How can you “green” your Valentine’s Day? Here are five ideas on how to green everything you need from cards to candles to wine to chocolate covered strawberries!
via Wine Predator
For Your Valentine Angel: Sparkling Rose + Seared Ahi Salad with Blueberries!
What should you serve your Valentine?
Something pink? Something sparkly? Something as delightful and surprising as your Valentine?
How about a light “pink” sparkling wine with ahi tuna, seared to keep it a pretty pink inside? Served on a bed of field greens with a white stilton with cranberries? And paired with a Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Brut Rose Cuvee de la Pompadour? Made in the traditional methods? And retailing at $35?
Take it from me, this meal of seared ahi and sparkling rose is a winner!
We’re fortunate here in Ventura to have a tuna boat come to our harbor about once a month from December through April or so. When it shows up, we go in with friends on a whole tuna and come home with bags of sushi grade meat that can’t really be any fresher. Continue reading
Adventures in Wine Coming Up: Egypt, France, Portugal, Spain–and SoCal too!
I’m bathing in a wealth of wine and stories about wine right now! This afternoon, I head up to Bridlewood Winery to see my Wine Bloggers Conference friend Kelly Conrad (who does PR for Gallo) to meet Bridlewood Winemaker, David Hopkins (who I already know is quite a character!) and to look around and do some tasting too of course!
Tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday I’ll be out and about in Ventura County visiting as many of the Valentine n’Wine wineries as I can, then Tuesday, I’ll be at a French industry wine tasting, and Friday is PS I Love You‘s “Dark and Delicious.” At the end of the month, I’m attending a Paso Robles tasting.
Not to mention I have tasting notes and half written blog posts about Egyptian wine, Spanish wine (beyond sherry!) for Wine Blogging Wednesday #70, plus ideas for wines for Valentine’s wines and food pairings and posts on Portuguese wine too! And more!
So please subscribe to Wine Predator and receive an email to your inbox to let you know I’ve found more on my prowls to share with you!
Ventura’s Valentine n’Wine Weekend 2011: A Passport to Some Fine Wine Times!
What are your Valentine’s plans? Maybe a little sherry and Belgian chocolate like I suggested in yesterday’s post? I’ve got more ideas for you coming up! But in the meantime, you might consider checking out the following:
The Ventura County Winery Association invites you and your valentine to a three-day wine tasting passport event to explore the wineries of Ventura County during Valentine’n Wine Passport Weekend.
Visit twelve participating wineries, taste award-winning wines and enjoy special food pairings at many locations from Friday February 11 to Sunday February 13.
Each ticket holder will receive one regular wine tasting flight at each of twelve participating locations, during their regular operating hours. Pay $45 online and pick up your ticket at one of several event locations; tickets may also be purchased at participating locations during the event weekend for $55 per person.
Find out which wineries are participating and more information about Ventura County’s Valentine n’Wine Weekend: http://www.valentinenwine.com/.
A Quest For Sherry (and love!)
A Quest For Sherry (and love!) my guest post for the Secret Sherry Society is up on their website–check it out! Thank you to the Secret Sherry Society for invited me to play!
Thank you also to photographer/blogger John Nichols who shared with me his sherry stories, one of which I included in this blog post!
PS Did you know sherry pairs well with chocolate and Valentine’s Day? Go read the post! And come back for more Valentine’s wines and tips!
Wine Blogging Wednesday #70: Wine from Spain for 2/16/11
After a hiatus, Wine Blogging Wednesday is going again with a theme of wine from Spain as hosted by Ryan and Gabriella Opaz of the award winning blog catavino.net. The prompt:
- Choose a Spanish wine or wines to taste on Wednesday the 16th of February.
- Seek out Spanish wines that you’ve never had before! Get creative! Hunt for unique styles such as a Sherry, Cava, Fondillon or Mistella; an unheard of region like Arribes, Txakoli de Alava or Extremadura; or a unique native grape like Prieto Picudo or Treixadura.
- Write a post about the wine, flushing it out with life and subtle detail, then publish it on Wednesday, February 16th.
- Tweet about it with the tag: #WBW70 thus creating a live tasting by time zone as we go around the globe!
- Finally, send an email to us with a link to your article and include the subject line: “WBW #70 Submission
I’m already in the swim of Spanish wine as I’ve been working on my guest blog for the Secret Sherry Society, published today on their site! So follow my lead and do sherry or go for a distinctly Spanish varietal or style: with Valentine’s Day coming up a sparkling cava would be fun and they’re a great value too. Or do something different: some Spanish wineries are working to capture part of the American market by growing and making familiar wines like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay to American palates at affordable prices.
No use crying over spilled wine–or blog posts!
Fellow bloggers, have you ever accidentally hit “publish” when you meant to hit “save draft”? That’s what happened with my Egypt wine post. So then I “unpublished” it by scheduling it for a later date–except then I got busy and lo and behold, I came back from a long weekend away and there was that blog post! Right there published on my blog, almost like it had done it by itself!
Part of the problem is how much changed in Egypt from when I started writing that blog post immediately on my return and the sudden turmoil that began a few days after I returned. With all the changes going on in Egypt, it just felt weird if not wrong to be writing about wine as if a revolution wasn’t going on.
Anyway, I have photos to go with the post and more that I want to add, so as soon as I can, I will get to it…
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 