choice had been made. 

Please don’t drink and drive. This plea has been repeated countless times. And yet, many times the right choice is not made and awful tragedies ensue, leaving lives scarred forever more.  

Balancing personal responsibility while providing fail-safe measures to assist people whose better judgment has been impaired by intoxication and who nonetheless proceed to make decisions that most likely will imperil themselves and others, obliges all of us to explore new ways to prevent such tragic results. 

In writing this difficult article, I can hear the voice of my grandmother saying: “ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This might be an old adage, but it nonetheless wisely invites all of us to consider “fail-safes” and search for novel ways to prevent the “Crash.” 

One solution is to plan ahead: Before attendees purchase their wine-event tickets, or at the event itself, attendees might be provided lists of transportation services that specialize in providing safe and sober transportation services. 

Here are some spectacular Wine Events we are pleased to mention for this weekend! 

Looking for a “high touch” wine and food celebration? Check out the Eight Annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival! The Pebble Beach Food & Wine Fest is the premier West Coast epicurean lifestyle event, matching 250 acclaimed wineries with 75 celebrity chefs in order to create a hedonistic four-day destination on one of the most picturesque strips of coastline in the world. Throughout the weekend you'll have access to the very pinnacle of culinary and winery talent at wine tastings, cooking demos, and you will be sure to find some of the most exclusive, unique dining opportunities in the world. Check out http://www.pbfw.com for all the details. 

Simply in the mood to Sip and Savor in the City by the Bay? Check out San Francisco Vintner’s Market this weekend. The SF Vintner’s market is a wine tasting and buying event located at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Up to 200 wineries from Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Russian River Valley and beyond will be pouring their favorite wines, including new releases, special collections and hard to find vintages that will be available for you to taste and buy. No more racking your brain trying to remember the name of that great wine, or wasting time trying to actually find a place that sells it. At the San Francisco Vintners Market you’ll be able to “try and buy.” For more information go to:  http://www.sfvintnersmarket.com.

Looking for something a bit more cozy? Take a Sunday Drive to experience the wonderful Pinot Noir wines and hospitality from Bargetto Winery and get your tickets to their Pinot and Paella Party this Sunday, April 12th. Hurry for this one because it will be a Sell Out! http://bargetto.com/blog/event/bargetto-winery-presents-pinot-and-paella/?instance_id=440

Too busy this weekend doing a Tango with the Taxman? Plan on attending the Mt. Veeder Spring Wine Tasting in San Francisco on Thursday April 16^th, from 5 pm to 7 pm. The ultimate in a Wine Tasting Happy Hour. Explore the offerings of 28 different wineries from Mt. Veeder. The Mt. Vedeer appellation is the only one of the five Napa Valley hillside appellations that adjoins the cool Carneros district. Get your specially priced tickets to this fabulous wine tasting event here now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mt-veeder-spring-wine-tasting-in-san-francisco-tickets-16420218315?ref=ecal

Thousands of years ago, around 1015 BC, Psalms 104:14-15 proclaimed: “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen a man’s heart.”

As with most ancient scriptures, their wisdom is divined by the reader’s mind and their secrets are revealed through the reader’s interpretation. And so for the purpose of this discussion I am assuming that “the gladdening of the heart” might simply refer to the heart’s physical vitality and not any other metaphorical symbolisms. 

In 2012, an assistant professor and his gradate student at Purdue University published a report about a compound found in red wine called “Picetannol.” According to their research, this compound interrupted or blocked the cellular processes that allow fat cells to develop. This discovery might very well open the door to controlling obesity, thereby tamping down the ailments associated with it. Yes, it would seem that red wine really is “good for the human heart.” 

It comes as a great surprise, at least to me, that the complexity of chemical compounds found in red wine surpasses that of our own blood serum. It has become increasingly clear that there are health benefits derived from a moderate ingestion of red wine and that these might range from maintaining a healthy heart to possibly mitigating Alzheimer’s disease. Recent research points in that direction. So, much like the secrets divulged by ancient texts, there remain secrets yet to be discovered through scientific research into the nature and qualities possessed by the elixir we call red wine. 

Red wine is a rich source of antioxidants, called flavonoids. Ten years of research has already shown that flavonoids reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The cardio-protective affects are three fold: Red wine reduces the production of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the bad stuff) and boosts the good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) thereby reducing blood clotting. Finally, consuming a moderate amount of red wine on a daily basis has been shown to favorably influence lipid profiles following a meal.