Getting a winery tour or tasting can be difficult with some wineries requiring reservations up to 3 months in advance! Fortunately, many have tasting rooms that don’t need any such thing. Driving down the road, you just look for the little A-board signs sitting by the roadway, inviting you in for a taste. Clos du Val was once...
read moreSince I’m out on the West Coast visiting family, I thought it would be nice to take a short trip over to Napa to do a bit of compare and contrast with European wines. First stop was Darioush Winery. A rather OTT sight greets you as you turn off into the driveway. A forest of Persian columns topped by two headed horses leads...
read moreIn the middle of summer the last thing I would want to drink is Port. Or so I thought until the most recent tasting put on by Bluebird wine shop. Penny, the manager, has done a great job of arranging interesting and plentiful wine tastings this summer. The trick in the summer is chillin’, not only you but the wine as well....
read morePatagonia. Howling wolves, wind-driven snow storms over a desolate landscape and survival of the fittest. That’s what I imagine Patagonia to be like, and I’m sure you can find that out there, but it’s not all Bear Grylls and Ironman. Valle Perdido is a new winery/spa resort in Patagonia that has recently started...
read moreFor those of you looking for an Italian white other then the ubiquitous pinot grigio, Falanghina is your grape. Falan-what? Unless you spend a lot of time in Rome or Naples, you probably aren’t familiar with this grape but you should be at least on nodding terms with the wines that come from it. Falanghina is grown primarily...
read moreLast week we tried a new Pinot that arrived in the shop – Viña Leyda Pinot Noir, Las Brisas Vineyard, 2007. I like a good Burgundy any day but I keep an open mind to the New World, especially when it comes to Pinot Noir. I’ve had some great stuff from New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest. There is a difference, no...
read moreUsually I stick to writing about wine but this past weekend a rep from Martin Miller’s Gin was in the shop giving out samples. Now, I’m not a big fan of gin and tonic so I was a bit dubious of trying his gin but I screwed up my face and gave it go. In my mind, G&T’s conjure up the taste memory of a bitter,...
read moreAs you can tell by the little badge to the right there, I’m a member of OpenWineConsortium. I love logging onto this site to see what’s going on in the wine world, what’s new and what people are talking about. I’d say that there are a fair amount of wine bloggers out there and the good folks of OWC have...
read moreI know it may seem cliched to say that I only drink white in the summer but I do seem to gravitate towards them once the thermometer starts heading up past 75 degrees F. and the sun starts making (almost) daily appearances. Since I’m always on the lookout for new and different wines, I ran across these two Spanish examples,...
read moreI was introduced to the mysterious (for an American) game of cricket last weekend. My friend Ayesha’s husband plays occasionally in Regent’s Park and they invited me down one sunny Saturday afternoon to while away the day at the cricket pitch. Despite Ayesha’s best efforts to explain the game to me, I’m...
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