The Ventura County Winery Association invites you and your valentine to a three-day wine tasting passport event to explore the wineries of Ventura County during Valentine’n Wine Passport Weekend.
Visit twelve participating wineries, taste award-winning wines and enjoy special food pairings at many locations from Friday February 11 to Sunday February 13.
Each ticket holder will receive one regular wine tasting flight at each of twelve participating locations, during their regular operating hours. Pay $45 online and pick up your ticket at one of several event locations; tickets may also be purchased at participating locations during the event weekend for $55 per person.
Find out which wineries are participating and more information about Ventura County’s Valentine n’Wine Weekend: http://www.valentinenwine.com/.
A Quest For Sherry (and love!) my guest post for the Secret Sherry Society is up on their website–check it out! Thank you to the Secret Sherry Society for invited me to play!
Thank you also to photographer/blogger John Nichols who shared with me his sherry stories, one of which I included in this blog post!
PS Did you know sherry pairs well with chocolate and Valentine’s Day? Go read the post! And come back for more Valentine’s wines and tips!
After a hiatus, Wine Blogging Wednesday is going again with a theme of wine from Spain as hosted by Ryan and Gabriella Opaz of the award winning blog catavino.net. The prompt:
Choose a Spanish wine or wines to taste on Wednesday the 16th of February.
Write a post about the wine, flushing it out with life and subtle detail, then publish it on Wednesday, February 16th.
Tweet about it with the tag: #WBW70 thus creating a live tasting by time zone as we go around the globe!
Finally, send an email to us with a link to your article and include the subject line: “WBW #70 Submission
I’m already in the swim of Spanish wine as I’ve been working on my guest blog for the Secret Sherry Society, published today on their site! So follow my lead and do sherry or go for a distinctly Spanish varietal or style: with Valentine’s Day coming up a sparkling cava would be fun and they’re a great value too. Or do something different: some Spanish wineries are working to capture part of the American market by growing and making familiar wines like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay to American palates at affordable prices.
Fellow bloggers, have you ever accidentally hit “publish” when you meant to hit “save draft”? That’s what happened with my Egypt wine post. So then I “unpublished” it by scheduling it for a later date–except then I got busy and lo and behold, I came back from a long weekend away and there was that blog post! Right there published on my blog, almost like it had done it by itself!
Part of the problem is how much changed in Egypt from when I started writing that blog post immediately on my return and the sudden turmoil that began a few days after I returned. With all the changes going on in Egypt, it just felt weird if not wrong to be writing about wine as if a revolution wasn’t going on.
Anyway, I have photos to go with the post and more that I want to add, so as soon as I can, I will get to it…
On my recent trip to Egypt, I discovered that not only do they grow grapes and make wine in Egypt, Egyptian wine is good–which is fortunate because it’s the only wine that seems to be available at the bars, restaurants, and the cruise ship I was on!
I arrived in Egypt on the afternoon of my birthday, so after settling in and enjoying the sunset on the pyramids from my room and the rooftop, I was in search of sparkling wine and a place to celebrate!
Nan Akasha suggested we go to Mena House. After a quick, harrowing taxi ride later (they don’t turn on their headlights OR use lanes), and a search under the vehicle for bombs by armed guards, we stepped off the taxi and into the absolutely stunning Mena House, which served formerly as a Presidential Palace. We wandered around appreciating the carved walls, the elaborate light fixtures, and the elegant flower arrangements–and looking for a place with sparkling wine of some kind!
We finally settled into a bar with a live musician and ordered two glasses of sparkling Egyptian wine “Aida” to share amongst our party of four jet lagged women: two from California (myself and trip leader Sequoia Hamilton0, one from Texas (wealth coach Nan Akasha), and one from Vancouver Canada (my roommate Joan Macbeth, a scriptwriter).
Since we were so appreciative of the Aida, the manager refilled our glasses, then when he found out I was a wine blogger, offered to let me taste anything that interested me. While I was tempted, I knew I was jet lagged and with a full schedule ahead and drinking alcohol is not a great idea.
But I couldn’t say no to trying at least one more Egptian wine! So I chose a grenache, and we all shared a tasting. Nan is a big wine fan and an active member of a wine club in Austin, while Sequoia and Joan just enjoy wine in moderation. We were all impressed with this grenache–nice color, fruit, and balance, much better than we would have expected.
I’m about to find out whether they have wine in Egypt because I am on my way there to celebrate my birthday Tuesday with the pyramids and more!
I’ve been promised wireless connections–I fully intend to blog and tweet along the way!
Learn more about the trip below!
I’m heading to Egypt tomorrow Insha’Allah “if it is God’s will.” Almost EVERYTHING is already paid for on this Sacred Journey with Sequoia Hamilton, except for a few meals, which will make it really easy to focus on the sights, sounds, smells, to deeply experience the country, and to go on an inner journey as well. The following itinerary is adapted from an email sent by Sequoia; all photos on this page courtesy of Sequoia Hamilton Travels. I get … Read More
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 