Once upon a time, there was a small spot in Northern Santa Barbara County where locals would go to get illegal moonshine. They referred to the area as “Happy Canyon.” Some 76 years after the end of Prohibition, on Thursday, October 8, 2009, winemakers in that tiny little section of the Santa Ynez Valley won a proposal to have the valley registered as an official AVA: Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara. The new AVA currently consists of 23,941 acres, 492 of which are planted for six vineyards and three wineries. Continue Reading »
Cover Story – Bartenders Mecca
by JJ Bagley
The Edison in Los Angeles has established itself as one of American’s top bars, with bartenders flying in from around the country to participate in the incredible Radio Room. Discover the passions behind the creators of the Radio Room and get the skinny on who these star mixologists are in the Issue 7 cover story. Continue Reading »
Tsillan Cellars Winery is a world class winery from top to bottom. I tasted a lot of great wine on my trip to Lake Chelan, but Tsillan really rocked my world.
Mutineer Magazine has learned that the Lake Chelan AVA will become official as of tomorrow, April 29, 2009. I had the pleasure of spending some time in this idyllic wine region last week to do a piece for the Wenatchee World newspaper, and let it be known, THE LAKE CHELAN AVA IS MOST CERTAINLY AND UNDENIABLY THE REAL DEAL. This region is poised to do some incredible things, with aromatic white wines using local grapes and similar in style to France’s Alsace region. The local red wines are pretty awesome as well, telling us one thing for certain: this region means business. Do yourself a favor try these wines now, then get on the mailing lists while you still can. 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 »
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 »
Today was supposed to be awesome. I was excited to write about the Snipes Mountain AVA gaining official status but ended up spending my day trying to figure out how and why the Washington Wine Commission could botch this up so badly. I posted a blog about it earlier today and have already had two Washington wineries contact me after reading the blog to vent about WWC dropping the ball on the Snipes Mountain AVA as well as past ball droppings. Continue Reading »
So Mutineer Magazine has staked a claim here in the Pacific NW in the name of raw, old-school journalism. We came here to get the first hand story on this mysterious corner of the fine beverage universe, but things have become complicated since we got picked up for National distribution by one of the world’s leading distributors, and ever since our world has been a circus at best and depraved sweatshop of the printed word at its worst. Continue Reading »
