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What You May Not Know About Sake (AKA What I Learned From WSET Level 1 Award in Sake)
Last week in the SCV Beacon I shared all that I was expected to learn at my Level 1 Sake class awarded by Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). This week I want to share some of what I learned that I thought readers might enjoy: A small wine glass is “ideal for serving premium…
Vintage Eve Circa Feb 2012: Wine Tasting on Cruise Ships
Cruise ship wine tastings are a nice diversion for a day at sea. And since it takes a day just to get to Glacier Bay in Alaska, and I wasn’t going to spend it all in the spa or playing Rummikub with my mother, carving out an hour of me time was not a problem….
Vintage Eve Circa 9/2011: Old Bridge Cellars Tasting
For a recent wine tasting I was tasked with finding a wine made from the Semillon grape to share with a dozen or more other people, with the same task. I did an Google search to see what was new that I could come up with. I was interested in trying Stickybeak as another Facebook…
Visiting Greece, Via Ktima Gerovassiliou
Cori Solomon, organizer of #LAWineWriters, recently arranged for our group to meet with Thrass Giantsidis of Greece’s renowned Ktima Gerovassillou all-estate winery. The plan: To boldly go where…wait…to be led through a tasting of his highly-awarded wines along with some small plates at Downtown LA’s Ledlow restaurant. I did a little research on Ktima Gerovassiliou…
Vintage Eve Circa 9/2011: Two Bottle Post – Patland
As it’s the Friday before a long weekend, I give you two wines from Napa Valley’s Patland Estate Vineyards to consider drinking if you’re housebound or bound to parts unknown: 08 Proprietary Red Wine Terra Del Cuore 14.8% alcohol Bottle No. 1008 of 1560 Napa Valley Color – Opaque, purple, deep ruby edge. Aroma –Mint,…
THE OTHER WINE COUNTRY? PART II: Perlis Picks Sonoma Coast and the Petaluma Gap
I know I said that our time on the Sonoma Coast was going to be the wineless part of the trip. Well, I should have said “less-wine” instead of wineless, because “no wine” is just not doable. Heading south from the Timber Cove Inn, passing through Bodega Bay, we came across a sign with a…
Vintage Eve 4/2011: A Truly Inspired Cass Wine Pairing Dinner
“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.” Ted Plemons, CASS winery partner. Guests at a recent CASS wine pairing dinner were treated to more than one Ted-Ism, as Ted Plemons wife, Lisa, calls her husband’s affable speech, on a warm night on Salt Creek Grille’s patio. But first, SCG…
Vintage Beacon April/2011: Goddess Night
There was more than one Goddess braving the SCV cold in nothing but a toga and a ceremonial grapevine headdress on one recent Friday night. Me, as the temporary Goddess for Circle of Hope’s Vine 2 Wine event in June, and the Goddess of Wine, a fellow-wine blogger, wine educator, WSET Level Two Certified, lucky-for-me-she-lives-in-Burbank-and-can’t-take-my-peeps-home-with-her,…
Tasting the September 2015 New Releases from Vina Robles Vineyards and Winery
This is the third vintage from winemaker Kevin Willenborg at Vina Robles in Paso Robles, and, as I was a fan of the last two, I couldn’t wait to taste them. We work our way up dear reader, whites to reds in a tasting of four wines that I don’t think you should pass up….