We made USB corks out of our corks, and are working working on a couple other ideas to re-use our corks here..

 Whole Foods has a great program, which was actually started at the NAPA whole foods location. Stop in and drop off your corks, and while you’re at it, ask the wine steward when they will be carrying Encyclopedia Wines?

Click Here to read the recent article. 

 
Roman Coppolas company, The Directors Bureau, introduces their ‘Idea Generator’ in iphone application form.

The original paper ‘Idea Generator’ is also still available.
Visit them here 

It was great to see our wines being poured at last night’s fundraiser for the GayStraightAlliance Network. Lieutenant Uhura (well, the actress who played her, Nichelle Nichols) from Star Trek’s USS Enterprise gave an inspiring speech about equality and human rights. Here are a couple of lame pictures from a great event!


 

“The first time I visited Belize, I was invited to dinner with some of the top ministers. At the dinner, they proudly showed me a dish of habanero peppers, which they said were the hottest in the world. I shrugged and said that I was used to ‘hot’ and to their amazement took a whole pepper and threw it into my mouth. They were astonsihed; they simply couldn’t believe I had done that. After about 10 seconds, neither could I. It was the hottest sensation I had ever experienced - my mouth was on fire and I madly rushed for anything to relieve the pain while they rolled in laughter. Later on, after enjoying many hot sauces made from this fiery pepper, I came up with my own, which is distinguised by its blood red color, due to my innovative use of a secret ingreditent (not so secret, as it’s mentioned on the bottle).”

-Francis Coppola

We’ve been taking our show on the road, bringing Rosso & Bianco winery to the people in upper Sonoma County!

Saturday Sept. 27th Don LaBorde (Winegrower Rep Extraordinaire) poured our Gold Medal winning wines at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair Awards Tasting. He poured the 06 FCR AV Cab (not yet for sale), the 06 Dir’s Cut AV Cab, and the 06 Dir’s Cut Zin (all gone, sorry!). Good Times!

Saturday Oct 25th Carla Jeffries poured 07 FCR RR Viognier and 06 Dir’s Cut AV Cab at the finish line of the Healdsburg Half-Marathon (which had started earlier that morning at R&B) at Lake Sonoma. That evening, I poured wine from six different lines, including Encyclopedia and Votre Sante, for the First Annual Winebloggers Conference at the Flamingo in Santa Rosa. Bloggers loved the Encyclopedia bottle (Riesling), taking many photos. They were mesmerized with the Votre Sante packaging, many picking up and ‘petting’ the bottles. The Diamond Alicante Bouschet was a favorite for many tasters. All wines were well received.

Friday Nov. 5th Robert Pickett featured our Director’s Cut Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa for their weekly winery spotlight tasting.

Tuesday Nov. 11th I poured the 2005 FCR AV Cab and 06 FCR Petite Sirah Dessert Wine for Sonoma County Vintners ‘Best of the Boutiques’ tasting, featuring wines with less than 1,000 cases produced from the 05 and 06 vintages. Corey Beck was featured as a guest speaker on a panel (a recap of the 08 vintage) just prior to the tasting held at Paradise Ridge.

In January Rosso & Bianco wines will be featured at the monthly Geyserville Chamber of Commerce dinner. There’s a good chance we’ll be providing the speaker, too. If so, details will follow.

If you hear of an event that you think would be a good fit for Rosso & Bianco wines, please email me with your suggestion. Pour On! Kim Caffrey, Wine Educator, Rosso & Bianco.

I’m proud to say that Francis Ford Coppola Presents is generously donating wine to a fundraiser for the San Francisco Gay Straight Alliance this Thursday, Nov. 13. The GSA is celebrating 10 years of supporting youths to develop leadership, peer support, and fight discrimination in schools. Thank you FFCp! (http://www.gsanetwork.org/)

A few friends of the Shellphone have contributed artwork for this show, and FFCp wines will be served.. 

The weather has changed from those first, few moments of fall to crisp nights, colder mornings, and deceivingly sunny days that convince you to shed your sweater and take in a touch of sun.  Tree lined streets are strewn with a ragged carpeting of leaves in bright hues of gold and red, and our thoughts are turned to planning out the last remaining months of the year.  Halloween has come and passed, summer is a faint memory, and our arms are sweater clad and wide open, welcoming winter.  But guess what?  Harvest isn’t over yet.

That’s right.  We didn’t lie when we said we were done.  It’s just that we’re done with most of harvest; the still wines are safely tucked away, the winemaker has said his piece, and blending discussions are underway.  Let’s just put it this way: when we use the term “late harvest,” we really mean it.  I was in the late harvest Semillon vineyard with Marty and Cooper (our junior winegrower rep) the other day.  It was a typical Alexander Valley fall day.  The sun was shining, we were smiling, the berries were beginning to raisin, and the crop is still at least a week or so away from being harvested.  The coming weather with the occasional rains, cold mornings, and warm days will make a Semillon so honeyed and candied it’ll knock your dessert wine socks off.  Till then, cheers and be patient!  

La Lancha - UK Elle featured La Lancha in their Chic Shack Awards, chosen by Elle’s Travel Section Editor.

Blancaneaux Lodge - voted #7 Resort in Central and South America by Conde Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Awards.
“The 21st annual Readers’ Choice Awards is not only an award for the destinations, lodgings, and modes of transportation that exceed expectations, it is also a credit to the worldly expertise of Condé Nast Traveler readers.”

Turtle Inn (pictured above) selected as one of Top 400 Luxury Hotels in the world, by Forbes Traveler Magazine.
“The Forbes Traveler 400 list was determined through the following method:
We recruited panelists based on these qualifications:

We compiled a list of nearly 800 of the world’s top-ranked hotels from a variety of respected sources (brand-new hotels and hotels closed for renovations were excluded); we also allowed for individual nominations beyond the original pool of properties. We then asked our experts to rate each property on seven criteria:

The survey results determined the world’s top 400 hotels. We assigned the reviews to professional travel writers who visited these properties and did not receive special treatment from the hotels they covered.”

  The Wine Correspondents section has now launched on www.knoWine.com. Please check it out and let us know your thoughts. Below - a short video introducing the Encyclopedia Wine Correspondents and their wine adventure, set to the music of Jennifer Furches