another wine blog

This is definitely a sangria with some zing. Give it a try on a hot summer afternoon.
1 bottle of Zinfandel or Syrah
2 cups Vernor’s ginger ale
1/4 cup simple syrup
2 lemons cut into wedges
1 orange cut into wedges
2 limes cut into wedges
1 ruby red grapefruit, segmented
1 oz good gin
Make sure that all ingredients are well chilled [...]

That’s what my youngest son thinks, at least. Being 13, he may be a bit prone to hyperbole, but I am pretty sure it is at least in the top 100. I had a fairly cheap late harvest Riesling with this, and it was a fantastic summery meal. This is a variation on a salad [...]

A couple of days ago I recommended Polka Dot Riesling as a good wine to eat while cooking barbecue, yesterday I used it to make a nice cold, refreshing sangria to drink WHILE I was barbecuing. This white sangria tastes like a crisp, tart lemonade, but much less sweet.
Start by chilling a bottle of a [...]

Sometimes life becomes too routine, it feels like you are stuck in a rut. Perhaps the rut seems to be approaching chasm status. The work week can’t get over fast enough and the weekend is over before you know it was even here. Sunday brings a sense of dread because you can hear Monday scratching [...]

Over the weekend my wife and I attended a wine stroll in Galveston on the Strand. It was a wonderful event. The Strand is a beautiful district that combines ultra-touristy shops, history, and increasingly, some of the best restaurants in the state of Texas. The last claim was born out by a chance meeting as [...]

In his immortal song “Anthem” Leonard Cohen says:
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
I have loved that lyric from the first time that I heard it. It holds true for so many things. A crooked smile or some other “flaw” are often what elevate a pretty woman to a beautiful [...]

When we think of great food our imagination can be forgiven for conjuring up images of sizzling, perfectly cooked steaks, or the memory of a sublime creation with exotic ingredients and a stunning sauce from the kitchen of a magical restaurant visited on a past journey. But few of us are able to eat meals [...]

Last night my wife and I went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. She remarked that we seemed to have swapped tastes. She was ordering Philadelphia rolls and Texas/Japanese fusion style items that would make a sushi purist cringe, but are actually quite tasty, and I had ordered simple raw fish and rice. This [...]

There are moments in our lives that transcend our everyday existence. The mundane becomes sublime for an instant and we know that something special, maybe even magical, has happened. Defining what it is that has happened is something else entirely. Joy, satisfaction, happiness, contentment, and my personal favorite, peace, may all be part of it, [...]