Cat and Shanmao's blog

My favourite pinot noir is from David Bruce winery, located in the Santa Cruz mountains not far from where we live. We discovered this a few years ago while exploring the mountains and enjoy stopping there for tasting.

Apparently the movie Sideways has caused a huge increase in the sale of pinot noir:

The pinot noir repartee between Paul Giamatti's and Virginia Madsen's characters in the movie "Sideways" has helped spur dizzying sales of the red wine during a lingering U.S. glut, wine experts say.
U.S. consumers are salivating over the scene in which Giamatti's "Miles," a neurotic, failing author, evangelizes pinot's subtle delicacy to Madsen's "Maya" in an attempt to wow her with his wine knowledge.
"People come in and immediately say, 'Where's the pinot noir?'" said Steve Villani, manager of Columbus Circle Liquors in Manhattan. "After a while, we began to ask them if they saw the movie, and they laugh out loud and say, 'yes.'"

The Toronto Star published a guide to BYOW (bring your own wine) etiquette now that it's legal in Ontario. Some of the tips apply only to Ontario restaurants but others are general tips that apply the world over.

One interesting 'do' that I hadn't thought of before:

Do think about bringing half-bottles so you can do matchings for various courses without having too much of one good thing. Bear in mind that a corkage fee will be charged for each bottle.

Here's an article that discusses the state of BYOW in California.