What’s a Garagiste? Why would you want to go to a Festival about garages? Pronounced garage-east, the word garagiste comes from Bordeaux meaning small-lot wine makers who sometimes worked out of their “garages” — basically any place that wasn’t a chateau. Working independently, and thinking for themselves, these renegades refused to abide by rules or traditions. Today “Garagiste” is a movement of innovative winemakers; back in 2011, California’s Garagiste Festival in Paso Robles was the first to showcase the wines of American garagiste winemakers at an event that also raises money for scholarships for the next generation of winemakers.
Founded by garagistes Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick, the Garagiste Festivals offer opportunities for wine lovers to taste rare, premium, hard to find wines from these new and innovative limited-production winemakers.
For Dry January I’ve been experimenting with no alcohol and low alcohol beverages including FRE wines which are wines with the alcohol removed. There are many reasons you or I may choose to cut back on alcohol, but it’s especially important when you’re at altitude like on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe or other high altitude ski areas to be careful with alcohol consumption because it can lead to altitude sickness. So I brought 6 FRE wines with me to Tahoe a few weeks ago for my birthday where we were staying with my son who goes to college in Ski Business and Resort Management in Incline Village.
How’s your “dry” January going? Has it become “dry-ish” or have you given it up altogether? Or maybe you didn’t even try to go dry? Or perhaps you’re sober and want to try something new to drink in the vein of craft cocktails? Well, I’m trying to be dry-ish this January and in 2024 in general, so given the opportunity to experiment with Hipstirs Craft Cocktail Syrup Trio, I suggested to Sue we do them with a non-alcoholic cane sugar rum that I had on hand paired with instant pot pork shoulder Barbacoa tacos. Keep reading for the three “dry” craft cocktails she came up with– and how we added a little alcohol make them “dry-ish”!
The gift of wine… and a gift of wine. When I learned in December that the Winophiles prompt for January 2024 was French wines received as a gift, I rolled my eyes: no one other than Sue gives me wine. And when Sue gives me wine, it’s from wineries she’s visited that she wants me to know about, and I usually tuck them away so we can write about them later.
You say it’s your birthday It’s my birthday too, yeah They say it’s your birthday We’re gonna have a good time I’m glad it’s your birthday Happy birthday to you
So sing the Beatles, today and yesterday, and even though two of the Beatles have passed on, their art, their music remains, their gifts of song live on to inspire us. Anne Lamont points out that
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.”
This week I’m reflecting on gifts, the gifts of wine, the gifts of birthdays and cassoulets, the gifts of inspiration, how we keep from being squashed to keep on dancing.
At a transitional time in my life, Patrick Duffy had a big impact: he was someone who helped me find the permission to be truer to who I am and discover my path. Patrick and I shared many passions and connections, including being born within 24 hours of each other but in different decades leading us to call each other our evil twin; we called each other our doppelgänger.
the always magical Patrick G Duffy by Linda Kale Hamm
Did we meet first at a Burning Man event or at a Geography conference?
Birthday Wishes and Gifts: Cassoulet with Côtes du Rhône Villages
“I love skiing!” piped up the young girl from the next stall at the mid-mountain SnowFlake Lodge at Diamond Peak, Incline Nevada on a sunny but brisk January day.
“I do too!” I chimed in. “How old are you?”
“I’m five but I’m going to be six on my birthday January 9!”
“Well, happy birthday to you! My birthday is January 11!”
SnowFlake Lodge at Diamond Peak, Incline Nevada
While young Juniper loves skiing and wanted nothing more than to go skiing for her birthday, I love cassoulet and wanted cassoulet for my birthday. I didn’t tell young Juniper but her birthday is the same day as a very important one: CASSOULET DAY! Fortunately for me, my birthday and Cassoulet Day are so close Sue has almost no choice but to make it for me as a birthday gift and we had the gift of three samples of three AOC Côtes du Rhône wines to pair with it tying this post into this month’s Winophiles prompt; I’ll add links to participants.
So Happy Cassoulet Day today January 9! And Happy Birthday to Juniper, and to me too!
2023 on the run with 2024 on its heels (aka Moose my foster dog)
As I reflect on 2023, I marvel at the amazing experiences I had with wine, food, and travel abroad for three weeks in Italy and 10 days in Portugal. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the stories I want to tell. Continue reading →
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 