"Lemon meringue, cantaloupe, ruby red grapefruit, lychee, caraway seed, vanilla bean, baked pears, blood orange, Gravenstein apple, tarragon and papaya…. Ginger, white chocolate and fresh bread dough on the finish"

Wow!!! Now that’s a lot of flavors!! Who comes up with this stuff? The marketing department was definitely working long hours to come up with that description.

So, we're tired of wine being described as "Prussian leather" and "polished hardwood floors". We know what we like and we want to keep it very simple, and that’s the idea behind this website. Nothing crazy, just straight-forward reviews of what we have tasted and the wineries we have visited.

We, the Wine Addicts are here to help...

Ian - Cellar Master, Principal Taster Although I started drinking wine as a youngster in Scotland - I helped my mum make wine from wine kits when I was 12 - I never really developed an appreciation (or addiction) for wine until moving to sunny California in 1996. (one of my favourite years for Napa cabs). As the "detail" guy in the group, I'm also the webmaster and cellarmaster, keeping track of what we taste, buy and drink. It is great to drink wine amongst friends, but even better to go looking for great wines with friends in some of the best scenery in the world. Shane - Chief Wino, Principal Taster You might ask "What do the Irish know about wine??" Well, I grew up drinking Guinness in the bars of Dublin and after spending 10 years in San Francisco, got addicted to the wines and wineries of the surrounding areas. I love nothing more than driving around some of the small, unknown wineries of Napa or Sonoma, looking for the next undiscovered "big red wine"... David - Taster, Camera boy In 1994 I left Scotland to come to the beautiful Bay Area. Little did I know there were world class wine regions just within an hour's drive. It was not long before I tasted my first classic cab (91 Silver Oak) and fell in love with Napa Valley. Now I can't get enough of wine country, the great wineries and exceptional wines. However, as you can see from our reviews not all wines or wineries are made equal. Cheers! Sue - Taster, Wine Trip Organizer A true Californian, and the only female of the Addicts, I introduced the art of tasting wine to my husband Shane - the self proclaimed ‘Chief Wino'. We all knew wine tasting was going to be fun when he contacted our Scottish pals and asked them to go wine testing. It has turned into sheer entertainment and a way of life. I am the organizer of the bunch – from winery tours via bus with thirty or so friends to scoping out tasting events in San Francisco or further afar. I would say that I am the most open to trying, and enjoying, a variety of wines – yes, I mean whites - instead of the focus by my Celtic comrades on the BIG CAB. Make no mistake though, if I had a choice to live forever with red or white - RED is my favorite color! Julian - International Wine Taster While barrel tasting in Spain in 1986, I thought, I could really get into this! From then on it has been a roller coaster ride. The ups have been memorable, tasting some of the great wines that France, Spain and Italy have to offer. However, finding a great German pinot noir, a sublime Western Australian Chardonnay or a crisp New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that can stand up to the perceived best is the really fun part. The good news is that is just the very tip of the iceberg, the variations of Country/region/sub region/producer/varietal/year/blend/terroir all contribute to the list. Everyone can use some direction to narrow down the playing field. Hopefully we can minimize the downs, steering you away from a Chinese Cabernet, encourage you to drink a bottle before it has turned or avoid the shattered expectations of a high priced lemon by directing you to great wines to be enjoyed now or put away for the right moment. Elsa - the newest member of the addicts gang.