Living in Europe, I am often inundated with questions concerning the California wine scene. After all, we do have the reputation of abounding with new and innovative ideas for wines. In fact, when my stateside friends come for a visit, they are expected to pay tribute to this self-proclaimed Caesar. My friends are quick to…
DAOU Vineyards was next on our list of wineries that I had selected for Jordan and Natasha Siperstein. The DAOU staff welcomed us, as they do all of their guests, with open arms. Lisa Colwell (Assistant Tasting Room Manager) introduced herself and led us to a beautiful private tasting room that was set for a king. …
The Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona has been around an incredible 75 years. Per their website, it “is the oldest and largest hospitality management program in California”. They recently held a dinner to celebrate this achievement at their on-campus restaurant – The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch. In attendance were alumni of…
To those that know me it is no secret that I am in love with Paso Robles. Yes, I still collect wines from France and Italy but Paso is growing to become a second Napa Valley in my opinion. This area has a wide variety of wines to select from over 300 vineyards producing many…
Instead of attending as media during the day, this time I opted to dress up, bring my hubby, and see what it’s like to attend http://www.LearnAboutWine.com’s STARS of Santa Barbara wine tasting event at night, like normal people. I quickly discovered that the crowd didn’t walk around with notepads or cameras, so I easily got…
THE INVITE: Long before Sideways, LearnAboutWine was telling their audience that Santa Barbara winemakers are producing some of the best wines in the world. We invite the “Best of the Best”, “the brand standards” and “the newest and most up and coming” to our participate in the 10th Annual STARS of Santa Barbara at the…
Dinner with close friends is always a special affair. Tonight we enjoyed Pork Tenderloin Cordon Bleau with mushrooms and mustard cream sauce. Pork tenderloin is one of the best pork cuts. For me, it is the “Chateaubriand” of pork. As for the wine …we paired our feast with a lovely white Burgundy … What? White…
Stillman Brown has been making wine for a long time – he just completed his 30th harvest. I first came across him when he was with Jory Winery [anyone remember The Black Hand?], then lost track of him for awhile. A few years ago, I rediscovered him and his Zeppelin Winery label. He also makes…
After reading Eve’s article on Hungry Cat’s Oyster Bar, I was inspired to say a few words on what wines pair best with “The Pearl of the Sea.” One does not have to be a sommelier, or James Bond, to know the classic pairing to be with Champagne. And it seems with agent 007, the…
Granted, it was a wee bit difficult for some to get past winemaker Jean-Luc Colombo’s heavily accented-English. The one word I did pick up, which peppered most of his one-hour lecture, was “stupid.” When I laughed out loud at one of his stories, detailing a wine practice he thought was stupid, I got a smile…