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!
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.
I admit that I always have the best of intentions to do a blog post (or two or three) following each twitter tasting I do (and I do 1-4 a month or thirty or more a year), but more often than not, even though I usually have one person dedicated to taking notes, and we usually have some great images of the wines and the food we paired them with from posting them on twitter, too often that’s all it is–best intentions for a dedicated post although I often sneak in a reference or a review into another blog post. I figure I did my “job” of tweeting and I better move on to other writing projects (on this or another of my blogs or poetry or essays or?)
I know of at least one blogger and prolific tweeter, Marcy Gordon, who is cutting back to only six twitter tastings a year so she can focus more on other activities. I know for me sometimes I wonder if my time that I spend on a twitter tasting would be better spent on writing.
#ArrogantFrog#PinotNoir uses ecofriendly approach to avoid polluting the environment where the wine is produced. Great job, @paul_mas!
However, at this point, I will continue to say yes when I am invited to participate because I always learn something–maybe something new about the region or wine making, or, in the case of the #Arrogantfrog twitter tasting, about the farming and the sustainable practices of the Paul Mas brand which you can watch here on this ustream link: http://ustre.am/1fqNt.
That’s the idea of the tweet-up on the first Wednesday evening of March–to taste and tweet about wines made by women March 5, 2014. We’re going to get started at 5pm Pacific Standard Time.
Back in the early 80s, when I was barely legal and going to Foothill community college, I worked at Ridge Winery in the tasting room up on Montebello Road.
For those of you who remember, you are probably laughing because there was no “tasting room” at Ridge –there was only a tasting table outside, a simple picnic table where we had five wines, usually four zins and a claret, lined up along with a basket of fresh bread (from “City of Paris” as I recall); you went inside the cellar where Kathy poured other offerings and helped you make your purchases.
We were having a Christmas party or some sort of potluck as I recall and it was quite cold. I was a newlywed with a Crockpot and as I was going to be at the tasting room all day, I suggested I make mulled wine. After all, there was always plenty of leftover wine lying around that I never got around to drinking during the week so why not pour all those together and mull them?
Today is the second Franciacorta twitter tasting that I’ve had the opportunity to participate in, thanks to Balzac Communications.
Before September, I don’t think I’d ever tasted this sparkling wine from Italy that rivals Champagne in quality, but is much lesser known. You’d be amazed at the quality that you can get for the money–I know I was!
Tune in to twitter #Franciacorta to see what we think about today’s line-up. Post to follow soon with more tasting notes.
I’m also planning on spending some time with that massive map they sent to learn more about this region that I hope to visit one day soon!
PS And no, I am NOT going to let my son saber the bottles with his new Minecraft sword because Rusty Ginger fought him off!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 