Issue 30

The Myth of Fume’ Blanc

Pouilly-Fume’: Noun: An AOC established in France in 1937, composed of around 1,200 hectacres, and best known for producing Sauvignon Blanc. Sauvignon Blanc: Noun: A grape varietal originating in the Bordeaux region of France from which white wine is commonly

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From the Willamette Valley to Omaha: Illahe Vineyards

In 1983, Lowell Ford got his hands dirty planting grapes in the dirt of what would ultimately become Illahe Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Taking advantage of the Missoula Floods, which some twelve thousand years earlier had rushed between the

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The Great American CabSauv Review 2017

I had “The Library Club” over at my house again, everyone having chipped in a bit of money to taste through some older wines that none of us individually would be likely to splurge on. Not for the first time,

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“The Ostentatious Parlay”

“When I made this wine, I needed a creative outlet, and a financial outlet.  I needed to be independent. I needed to make my own mark, I needed to make my own wine.” ~Sam Smith I first met Sam Smith

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Little Wine Lies

For the most part the business of wine is an honest one, albeit not perfect. Over the course of its two thousand year history there has been a smattering of documented crimes. For example, there is the phony bottle of

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Go Big Rouge

When I was a kid growing up in Valentine, I used to relish the lengthy road-trips to Lincoln to visit my mom’s side of the family. We’d drive down Friday night, leaving right after I got out of school, stopping

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Introducing Jean Hoefliger and the JH Collection to Omaha

I returned home to a familiar sight: a UPS hang-tag on my back door. I’d been dutifully waiting on the package I knew was coming, but had decided to run a quick errand; the shipment had been not-delivered in a

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Welcome to VivinOmaha!

I wouldn’t have thought anything could get much better than a vertical of high-end Napa Cabernet dating back to 2006, seemingly endless trays of beautiful charcuterie, cheeses, and breads, and discounts on bottles of wine with waived corkage, but somehow

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In Lieu of Wine

On Monday, April 24, 2017, my wife Sonja and I welcomed our second child, Zooey Elizabeth Gudgel, into this amazing world. She arrived ten days late, took her sweet time coming out, and for a few terrifying minutes stubbornly refused

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Wine Recommendation: Barnard Griffin

Rob Griffin graduated from the now-infamous UC Davis with the likes of Phil Wente and Tim Mondavi – names which, like his, we know from their wine labels, and having been advised by none other than the legendary Dinsmore Webb.

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