Category: Posts

  • Celebrate Your Love with Sparkling Wine from Limoux! (redux)

    Celebrate Your Love with Sparkling Wine from Limoux! (redux)

    This post was originally published on January 30, 2016. Tim and Phyllis have since sold French Country Wines and sadly, the new owners do not carry this lovely wine. Wine lovers in Houston and nationally are discovering sparkling wines that originated nearly 100 years before Dom Pérignon was born, and years before Champagne became the […]

  • Survival Sourdough Starter

    Survival Sourdough Starter

    Hey, long time no see! How have you been? Look at you, you haven’t aged a single day since I last saw you. Me? Oh, I’ve been well, thanks for asking! I’ve been around, I just didn’t have much new to say lately. Recently I posted on Facebook about how easy it is to make […]

  • 2009 Stark Viognier, Damiano Vineyard, Sierra Foothills

    2009 Stark Viognier, Damiano Vineyard, Sierra Foothills

    We, like many people we know ‘cellar’ our red wines. I say “cellar” because Houston homes do not have basements so any wine aging room is often custom designed to mimic the temperature and humidity found in a European cellar or a California cave. We do not have that luxury, so our wines aged for […]

  • Steele Stymie Founder’s Reserve 2016 Syrah

    Steele Stymie Founder’s Reserve 2016 Syrah

    Last night we joined a group of other wine folks for a virtual tasting of Steele Wines with winemaker and owner Jed Steele.  With over 50 years’  in the wine industry, Jed started with a cellar position after playing basketball on scholarship for Gonzaga University, then went back to school at University of California – […]

  • Two Days in Dublin, Ireland: Day 1

    Two Days in Dublin, Ireland: Day 1

    Have a trip planned to Spain? Aer Lingus has some of the best air fares from the United States to Europe! If you plan your flights just right, you can turn an extended layover into a short visit to Dublin. This gives you just enough time to get a flavor for Ireland — and guarantee […]

  • Photos of Spain – Monstant

    Recently Amy and I participated in a press trip to Catalan. We visited the wine region of Monsant, an area that surrounds Priorat. It is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet, a fact I was reminded of this morning when I started looking through my photos for ideas. So many gorgeous […]

  • Raw Milk Does a Body Good: Healthyway Dairy

    “It’s real milk, from a cow.” Jacob looks at me in disbelief and I realize that sounds crazy. “I mean straight from the cow, instead of the grocery store,” I say. It tastes different. Better. Thus becomes my love affair with raw milk and Healthyway Dairy farm in Santa Fe, Texas. Why a Dairy Farm? […]

  • 2008 Jemrose “Gloria’s Gem” Proprietary Blend

    Often when we put together wine and food pairings the food comes first, and then the wine. Not this time. Knowing the intensity and flavor of this 2008 deep red vixen from Bennett Valley in Sonoma County, we needed something with gusto to stand up to it. Enter pork belly. Pork belly is so very […]

  • Loire Valley: Castles, Caves au Coeur de France

    No doubt you are aware Loire Valley Wines represent the top producer of white AOC wines, but did you know this important French wine region produces Reds, Rose and Bubbles in its 48,000 hectares of vineyards as well? Located in the heart of France, the Loire Valley’s 79 appellations and denominations employ over 5,000 professions […]

  • Wine Travel Loire Valley: The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud

    This place is immense, I think to myself as I descend from the hill where the shuttle from the train station deposits us. And white. So white that it is difficult to take a proper picture in the sun. White gravel turns my black shoes dusty. White stone walls reach toward the blue sky. White […]