Category

Wine Pros

Winemaker Sonoma County

Interview: winemaker Nicole Hitchcock (J Vineyards & Winery)

Nicole Hitchcock has set her sights on wine for over two decades. The Carmel native earned a B.S. degree in Viticulture & Enology from the prestigious program at University of California, Davis. She recently...
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Wine Movie

Interview: filmmaker Jason Wise (SOMM: Into the Bottle)

SOMM: Into the Bottle is filmmaker Jason Wise’s follow up to SOMM, a dramatic study of what it takes to become a Master Sommelier. The story’s divided into 10 chapters, each built around the...
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Sommeliers

Interview: Brian McClintic (Master Sommelier + Les Marchands)

Brian McClintic, a Master Sommelier and key player in the documentary SOMM, co-founded Santa Barbara’s Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchants with fellow wine pro Eric Railsback. We met at SOMM’s Pebble Beach Food...
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Winemaker Santa Barbara

Interview: winemaker Steve Clifton (Palmina + Brewer-Clifton)

I first met Steve Clifton on September 29 at the Hawaii Food & Wine festival’s “Streets of Asia” event. The accomplished winemaker, based in Santa Barbara County, focuses on two unique expressions of the...
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Winemaker Santa Barbara

Interview: Ampelos Cellars winemaker Peter Work

Ampelos Cellars and Vineyard founders Peter Work and wife Rebecca are former corporate execs from Denmark and Alaska, respectively. They purchased 82 pie-shaped acres in 1999, planted 15,000 vines in 2001 and moved to...
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Master Sommelier

Interview: master sommelier Darius Allyn (Montage Beverly Hills)

Seattle native Darius Allyn fell for wine while working on a luxurious train line in Eastern Europe. He carried that passion back to the States, started at the Salish Lodge Inn and eventually transitioned...
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