Dunne's Picks

Nellie Cresci answers the phone. I introduce myself and ask for her husband, Gerald Cresci. She says he isn't at the house right now but is expected back soon.

In wine circles over the past two decades, New Zealand has become synonymous with sauvignon blanc. Americans have embraced the pungent and zesty sauvignon blancs from the island nation so enthusiastically that growers and vintners in the United States have scrambled to emulate its fresh and racy style.

Welcome to the John and Barbara MacCready School of Viticulture and Enology, also known as Sierra Vista Vineyards & Winery.

Melinda Kearney had two models in mind when she established her wine brand in 2008.

Like a lot of other winemakers in Napa Valley, Stacy Clark belongs to a tasting group that convenes every month or so to evaluate their wines and to swap information about grape sources, fermentation techniques and so on.

Dry Creek Vineyard's chenin blanc is like a sports franchise that racks up a wonderful streak of wins, then slumps before regaining its winning ways.

Lose control of your shopping cart in a grocery store's wine department and it's apt to collide with a shelf of old-vine zinfandels.

"Gruner Veltliner" sounds as if it could be the name of a sleeper car of the Austrian Federal Railways.

If it's the Fourth of July, that means it's time for our annual hike to Fourth of July Lake in the Mokelumne Wilderness Area of the Eldorado National Forest.

Berryessa Gap Vineyards is a young winery, just 10 years old. Yet, the sense of history at the winery is fairly palpable.

The honeymoon is over, but Dennis Martin looks and sounds as if he's never been happier. A year ago, the high-production Chilean winemaker Concha y Toro bought from the Kentucky spirits house Brown-Forman one of California's larger and more enduring wineries, Fetzer Vineyards, with headquarters in Hopland, Mendocino County. Brown-Forman had owned Fetzer since 1992.

Oddly, no vintner to my knowledge has put "Young Vines" on the label of a bottle of wine. You see "Old Vines" all the time, even though no fixed definition of the term exists and even though the scientific evidence to support the suggestion that older vines yield superior wines is shaky.

Californians preparing to pack for next month's G20 summit in Mexico might want to toss into their luggage a couple of bottles of California wine.

In a word-association game, "cabernet sauvignon" just might prompt a response of "merlot" as quickly as it would "Bordeaux" or "Napa Valley." By history, tradition, culture and color, the two grape varieties are that closely identified. Many of the world's more esteemed wines involve both.

With practice, patience and prayer, the monks of the Abbey of New Clairvaux look to be succeeding where Leland Stanford saw rare failure

Fresh out of UC Davis with a bachelor's degree in fermentation science, Sacramento native Rob Davis signed on as an intern at a brand new winery just outside of Healdsburg in northern Sonoma County, Jordan Vineyard & Winery.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Suisun Valley as an officially designated American viticultural area.

Among other annual signs of spring is the surge in the number of commercial wine competitions around the country.

From the outside, the Amador County winery Andis Wines is as much modern sculpture as utilitarian structure. It's a sharp-edged and soaring wedge of metal and glass that looks as if it's taking flight from its vineyard knoll in the Shenandoah Valley.