The weather this weekend should be glorious for a stroll to discover the delights of downtown Oxnard California at Sunday’s Wine & Art Trail from 1-5pm. Tickets are $50 and benefit the Boys & Girls Club Afterschool Music Program. Your ticket enters you into a raffle and gives you an event glass.
Let wine and art help you recover from the stresses of tax season and get a jump on your donations for this year! Enjoy fine local wines and delicious appetizers while browsing through unique artist exhibits at locations around downtown Oxnard. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Oxnard, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard, and Port Hueneme’s Young Professionals Network, the 3rd Annual Wine & Art Trail will feature wines from the Ventura County Wine Trail.
Ventura County winemakers may not grow many of their own grapes but they’re certainly making some fine wines with the grapes they’re getting from places like Lodi (Cantara Cellars) and Santa Barbara AVAs (Vino V, Old Creek Ranch, Ojai Vineyards). Rancho Ventavo is soucing wine from several areas and even has a tasting room right in Heritage Square in downtown Oxnard where Sunday’s adventure begins. The Wine and Art Trail is an easy way to experience some of the wonderful wines that Ventura County has to offer these days.
Participating Artists include: Brianna Bainbridge, Rolando Camarena, Anna Karakalou, Paulo Ruvalcaba, Andrea Vargas and Jose Zuniga.
Please check out and vote for my “Take Your Rubber Chicken to Work Week” entry over at the Twisted Oak Winery Blog: http://www.twistedoak.com/tyrctww2011 Voting ends tomorrow, Monday April 11, 2011!
Twisted Oak’s “Take Your Rubber Chicken To Work Week” photo contest ends today! Here are the rules: 1. Get a rubber chicken if you don’t have one. We got ours at Twisted Oak; it’s an original. You can tell by its Twisted Oak choker. You can also tell our chicken likes raves by the collection of friendship bracelets. 2. Take it to work. And to lunch! 3. Take a funny picture. We tried. Beverly said writing poetry is serious business. 4. Email it to … Read More
Twisted Oak’s “Take Your Rubber Chicken To Work Week” photo contest ends today! Here are the rules:
1. Get a rubber chicken if you don’t have one.
We got ours at Twisted Oak; it’s an original. You can tell by its Twisted Oak choker. You can also tell our chicken likes raves by the collection of friendship bracelets.
2. Take it to work.
And to lunch!
3. Take a funny picture.
We tried. Beverly said writing poetry is serious business.
4. Email it to tastingroomATtwistedoakDOTcom BY March 30th. That’s today!
For Take Your Rubber Chicken to Work Week, Danika and I decided to take my son’s rubber chicken to our “Message in a Bottle: Ocean to Ojai” writing workshops.
Our rubber chicken learned a lot about poetry, wine, and local natural history. We thought our rubber chicken was named Murgatroyd but we discovered that was a favorite saying (and Twisted Oak wine) not a name: Beverly is actually the name of our rubber chicken.
Among many adventures, we took photos of Beverly learning how to do writing practice, write a pantoum, and taste wine with Vino V and Old Creek Ranch Winery winemaker Michael Meagher (pictured with Beverly). Beverly also enjoyed chai at Farmer in the Cook in Meiner’s Oaks and performed in an open mic at Big Buddha Lounge. Here’s a picture of Beverly with Big Buddha Lounge’s Davis Far.
Beverly also starred in a few youtube videos; I’ll post links when they go up sometime tonight.
So by my accounting, there’s quite a few of us who took a rubber chicken to work: Danika and Joan, the gals at Paradise Pantry, Michael Meagher, and Davis Far. I can only hope you will split your Master Cluck Bucks for Twisted Oak wine with me, your photographer and friendly neighborhood blogger.
Last week, I wrote a lot during writing workshops all day Thursday at Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center and at Old Creek Ranch Winery then on Saturday at Danika Dinsmore’s Poetry BootCamp.
And I even wrote about wine–wine poetry, believe it or not!
So I will be posting some of my wine and winery inspired poems as well as a few by others from our writing workshop starting with these tasting “notes” about Old Creek Ranch’s Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ll also be posting a few more “traditional” notes about the wines we tasted and the pairings we enjoyed.
You spice me like a vanilla bean
musky, husky, rich
You rock me like a granite dome
round and rough
You roll me like a romp in the hay
the hills and the land in you
You sing to me like Tom Waits
gravely and true
You wear on me like a gold watch
classic, reliable, dependable
You rub me like an old leather saddle
smooth and soft
You kick me like a soccer ball
on a wild open field
You stroke me like a tiger’s tongue
and I’m coming back for more
Okay, it may not be one of my best poems but it was a fun way to describe the wine using various prompts to get from the common descriptors to more unusual ones! Stay tuned or subscribe for more!
PS Better catch this luscious wine while you can since this is the last vintage of it they plan to make! (Instead, watch for a 2007 Nebbiolo from Stolpman Vineyard and some other new wines!)
I’ve been busy getting all the details figured out for the “Message in a Bottle: Ocean to Ojai” writing workshops that I’m doing with Danika Dinsmore as part of Ojai’s WordFest March 19-27, 2011.
A week or so ago I checked out venues for the winemaker dinner and open mic for Thurs March 24 and stopped by Old Creek Ranch Winery to talk with owner John Whitman and winemaker Michael Meagher. We also enjoyed some tasting: the petit sirah from the barrel is out of this world delicious!
And while I can’t make any promises, it’s looking likely that the cherry trees will be blooming at Old Creek Ranch Winery!
Here are all the fabulous details–menus and wines to come soon!
Writing instructors Gwendolyn Alley of Ventura, California and Danika Dinsmore of Vancouver, British Columbia join forces Thursday, March 24 to offer a unique writing workshop that engages the senses and ignites the imagination. Message in a Bottle: Ocean to Ojai – Waves, Wines, Words, an event during Ojai’s WordFest, will take its participants on a journey that begins with a whale watching cruise, continues at small family owned working ranch, and ends in the majestic Ojai Valley. … Read More
Since I was absolutely born to rhone wild, I am very excited that “rhone wines not from the rhone” has been announced by Wine Cast’s Tim Elliott as this month’s theme Wine Blogging Wednesday #71 (founded over 6 years ago by Lenn Thompson of the New York Cork Report.)
Tim suggests participants: “Pick any wine made from a variety best known in The Rhône but not made in that famous French region. It doesn’t matter if the wine is white, pink or red; still, sparkling or fortified. Whatever you choose just needs to be made from primarily a Rhone grape and come from a region not in France.”
“If you need some inspiration,” Tim says, “just check out this link.” He encourages participants to go beyond Syrah and Grenache and try something new.
So if you’re born to rhone wild –just not from the rhone!–postWednesday, March 16th. If you announce your entry on Twitter or Facebook, please be sure to add the hashtag #wbw71 to your status update. Send Tim an email at winecast (at) gmail (dot) com with a link to your post so he can produce a summary after the event. You can also just email him your write-up. Read all of Tim’s WBW#71 prompt here.
Now to figure out what to choose! I’m planning on going to a New Zealand tasting that day in LA. Even a syrah from NZ would be a wild rhone! I wonder what else rhone wise I might find there?
The weather this weekend should be glorious for a stroll to discover the delights of downtown Oxnard California at Sunday’s Wine & Art Trail from 1-5pm. Tickets are $50 and benefit the Boys & Girls Club Afterschool Music Program. Your ticket enters you into a raffle and gives you an event glass.
