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The answer: Comfort food and hearty wine! But what’s the question? What do you need to ward off that psychological malady brought on by gray skies, cold weather, a general lack of sunshine and the end of football season? Clinically known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), Doctor Feelgood — me — has just the prescription:…

If you’re not a Romance language specialist, you probably have trouble understanding the gibberish on the label of a bottle of European wine. Join “WineBoy” webcast host John Brown in show 23 as he deciphers the information so you can make better buying decisions. The show also features cameos by two of WineBoy’s alter egos…

Map of Rioja region of Spain from www.cellartours.com I have always been a fan of Rioja (pronounced Ree-OH-hah). It’s a famous wine region in north-central Spain that produces red wine in a style similar to the more famous reds of Bordeaux. The connection with Bordeaux grew out of a vine disease which devastated those world-renowned…

If you could afford to pay $100 or more for a “trophy” wine, wouldn’t you expect that bottle to be memorable? I had a friend who recently plunked down $125 for a bottle of cabernet that, indeed, was memorable, but for the wrong reasons. He described it as “rancid, overbearing and lacking character.” Since that…

The latest edition of “WineBoy,” our 5-minute Web show on the art and craft of wine appreciation, features part one of two programs on deciphering wine labels. Host John Brown first takes a look at what you can learn from a close look at California wine labels. A future program will take a gander at…

Hey foodies and… um, wine-ies (wine-o’s?): Want to spend a cold winter’s weekend eating, drinking and living large in the lap of luxury? If so, you might want to cruise up I-79 to Stonewall Resort and take in the festivities known as the Cast Iron Cook-off this weekend. This third annual Cast Iron Cook-off is…

WINEBOY RECOMMENDS: 2005 Newton Napa Valley Claret ($25) Claret (pronounced Clair-it) is the term the British use to refer to the red wine of Bordeaux. The Newton Claret is a Napa Valley blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot and syrah. It is a rich, chocolaty, minty, mouthful of wine that — while…

The headline on a November, 2007 press release from the (California) Wine Institute states: “California vintners praise high quality 2007 wine grape harvest.” While I don’t doubt the veracity of the winemakers assessing the vintage, it is very difficult to make broad generalizations regarding the harvest of any geographically large and diverse region such as…

CLICK HERE TO VIEW the latest 5-minute “WineBoy” webcast. Gazz wine blogger John Brown is often asked about whether he supports adding a flavor dimension to wine by aging it in oak barrels. Does the oak actually improve the taste? His answer to that question goes all the way back to his grandfather’s wine cellar.…

I ‘m often asked about the relative merits of using oak barrels to add a flavor dimension to wine. Does the oak do anything to actually improve the taste? Doesn’t using oak just inject an artificial element into a naturally produced product? Can oak be used to age both red and white wine? These are…