California Wine

The excellent California Wine is housed by a website called Suite 101, which is an online community offering free space for enthusiasts to publish their own sites on a whole host of topics.

Editor Alan Boehmer has amassed an extensive body of articles here. He is a natural communicator and his writing style is casual and discursive, with minimum jargon and the emphasis on clarity and friendliness. That is not to suggest his articles lack depth: not at all. There are strongly held opinions on display and evidence of both great knowledge and enthusiasm.

Boehmer does his research and knows his stuff. Whether he is simply recommending Californian wines to accompany sushi, or taking a philosophical, millennium-inspired look into his crystal ball on the future of the Californian wine industry, he does so with a quiet authority and from a balanced viewpoint.

The buttons in the green panel along the top of the screen link to other parts of Suite 101: they do not form part of California Wine's own navigation. Finding your way around the site itself is quite straightforward. Beside a photograph of rolling Californian vineyards you will see a little panel of four links to the site's sections: Welcome (the homepage); Articles; Links; Discussions. This panel is available on every screen. The Welcome page also has highlights from lots of articles that are most current, but these are also available by going to the individual sections.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Articles Boehmer's prodigious output of quality articles puts many glossier websites to shame. Over 80 full length pieces span topics from ‘The Italian Renaissance in California Wine' to ‘Wine Touring in Santa Barbara County' to ‘Best of Both Worlds', an informal comparative tasting of top red Bordeaux and Californian Cabernet Sauvignon. The pieces are interesting and though-provoking; informative and occasionally enlightening. As noted, the writing style is casual but straightforward: there are few attempts at humour; few polemic rants. Boehmer is quietly professional about his business and he is thorough, doing a splendid job of educating and entertaining.

Links A sizeable selection of Links, with the emphasis on sites dealing with Californian wines or otherwise of Californian interest, though not exclusively so. There are full reviews of each site, and Boehmer's rating from one to five stars for interest. This is a selective and well-chosen set of the best of the Web. Essentially Boehmer offers this page to his visitors as a portal to California information that is missing on his own site. For example he points out www.Wines.com as a site with an extensive list of Californian winery links.

Discussion Forum California Wine's discussion area confines itself pretty much to chat about topics of local interest. It's not a terribly active forum, with weeks passing between posts at times, but the input from Boehmer and his visitors is of good quality and it might be worth checking now and again if you have an interest in the wines of the Sunshine State.

OTHER FEATURES

Clicking on Boehmer's name on the Welcome page displays a nice little pen picture of the man behind the site. You can read about his professional wine involvement and personal wine interests, as well as a general biography of his life and lifestyle. You can even see a photo of Boehmer and his cat, Edwin.