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Happy Valentine’s Day! As Art Predator and Wine Predator, I’m on the prowl for good wine and good adventures! May your Valentine’s Day be full of joyous adventures with fine wine, good times, and good friends!
Have an adventurous Valentine’s Day! Cheers!
Remember to celebrate Valentine’s Day every day with romance, adventure, and fun! That might mean sparkling wine and fancy dinners or something as simple as a heart shaped bagel and a foot rub!
How do you like to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Will you be opening any special wine? We began our celebration last Sunday with steak and lobster paired with Chalk Hill Chardonnay and Cantara Cellars Franknvine, and we’ll keep celebrating over the ling weekend with wine from Steven Kent (leftovers from tomorrow’s tasting!) and Chile too!
No matter how you celebrate Valentine’s Day this year–with red, white, rose, or bubbles!– a toast to YOU, my readers and subscribers! Cheers!
Oh and can you help ME go on an adventure? Just vote here for me to go to Chile where I will blog my heart out for you about the food, the wine, and the adventure!
http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/310099/voteable_entries
Thanks!
PS I found the Adventure Time artwork here. My son and I added the text for his valentine’s day cards then I changed it to be from me!
Will you be my Valentine? Please vote for me to go to Chile!
http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/310099/voteable_entries
Welcome to February Fun –the Fat Tuesday edition where I’ll share details about this week’s events.
Tue. Feb. 12 Fat Tuesday!
Did you know today is Pancake Day? Do you know why? (And what do you pair with pancakes??) According to wikipedia, during Lent, people often give up rich foods including butter, milk and eggs, key ingredients in pancakes. Because so many people would use these ingredients up by making pancakes the day before Lent, it became known as PANCAKE DAY! (What do YOU pair with pancakes and syrup? Riesling? Something sparkling and a bit sweet?)
While I suggested pancakes for dinner to my husband, Chef Tim Kilcoyne at The Sidecar Restaurant is doing it up right with gumbo and oyster po boys and more–with oysters from the Jolly Oyster, of course–and my husband has got his hopes up for that!
Th Feb 14-18 Valentine n Wi
ne, Ventura County: Starting on Valentine’s Day and going all weekend is the third annual Valentine n Wine passport weekend event in Ventura County. Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day! Unless you’ve spent your life under a rock, you know that Thursday February 14 is Valentine’s Day, a day when young and old celebrate love and friendship.
Last Friday, I received an unexpected early Valentine’s gift from the fine folks at Balzac Communications: two bottles of Martin & Weyrich 2011 Moscato Allegro: one rose, one white to make my Valentine’s Day even sweeter! Although now that I think about it, I remember last year, Balzac sent me a bottle of the Crusher Rose and a box of truffles–yum! As if my life as a wine blogger wasn’t already overflowing with benefits!
While I haven’t opened either yet, with residual sugars just above 6%, I know they will have a nice sweet character, yet the Muscat Canelli grape from which the Moscato Allegro is made is reknowned for retaining its acidity so it should have a good balance without being cloying. The rose, as you can see from the photo I posted on twitter, is a deep salmon color which comes from a “kiss” of red wine (instead of having the color from a red grape that didn’t have contact with the skin which is what makes red wines red). The high residual sugars also means these wines are lower in alcohol–only 8.5% instead of the more typical 12-14% –a great wine for dessert on a school night or to mix in a cocktail or with St Germain! The screwtop has me thinking about bringing one along on romantic picnic. Retails for $12. When I get a chance to open them, I’ll let you know what I think!
Tue. Feb. 12 is Fat Tuesday! We’ll celebrate Mardi Gras Sat. March 2 in Ojai. Will you be celebrating? How? What wines do you enjoy with New Orleans style cuisine? I’m thinking this Moscato Allegro might be a good choice for that spicy cuisine and good times!
To be continued with details about the events listed above!
When I was a poor college student (except for the year I worked at Ridge!), and then a student loan paying underemployed thirty-something artist/poet/writer, my go to wines were from Chile. My friends and I knew that with Chilean wines, we could get the best bang for our buck!
Last fall, I had the opportunity to taste four wines from Concha y Toro’s Gran Reserve Series with TasteLive and we were happily surprised to find that you still get a BIG BANG for your buck with Chilean wine. Since Foods from Chile is hosting a contest to take a blogger to Chile (!!), I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring and turn my notes into a long over due blog post and submission. (UPDATE: Vote for me here please!! http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/310099/voteable_entries?page=1)
Plus there’s ANOTHER contest that you can join in! Celebrate the “Affordable Luxury” of the Gran Reserva Serie Riberas reviewed below: enter their photo contest for chance to WIN $1,000! Extra points for mentions of these wines, wine, cameras, and rivers! http://ow.ly/hjsCr Here’s my submission: 
Continue reading
May you be happy.
May all your thoughts be positive
and your experiences be good.
May you be free of problems, sickness, and sadness.
May your life be long and peaceful
and may you quickly reach enlightenment.
–Metta prayer
The year of the Black Snake begins on Sunday February 10, 2013 with the new moon rising in Aquarius–and I’m celebrating with an Italian wine!
According to Geomancer and Philosopher Paul Ng, the year 2013 is “Mountain-Thunder Rhythm”– a year of conservation, a year of rebuilding, and a year of changes.
Han-Ban.com says that “the year of Snake is meant for steady progress and attention to detail. Focus and discipline will be necessary for you to achieve what you set out to create.”
The Snake is “enigmatic, intuitive, introspective, refined.” Hmmn, I wonder which wines are SNAKE wines??
If you will be celebrating with Chinese or another Asian cuisine, you might be wondering what wine to pair with the complex, often spicy dishes. Continue reading
For my birthday in 2011, I was in Egypt. Last year, I had a huge party. This year, I wanted something more quiet.
On the eve of my birthday, we drove late into the night to arrive in the first few minutes of my birthday at Benton Hot Springs Bed and Breakfast in eastern California near the Nevada border. Appropriately, we stayed in the “Cowgirl Room”!
In the morning, we soaked in an outdoor hot springs fed pool, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, packed up and put on our ski clothes, and drove 45 minutes to Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada where, at lunch, we met up with Tony Fletcher, a dear friend of ours from Burning Man, a fellow wine enthusiast and music buff who was in California on tour for his book about the Smiths and who joined us for a weekend of skiing. Tony even bought me a birthday beer of the local Mammoth brewing IPA which went perfectly with my pulled pork sandwich at the Mill Cafe on the mountain. (Read about Tony’s epic powder day at Mammoth the day before–possibly the best day of skiing in his LIFE!)
Because of a reservation mix-up, for our accommodations the rest of the weekend, Tamarack Lodge upgraded us to a luxury two bedroom cabin where this exquisite bottle of Roederer Champagne waited, chilled, which we enjoyed with oysters I brought from the Jolly Oyster in Ventura plus some rosemary crackers and goat cheese. It was worth every penny (and since it was room service, I’m sure that was a pretty penny!)
That night, we ha
d dinner at the Lakeside Restaurant (review to follow!). While they have a nice list, I had brought something even better, a Marilyn Remark 2003 syrah that fellow wine blogger David Rodriguez (aka @zensolo on twitter) had given me in November (review to follow!) All in all, it was a perfectly incredible day!
On Saturday we skied all day and we cooked dinner in: arugula salad with portabellas cooked in a 30 year tawny port and fresh manila clams from the Jolly Oyster with an amazing chardonnay from Ojai Vineyards (review to follow!). For dessert, we had the 30 year tawny and salted chocolate almonds.
Sunday morning as we were packing up, I realized there was one glass remaining of the Roederer. I’d never tried the spoon trick before–imagine my pleasure to discover that it works perfectly and the Champagne paired delightfully with my bagel and lox!
Thanks to Mammoth, Tamarack, The Lakeside, The Mill, Zensolo, Tony, Benton, and my family for such a wonderful birthday weekend!
PS Do you like the daffodils? Believe it or not, I brought them from home!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 