Need a get-away for an all-girls weekend? How about a peaceful retreat from the frenetic pace of the city? Either can be yours at the delightful Yellow House Bed & Breakfast in Salado, Texas! Less than an hour north of Austin, two hours South of Dallas, and three hours from Houston, the Yellow House Bed and Breakfast is delightfully different from the lace-doilied lodging lampooned by IFC’s Portlandia. Cathy and Brian Harris have created a […]
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Jessup Cellars & Butterfly Restaurant: A Winning Combination
A beautiful view, incredible food and great company. Add wine and lively conversation, and you’ve got a winner. We found one when Butterfly Restaurant’s Chef Rob Lam served up some fabulous dishes to pair with Jessup Cellars wines from Napa Valley. Last week I traveled to San Francisco, California to attend the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers annual Zinfandel Festival, and meet with the brains and brawn behind Creative Furnace to help plan an exciting conference […]
Continue readingMore TagWin Tickets to San Francisco Zinfandel Festival, Jan 31 – Feb 2
UPDATE: Friday, January 25 is the last day to enter to win tickets to the San Francisco Zinfandel Wine Festival. Make sure you enter to win a pair of tickets to wine tastings and food pairings at this awesome event January 31 to Feb 2. There’s a guy who makes wine he calls Bedrock But he didn’t go into it half-cocked. He was raised in a cellar, what a cute little fellar, Some might say […]
Continue readingMore TagThe Agony and the Ecstasy: A Whirlwind Trip to Italy Part 1
If the upcoming week held the promise of a three day concert in one of your favorite cities, say Austin, TX, featuring some of your favorite artists of the past 40 years or so, including say Iggy and the Stooges, Jack White and The Black Keys, not to mention the debut of a couple of your favorite television shows that featured, say zombies and haunted houses, and a big game for your football team, would […]
Continue readingMore TagWine Bloggers’ 5-Year Reunion: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Redux
Thoughts of attending a high school reunion lead to a barrage of emotional responses. From “I Can’t Wait!” to “Not just no; but Hell, No!” and plenty in-between, a reunion is different things to different people. For one whom high school was the pinnacle of his existence, it is a chance to relive the memories and for a brief time forget that he is no longer the star quarterback, the debate team ace or she […]
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Seghesio: Still a Family Winery
It was raining when I arrived at the vast Seghesio Family Vineyards’ facilities for a harvest time tour. Unlike Texas that would have welcomed it after a drought that wrought mass brush fires searing a swath through the Lone Star State culminating with a firestorm known as the Bastrop County Complex Fire, the early California rain was not invited. The particular Texas hell storm that engulfed Bastrop had, by September 30, destroyed 1,645 homes, burned 34,068 […]
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Reality: The Myth. On Super Bowls and Santorini
While I am serving snacks during half-time of the Super Bowl, I am forced to watch a 53-year old Madonna lip-syncing her greatest hits. Then comes the pom-poms and the cheerleader skirt. Are you SERIOUS, I say aloud? This is what has become of my generation?
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Wine & Food Erotica from Charlottesville, Virginia
Eric Asmiov, who writes for the New York Times “Diner’s Journal Blog”, told bloggers in his keynote speech at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, that he learned to think about wine in terms of drinking it, as opposed to tasting it. Simply tasting it, says Asimov, misses the point in forming a connection with wine, to those of us who are passionate about it.
Continue readingMore TagEast Bound & Down, in Charlottesville for WBC11
Yesterday we left the sweltering heat of Houston in the morning, grabbed breakfast at the airport (never a good idea) and headed east to join our friends at the fourth annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference. Although we had a “direct flight” Southwest Airlines really does ensure you are “free to travel around the country.” Our plane stopped in New Orleans to pick up a few more passengers and we headed to Baltimore. While Charlottesville, […]
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