Mike Dunne

My own newspaper has called me a "wine expert." Flattering, but not my perception of myself.

At the darkest corner on the darkest street in the darkest hour of the economy, what should come bounding onto this grim stage with hope and cheer but the Cosmopolitan.

Ron and Jamie McManis don't have a tasting room at their winery, McManis Family Vineyards in Ripon, just south of Lodi.

Over the past 13 years, the midtown restaurant Moxie and I have had a love-hate relationship.

The Thanksgiving banquet might well be the Thanksgiving snack this year. Turkey will rule the table, but side dishes may be more modest and sparse.

If I were asked to give advice to The Bee's next restaurant critic, I'd say: Report as much as review.

Somehow, my hand brushed against the glass, spilling the wine into my lap before it crashed to the floor.

The five most popular Sacramento restaurants in the new 2009 Zagat Restaurant survey – which takes into consideration surveyor comments concerning service, decor and cost as well as food – are Mikuni, Biba, the Waterboy, Ella and Mulvaney's.

As the argonauts found in the 1850s, when the pay dirt plays out, you improvise.

Davis vintners Craig and Karen Senders like to boast that their first wines are drawing raves from Parker.

Even after 30 years of tasting wine virtually every day, Robert M. Parker Jr. still gets excited when he sits down to another flight.

Robert M. Parker Jr. was "the right guy in the right place at the right time," frequently say vintners who watched his rise from just another wine critic to the most powerful voice in the community.

While browsing the Riesling section of a local supermarket the other day, I made two surprising and gratifying discoveries.

Diners who visit The French Laundry in Yountville in the Napa Valley have justifiably high expectations. Owner Thomas Keller is widely recognized as the top chef in the country. The nine-course tasting menus cost $240. And just wait until you see the wine list.

Meritage wines have become so common and so understood that they often are grouped in their own section of restaurant wine lists.

Are American wine consumers ready for The Prisoner, The Other, The Poet or any wine whose name is something other than the dominant variety of grape in the bottle?

We're in another shoulder season, when the chilled white wines of summer no longer are as inviting as they were in August, but it's not yet cold enough for the heartier reds.

Two decades ago, a small group of California winemakers began to think they should come up with a label term more colorful than the prevailing "table wine" or "red wine" to alert consumers to their blended wines.

The golden light, colorful leaves, overnight pumpkin patches and smell of fermenting grape juice all make October the best month for wine enthusiasts to tour the Sierra foothills.

Amador County vintners played host for the Big Crush over the weekend. This is the annual event during which they oversee festivities that include special wine tastings, tables of picnic foods and musical entertainment.

My 401(k) was getting bludgeoned. My buyout buddies had left the building. And my neighborhood was being invaded by dust blowers, which among the overly polite are better known as leaf blowers.

For two hours Saturday morning, under a searing sun, with the temperature nearing 92, six white-collar professionals pick wine grapes.

Last week in this space, we spun the sad tale of Harmon Overmire, who is watching 4 acres of malbec wither on his vines at Sheldon.

Whenever a restaurant closes, another seems to open, despite the feeble economy. Ali Mackani knows this uneasy equation better than most restaurateurs.

California's robust wine industry is attracting grape growers who previously may have grown nothing more challenging than a potted ficus.

Long before Eppie Johnson got canonized as the patron saint of local triathletes, he was a restaurateur, running a group of coffee shops recognized for straightforward, value-priced interpretations of dishes right out of the American heartland.

Marty Mathis is about to start harvesting his family's eight acres of cabernet sauvignon.

Howard Weaver, vice president of news at The McClatchy Co., which owns The Bee, blogged not long ago that the gatekeeper role of editors has been diminished by the accessibility and speed of so much news and commentary elsewhere. Rather than rue this change, Weaver suggested that editors and reporters seize the opportunity to connect with readers – even to the extent of enlisting them to help decide what stories to do, and how to proceed.

Two decades after graduating from McClatchy High School, Robert "Bobby" Masullo returned to his old Land Park neighborhood to open a restaurant this summer.

The Lodi Winegrape Commission just released the poster to promote this year's First Sip festival in November.

Among California wine regions, the Santa Cruz Mountains winemaking district is the razorback boar.

Lots of restaurateurs are jumping on the bandwagon, which is a solar-powered cart built of recycled materials and loaded with organically produced provisions.

Scott Hicks likes to recognize his birthday by pulling the cork from a bottle of wine whose vintage is the same year he was born, 1958.

Apparently confident that the levees will hold if another massive hurricane and flood hit New Orleans, officials of the Audubon Nature Institute have opened what's billed as the nation's largest freestanding museum dedicated to insects.

When we pulled into the parking lot of Masque Ristorante the other evening, we had no problem finding an open space.

A lot of spitting goes on in the offices of The Wine Spectator, but these days it's more about "spitting mad" than "spitting wine." Editors of the nation's most influential wine magazine have been duped, and they aren't happy.

Of all the Italian restaurants in the Sacramento region, the two that have most consistently represented the cuisine's highest standards have been Biba in midtown Sacramento and Masque Ristorante in El Dorado Hills.

Something new has been added to one of the more recognizable and enduring labels in the California wine trade.

While monumental and traditional in design, La Provence Restaurant & Terrace is adroit and modern in spirit.

Early in his book "Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink" (University of California Press, $27.50, 186 pages), Tyler Colman notes that when French vintners were drawing up standards for the appellation Châteauneuf-du-Pape, they prohibited rosé wines.

The South of France is so scenic, historic and romantic – and so rich with staples of the entertaining table (bouillabaisse, tapenade, pistou, pastis) – it's surprising that the region hasn't inspired more restaurants hereabouts.

Beyond Patrick Mulvaney's baggy attire and shambling demeanor beats the heart of a chef who fully gets the precision of technique and the grace of art.

The e-mail messages began Monday night and accelerated Tuesday. People are angry and worried about the pending closure of Corti Brothers market at 59th Street and Folsom Boulevard.

A Sacramento-area wine won the best-red sweepstakes at last weekend's 2008 Long Beach Grand Cru, but the white-wine sweepstakes is what left judges buzzing.

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," the French seem to be saying with word this morning that the renowned Bordeaux chateau Cos d'Estournel is buying one of Napa Valley's more historic estates, Chateau Montelena.

The hike on the South Yuba National Trail outside Nevada City was short. We'd gotten a late start, the weather was hot and clammy, and the thunder sounded as if it was getting closer.

Ted Moore frets that wildland fires again could disrupt his grape harvest.

A newly restyled Sacramento Bee will be introduced late this month. In one of our meetings about what it should look and feel like, someone suggested that it have more content helpful for families visiting prison inmates hereabouts.

Unlike a year ago, when judges of the California State Fair commercial wine competition stunned observers by declaring a $2 chardonnay the best example of the varietal in the show, no such shocks show up in this year's results.