Vintage Report 2022 from Prima Materia
Prima Materia’s 2022 Vintage Report Remember the old days when people said that California didn’t really have vintages? While some things...
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Vintage 2021 - The Lake County Report
As the vines started growing, it was clear that we never really had winter rains. When I was pruning vines in April, the wood was bone dry w
Sangiovese: A Couple of Attempts
Version 2.0 of the original, which is below. When asked to jot a few words down that define Prima Materia’s philosophy regarding...
2020 (Sort of) Vintage Report - Lake County
What. A. Year. The wine world is a very diverse (though oddly compact) web, and grasping the totality of it, even just within California,...
2019 Lake County Vintage Report
The 2019 vintage was a snapshot of extremes. A cold, wet and lingering Spring dropped over an inch of thunderstorm-powered rain June 1st
The Wine Seminar
Pietro's 3-hour wine seminar covering tasting, descriptors, vineyard practices, winemaking, and food pairings.
10 Ways Fish Sauce Can Make Our Western Cooking Better
10 ways to use fish sauce to make cooking a bit better
A Fried Chicken Research Department Update
I recently spent several days deep in fried chicken R&D for a consulting project and thought I would share a few insights that might be...
Recipe - Pistachio Olive Oil Cake
This recipe has gone through many iterations (as have I) since I started working it in 2007. It was originally based on recipes from...
Learning in the vineyard
If you like wine, this is something cool, something almost no one ever sees. Think you know grapes do you? Well this is the modern...
Grapevine Budding and Grafting at Novavine
Vine Budding and Grafting Friday night we had a guest lecturer, the very highly respected field graft expert, Daniel Robledo. He learned...
The Restaurant Consulting Files - 10 Takeaways from a Recent Project
I recently opened a restaurant for an unprepared owner. He had bought into a couple others, but had never opened one. It was an...
On Growing and Making Nebbiolo
I did the snoopy dance when I heard about it. Deep in Napa Valley, on a warm afternoon we gathered at Silenus to discuss making - wait...
My Ode to the Oxtail
Here is a hint for those who like to cook - use oxtail. Yes, it looks like a giant denuded penis and yes, it is actually the tail which...
Espelette - The Devil and the Details
I remember my first espelette. I am only about 50% on the anniversary, and sometimes the car is not where it was left, but I remember...
A brief chef's biography
This is a rare personal post from 2012 - you have been warned. I hate eating and I hate food. Sometimes. I am getting over it. The best...
Vintage 2014 so far - an August view from the vineyard
Yup, 17 days of 100F or above in July, so in conjunction with a little water nervousness it has been toasty here in Kelseyville. We are...
Vintage Report 2010 - the longest year yet?
This was the longest year in so, so many ways. And also the most action packed, intense and almost cerebral, if a winery can claim that....
Quacquarini Vernaccia di Serrapetrona = tasty red sparkler review
Well that was interesting. What we have here is a serious, unique sparkling red from central Italy that is a bit of a rarity and...
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