All American Wineries
Bob Hodge started All American Wineries because he believes
directory listings of wineries were not as complete as
purported. He's been working his way across the U.S.,
and listing wineries in each state. A useful site to visit
if you are travelling and looking for a winery on your
route. Bob also provides virtual homes for a few wineries
until they establish their own.
http://www.allamericanwineries.com
Amigoni Vineyards and Farm
Amigoni Vineyards and Farm maintains an interesting
site, a short diary with photos about how Michael Amigoni,
a hobby wine maker in Missouri grew into a small commercial
winery. http://www.amigoni.com/
Antinori
The Antinorifamily has been in the wine business since
Giovanni di Piero Antinori joined the Florentine Guild
of Vintners in 1385 -- more than 26 generations ago.
The company has remained family owned and operated,
and today it is directed by Marchese Piero Antinori.
The website has a great deal of content, including a
history of the winery, descriptions of the wines, and
much more information. http://www.antinori.it
Association of African American Vintners
The Association of African American Vintners describes
itself as follows: "Mac McDonald's latest vision
is a marketing group, which promotes the fact that he's
not the only African American enjoying the art of making
wine. 'We're going to better promote ourselves by uniting
our ideas and resources,' said McDonald when recently
asked if there really was a need to form a group of
vintners of color. 'I passionately believe that there's
an audience outside the spectrum of color, so I don't
want to see a group that singularly isolates itself.
On the other hand, I don't want to miss opportunities,
either. We all know there's strength in numbers.' http://www.aaavintners.org./links.html
Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA
Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA owns several leading
properties, including Château Mouton Rothschild,
a First Growth located at Pauillac in the Médoc,
Château Clerc Milon, Château d'Armailhac,
Mouton Cadet, varietal wines from Pays d'Oc, Opus One
from California and Almaviva from Chile. The site is
flashy and well designed; it gives information about
the company and its holdings, as well as tasting notes,
Château Mouton Rothschild labels, and a number
of virtual tours. http://www.bpdr.com/
Beaux Frères
Beaux Frères strives to produce high quality
wines from Pinot Noir grapes following classical Burgundian
winegrowing practices. The Beaux Frères vineyards
are located on an 86-acre farm in Yamhill County's Willamette
Valley. The property, purchased in 1987 by Michael Etzel
and the wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr., was named
Beaux Frères (the brothers-in-law). A few years
later Robert Roy became the third member of the Beaux
Frères partnership. Parker does not review these
wines, and they have become something of a cult wine
in recent years. http://www.beauxfreres.com/
Bordeaux Wineries
Bruno de Corbiac provides a "complete" list
of all Bordeaux Wineries wineries at its commercial
web site. No addresses or websites, just a list of the
names.
http://www.corbiac.com/wines-of-france
California Wineries Mall
The mission of California Wineries Mall is to list every
winery in California. Wineries are listed alphabetically,
by region, and by varietals. Special categories include
organic, Rhone Rangers, and Consorzio Cal-Italia. There
is a good list of local associations, and information
on how to buy direct from California wineries. http://www.cawinemall.com/
Chateau d'Yquem
Chateau d'Yquem offers a stylish, attractive site (available
in French and English) featuring substantial educational
material, including winery history, news, details about
visiting the chateau (by appointment only, please!)
and recent vintage reports, to its commercial content.
http://www.chateau-yquem.fr
Chateau Haut-Brion
Chateau Haut-Brion's high-quality Website is available
in French, English and several other languages. It features
the estate's 400-year history, a "virtual visit,"
wine maker's reports and vintage and tasting notes since
1899. The winery staff will answer online questions
on an interactive forum.
http://www.haut-brion.com
Chateau Lafite-Rothschild
Chateau Lafite-Rothschild's site goes beyond mere advertising
to provide useful content about the chateau and its
history as well as wine-making information and harvest
news. In French and English.
http://www.lafite.com
Chateau Palmer
Chateau Palmer is located in Margaux, Bordeaux and its
vineyards grow on gravelly outcrops in Margaux and Cantenac.
The winery has a very handsome website, with tasting
notes and an excellent history of the winery. In French
and English. http://chateau-palmer.com
Consorzio Cal-Italia
Consorzio Cal-Italia is a group of California wineries
producing wines from classic Italian varieties; its
goal is to highlight the contributions of the early
Italian-American pioneers and to applaud the pleasures
of Cal-Italia wines. This stylish site has a good set
of links to over 50 wineries and excellent descriptions
of over a dozen wine varieties.
http://www.cal-italia.org/index.html
David Coffaro
David Coffaro owns a small winery in Sonoma Valley,
California, and makes premium Pinot Noir, Zinfandel
and more, all with an extremely loyal following, partly
for high quality and partly for reasonable prices. Coffaro's
weekly diary is an informative and interesting bit of
wine writing; his exposition on the costs of making
a bottle of cult wine (about $15) compared with a selling
price of $100 is particularly good.
http://www.coffaro.com
Domaine Laroche
Domaine Laroche maintains a stylish site devoted to
its wine, but also has a number of useful features.
The wine dictionary covers several hundred words, and
one can go from English to French, or French to English,
with the click of a button. Good descriptions of the
AOC system, history of wine, and other excellent content.
http://www.domainelaroche.fr/english/Home/de-a_c.html
Dr. Loosen
Dr. Loosen's estate is located at Bernkastel on the
river Mosel. The site is often updated and has excellent
descriptions of the estate, the vineyards and the wines.
An informative newletter; in English and German.
http://www.dr-loosen.de/index_e.htm
Drouhin
Joseph Drouhin is a century-old and well-respected wine
shipping firm in Beaune, the center of Burgundy in France.
Its Website, Drouhin, ought to serve as a model to wineries
and other commercial wine businesses, demonstrating
how much more of a contribution it's possible to make
than merely putting advertising on the 'net: This is
a substantial, useful and surprisingly online textbook
about Burgundy, well-organized and readable. For a virtual
tour of Burgundy's complicated geography, click on "Drouhin
Wines" and then follow the links to each specific
appellation. This is a fine site, well worth an hour's
visit.
http://www.drouhin.com/
Edmunds St. John
Edmunds St. John is run by Steve Edmunds, who makes
great wine and great music. Steve's wines are among
my favorites from California because they are invariably
balanced and complex in a "European" style
that stands out among his New World competitors. And,
the site is a joy to visit, with lots of content and
with extracts from his album, "Lonesome on the
Ground". http://edmundsstjohn.com/
Hugel
Hugel maintains an excellent multi-language site devoted
to its wines and with plenty of content. This is one
of the more attractive uses of Flash, although I expect
it's best with a fast connection. http://www.hugel.com/
Kinkead Ridge
Kinkead Ridge is practically in my back yard. This attractive
website records pioneering strictly vinifera in southern
Ohio. The owners had a 40 acre pinot noir vineyard in
Oregon prior to this experiment. http://www.kinkeadridge.com./
Louis Latour
Louis Latour maintains a commercial site, focused on
Burgundy where the family has been a presence since
1731. The website reflects the grace and elegance of
the house, with excellent history and breathtaking photos.
http://www.louislatour.com/
Michel Laroche
It's amazing to find a French wine producer talking
about using plastic corks. Michel Laroche does, and
furnishes lots of good content as well. There is a small
page dedicated to explaining their decision to use plastic
corks, a monthly article on some aspect of wine, and
"in the general content of the site try to explain
as best we can why 'terroir' makes a difference, both
in different Chablis appellations and in the South of
France." http://www.michellaroche.com
Mokelumne (Mo-KUL-uh-me) Glen Vineyards
It's always fun to get an enthusiastic recommendation
for a new site from an online friend. Here's a great
example from Gary Barlettano: "I had an absolutely
smashing time at the Lodi Winter Wine Wander which took
place last weekend and will occur again this coming
weekend. With Napa and Sonoma turning into the Disneyland
of wines, this down-home, meet the winemaker affair
was really refreshing. Best of all, I encountered a
fellow named Bob Koth who runs a small, family-owned
vineyard called Mokelumne (Mo-KUL-uh-me) Glen Vineyards.
He hand-crafts some interesting wines, the most interesting
of which was his Kerner, a German grape which I have
been unable to locate in the U.S.A. until now. You have
to understand that I cut my wine tooth in Germany where
I live for 17 years. When I saw his Kerner, I almost
flipped because this is my favorite German grape. In
any event, his rendition was really genuine. My palate
lept for joy because he captured that sense of "herb"
which describes so many German wines. It was different.
It was German. It was good. I'd like to recommend that
you take a moment to visit his website." http://www.mokelumneglen.com
Penfolds
"A concoction of wild fruits and sundry berries,
with crushed ants predominating." This is one of
the most famous tasting notes, an attempt to describe
an early vintage of Penfolds Grange, one of Australia's
most famous wines. The winery was founded by Dr Christopher
Rawson Penfold in 1844, and the website contains an
excellent history of the winery. If you want to know
more about this Australian institution, the winery sells
The Rewards of Patience, an excellent and objective
history of the winery and its wines. http://www.penfolds.com/
Primum Familiae Vini (Leading Wine Families)
Primum Familiae Vini (Leading Wine Families) is an upscale
site featuring ten leading wine families, including
Antinori, Hugel, Mondavi, Mouton-Rothschild and others.
There's a history of the group, a regular newsletter,
scheduled tastings, and a good set of links. http://www.pfv.org/
Raptor Ridge
Raptor Ridge, a tiny Oregon winery, has a primarily
commercial site, but it adds a worth-while educational
component with its series of monthly columns from the
Oregon Wine News, titled "Winemaking, Viticulture,
and Enology for the Small Scale Winemaker." Also
features Poetry, Oregon wines and Oregon wine events.
A model for a small winery page. http://www.raptoridge.com/
Rhone Rangers
The Rhone Rangers is a non-profit, educational organization,
established to provide information and understanding
of American-grown Rhone wine grapes and wines produced
from those grapes. As criteria for membership, "Rhone
Ranger" wines must contain 75% traditional Rhone
varieties, as approved by the French government for
grapes grown in the Cote-du-Rhone. Filled with content
and links to many of the members.
http://www.rhonerangers.com/
Ridge Vineyards
Ridge Vineyards was founded in its modern embodiment
in the 1950's. Known initially as BCRZ Ridge Vineyards,
Ridge was founded by four electrical engineers from
Stanford Research Institute, and their wives. "B"
stood for Dave and Fran Bennion, "C" for Hew
and Sue Crane, "R" for Charlie and Blanche
Rosen. The "Z", Howard Zeidler, who left the
partnership after a fairly brief involvement. Paul Draper
joined in 1969. The history of Ridge thereafter has
become a fundamental part of American wine history.
Ridge was in fact one of the first wineries on the web,
with an agonizingly slow loading picture of the winery,
and an immense amount of information about the wines.
The site has become much quicker and much slicker, but
the density of data has, if anything, increased. Ridge
remains a remarkable institution. http://www.ridgewine.com/
Sapros: Botrytis Wine Club
Sapros: Botrytis Wine Club is an association of French
wineries which specialize in sweet wines made from grapes
infected with botrytis. The group asserts: "Mellow
or botrytized wines obtained exclusively by natural
concentration are rare in France." The name SAPROS
is the first word in ancient Greek, which associated
the notions of rot, of overripe fruit, of nectar, of
mellow and of noble within a wine. SAPROS is plural,
a symbol of the richness generated by the diversity
of the founding members and their experience. Winemakers
from all over France are members: Alsace, Condrieu,
Coteaux du Layon, Gaillac, Jasnières, Mâcon,
Montlouis, Quarts de chaume, Sauternes. In English and
French. http://www.sapros.org/
Sean Thackrey
Sean Thackrey maintains a commercial site including
a database of those who handle his wine. A fascinating
feature of the site is "The Thackrey Library: an
Archaeology of Pleasure." "It is an attempt
to provide an online archive of early texts on the making
and understanding of wine, not excluding those somersaults
and mysteries, jokes and inspirations that are part
of the pleasure this is all about. Since, to my knowledge,
no such anthology has ever been offered, even in print,
it is by far the most important contribution I can hope
this site might make." Fascinating reading.
http://www.wine-maker.net
Sonoma County Wineries
Sonoma County Wineries is an excellent list of Sonoma
County Wineries. http://www.socool.com/socool/tnt_wine.html
Weekend Winery.com
Tim Rice has put together an excellent collection of
links to US wineries at Weekend Winery.com. I've spent
some time browsing through the pages for Indiana and
Kentucky, where I live, and where the wineries are generally
small and obscure, and was really impressed by how thorough
a job Tim has done. This site certainly earns its subtitle,
"The essential guide to American wineries."
http://www.weekendwinery.com
WineRelease.com
WineRelease.com's mission is to keep wine enthusiasts
informed about the release dates for fine wines. Neil
Monnens makes release dates available online or by a
monthly email. "Defy the law of supply and demand."
http://www.winerelease.com
Winetasting.com
This is an online cooperative of California’s leading
wineries selling directly to wine lovers. This gives
customers unique access to limited-release wines not
available outside the tasting room. For full information,
visit Winetasting.com. I have known these folks for
a long time and can confidently recommend them.
http://www.Winetasting.com/hub/landing.asp?wlpgid=WLPG001LA
