Cima Collina

Cima Collina is a winery that combines art with wine. I'm sold if wineries apply art to their wine, it's art with art or square art. Howling is a great blend wine made mainly of merlot, very tasty ideal for a BBQ or for doing a project. Located in Monterey, they donate all the benefits of this wine to an association that protects and helps animals. Their store in Carmel is beautiful, small and with a nice crafted wood work in the bar. Friendly wine and friendly people. The label represents their dog, made by a local artist. Everything in this winery is so handcrafted, and girl power: the wine maker is Annette Hoff. Congratulations!

Visit their website:
http://www.cimacollina.com/index.html

Galante

I love the Galante wines, specially their cabernet and their sauvignon blanc. The white wine has such a great aroma and peach flavour, delicious. The carbenet has a great body. We had a great time in their store in Carmel. Their design is cowboy oriented, the store too: with chears that wear a cowboy boot. Also the label has a brownish earth feeling and a small cowboy atraping a cow (American style). Very constant throughout the company, the store and their bottles.

Woodbrige

I can't believe one of the gurus of Napa, Robert Mondavi, can elaborate such a wine less. Flavor less, color less, aroma less. The price for a Mondavi was cheap... may be that's why. The design is boring, similar to French designs, to keep the traditional values.

Albarinyo

Since I've talked widely about Galicia and the Albarinyos, here is Torre de La Moreira a wine accessible in the Bay Area. Honestly, I was expecting more of the wine. Design wise it does not have a traditional label, it is integrated in the bottle... may be that is why was so expensive for its taste.

Mo Zin

Mo Zin is elaborate here in California, concretely in Sonoma County. It is a great combination of different grapes, a secret blend of Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Carignane and Petite Sirah. I have to confess that I'm cheese addict and this wine matches perfectly! I'm not sure what I think about its label. The type reminds me of Papirus (not a fashion and stylish font) and the image looks like a lino cut of mountains. The label's form is not rectangular, it looks like a mask (wide in the top and narrow at the bottom). And the off white background is so old style: a bit more of modern design!! In general some wineries keep their designs really traditional, because they want to keep this long tradition values from a family of wine makers and bla bla bla... Ok, it's cool to have hundred years of experience, but there are tones of winemakers without this long experience with great and sophisticated ideas. This concept should be also transmited in the label and some wineries they are stuck with the view of tradition. CHANGE! WE NEED A CHANGE!!!

Note: the image is not the same wine that I drunk, however, the label is the same

Combating nostalgia

Personally, this is a wine appropriate to combat nostalgia. When you miss your country, food, family and friends a Ribera del Duero is the perfect cure for this symptoms. Ribera del Duero is one of the most relevant regions in Spain, probably the most important with Rioja and Priorat. Martin Berdugo has a lot of character and flavour, like Spanish people! I love the label, specially the upper part; the 2 red circles with with the red initials, I think they try to highlight the character of this wine. The price has also character, however, is the perfect remedy for home sickness.

I didn't see the stones in the lower part of the label, somebody knows what do they mean??

More wine to beat the crisis

The good thing about the Spring break is that I can enjoy more wine tastings. I've tried two more white wines with arguable quality, however they have interesting labels as well as names: barefoot and pancake. Barefoot has a variety of white wines, all monograpes, this means they use only a kind of grape for each wine. I did not tried the reds, but all whites are kind of refreshing, but definitely whites are not astonishing wines. Their website is also kind of refreshing: www.barefootwine.com
I guess they play with the name, you are barefoot when you have to press the grapes and you are barefoot in the beach, where you disconnect, enjoy, get a refreshing swim and a cool glass of wine.
The website it reminds me of a travel agency for any Caribbean island. They have an image of a wood wall, typical from touristic beach destinations; however, it could be associated it with wood barrels. Anyway, this website makes me want to go to the beach and have a seafood paella with a cold glass of wine (probably not barefoot...).

The other wine, also a crisis wine, has funny label and name: pancake. Im not sure if this wine would match with pancakes. its a mix of different grapes, being the final product nothing spectacular. This is the only image i could fine, also not sure if it will match the laughing cow cheese... The main figure of the label is a huge grape, it's cute, isn't it??