W. Blake Gray, Author at Wine Review Online

Shannon Ridge, Lake County (California) Petite Sirah 2009

by W. Blake Gray | Jul 24, 2012

Clay Shannon's family were sheep farmers, which is how he ended up using sheep to tend his vineyards when labor shortages...

by W. Blake Gray | Jul 24, 2012

A juicy dark-fruit wine that's strongly tannic, but opens up with time in the glass to reveal stony flavors that remind...

by W. Blake Gray | Jun 27, 2012

Chappellet isn't the trendiest name in Napa Valley. Their wines are big but not the biggest. The wines around them,...

by W. Blake Gray | May 31, 2012

This fresh, lively wine with raspberry fruit and some cinnamon and floral notes on the nose is a great wine for...

by W. Blake Gray | May 31, 2012

Kevin Phillips, VP of Operations for Michael-David, also manages the 127-year-old Bechthold Vineyard, believed to be the...

by W. Blake Gray | May 31, 2012

This is Clos Saron's first-ever wine that's not from Gideon Bienstock's home vineyard in the Sierra Foothills; it's 89%...

by W. Blake Gray | May 3, 2012

A lean, savory wine with good minerality. The flavors are more of smoked meat than anything else, and there are...

by W. Blake Gray | May 2, 2012

A smooth entry with dark blackberry fruit leads into some savory notes, but the silky mouthfeel gets quite tannic on the...

by W. Blake Gray | May 2, 2012

A savory, complex wine that starts and finishes with smoked meat surrounding a core of blueberry fruit. Just 12.9%...

by W. Blake Gray | Apr 8, 2012

This bruiser of a wine (15.5% alcohol) might be too potent for dinner, but not for enjoying as is. The potent dark...

by W. Blake Gray | Apr 8, 2012

If you like big-shouldered, ripe black cherry fruit, you'll like this much more than I did. This wine achieves what...

by W. Blake Gray | Apr 8, 2012

From Michael Twelftree, the winemaker at Two Hands, comes a wine that provides what you want in this price range: ...