• Home
  • Wine 201 and About Eve
    • Full Disclosure
  • As Seen On
  • Las Vegas Highlights (Press: send your news regarding LV restaurants, bars and wineries to Eve@EveWine101.com)
  • Staff & Guests

Eve's Wine 101

  • Eve Bushman
  • Michael Perlis
  • Eve of Destruction
  • Guests

Where We Started: Drinking Wine and Spirits

January 14, 2022 by evebushman

I recently wrote about how I got started with writing about and studying wine. Made me think about how I got started with drinking both wine and spirits. Had a chat with my husband Eddie, and a boozy trip down memory lane, and this is where it started and led me:

Spirits And Wine

Eve at Del Dotto, into caves with winemaker Gerard Zanzonico, circa March 2012.

When I was in high school and underage drinking was at every party, I have seriously no recollection of imbibing but I’m sure I did – and God knows what. My earliest memories of booze include Bartles and Jaymes Wine Coolers, wine spritzers, as well as Mateus and Blue Nun wines.

Not a fan of beer but I did enjoy Mickey’s Big Mouth malt liquor at least once.

Fast forward to my early 20s and I enjoyed Myer’s Dark rum with orange juice, Long Island Iced Tea, Cosmopolitans, Tequila Sunrise and Kahlua with milk, cream and/or vodka. So yea, I wanted sweet cocktails, preferably ones that hid the flavor of the base spirit.

When I met Eddie his mother introduced me to Vodka Tonics. Later came single spirits, for Eddie it was Chivas Regal blended Scotch whisky, for me my tastes evolved much later, into single malt, as there’s what Eddie became more interested in. I was covering cocktail events, which we both loved, and then whisky events. In both I was learning more and more about the spirits, and how to make cocktails with them.

While I prefer gin cocktails like a Negroni or a Martini, Eddie prefers whisky. So added to my home-bartending recipes are the Sazerac, Old Fashioned and Manhattan.

Only Wine

I never drank White Zinfandel. When that was introduced I was enjoying red Zinfandel. I can remember being at Sutter Home in Napa and everyone ordering White Zinfandel, it was the moment I had to start saying “red” before the word Zinfandel to get what I wanted. Thank God that craze is over.

After we got married my sister-in-law and her husband invited us to a vertical wine tasting at Concannon. I didn’t know what that was at the time but quickly learned that we were to taste the same wine from the same winery over several years. It was U.S. my a ha moment as we carefully studied the difference in each vintage. A few years later, during our first trip to France, I wanted to visit Willi’s Wine Bar that I had read about in Wine Spectator. I’ve written about Willi’s several times over the years, suffice it to say that being introduced to the perfect Chateau Lynch Bages Bordeaux with owner Mark Williamson was a turning point for me.

Around the same time my first wine classes were via The Wine House in West Los Angeles: starting with sparkling wine and junk food, Chardonnay Fests, Cab Fests, and a few weeks worth of classes just on France. It would be decades later, after already obtaining my WSET Level Two that I would return there for classes held there by the North American Sommelier Association and my Level One Sake Certification.

Now, how did you get started?

Eve Bushman has a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a “certification in first globally-recognized course” as an American Wine Specialist ® from the North American Sommelier Association (NASA), Level 1 Sake Award from WSET, was the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video (over 16k views), authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and has served as a judge for the Long Beach Grand Cru and the Global Wine Awards. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits.

Filed Under: Eve Bushman Tagged With: bartending, blend, Bordeaux, cocktails, France, french, gin, liquor, Martini, negroni, rum, scotch, single malt, spirits, sweet, vodka, whisky event, willi's wine bar, wine and spirits, wine cooler, wine education, wine event, wine fest, Wine tasting, WSET, Zinfandel

Vintage Eve Circa Feb 2013: Whine Epiphanies

February 28, 2017 by evebushman

In my 20s I drank white wine for several reasons. I ordered the “house white” because I didn’t know anything about wine, it was inexpensive, and I didn’t want to get drunk on the popular cocktails back then: Long Island Iced Teas and Cosmopolitans.

vert_de_vin_bordeaux_fete_le_vin_artifice

Bordeaux at night for a special event.

White wine “Spritzers”, as they were called, worked really well when I spent the entire night on a dance floor and wanted to be refreshed just so that I could keep on dancing. My friends, at least the ladies, did the same. While the menfolk drank the cocktails, we stuck to the wine.

My epiphany came before most ladies moved from white wine to White Zinfandel. (I remember learning about Zin before the craze – so much so that when others were ordering the white version I hunted down the red. But I do appreciate what White Zinfandel did for bringing the mainstream drinking public over to wine.)

Readers that have asked me how I got into wine have brought this trip down memory lane to you. I started much like any other wine drinker. But, lucky for me, I had two wine “epiphanies” that sent me very far away from a lifetime of house wine and spritzers.

Epiphany #1

My future in-laws took us out for a vertical wine tasting at Concannon Vineyard over 20 years ago. As I recall we started with a couple of barrel tastings for the same red varietal, then ended up tasting the same wines finished in the bottle. Doing it this way allowed for me to begin to see the gradual changes being made in the wine, mature fruit, tannins and structure replaced bright fruit and sweetness. My palate, unbeknownst to me as I had yet to learn the right words to describe it, had matured in one afternoon.

Epiphany #2

Fast-forward a couple of years and my future husband Eddie and I were on a vacation in Europe. I was reading the Wine Spectator avidly by this point and anxious to taste French wines in France. One Parisian restaurant/wine bar, Willi’s Wine Bar, was highly recommended by the Spectator, and run by English-speaking vinophiles. That was to be a stop we had to make.

I’ve written about our first trip to Willi’s (link: http://www.localwineevents.com/Wine-Articles/424-2.html) and the first time I had my first taste of Lynch Bages Bordeaux. I wish I had written tasting notes back then, but I didn’t.

But the epiphany came due to several factors: I was in Paris with my future husband, we were dining at a special restaurant only because of a Wine Spectator review – and we were actively making memories of the night.

We have since purchased Lynch Bages over the years, I even found one bottle from our wedding year at Valencia Wine Company that now rests in our cellar. And we recently purchased the ’09 as a future, and discovered that Spectator highlighted it as #93 out of their Top 100 list for 2012.

Now, with a career firmly entrenched in all things wine, I have an epiphany yearly. I may discover a new winemaker, a new pal with the same appreciation or one just learning. And, most recently, my website’s editor, Michael Perlis, propelled us into the business of Eve Wine 101 consulting (now Eve Bushman Consulting). Gee…maybe if you’re reading this it’s high time you (or your wine business) had an epiphany?   Taste and ye shall find my friend; we’re here to lead you on the proper spritzer-less path.

Filed Under: Eve Bushman Tagged With: Barrel, Bordeaux, bottle, cocktail, France, fruit, palate, spritz, structure, tannins, Valencia Wine Company, varietal, vineyard, vino, white wine, willi's wine bar, wine spectator, Wine tasting, Zinfandel

Vintage Beacon 12/2010: Eve-Proof Wine Gifts for your Shopping Pleasure Today

September 8, 2015 by evebushman

My favorite wine bar in Paris, Willi’s Wine Bar, is having an “Anniversary Celebration Offer” on their posters – of which I now personally own four:

The Willi’s Bottle Art Collection now spans three decades during which time Willi’s has commissioned many contemporary artists to create a new image for our ongoing series – a visual emotion of what we strive to put in your wine glass. An individual artist’s expression of the pleasures of wine. Our “Bottle Art” posters have found their way into wine lore across the Globe as souvenirs of a moment sipping wine in a bar in Paris – for the people who managed to find us – to corporate offices where people recall life beyond the desk, to the cellars of the passionate wine lover, as well as those of many talented, dedicated wine producers, not forgetting the ultimate use of covering a crack in the paintwork.

Join Willi’s Wine Bar – Aims du Comptoir on Facebook

Willi’s Wine Bar http://www.williswinebar.com “A boire & a voir since 1980”

Willi’s Bottle Art http://www.williswinebar.us “World Wide but not Beyond”

10658593_753566608012753_165631314326406791_o

Bottlehood re-purposes wine, beer and liquor bottles into beautiful glassware such as tumblers, hurricanes, vases, candles and cheese boards. We sell to restaurants, wine bars, pubs, wineries, gift stores and retail to individual customers. These items make great holiday gifts for both wine and beer enthusiasts. Visit www.bottlehood.com to order using discount code: LA-XM. Resellers and wineries should contact Xochitl Maiman direct at 818/424-3734

From our very own Nick Morello and his Morello Wines we have a 2008 Chardonnay, Leona Valley-$36 and 2008 Pinot Noir, Paso Robles-$36. Order online for 10% off 1-5 bottles, 20% off 6-11 bottles and 30% off 12 or more bottles. www.MorelloWines.com or call Nick Morello at 661-373-2622. Santa Barbara and Santa Clarita delivery available. (My review of these wines is on http://evewine101.blogspot.com today!)

All of the wine selections at Valencia Wine Company are 10 % off bottle one, 15% off 6 bottles or more and 20% of 12 ore more bottles. May also want to check out their wine club as a great gift. http://www.valenciawine.com/

Here are some ideas from Wine 661 owner, Tanya Green: Wine 661 is a great place for any Wineaux: We’ve been flying through our wine totes.  They’re cute little purse look-alikes (in various styles and colors) that hold a bottle of vino and come with a corkscrew inside!  Perfect for the Hollywood Bowl or taking your own bottle to a restaurant (so you don’t have to carry your bottle in like some amateur).  $39.99.

I also have some new, hand-painted wine signs made out of barrel staves.  They’re stained with the red wine that they once held and each has a cool wine saying i.e. “In Vino Veritas”. In Wine Is Truth.” $79.99

Another new fave around here are the ApresVin Grape Seed Oils.  They’re made from wine varietal grape seeds and come in exotic flavors like Chardonnay Provencal, Chipotle Merlot and Chardonnay Morocco.  They’re incredibly tasty, full of antioxidants and have a higher “flash-point” than olive oil so they don’t burn.  If olive oil gets too hot, it burns and turns toxic.  No bueno!  ApresVin oils come in two sizes: 5oz for $14.99 or 12.7oz for $29.99.

And of course, I have great gift bottles for the holidays; Caymus, Silver Oak, Joseph Phelps, Cain Five, Justin etc.  And one-of-a-kind wine stoppers made of hand-blown glass by a local artist.

And what did I just order for myself while shopping for others this season: Two personalized wine bottle ornaments for $12.98 and a wine cork trivet for $14.98 from LillianVernon.com

“My Fountain Of Youth Only Works When It’s Filled With Wine” T-Shirt for $10.98 from WhatOnEarthCatalog.com

Personalized wine bags that also have a big “Cheers!” greeting. For 24 I paid $14.99 from PersonalCreations.com

Filed Under: Eve Bushman Tagged With: Chardonnay, France, Paso Robles, Pinot Noir, Valencia Wine Company, willi's wine bar, wine 661

Recent Posts

Sidewalk Side Spirits Wants a Bite of the Flavored Whiskey Market

NEW ORLEANS /PRNewswire/ -- Spirits Brand Incubator company, Sidewalk Side … [Read More...]

  • Wine Paris and Vinexpo Paris 2023, turning the spotlight on Be Spirits
  • Garagiste Wine Festival Returns to Santa Ynez Valley: February 10th and 11th
  • Tasting Argentina’s Domaine Bousquet Reserve Certified Organic Wines

Eve Bushman

Eve Bushman, owner Eve’s Wine 101 and Eve Bushman Consulting.

Featured Video

SPONSORS

 

 

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in