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Maynard James Keenan, one of rock's most enigmatic personalities, is having the time of his life these days not only as leader of the hydra-headed project Puscifer but also as a winemaker. Gone, at least in public, is the angst-ridden man we saw fronting the megasuccessful Tool and A Perfect Circle, bands that redefined heavy alternative rock.

A bawdy group with a rotating cast, the musical part of Puscifer resumed its multimedia U.S. tour in Atlanta on Tuesday. The winemaking Mr. Keenan appears in "Blood into Wine," a documentary that had its Feb. 19 premiere in Scottsdale, Ariz., about two hours south of this former mining center and ghost town that's home to his Caduceus Cellars and Merkin vineyards as well as his handsome wine-tasting room and his Puscifer store, which sells distinctive clothing and other branded materials.  Read more...

To grab a beer, Israel Arrieta doesn't just stroll to the fridge; he has to walk out his back door to the side of the house, where he pries a chicken-wire screen off a basement window and scrambles, crab position, down a wooden ladder.

Several minutes later, he emerges cradling half a dozen cool, dusty bottles of beer.

Arrieta, 27, keeps his beer in the closest thing to a cave: the crawl space under his parents' North Pasadena house. To test it out years ago, he crawled down on a 100-degree afternoon holding a thermometer. It read 60 degrees.

"Light and temperature are going to be your enemies," Read more...

Despite strong aftershocks that continued to rumble Wednesday in devastated areas of Chile following Saturday's massive 8.8 earthquake, the wine industry is beginning to get a clearer picture of its situation.

"We are estimating a loss of 125 million liters of wine [about 14 million cases] with a value of approximately $250 million," said René Merino, president of Wines of Chile, who met earlier today with the association's board, comprised of representatives from Chile's largest wineries. The winery-funded group represents 95 percent of the Chilean wine industry.

"While the number might seem high, it is in fact only about 12 percent of what the 2009 harvest was, by comparison.  Read more...

Tom Leykis is returning to local radio. Starting Feb. 25, he will be on KGIL/1260 AM – “Retro 1260 AM” - from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays with his lifestyle program called “The Tasting Room.”

Leykis was among those who lost their talk shows when KLSX 97.1 FM switched to the Top 40 AMP format in February 2009.

KLSX also dropped his syndicated show “The Tasting Room,” which Leykis’ Web site – www.tastingwithtom.com – describes as a “lifestyle-themed program for men with a taste for the finer things life, from fine wine, high-end spirits and craft brews to first-rate dining and premium cigars.” 

When I left CBS, we also severed the relationship...Read more...

TOM DAVIES was driving last fall down Highway 29, the two-lane blacktop that serves as the Napa Valley’s main drag, when he saw something that literally stopped him in his tracks. “There was a sign on the side of the road that said, ‘Cabernet Grapes for Sale,’ ” he recalled, still incredulous that economic desperation had forced a Napa grower to hawk the region’s hallowed fruit like a load of zucchini.

In the 30 years that Mr. Davies, the president of V. Sattui Winery and Vineyards, has worked in the Napa wine business, he has never seen a sight quite so unsettling. “Grapes were left hanging on the vine last year,” he said.

This unusual predicament is not easily remedied at a time when vintners are awash in wine. Read more...

Winter is quiet time in wine country. Which makes it a very good time for a visit.

With harvest over and future bottles of wine resting peacefully in barrels and tanks, your chances of chatting with a winemaker when you visit a winery is higher. And as temperatures drop, so do crowds and prices, making a getaway less stressful on your psyche and wallet.

Cooler weather — temperatures can be in the 40s and 50s in January, warming up to the 60s in February and March — transforms the valley from exuberant summer splendor to a moodier hue. Winter rains turn hillsides deep green; in the vineyards dormant vines lift spindly arms to misty skies.

It all makes for some good eating weather. Now's the time to feast on the hearty braises and roasts that go best with Napa's... Read more...

Blood Into Wine, the forthcoming documentary about Maynard James Keenan (front man for Tool, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle) and vineyard partner Eric Glomski's mission to bring notoriety and credibility to Northern Arizona's burgeoning wine industry, begins its theatrical run on February 19 at select theaters across the United States.

Blood Into Wine was co-directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, the team behind critically acclaimed documentaries Moog and The Heart Is a Drum Machine). The documentary was shot using multiple Red One cameras, allowing cinematographer Cary Truelick to capture the craggy landscape surrounding Keenan's vineyards in stunning detail. Editor Robert Beadle skillfully worked with over 200 hours of footage to help craft the story of two pioneer winemakers in an unforgiving region. Read more...

U.S. beer sales volumes fell 2.2% last year, the highest rate since the 1950s, with demand worsening late in the year in a sign of the pressures on big brewers to make their mergers pay off.

The decline, the industry's first since 2003, raises demands for industry leaders Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC to come up with better advertising and to rethink recent price increases, said retailers and analysts.

But they must tread carefully, balancing price moves against a need to drive profits in the wake of the mergers that created the two.

The two giants increased prices by about 5% last year, fresh off InBev NV's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos. and the move by SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing Co. to combine U.S. operations.  Read more...

A 6-liter bottle of Chateau Lafite 1982 fetched HK$363,000 ($46,700), nearly twice its presale high estimate, at a sold-out wine auction in Hong Kong as the quest for rarity and inflation concerns drove prices higher.

The 10-hour sale yesterday of more than 800 lots tallied HK$52.9 million, beating host Sotheby’s own forecast of HK$40 million. Bidders at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel drank glasses of Louis Roederer Blanc de Blanc 2003 and Haut Brion 1998 as they competed with online bidders for choice items, such as twin 1.5- liter bottles of Chateau Petrus 1982 that fetched HK$435,600, against the lot’s top estimate of HK$130,000. Estimates don’t include commission.

As economies such as China show signs of inflation while the government increases spending to sustain growth... Read more...