Okay wine friends, how long did it take you to realize that the Crocodile Dundee trailer during the Super Bowl WAS NO TRAILER?

You know the ad where it seems like it’s a trailer for Son of Dundee or some such and it’s actually a showcase for Australian tourism featuring a scene at a winery and starring Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride drinking Australian wine?

According to Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia, in a press release dated Feb. 5, “The Super Bowl has the largest reach of any advertising platform in the USA, with more than 100 million Americans tuning in across the USA and many millions more people globally.” Continue reading →

Did you know:

1. 30% of Israeli wine brands are certified kosher, but they produce over 90% of the Israel wine industry’s output.
2. Wineries around the world craft special runs of kosher wine that meet the specifications.
3. All kosher California wine is made by fully kosher wineries such as Herzog Wine Cellars, Covenant and Hagafen with one exception:  Marciano Estate’s “Terra Gratia.”
4. Passover dinners feature red wine because that’s what Jews used during their Seders after they escaped Egypt.
5. Kosher wines range in price from $5- $500 with the average price at $25.
6. Bartenura produces the largest selling imported Italian Moscato in the U.S. — and while it is kosher, only a small fraction of the 5,000,000 blue bottles go to the kosher market.
7. Founded in 1848, Royal Wine Corp. has been owned and operated in the United States by the Herzog family, whose winemaking roots go back eight generations to its origin in Czechoslovakia; Sue and I visited Herzog last summer and wrote about it here.

As the Kosher world of wine expands with increased demands, exports and enthusiasm, you may be wondering: Continue reading →

What went down in January 2018?

In January we obsessed over Occitanie French wines and cassoulet as well as all things Fetzer via the January #WineStudio Program where we tasted three from the Fetzer label the first week, followed by their 1000 Stories wine aged in bourbon barrels, then Bonterra’s organic and biodynamic wines which we paired with recipes from their website, and finally, their new label Adorada, a wine that stimulates all of the senses. We also showcased Sonoma wines for #WinePW and continued the conversation about the wildfires that struck both ends of the state. Altogether I published five posts and about 7500 words on wine which is a good start on my goal of 108 for the year 2018!

What’s up for February 2018? Continue reading →

Sunday February 4, 2018 is Super Bowl Sunday when the 52nd Super Bowl decides which team,  New England Patriots or  Philadelphia Eagles will be the league champion for the 2017 NFL season. Super Bowl LII will be held at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you can bet it will be cold.

Super Bowl Sunday is the one football game that many non-football fans watch. It’s the footballs social event of the year (unless you are in high school and then maybe it is the big game between cross town rivals like Buena and Ventura here).

For non-football types who are watching the game to be social, highlights will likely be Pink performing the national anthem of the United States, Leslie Odom Jr. singing “America the Beautiful” and, in his third times a charm, Justin Timberlake is headlining the halftime show (in 2001, he performed with NSYNC, and in 2004 in an unforgettable moment with Janet Jackson )

So what should you include in your Super Bowl spread that will keep everyone super good and warm?

How about pulled pork paired with a wine that uses bourbon or whiskey barrels for part of the aging process?

Continue reading →

In advance of March’s Women’s History Month and in light of the recent website and project by Amy Bess Cook on Women Owned Wineries in Sonoma, the Wine Pairing Weekend group is focusing on women in the wine Industry with an emphasis on wineries owned by women and on women who are winemakers!

To warm us up for welcoming women owned wineries and women winemakers, and to celebrate my birthday, Sue and I opened up two wines by a pioneer in both areas: Sandra Oldfield who recently retired as CEO and head winemaker at Tinhorn Creek in Oliver, British Columbia. Keep reading to learn about how to participate along with the deal, the wines, and the meal plus more about WOW in Sonoma! Continue reading →

In this before fire photo by George Rose, Paradise Ridge shows Sonoma LOVE with this sculpture from Burning Man. Check out George’s new book “VINEYARD Sonoma County,”

The fallout from the devastating 2017 fires in California will be long lasting. Here in Ventura County, the Thomas Fire is FINALLY 100% contained at 281,893 acres. We now sift through the rubble; I spent most of Friday morning with a friend at her house which was destroyed. It was the first time she had been there in daylight. Continue reading →