I was on Apple’s website last night doing some article research when I came across Dairy Queen: The Game. Dairy Queen is no slouch in the fine beverage department with such creations as the Mr. Misty and the legendary Blizzard. Continue Reading »

Mutineer Magazine Special Edition Alcohol Shotgun

Alcohol has long been a necessity as bullets in a gunfight, but this variation that replaces bullets with bourbon changes the game completely. From improvising scenes from New Jack City and Sukiyaki Western Django to ascending to the rank of “sheriff” at your next raging social gathering. Continue Reading »

The fine people behind the Snipes Mountain AVA are very serious about what they do. I contacted the Snipes Mountain AVA media contact Todd Newhouse of Upland Estates winery on Friday when Snipes became official, and I had a media kit in my mailbox by Monday. Yes, these people mean business. Continue Reading »

The finalists for the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards were announced today on Tom Wark’s Fermentation Blog and are listed below. Check them all out HERE and cast your vote for your favorites HERE.

Voting ends March 4 at 11:59 PM.

These blogs are the best of the best and will not disappoint!

Best Writing on a Wine Blog
In Vino Veritas
The Pour
Dr.Vino
Vinography

Best Graphics and Presentation on a Wine Blog
The Good Grape
Hosemaster of Wine
Chateau Petrogasm
Wilma’s Wine World

Best Single-Subject Wine Blog
Besotted Ramblings
Lenndevours
Good Wine Under $20
Napa Valley Wine Blog

Best Winery Blog
Michel-Schlumberger Benchland Blog
Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog
Dry Creek Vineyard’s Wilma’s Wine World
Bedrock Wine Co. Blog

Best Business/Industry Wine Blog
Winery Website Report
Winecast
The Wine Collector
Rethink Wine Blog

Best Wine Reviews on a Blog
Bigger Than Your Head
Good Wine Under $20
Wicker Parker
Vinography

Best Overall Wine Blog
Vinography
Dr. Vino
The Pour
Lenndevours

Stay tuned for all of the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards winners with interviews and more in the April/May issue of Mutineer Magazine!

If you read Issue 3 of Mutineer Magazine, then you know the deal with BottleRock in Culver City, CA. This place is the real deal, with one of the best bottle for bottle beverage programs you’ll ever see. Helmed by the incredible palate of Sommelier George Skorka, I can’t say enough about this killer establishment. Continue Reading »

The Novelty Hill/Januik Winery is a big, concrete, wine-making monolith located just outside of Seattle in the shimmering suburb of Woodinville. Today I have left Mutineer base camp to visit Novelty Hill/Januik for a wine blending workshop/throwdown. For guidance and good company I have brought with me Mutineer Magazine Research Coordinator Julie Eckroth, and I can’t wait to get my blend on. Continue Reading »

The barrel room at Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Greystone is filled with merchants, vintners, press, guests and one woman in an impossibly blue dress wearing leopard wedge-heeled shoes. Everyone’s here to taste the 200 auction lots for the Premiere Napa Valley wine auction. Not all of the wineries in the Valley can participate and some partnerships have formed to produce auction lots. You can blindside your palate by trying to taste all of the auction lots on Saturday morning. However, some vintners produce tasting events the day before. The Spring Mountain appellation vintners did a group tasting at the Spring Mountain winery. The host vineyard’s auction lot was a 100 percent Petit Verdot, which vineyard manager Ron Rosenbrand said is “something we’re proud of.” Continue Reading »

I have to give them credit for trying. I checked the Washington Wine Commission Fee Collector website this morning to find a “Snipes Mountain AVA established” headline in the Washington Wine News part of the website. The news is dated as February 20th 2009, the day the Snipes Mountain AVA was officially established, and the same day Mutineer ripped into the organization for NOT having any information about the new Snipes Mountain AVA, which tells us that this information was added either late Friday night or sometime over the weekend. This is clearly an attempt by the WWC to not look like fools, though the damage has been done. Continue Reading »