Enjoying my StarsBox “glamp-site” at La Maliosa, Tuscany, Mother’s Day 2024
Exciting news! I’m once again nominated for the 2025 Wine Travel Awards in the Wine and Food Influencer category of “The Brightest Journey”— and public voting ends March 31st! I would appreciate it if you could take a minute to vote for me. It’s fast, it’s easy and it’s here: just click this link to my profile where you can learn more about me and vote for me!
View from my StarsBox glampsite at La Maliosa, Tuscany May 2024
The five nominees with the most votes from the public advance to the final round where judges will determine the winners— last year I made the Top 5 with thanks to you, dear readers!
Organic Princely Winery of Liechtenstein plus A Quick History of Quiche For Pi Day!
“Our vineyards in Liechtenstein and Austria, steeped in tradition, imbue our wines with
individual stylistic expressions that make every occasion a celebration of joie de vivre,” says Princess Marie of Liechtenstein, a sommelier since 2014. Joie de vivre is a French term meaning “an exuberant enjoyment of life” and I am here for it! And clearly so is the Princess and the Princely Wines of Liechtenstein. In 2013, Princess Marie von Liechtenstein helped with marketing and distribution. With a desire to make wines she wants to drink and enjoy (there’s that joie de vivre again!), she’s now devoting more of her time to the grapes grown on family vineyards in Austria and Liechtenstein. When the UC Davis trained native Austrian Stefan Tscheppe came on in 2019, he began the transition to organic and biodynamic farming, and he brought in more women to join Princess Marie: Oenologist Natalie Ströhle, Sommelier Hannah Fiegenschuh, and Operations Manager Alexandra Goop. Celebrate joie de vivre and Women’s History Month with these women made wines!
The Princely Wines of Lichtenstein’s Princess Marie and Stefan Tscheppe
Known formally as The Hofkellerei Fürst Liechtenstein, the vineyards and wineries in both Liechtenstein and Austria are owned by Prince Hans Adam Il of Liechtenstein and the Princely Family including sommelier Princess Marie. During a virtual tasting with Stefan Tscheppe, I learned about the vines and wines, and experienced the beauty of the castle and alpine landscape that is Liechtenstein, one of the smallest and most wealthy countries on the planet, and saw how that place is perfect for Pinot Noir. I can’t wait to visit this stunning, regal region myself, see their art collection, and eat in their Michelin star restaurant.
Sara Pérez (in jeans jacket) in a seminar at WINeFare; founder Pamela Busch on far left seated
At just 17 years old, Catalonian Sara Pérez learned how to make wine at her family winery and started the the small family vineyard on a path toward organic viticulture in northeastern Spain, she said during Women’s History Month at last year’s WINeFare in San Francisco, California. Cheers to Women’s History Month, to International Women’s Day March 8, and to trailblazing winemakers like Sara Pérez!
As a fan of natural and organic wines and on the lookout for those made by women winemakers and from women owners, I was in heaven a year ago when I attended WINeFare— Women In Natural Wine— held in San Francisco at the Haight Street Art Center, and I can’t wait for the next one scheduled for June 7. In 2018, a non-profit organization focused on social justice in the wine industry called The Vinguard founded by Pamela Busch started WINeFare to provide a platform for women who make and import natural wine. In 2025, 50 winemakers from five countries will pour on Saturday; purchase tickets here. This is also one of the more affordable and important wine tasting events that I know!
WINeFare logo
In 2024, WINeFare was a two day event with seminars both days and a dinner in between gathering 75 wineries with women who work in natural wine from all over the world to share their wares and stories with the public. Each day of the event last year featured different women pouring their wines in, around, and among art combining two of my favorite things! So many fascinating wines and people too including wines from Spain’s Mas Martinet made by Sara Pérez who attended and participated in a Sunday seminar and women in wine in Spain.
Using spittoon at a wine tasting Français : dégustation d’un vin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
September 19, 2012 I will definitely be doing wine related activities. And lots of wine tasting. And yes, a lot of spitting too.
First, I was invited to join the September 19 Thirsty Girl Twitter Tasting of Handcraft Wines. Then I was invited to join the next Cafe 140 Twitter Tasting. Then I received an invitation to an industry tasting of the San Francisco International Wine Competition award-winning wines. All on the same day.
Fortunately, September 19 is a day that I can devote to wine tasting.
Then, on Wednesday morning, as I was preparing to run some errands and then post about #CabernetDay and #PinotSmackdown, I checked my email and saw one from Elisabetta Tosi, a wine blogger and the Italian Ambassador to Palate Press.
She was writing to invite me to join a wine blogging tour of the Mt Etna wine region in Sicily. In two weeks. September 19-23.
Organized by Consorzio Tutela Vini Etna D.O.C., in collaboration with Fermenti Digitali and with support of Camera di Commercio di Catania, this is a tour for wine bloggers organized by wine bloggers. How cool but…no way! I had to teach, I had to write papers for grad school, who would get my kid to school…and how could I get a flight at this last-minute that would fit their budget? So I headed off on my errands.
And then it hit me–ITALY! WINE! VOLCANO! YES YES YES YES YES! Of course, YES! What in the world was I thinking? Of course I could make it work in order to go to Sicily and learn about and taste wines grown on the side of THE MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO in the WORLD!
I did a bunch of research. And that made me want to go even more to taste these wines that are getting a lot of attention! And I figured out how to put all the pieces together–except the flight part. There were no flights available for 500 euros. It was going to take 1000 euros to get this California girl onto Sicilian soil.
The bad news is, this September 19 I’m not going to be tasting and writing about wines grown on Mt Etna.
The good news is, they plan to invite me on the next trip planned for spring or possible fall 2013. Which will give me more time to prepare for the trip. And I’ll be home in California September 19 tasting and tweeting away.
You’re invited to join in the fun: you can subscribe and read about my adventures in wine and you can pick up the wines we’ll be tasting. Continue reading →
#PinotSmackdown is an all-day global celebration of the world’s most expressive wine grape combined with a knock-down, drag-out cage fight between YOUR FAVORITE Pinot-producing regions! All you need to participate is wine and Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagr.am or your favorite social channel. Just be sure to use the #PinotSmackdown hashtag!Who makes the best Pinot you’ve ever tasted? To vote via your tweets, posts, pins, or instagr.am snapshots simply add another 2-character hashtag after #PinotSmackdown and we’ll count the votes so that region gets bragging rights for the year! Voting region hashtags:
#OR – Oregon
#CA – California
#WA – Washington
#NY – New York
#46 – U.S. The “Other 46”
#FR – France
#IT – Italy
#DE – Germany (Deutschland)
#EU – Europe, beyond France, Germany, Italy
#CN – Canada
#NZ – New Zealand
#CH – Chile
#AR – Argentina
#AU – Australia
#SA – South Africa
#WD – World, as in none previously listed
For example, if you are drinking a Pinot from a region in California, simply tag the end of your tweets/posts with: #PinotSmackdown #CA
This year for the Pinot Noir Smackdown, I’m betting many post-WBC bloggers are rooting for and writing about Oregon Pinot Noir aka #PinotSmackdown #OR. I know that the most memorable pinot noirs for me right now are from my trip last August.
Like many of the 450 attendees to the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference in Portland, I joined a pre-excursion trip which included a late afternoon drive to the massive and beautiful King Estates for a scrumptious dinner (deserving of its own blog post) followed by an early morning jaunt from our hotel in Eugene to the Pfeiffer Winery in the southern Willamette Valley and in the northwestern part of Lane County.
It took us about 30 minutes to drive the scenic country roads, passing by alpaca farms, hay farms, forest and finally grape vines to arrive at Pfeiffer where we were greeted by Robin and Danuta Pfeiffer, an enthusiastic, energetic, boisterous and attractive couple.
At one time, Danuta was the co-host of the 700 Club. When Pat Robertson ran for President, she started over and came to Oregon to write a book and be on Air America. Eighteen years ago, she placed an ad describing herself– and looking for a man who could spell. Robin responded with an invitation to go sailing.
On that first date, Robin Pfieffer brought an unlabeled red wine saying, “It’s a little something we make–pinot noir.”
Personally, I can’t imagine a #Cabernet Day better than last year’s at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert. I was joined at my Art Predator and Wine Predator camp in Kidsville by Jim Morris (aka Sonoma Wine Guy on Twitter) and Tony Fletcher (blogger, dj and author of several books on music and musicians including Keith Moon) plus author Mark Lorentzen aka Puma who always brings over $1000 worth of fine wine to Burning Man.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 