Popping a Can v. a Bottle of Wine – Can Consumers Get Behind Canned Wine?

Canned wine. It’s not an oxymoron. Far from it. Canned wines are the latest packaging player in the wine industry and its market size...

Wine Tariffs & Main Street America

illustration by Donald Clement In January of 2020, the fight against wine tariffs was well underway for many in the industry. With the pandemic taking...

Bichi Harvest Report

Bichi, translated from Sonoran Yaqui, means “naked” and speaks to the minimal intervention style of winemaking utilized by Noel Tellez and his team. Their...

Recent Articles

Los Pilares Harvest Report

Los Pilares has garnered national recognition as one of the tiny handful of natural wineries using San Diego-grown fruit. They are also my friends. They just finished their eleventh harvest in this, the Year...

Celebrating Nearly a Decade of Advancing Women in the San Diego Wine Industry

Nearly ten years ago, Courtney Quinn got a call from a former wine instructor to check out a new wine group in town called the Women’s Wine Alliance. The next day, she was sitting...

The Ties that Bine:

illustration by Emily Edgar It’s a place you might miss on the way to the post office.  Just a few hundred feet away from the community canopy that is the “Normal Heights” neighborhood sign, Bine...

Wine Unify

It was early June and inaction was no longer an option.  In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests, companies in every sector were grappling with issues of racial equity. The wine...

Drinking Inside the Box

illustrations by Emily Edgar “People are gonna be like, ‘they put their wine in a fucking box?!’”. This is the sort of thing Melissa Saunders lives for: high-quality wine in sustainable packaging, for the masses....

Fer Parra

Fer Parra es una enóloga baja californiana de hueso colorado, una mujer que ha logrado integrar su creatividad nata con la sabiduría científica que ha logrado desarrollar a través de los años. Dedicó más de...

Get to Know: Ramona Valley AVA

by Teri Kerns Have you heard about Ramona, home of the fastest growing wine region in California, located just up the hill from the beautiful San Diego Bay? My guess is no. I’m excited to introduce...

Toxic Shock

Illustrations by Melody Klaffke Martin Reyes: What color do you want the clouds? Do you want them white or do you want them orange? CampestreMAG: Purple. In 2020, even casual banter about Zoom backgrounds can get heavy....

Sustentabilidad en la Industria del Vino en México

illustrations by Emily Edgar Es importante comenzar por recordar que la industria del vino en México es relativamente nueva, hasta hace alrededor de 35 años se comenzó a apostar por la calidad con bodegas como...

Sustainable Strides

Ramona is home to the only certified sustainable vineyard and winery in San Diego County, according to a database by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. From pest management to viticulture, Teri Kerns, president and CEO...

Time to Lighten Up

illustrations by Emily Edgar “First of all, we don’t use any coal,” jokes Eric Van Drunen to begin our interview. Eric and his wife Clara own Charlie & Echo, one of the OG natural wineries...

Wine in Tami Time: The Upside of Destruction

“Mom, I don’t think I should go to school today. I have a sore throat”, declared my son, Riley, on the Tuesday after Winter Break ended. He had tested negative for Covid the day...

Viticultura Orgánica

by Alfonso Rochin Cada vez es más común encontrar en las etiquetas de los vinos los términos: orgánico, biodinámico, natural o mínima intervención. Cada uno de estos refleja, o debería reflejar, distintos estilos de vino,...

High Tech Vines

With smart devices controlling just about everything we use in our daily lives–from thermostats at home to the music we play on the road–it’s no surprise that technology and smart devices will play a...

Valle de Grulla

illustrations by Emily Edgar ¡Vamos al valle! La frase que llevas esperando toda la semana escuchar cuando quieres dejar el estrés de la ciudad, escapar al campo y compartir buenos momentos de la mano de un...

Distinctively Highland Valley

illustrations by Melody Klaffke San Diego County is home to three American Viticultural Areas (or more commonly AVAs) ; South Coast, Ramona Valley and San Pasqual Valley. And, a fourth AVA is in the works.  “When...

Wine In Tami Time: Everything I Know About Cider I Learned From Dave

No matter how brief the interaction, I learn something about cider every time I talk to Dave Carr, founder of Raging Cider and Mead. He is so knowledgeable, has friends all over the country...

An Introduction to Orange Wine

While orange wine has been popping up in its own dedicated sections on wine lists in recent years, the style itself goes much farther back. As in, at least 5,000 years back. “It may be...