Jason and I were recently in Lewes, Delaware with some of his Haverford buddies when we came across a cute wine bar/gourmet pizza shop.

Half Full’s wine list includes many familiar and a few unique reds and whites. The bottle prices range from the mid-twenties to the low-forties and their by-the-glass prices are $11 and under.

If you’re looking for something tasty to pair with your pour, the restaurant has a long list of specialty/gourmet pizzas. Try the “not your average pepperoni” pie with a glass of Palagetto Chianti 2004 or the “artichoke goat cheese” with a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2006 or another high-acid white.

In our continued series on the VA Wine Festival, this is a post about our tasting with Fabbioli Cellars.

We tasted their full current line of all red wines, including a very intriguing desert wine: Raspberry Merlot. The good news here is that all of their wines were decent or better. Having stopped at some booths where every wine was a dud, Fabbioli Cellars was a refreshing and much appreciated surprise.

Fabbioli Cabernet Franc 2006, $18
Jason and I both re-discovered Cabernet Franc at the festival, and Fabbioli’s vintage was one of our favorites. The wine fell perfectly between the full-bodied reds that I favor and the lighter/brighter reds that Jason prefers. Their tasting note sheet says “One of the best Cabernet Francs you will taste today”… I couldn’t agree more.

Well, it’s only taken us about 3 weeks to get to it, but we are finally gearing up for a series of posts about the Virginia Wine Festival, held on September 15 and 16. Joined by my sister, Heidi, and her boyfriend Mike, we attacked the festival on Saturday afternoon after a traffic-filled ride up from Richmond. The line at the entrance was very long, but luckily we had purchased tickets in advance and were able to jump to the front. This is a great tip to remember for any wine festival you attend - and in this case you even got a $5 discount for purchasing head of time. Tickets were $25 at the door ($20 in advance).

Sadly, there was no jumping to the front in the 3 crowded tasting tents! We had no plan of attack and didn’t do much in the way of researching the participating wineries. Although Dezel did give Jason a few tips on which wineries NOT to miss (more to come on that in future posts).

Over the next week, we’ll be writing more about the shining star wineries in attendance, including:

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting to learn what special wine gift Jason chose for my birthday present. Sadly, I was way off base, but Jason was very flattered by the “He’s a GREAT gift giver” comment, so all is well is married land.

The wine he chose is part of an Italian themed birthday event planned for October 10th. We’ll be drinking Pio Cesare Barolo 2001 at a BYOW in Philadelphia before heading to the Kimmel Center to see Rigoletto, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi featuring Jason’s favorite “get pumped” song, “La donna e mobile.”

My birthday is coming up and Jason has been sneakily running errands and browsing websites I can’t see for the past few weeks. I am a terrible person to try to surprise because I am a very keen detective.

So far, I’ve learned that one of my presents is a bottle of wine. I know this because he came home one day with two bottles (Montes Alpha Chardonnay 2005 and Chateau Tuilerie Attrape Coeur 2003) and won’t fork over the receipt! Hmmmmmm….

Now that my brain is whirring with all of the possible wines he could have chosen, I decided to put my energy to good use and write about some of my favorite “celebration” wines. I say “celebration” wines not because they are necessarily good for a party or strictly sparklers, but because they are wines that I have had (or would like to have), that I wouldn’t spring for with an everyday dinner. Those days, I stick to my tried and true $10 to $15 bottles.

In no particular order, here are some of my top pick “celebration” wines of the moment

In partnership with J.J. Buckley Fine Wines, WineLoggers can order Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 for $53.99/bottle (that’s a 10% savings!). Buy it NOW! then log it here.

If you’re a red wine lover and haven’t already tasted it, we can assure you that the 2004 Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is currently listed on your wine recommendations page. It’s one of WineLog’s most active wines - both for our registered users and general site visitors.

We’ve tasted the wine and have to agree that it is an excellent selection. The WineLog community rates this wine between 4 and 5 stars! The nose is beautifully full of cedar. The first taste is somewhat mild, but additional sips give way to black cherries, subtle oak, and spicy black pepper.

You’ve probably seen their shirts in wine shops around the country. But, have you seen me and Jason in them?

Lynne from Glasshalfull.com sent over two shirts for Jason and me, and let me tell you, they’re now our favorite t-shirts. The shirts fit great and are a good color for matching with a variety of bottoms, if you need to leave your house or something. But, more awesome than the great shirt itself, is the funny wine quote shown on the back!

My shirt says “Take me and a cab home” and Jason’s reads “He who dies with the best tannins wins.” I felt a little sorry for him, seeing as how my saying is so much better, but he’s happy either way.

Some other funny quotes include…

Express your personal style by adding an avatar (profile picture) to your WineLog account. Here’s how:

Log in to WineLog and go to your my account page. Click the “change” link next to your current avatar to update it.

The Change Avatar page displays your current avatar and some default avatars created by the WineLog team.

To upload a personal image, browse and locate the desired image on your computer. For best results, upload a square image greater than 128px.

Next, click on the “Click Here to Upload” button.

Your personal avatar will be automatically cropped to a square image and resized for use on the site.

Feel free to contact us if you need help setting up your avatar.

Ed at QuakeGuardian® sent over a lovely assortment of his wine bottle saving and labeling inventions, QuakeGuardian® and WineTagIt!®.

To win this prize package, all you need to do is invite friends to WineLog. For each successful invite (where the person you invite joins our community), you will receive one entry into the raffle. We’ve also upgraded the invite friends feature to keep track of who you are inviting and automatically add them to your My Friends page after successful registration.

The best new product inventions fill a need and are easy to explain. While Jason and I sometimes have trouble explaining our digital inventions, inventor Ed Schmidt surely suffers no such difficulty.

Ed lives in California, a state known for its fabulous wine and occasional earthquake. So, as his wine collection grew, he became troubled by the possibility of losing it all during an unexpected seismic event. He invented his first product, QuakeGuardian®, to keep wine bottles secured on their racks. The invention is easy to install: you simply anchor a metal pin into the wood of your wine rack and then slip the attached ring around the neck of the wine bottle. The product is available in a gold-tone or black finish.

Learn about how you can win a free prize package from QuakeGuardian®