Recent Posts

Second Brumaire Feature Photo

The Second Brumaire: A Tasting of Natural Wine

Quite by accident I stumbled upon the announcement of an upcoming natural wine tasting in Oakland, California on March 12, 2017. The event, called The Second Brumaire, will be held at the Starline Social Club from 12 – 5 pm, is open to the public and costs $20 to attend. Below is a list of wineries from Europe and the […]

Jansz Premium Rose and Cheese Sables

A Savory Pairing for Your Valentine

Yes, savory. If you’re looking to pair wine with something sweet (other than your Valentine) then you’ve landed on the wrong blog post. Another search will yield lots of articles giving you wine pairings with chocolates or desserts. In fact, you will probably find lots more pairings with something sweet than savory. That’s the very reason I’m suggesting a savory […]

Brandade de Morue and Lirac

Brandade de Morue and a Lovely Lirac #winePW

Cindy Rynning who blogs at Grape Experiences, threw down the challenge for this month’s Wine Pairing Weekend group of bloggers: Comfort food and wine. This should have been really easy, who doesn’t love comfort food? I certainly do. The problem for me was choosing just one dish. So many came to mind, I couldn’t focus on just one. I delayed, […]

Windhoek Featured Photo

Welcome to Namibia: Exploring Windhoek on Foot

  That first gin and tonic, sipped in the rooftop bar of the Hilton Windhoek Hotel tasted better than any in recent memory. It wasn’t because the gin was handcrafted in small batches, rather, it was because after 35 hours of travel we had reached our destination. Namibia. We were lured back to Africa by the expansive beauty of the Namib […]

2017 LoCA

2016: A Year in Lodi Wine

Take one 2016 Lodi wine calendar, add a different bottle of Lodi wine for each month and what do you get? An fun wine project resulting in a year-long enjoyment of Lodi wines. The inspiration for this project was a 2016 Lodi wine calendar and two bottles of Lodi wine that we received as gifts from LoCA — the Lodi Winegrape Commission.

Beaujolais Wines

Tasting Beaujolais with Franck Duboeuf

Are you familiar with Beaujolais, the French wine region dedicated to the Gamay grape variety? If you enjoy fruit-forward wines with relatively low alcohol levels, juicy acidity and silky tannins then you really should become acquainted. We recently participated in a tasting of Beaujolais that demonstrates the range of wine production in the region by a single producer. We received […]

Ehlers Estate Cabernet Franc

An Elegant Cabernet Franc Pairing for #winePW

This month our Wine Pairing Weekend group of food and wine bloggers is celebrating Cabernet Franc. This month’s host, Lori Hoyt Budd, announced the theme in this post on her blog. As a Cabernet Franc lover, winemaker and founder of #CabFrancDay the theme is a natural choice. As a Cabernet Franc lover myself, I was happy to participate in the […]

Cabernet Franc Wines

A Tasting of Cabernet Franc for #CabFrancDay

Our celebration of Cab Franc Day (#CabFrancDay on Twitter) has spilled over into another blog post. Yesterday we posted an article about the history of Cabernet Franc and Cab Franc Day. This is where we share our tasting notes of the six wines we received as tasting samples in celebration of Cabernet Franc. To recap: last evening we were part of a […]