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Piedmont Wine Region Guide: Nebbiolo, Fog and the Langhe
Why Barolo and Barbaresco are not the same wine, where Barbera and Dolcetto fit, and how the Tanaro divides the Langhe from Roero.
7 min
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Tuscany Wine Region Guide: Sangiovese and Its Many Zones
One grape across Chianti Classico, Montalcino, Montepulciano and the Maremma coast, and what changed when Bordeaux varieties reached Bolgheri.
7 min
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Temecula Valley Wine Region Guide: Heat, a Gap and Recovery
How two gaps in the Santa Ana Mountains cool a Southern California valley, and how Pierce's disease changed what is planted there.
7 min
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Dry Creek Valley Wine Region Guide: Zinfandel and Gravel
Two miles wide, two soils. Why the old head-trained Zinfandel sits on the gravelly benches and not on the deep alluvium of the valley floor.
7 min
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Santa Ynez Valley Wine Region Guide: Four Valleys in One
Four nested appellations sit inside one valley, laid out west to east as a heat gradient. Here is what separates them and what each one ripens.
7 min
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Anderson Valley Wine Region Guide: Cold Nights, Long Season
One number governs this valley: the forty-to-fifty-degree gap between afternoon and dawn. Pinot Noir, Alsatian whites and sparkling all follow from it.
7 min
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Russian River Valley Wine Region Guide: Living With Fog
Inside this appellation the question is not where fog comes from but how long it stays. Six informal neighborhoods, sorted by burn-off time.
7 min
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Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Region Guide: Above the Fog Line
This appellation was drawn along a contour line, not a county line. Two different elevations, two different reasons, and two kinds of wine.
6 min
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San Luis Obispo Coast Wine Region Guide: The Maritime Edge
Nowhere in the SLO Coast AVA is far from the Pacific. Here is how distance to salt water, and nothing else, sorts this appellation.
6 min
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Lake County Wine Region Guide: Altitude and Volcanic Soil
Every vineyard in Lake County sits above 1,300 feet on red volcanic ground. Here is how altitude, clean air and hard light shape the wine.
7 min