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Lodi Tempranillo for #TempranilloDay — Five Delicious Choices

November 13, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) Comments are Disabled

Today is International Tempranillo Day. An entire day dedicated to the enjoyment of Tempranillo wine. If you’ve never enjoyed the variety, it’s a good time to do so. If you’re already a fan of the variety, it’s the perfect time to enjoy your favorite Tempranillo or maybe find a new favorite. Here are five delicious choices from Lodi for your #TempranilloDay celebration.

Creative Thanksgiving Pairings for #winePW 6: Can we skip to dessert?

November 7, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 20 comments

This month’s topic, Creative Thanksgiving Pairings, was a bit of a challenge. I resisted doing anything with turkey, because Thanksgiving is coming up and I’m saving my turkey overload for then. So, we decided to focus on dessert. Sounded good to us, hope you think so too!

November #WineStudio – It’s All About Willamette Valley Chardonnay

November 7, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) Comments are Disabled

We will be spending Tuesday evenings in November getting the lowdown on Willamette Valley Chardonnay with #WineStudio, an online Twitter-based wine education program. The discussions, organized by Protocol Wine Studio, begin at 6 pm Pacific time. You can join the conversation by following the hashtag #WineStudio. We will post a summary each week to keep you up to date.

Two Red Wines, One Pasta Dinner

November 3, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 2 comments

The birch tree in our backyard has turned bright yellow, and its leaves are dropping rapidly, creating a brilliant carpet. The weather is cooling and my taste is turning once again to red wine. I do love fall.

Just ahead of the change of seasons, we recently received two red wines as tasting samples from our twitter friend Mark Aselstine (@wineclubguy). Yes, as you might guess from Mark’s twitter handle he has established a wine club, along with brother-in-law Matt Krause. It’s cleverly called Uncorked Ventures. But it’s more than just a wine club.

Victoria Falls: The Smoke That Thunders

October 29, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 1 comment

Mosi-oa-Tunya is the traditional name for Victoria Falls, which straddles the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. It translates to “the smoke that thunders.” The tremendous volume of water plummeting over the falls produces not only a loud roar (the thunder) but a large cloud of spray which from a distance looks like billowing smoke.

Madeira: My Love Affair Continues

October 23, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 3 comments

I fell in love with Madeira over 15 years ago. First the wine, then the island. My wine exploration began with a bottle of Rainwater Madeira recommended to me by a local wineshop owner. Rainwater is a lighter style of Madeira and he suggested it would be a good wine to introduce me to the flavors of Madeira. He was right. I fell in love with the island of Madeira when we traveled there in 2002. We recently attended a tasting of Madeira wine which brought back many memories of our trip to the island.

Group of elephant moms protecting a calf

Kashawe Camp: Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

October 15, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 2 comments

The fourth safari destination on our Overseas Adventure Travel Ultimate Africa safari was Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. At this point in our trip we had spent nine nights in three tented camps in Botswana and Zambia. We had only three nights left in Hwange National Park before we headed back to the city (Victoria Falls and then on to Cape Town.) I tried not to think about the fact that our safari was coming to an end, but tried to remain in the moment and enjoy everything Hwange had to offer. And no, we were not tired of watching and photographing the animals!

Butternut Squash Risotto: White Wine or Rosé for #winePW 5?

October 10, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 17 comments

The theme for the October Wine Pairing Weekend (#winePW) is Fall Fruits and Wine Pairings. Fall fruits…hmm that title made me think of dessert initially. But, then I got to thinking about what a fall fruit is. I pretty quickly determined that squash is a fruit, and not a vegetable as I had assumed, so that opened-up the possibility of cooking a savory dish instead of a dessert. Since butternut squash is my favorite fall squash, I set about finding a recipe using butternut squash.

Oak Farm Vineyards: State of the Art Winemaking on a Historic Property

October 4, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 2 comments

The Oak Farm Vineyards sign stands along a meticulously whitewashed fence in the shade of an oak tree. How appropriate. This beautiful 70-acre property is located on DeVries Road in Lodi and is dotted with historic buildings dating back to 1864. Many of the oak trees date back even further.

Bechthold Vineyard: Ancient Vine Cinsault in Lodi

September 30, 2014 by Nancy (CSW) 6 comments

The Bechthold Vineyard is 25 acres of Cinsault planted on the west side of Lodi — in the Mokelumne River sub-appellation of the Lodi AVA. This own-rooted vineyard was planted in 1886 by Joseph Spenker. Fortunately the soil on the west side of Lodi is particularly sandy (sandy loam to be exact), and too well drained to allow phylloxera a toehold. That good fortune, along with the family’s desire to preserve this part of their farming history has allowed this gem of a vineyard to remain productive at 128 years of age.