The next day we took a train to Siena to see the sights. We were a bit disappointed because we learned — with both Siena and Florence — that the cities are okay, they have a number of pretty spectacular churches, but the real things to see are the items in the museums and they take far longer than we ...

Wine tasting in Tuscany has been a decades-long goal of Karen’s and mine, so when we finally got to Tuscany we knew we’d be spending some time in a winery. The interesting part is that, in Tuscany, Chianti reigns supreme. But in our little corner of heaven — San Gimignano — a curious wine grape called Vernaccia is the queen (it ...

Lucca was a one day stop over between Cinque Terre and Tuscany, but it turned out to be a real find. It’s completely surrounded by medieval walls and the tops are wide enough for biking, which we did the morning we left. Our hotel was on the main piazza which took the shape of the Roman amphitheater that once stood there. ...

Why did we split “Reading Wine Labels” into two posts? Two reasons, one is practical – I hate writing novel length posts, and I suspect the audience likes reading them even less. The other has to do with content. Part 1 identifies virtually everything that is required to be on a wine label, or if present, needs to adhere to predefined ...

How do you read a wine label?  What are the real facts about the wine and what’s just marketing glitz?  Is there any way to ensure that a wine is good from the label on the bottle?  These are the most common questions asked by wine novices.  If you don’t have access to the wine maker or at least a ...

Can white wine be aged? Should white wine be aged? No matter how you ask the question, the answer given by most people is usually wrong. The ability to age white wine depends on many varying factors which Winery-Sage.com is here to help you identify. We’ve created a visual guide to help you judge whether your French Varietal white wine ...

“How long do I age red wine?” is a frequently asked question. The general assumption that all red wine can age similarly is wrong, so Winery Sage is here to get you the right information: In our ageability infographic, the bottle length provides a guide for judging a wine’s age worthiness. The longer the bottle, the longer the wine can ...

We’ve had our place near Bass Lake for about 14 years and thought we had tasted at most of the wineries in the mountains. Several weeks ago, with a group in our favorite little Mexican restaurant in North Fork, we ran across a wine we hadn’t tasted, from a local winery that we had forgotten about — Karine. The name ...

St. Patrick’s Day usually conjures up images of Irish Whiskey, Guinness or green beer (bizarre tradition by the way – sticking food coloring in your beer so that it becomes a radioactive green). If you think that St. Patrick’s Day is only about drinking (probably not too far from the truth for many of our readers – yes, you know ...

Editor’s note: We catch up with our friends Karen and Ken Geiszler of Winery-Sage.com as they continue their wine-tasting adventure in Lodi (Winery-sage: Stuck On Wine Tasting In Lodi). Our tasting trip started with a visit to the Lodi Winegrape Commission, a great facility with a knowledgeable staff and a broad selection of Lodi wines. If you have time for only ...