Like many industries, the wine industry is dominated by males. That presents challenges to women in wine, whether they are owners, winemakers, vineyard workers, or in other roles. As more and more females join the industry, it becomes easier. Often these women come from the wine industry– it’s the family business as pointed out in “#ClinkDifferent: 4 Affordable Red Bordeaux Paired With Instant Pot Oxtail Beef Bourguinonne” where three of the featured wineries have women running the show.
For women winemakers Nadine Cross of New Zealand’s Peregrine and Megan McGrath Gates of Lucas & Lewellen, farming is the family business, and it is through their love of the land that they’ve come to love vine and wine. Today we explore a pinot noir from each. Stay tuned for a feature on pinot noir from Megan Gunderson of WALT; she’s director of winemaking for an enterprise that makes wine from Oregon to Santa Barbara! Continue reading →
Over here at Wine Predator, we’re focused on comfort food and wine right now (well, all the time!) and we’re here to say that you don’t have to break the bank to live it up right now.
In a restaurant, this rich Oxtail and beef shank dish paired with a Bordeaux wine would cost a small fortune. But in the instant pot, it’s fast, easy, and delicious! Plus Bordeaux at home is much less expensive and it comes in a wide range of prices.
“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road,” said surreal artist and ceramicist Beatrice Woods. The avid journal keeper and author of I Shock Myself lived until she was 103 which she attributes to chocolate and young men.
Known as the Mama of Dada, she hung out with Marcel Duchamp and others in Paris where she studied art and acting. In one of her paintings in a surrealist exhibition in New York City, a woman rising from the bath with a real piece of soap in “the tactical position” as Beato put it, garnered a great deal of attention.
and what do you see here? missing: a bar of soap in the tactical position…
I love Guinness, but I don’t necessarily want it with my corned beef and cabbage (scroll down for recipe that uses Guinness made in the Instant pot– so easy!)
Every year I hit the internet for ideas and I try different wines.
To visit the Ojai Valley in Ventura County, California, whether you take the 33 from the Pacific north or south from the Los Padres National Forest or the 150 from Santa Paula west through Ojai or east from Carpinteria, you will slowly wind your way 15 miles or so among the chaparral and the orchards, with much of the hillsides still showing how it burned in the 2017 Thomas Fire.
Unroll your windows and let the scent of citrus blossoms fill the air. Smell the sage in the chaparral or the dampness of the sycamores along the creeks or Ventura River.
At the end of the day, watch the sun paint the Topa Topa Mountains with splashes of color in a display famously known as “The Pink Moment.”
The Topa Mountain Rose of Grenache shows Ojai’s famous “Pink Moment”
While my Aussie version of Siri pronounces it Oh-JI, it’s actually pronounced “Oh- Hi!” and that’s what it feels like in this small town of about 8,000– everywhere you go, you’ll be saying “oh, hi!” The word Ojai, however, comes from the Chumash: ‘Awha’y means moon, and the area is spectacular by moonlight.
By bright moonlight or abundant sunlight, Ojai Valley inspires and invites artistic expression — whether the medium is paint, pastels, words, or music with the Ojai Music Festival continuing to go strong since 1947. Artist Beatrice Woods, the Mama of Dada, famously shocked herself while living here until she died in her 90s in the 90s, attributing her long life to beauty (in men especially!) and chocolate.
I know, I know, COVID-19 is not a laughing matter, especially as the past 24 hours have been a “whirlwine” of corona virus caused cancellations.
And if it hasn’t been cancelled yet, it probably will be — like my Napa Valley Wine Academy WSET 3 course. Doesn’t it look awesome? Too bad it’s not happening now.
Cancellations and postponements include April’s Vinitaly and the Italian Wine Ambassador Course moved to June, wine classes at Napa Valley Wine Academy like the Bud Break class I was slated to attend as well as press trips to France for Millesima in March and Clink Different Continue reading →
Looking for some of Italy’s most interesting and exciting wines? Look no further than eastern Italy near the border with Slovenia says Italian wine expert Ian D’Agata.
Based in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, Vigna Petrussa, says renowned Italian wine expert Ian D’Agata is “one of Italy’s best and most under the radar estates.”
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 