Carpe Diaz

Jo Diaz, the genius behind Dark & Delicious and the PerSon who keeps PS I Love You running, has had a number of particularly interesting PoSts over the past few months that I wanted to highlight.

• A nice article on PS Godfather Carl Doumani, currently of Quixote (which makes both the Quixote and Panza labels), and formerly of Stags' Leap Winery. There's some nice personal info on Carl, his influence on other winemakers, his personal generosity, his quixotic personality, coupled with beautiful shots of the winery's unique architecture.
  
  I had a chance to visit in August, and was very impressed by the wines and the structures. I'm a big fan of the Silverado Trail wineries in Napa, much more so than the ones on 29. In fact, just this past weekend had the opportunity to sample a Doumani-made Stags' Leap PS from 1982, and it was not only still alive, but utterly sublime.
  
  
• Jo's top 5 images from Sonoma County in 2008 features, at the bottom, a nice bit about Gilles Liege, who is apparently trying to revive PS in its Rhone birthplace.
  
  
• Comparing 1970s PS with a 2003, which I found especially interesting, given my own near-obsession with old PS
  
  
• PS as the John Wayne of grape varieties -- it really is the all-American grape, Zinfidels be damned!
  
  
• Jo takes a walk through Kick Ranch, from which Rosenblum made a single-vineyard designate PS from the 2005 vintage.
  
  
• How winter-hardy is the PS vine? Let's discuss.

There's another set of PoSts to summarize, including one from Jo on PS and Terroir, but those get their own post here. As does additional detail on D&D 2009, the event of the year!