Riding through the rolling hills of Portugal from Lisbon to Evora in the Alentejo, sleepy from jet lag and struggling to keep my eyes open, listening to my hosts share tidbits of culture and facts about wine along the way, I was startled wide awake when I heard that Portugal Continue reading
Slow Wine Guide 2022
Can food be a bridge to peace? The Slow Wine Coalition, as part of the wider Slow Food network, believes it can: “through inclusion and exchange, we can cultivate a better future together.”
The Slow Wine Coalition started in Italy inspired by the Slow Food Movement which began in 1986 after a “demonstration on the intended site of a McDonald’s at the Spanish Steps in Rome.” Since then,the movement advocates “a comprehensive approach to food that recognizes the strong connections between plate, planet, people, politics and culture.”
“Speed became our shackles. We fell prey to the same virus: ‘the fast life.’”
How do we find peace and freedom? Slow down! Share organic food and wine!
According to the Slow Food website, “Slow Food believes that wine, just as with food, must be good, clean, and fair — not just good.”
La Maliosa: organic, natural wines
On her 160 hectare farm in the Maremman Hills in southwestern Tuscany, Fattoria La Maliosa’s owner Antonella Manuli makes natural wine using indigenous grapes that have been certified organic and biodynamic since 2010. She also holds the patent for the Metodo Corino, a regenerative agricultural method which, while similar to biodynamics, uses no animal products.
What exactly does all that mean? What’s the difference between wine that is organic, natural, biodynamic, or not? This is the question Italian Food Wine Travel group of writers is exploring this March with host Katarina Andersson.
“Natural wine is … living wine from living soil,” Continue reading
this vineyard is located just below the F for Fillmore along the 126 in Ventura County
I have a great story to tell about this vineyard. About head training. About drought. About climate change. About wandering around in a citrus orchard on a cold windy wintry day. About sandwiches from Roan. About the Block F Zinfandel made from the first harvest from this vineyard that the bears didn’t get. Continue reading
2 reds from 8 at the Gate paired with meat pie floater
In the spirit of reconciliation, Eight at the Gate acknowledges the First Nations people of our region, the Bindjali people who are the traditional custodians of the land, and their spiritual relationship with this country. So states Eight at the Gate prominently on their website setting a tone for respect for people and place.
Sonoma 2008. Napa 2009. Walla Walla 2010. Portland 2012. Santa Barbara 2014. Penticton British Columbia 2013. Lodi 2016. Sonoma 2017. Virtual 2020. Eugene 2021. These are the years and the locations of the Wine Media Conferences I’ve attended. But at the close of the 2021 event in Eugene, organizers did not announce where we’d be going in 2022. Instead we took a poll and speculation abounded. Personally, I was rooting for Paso Robles, Idaho, or Colorado. Today, they had an answer Continue reading
When people ask me how I got into wine writing, I usually tell them about working for Mr Alfred Peet, of Peet’s coffee, how the owners of Ridge would come in to talk with me about coffee, and how they convinced me to work in their Montebello Road tasting room on Saturdays until I left to hike to Pacific Crest Trail and attend UC Santa Crus where I was a double major in Environmental Studies and Literature/Writing. But the truth is my story is closer to wine from South Australia than it is to wine from the Santa Cruz Mountains. And my story is more about Grenache than any other grape!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 