Our Weekly Prize Giveaway continues! Be sure to enter your favorite winery experience(s) in our Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Spit resource. Selected winners will get their choice of great prizes from the Prize Page. Remember, even if you aren’t selected for one of those prizes, we’ll send you a set of DropStop® wine pourers as a “thank you” for making your entries!
 
Eleven days ago, we made arrangements with neighbors to watch our house and three dogs and we packed up the family and headed for Oregon. Leah’s dad had just turned 90 and it seemed a good reason for a visit. Another good reason for the trip is that her parents and brother (and his family) live in Salem, Oregon’s capital, which is right in the middle of the Willamette Valley, home to some of the finest Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vineyards in the world. I hadn’t been in the area for nearly a decade and it was time to see what the Oregon wine country had to offer. Read on…

Our Weekly Prize Giveaway winner for the week ended June 21st is Len. Congratulations! Our Weekly Prize Giveaway continues! Be sure to enter your favorite winery experience(s) in our Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Spit resource. Selected winners will get their choice of great prizes from the Prize Page. Remember, even if you aren’t selected for one of those prizes, we’ll send you a set of DropStop® wine pourers as a “thank you” for making your entries!
 
In an earlier post, I recounted some of the history of two families engaged in distilling—one being my ancestors during Prohibition and the other being the Italian Francoli family who are in the business for real. The Francolis make grappa, a distilled beverage akin to France’s Cognac. Grappa is so named because it is made from left over grape stalks (in Latin, “graspa” means “grape stalk”). The word “grappa” only appeared in the Italian dictionary at the end of the 1800s. Until recently, grappa was generally considered to be a lot like American “moonshine”—a potent alcohol to warm up the stomachs of farmers and outdoor laborers in the colder Northern Italian climate. It was low–cost, so it was also a popular beverage for alcoholic derelicts. Over the last 50 years, however, all of that has changed, but let’s go way back to the time around the year 50 A.D. Read on…

Two Sundays ago, we found ourselves driving north on Highway 101 to Camarillo to attend the 16th Annual Casa Pacifica Angels Wine & Food Festival. The day before, we had attended another wine festival in an urban L.A. setting and, as we zipped along the highway, we were wondering out loud whether we were up for yet another wine festival during such a busy time of the year for us (our daughter graduating from high school and the three boys frenetically wrapping up another elementary school year). As we approached the Cal State University Channel Islands campus, we suddenly became optimistic. The weather was picture perfect and, moving along a winding road through lemon groves and arriving at a beautiful college campus with buildings separated by lots of green space gave us a relaxed, contented feeling. Valet only parking; tickets ready at “will call”; a decent wine glass that fit nicely into place in the holder of a sturdy food plate; a huge park lined with tented tables offering a wide array of really good food and wine; interesting live music; an extensive silent auction; a diverse audience making room for each other—hey, this looks like a class act! Read on…

This past Saturday, we attended the first day of the two–day 2009 LA Wine Fest at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. As advertised, there were about 100 wines, beers and spirits on hand for the crowd to sample, and the proceeds benefited some worthwhile charities. Although the LA weather had been intermittently rainy that week, the weather cooperated (no rain) and even offered some scattered clouds to moderate the temperature. We were on the prowl for something new and different, and we found several standout wines. Read on…

I received an invite to the Wine Warehouse LA County Spring Tasting held last Wednesday at the largest ballroom in LA’s historic Century Plaza Hotel. In case you don’t know, Wine Warehouse is one of the largest distributors (wholesalers) of alcoholic beverages in the USA, serving the California market. They offer wine, beer, spirits, non–alcoholic beverages, glassware and even some specialty food items. Their tasting events are held to enable their retail licensee customers (primarily wine shops, restaurants and grocery stores) to sample a large percentage of their wares all at once in a “wine festival” type setting. Some wine and spirits consultants, beverage service people and assorted other odd–ducks (like myself) also get to attend. By my informal count, there were over 200 domestic and foreign wineries represented at the event, pouring more than 700 wines. Add to that over 100 different spirits and more than 200 beers, ales and ciders and, well, you can see that it was a lovely afternoon. Read on…

On Memorial Day, I often think about people who are no longer with us in body, but most certainly still are in spirit. People who went before us, who lived in a different time. Sometimes, these people are ancestors—people who, like it or not, still have something to do with who we are today in the here and now. History wasn’t my favorite subject in elementary school, but as I aged and (hopefully) matured, I became increasingly interested in the subject. Alright, I’ll admit it. I even watch this History Channel on television now and again. To me, it is intriguing to learn about a person doing something in an earlier time, and then consider what else was going on around that same time that adds more perspective to the person’s situation. And, when I cross paths with someone whose ancestor may have crossed paths with one of my ancestors, I get that weird “Twilight Zone” sensation. Read on…

Australian wine is not one of my areas of expertise. I do enjoy them. It’s just that I don’t know as much about them as I do about some other wines. So, when it comes to wines from down under—Australia, New Zealand or otherwise—I go to friends in the know. One such friend is Dave, an Irish–but–honorary Aussie who was stationed there for many years earlier in his business career. I trust Dave’s opinion on many things, particularly Australian wines. After all, Dave’s kidneys have filtered more Aussie wine than just about anybody else’s. Although Dave doesn’t blog, but he does pass along some gems to me now and again. He recently sent me the following update; most of the words are his. Read on…