George Yatchisin
George Yatchisin writes about food, wine and cocktails from Santa Barbara, where he lives with his amazing wife, dogs and one very old chicken.
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It's easy to think of sparkling wine producers in the U.S. hankering after the cachet of Champagne, one of the last bastions of French privilege in the wine world. A weekend like this one will make it clear that the upstart Americans have learned a thi...
How a server at one of Santa Barbara's best restaurants became one of the county's best winemakers.
We may run out of water, but we won't run out of wine -- at least not the 2014 vintage. For while the drought ravages California, checking in with several winemakers in Santa Barbara suggests the 2014 vintage will have relatively high yields.
Turns out you can crush a grape and get gin. One Paso Robles winery is bottle grape-derived spirits for fun and profit.
Truett-Hurst does sell a Central Coast Pinot Noir, part of a Schucks label that's billed "fish wine." (That means, "goes with fish." Took me a second too.)
A handy guide to Santa Barbara County's sparkling wine producers, as well as the locations where you can taste them.
Les Marchands may be the ideal wine shop: these are the elements that make it so.
Malibu has just been designated an American Viticultural Area, giving it legitimacy as a wine-growing region. But a proposed Land Use Plan might put a stop to grape-growing there.
A recent craft beer festival had some excellent new local beers on offer. Here are our favorites.
Some movies, at best, get a DVD re-release on their tenth anniversaries. "Sideways," 2004's tale of a sodden Santa Ynez bachelor party romp, recently scored a bunch of fine fêtes instead.
When you're a home winemaker, you might as well practice saying, "We learned that by trial and error."
It's easy if you're out visiting wine country to buy a few here, then a few at the next stop, then stop for a picnic lunch.... In the meantime, your bottles are boiling.