How can people connect their food from field to fork?
More and more events around the country and indeed the world seek to do so Continue reading
A Taste and a Toast to Local!
Have a Bodacious and Naked Cabernet Day 2016!
Have a Bodacious and Naked Cabernet Day?
Is that a bit odd to say? No not at all if you are celebrating Cabernet Day with a bottle of Napa Valley Bodacious Cabernet Sauvignon
or a bottle of Oregon’s Naked Cabernet Sauvignon! Or like me, BOTH plus…
Naked Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 . Columbia Valley This Naked promises long legs and a smooth complexion.
we’re going to be enjoying a bottle of Andis Cabernet Franc from Amador County and a red blend “Midnight” with a lot of cab from Lange Twins! It’s Cabernet Day, right? Not Cabernet Sauvignon Day! Continue reading
Pair Sequoia Grove Cabernet With Your Favorite National Park: Happy 100th Birthday NPS!
McClure Lake in Yosemite National Park’s backcountry: 10,000′ elevation and 2 miles off the Pacific Crest Trail
The National Park Service turns 100 on August 25, 2016 and Sequoia National Park, a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada that includes Mount Whitney, was established on September 25, 1890.
And Cabernet Day is Thurs. Sept. 1, 2016!
So to celebrate these momentous occasions, Que Syrah Sue and I opened a Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon.
2017 Wine Bloggers Conference: Santa Rosa
Next year’s 1oth anniversary Wine Blogger’s Conference will return to Santa Rosa, CA Nov. 9-12, 2017 at the Hyatt in Santa Rosa.
If you enroll by the end of September it’s only $95!
South African Cuisine: Food with spice and wine that’s nice!
What do you know about South African wine? What about South African cuisine? Have you ever tasted either?
If you are typical Americans like Que Syrah Sue and I, you may never have had wine or food from the region! While I had tasted wine in Egypt when I went there January 2011 just before the revolution, I don’t think I’ve had wine from that continent.
But this is changing rapidly as more wine is produced for export. You can even find tasty, inexpensive South African wine at Trader Joes like the one below.
When I heard that Wine Pairing Weekend was focusing on South African wine and food to pair with it, Sue and I got very excited: we had recently tasted and wrote about South African Sauvignon blanc wines for Sauvignon Blanc day, and we were eager to try more!
Sue in particular was engaged by the jalapeño jelly notes in the wines and we were curious how that herbal spiciness might play itself out in other wines from the region.
Right away I contacted the media agency who had sent me the first wines asking if they could send me any others –and they said yes!
Sue got right on to researching the foods and what she found Continue reading
Happy Belated Albarino Day and more from Twisted Oak Winery!
the Twisted Oak frikken enjoys Albarino
How did I miss Albarino Day–and the accompanying festivities which stretched for a week?
Because as much as I love Albarino, the food friendly white originally from Galicia Spain, I had a good reason–I was backpacking in a remote area of Yosemite National Park and had no cell or internet access!
But I made up for it! On my way from Yosemite to the 2016 Wine Bloggers Conference in Lodi, I parked my van first at Twisted Oak Winery, located in the Sierra foothills near Murphys and specializing in Iberian wines like Albarino! Continue reading
Off to the Internat’l Food Bloggers Conference in Sacto & WBC Lodi!
This has been a wonderful summer to learn about wine– and food! This summer I’ve experienced
- Cusumano wine from Sicily with Sicilian food at Sotto in LA
- Justin wine and food at the winery’s restaurant where they only offer a five course tasting menu with pairings
- Rhone food and wine at their event and the meal that Sue prepared at home to pair with Rhone wines
- Italian food and wine CHEESE vegetarian dinner dinner that Sue prepared
- South African wine and food that Sue researched and prepared for August’s Wine Pairing Weekend post
and more!And now I’m headed to the International Food Bloggers Conference in Sacramento with great food of course and wine too. Then I attend the Wine Bloggers Conference in Lodi which, believe it or not, has even better food and lots more wine!
I have always been fascinated and amazed by what happens when you pair wine with food.
Because while I love wine, and certainly enjoy wine with or without food, there’s something magical that happens when you combine the aromas and the flavors of wine with food! Continue reading
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 