October 2005

Features

• Pedaling Through Pinot Country: Sonoma Bike Tour

  Biking through Sonoma’s Russian River Valley, Chris and Elaine Hutchins of the chocolate company Cocoa Bon and a few friends taste some of the country's best Pinot Noir—and pedal hard enough to justify a decadent picnic lunch.

• Wine Pairing: Putting Pinot To The Test

  Is this family of grapes as food-friendly as everyone says? One cook decides to find out.

• Seven Best Wine Blogs

  The Internet has spawned thousands of self-proclaimed wine critics. Here, the bloggers who truly have something to say.

• American Wine Awards 2005

  F&W's ninth annual American Wine Awards celebrates some of the most remarkable wineries and wine professionals in the United States. Among those selected this year by our panel of 41 distinguished judges are a five-year-old Napa winery already producing cult Syrahs and an importer who continues to discover many of Austria's and Germany's most dazzling wines. You'll also find our picks for the most outstanding American wines, ranging in price from $11 to $175 a bottle.

• America's Best Butchers Talk Shop

  The Lobels have been selling top-quality meat to celebrities like Jackie O and Calvin Klein for generations. At work on their eighth cookbook, about pairing meat and wine, they give F&W an exclusive first look at their best, most wine-friendly recipes.

• Under the Catalan Sun: Torres Wines

  The Torres family, Spain's leading wine dynasty, is busy exploring every up-and-coming region in their country. Yet they still get together for Sunday suppers at home in Catalonia. Writer Patrick Matthews drops by for lamb chops and Cabernet.

• Wine Families: Generation Next

  These scions of great wine dynasties around the world are mindful of tradition but fearless in their pursuit of what's next. Here, writer Richard Nalley profiles the young men and women who are revolutionizing the wine industry.

• The Wine World's No. 1 Rock Star: Dave Matthews

  Rocker and gentleman farmer-vintner Dave Matthews is on a mission to promote sustainability, starting with the vegetables, grapes, cattle and chickens on his property in Virginia wine country.