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Don’t Spill Burgundy on My Brassiere – Part Deux
According to the Travel Industry Association, 17 percent of American leisure travelers, or 27.3 million people, have engaged in culinary or wine-related activities while traveling. That would include us, and probably you. And it most definitely includes my friend Kristi.
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Wine Country Travel: The Inn at Occidental
Lucky for us, the Inn at Occidental offers a fabulous gourmet breakfast every morning from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. I had spotted a sign when we’d arrived the night before that said breakfast was served downstairs from the reception area. And we could almost taste the applewood bacon as we walked through the second floor of the house and made our way down two flights of stairs to the dining area. French doors provide entry directly from the handicapped parking area, for those who aren’t able to navigate the stairs.
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Another Wine Byte 10: For the Love of Parker?
Let’s face it; Robert Parker does have influence — and it’s huge. Wineries and wine makers care about Robert Parker because he is King Maker. And all the traditional writers want to talk about the numbers. What number did Parker give the wine? Because if Parker doesn’t like your wine, and gives you a “bad number” the traditional writers aren’t going to suggest that people buy your wine. And that, my friends, is very bad for business. But, what about the consumers? Frankly, OMG I am about to commit a sacrilege here: some wine drinkers do not care what Robert Parker thinks. In fact, many a casual wine drinker does not even know who Robert Parker is!
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American Wine Bloggers’ Conference Heats Up
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The Successful Wine Bar: No Pimpin’ Required
A wine bar opens and begins to attract a following. Then come the lines, the need for bouncers four nights a week, and the requisite “look” necessary to not only get in the door, but be waited on. Soon there is no parking, no room for regulars, and as one guy puts it, the bar becomes “a smorgasbord of plastic, cocaine, and working girls.”
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Break-Up Wine: Do You Own a Bottle of Spite?
On my first trip to Wine Country I knew next-to-nothing about wine. It was in the early 90s. And everyone I knew was drinking White Zinfandel. Some of the adventurous women were drinking Chardonnay. But when I met Joe later; in 1999, I still had this one spiteful little bottle of wine, I’d taken from the ex. It then traveled with me when I moved from Houston to Ohio to go to law school. And again from Toledo back to Houston. And somehow it ended up in the wine jail.
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Wine Pairing Recipes: Wild Salmon & Mussels
Almond Encrusted Salmon with Blood-Orange Vinaigrette; fresh Gulf Coast Mussels with a shallot Muscadet reduction, and a spinach-chevre salad. The blood-orange vinaigrette brought out a zesty orange-peel citrus in the wine, that combined well with its notes of floral and citrus. The menu was such a perfect pairing to the wine, we thought we would publish the recipes, so you could try them as well!
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Give Birth to Your Own Little Sommelier
“We were in our wine cave doing a barrel tasting with a couple from Houston. The cave reminded us of that special place for prenatal development. We looked at our barrel wine extractor, and it made us think of a turkey baster — and Voilà, the idea was ‘born!’ so to speak!” said Rueben, spokeschicken for El Jefe Twisted.
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Spring Has Sprung – Anaba Coriol White Blend
The best thing about Spring, especially for anyone living along the Gulf Coast as I do, is the signal that it’s the perfect time to start drinking white wines. So, for a recent Open that Bottle Night, we decided we needed to try a white Rhône-style blend from Anaba, their 2007 Coriol White.
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Another Wine Byte 9: Vertical Tasting
Ladies, have you ever felt like slapping a guy who just invited you to a horizontal tasting? How about a vertical tasting? Don’t! As suggestive as it sounds, a vertical tasting isn’t an initiation into the “Mile High Club.”