Books by grape goddess Catherine Fallis, available at www.amazon.com

Wine
grape goddess guides to good living: Wine $20.95

Reader’s Choice & Editor’s Choice Award Winners!

Gourmands, sensualists, and bon vivants of any age, background, and budget will love learning with and listening to grape goddess, sharing her most decadent, luxurious, hilarious, and outrageous experiences along the way.

Champagne & Sparkling Wine $11.95
grape goddess guides to good living: Champagne & Sparkling Wine

Reader’s Choice & Editor’s Choice Award Winners!

Gourmands, sensualists, and bon vivants of any age, background, and budget will love learning with and listening to grape goddess, sharing her most decadent, luxurious, hilarious, and outrageous experiences along the way.

Erotic Foods
grape goddess guides to good living: Erotic Foods $10.95

Reader’s Choice & Editor’s Choice Award Winners!

Gourmands, sensualists, and bon vivants of any age, background, and budget will love learning with and listening to grape goddess, sharing her most decadent, luxurious, hilarious, and outrageous experiences along the way.

Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online $12.95
The first buying guide of its kind, Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online is like the Zagat Guide for restaurant lovers. Going to a new city and want to know where to go? Check Zagat. Want to try a wine from a new region, or a different varietal? Go to Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online. Between these covers you’ll find hundreds of wines profiled by the authors. Many are from the “mom and pop” operations that are struggling to survive in this era of corporate conglomeration and cookie-cutter franchises.

Now, with the power of the Internet and freedom from restrictive interstate shipping laws, these wines are just a click away. Wine, like life, is an adventure. Take the plunge! 

grape goddess® baseball cap $25
These quality caps come in your choice of 3 distinctive colors of Hot Pink, Light Pink and Beige.   Available at www.planetgrape.com

Here are my top picks for the holidays 2009:

Sparkling

Canella Rose Spumante, Italy $15.99 – fresh and lively with bright strawberry and rose petal notes

Bellavista Franciacorta Cuvee Brut, Italy $47.99 – rich and bold with creamy, yeasty and citrus notes

1999 Pommery Brut Millesime Grand Cru Champagne, France $85 – elegant and understated with lemon, apricot, chalk and brioche notes and very fine, integrated bubbles

White

2008 J Vineyards Pinot Gris Russian River Valley, California $16 - soft and mellow with tropical fruit and honey notes

2007 Gloria Ferrer Chardonnay Carneros, California $18 – luscious pear, apple, lemon, and toasty oak notes merge seamlessly in this lovely, creamy white

Red

2008 Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon Santiago, Chile $11 – medium-bodied with cassis, plum and vanilla notes

2006 Dry Creek Vineyards Merlot Dry Creek Valley, California $19 – full and round with notes of cassis, black cherry, tobacco, dried flowers and sweet toasty oak

2007 Zuccardi Q Malbec Mendoza, Argentina $20 – rich and voluptuous with notes of fig, currant, violet, verbena, and oak spice

2004 Montus Madiran, France $25 – this 100% tannat from vineyards south of Bordeaux offers notes of plum, tobacco, graphite, dried leaves, and dried porcini, and is mellow and round on the palate

2007 MacPhail Pinot Noir Vagon Rouge Anderson Valley, California $70 – round and silky with notes of ripe cherry, wildflower, vanilla and dried leaves from this master craftsman of Pinot Noir

2005 Kenwood Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County, California $70 - this 31st release of  highly collectable and enjoyable Cabernet Sauvignon with art by Swiss-born German artist Paul Klee offers sexy dark berry fruit, dark chocolate, and cedar and cigar box notes

 2006 Joseph Phelps Vineyards Insignia Napa Valley, California $200 – this blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot from some of the top vineyards in Napa Valley is, as always, rich, deeply flavored, and complex, with black fruits, earth, tobacco, sage, and toasty oak notes – decant or age to allow the rich tannins to mellow

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from grape goddess Catherine Fallis and planet grape llc

Sommelier Journal November 2009

FALL RELEASE REPORTS by Catherine Fallis MS, ACWP

ITALY

SPAIN

CHAMPAGNE

CALIFORNIA

NORTH COAST

For many winemakers and grape growers throughout the Golden State, 2008 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience—and not in a positive way. “After 10 grape harvests (four at Williams Selyem and six at George Wine), I thought I had this winemaking thing figured out,” says George Levkoff, George Wine’s owner and winemaker. “Mother Nature reared her head and reminded me who was boss. Although the Russian River Valley has a consistently great clima…

www.sommelierjournal.com