October 13, 2012
Daily Decadence: The Art of Sensual Living by Sherri Dobay (Twitter, Facebook) is a mashup of a lifetime’s worth of short anecdotes about love, life, art, and wine, all centered around detailed recipes for gourmet cooking. Dobay is well-experienced in a life centered around the luxury of the arts, fine food and wine. After growing up on a horse farm and attending private schools, surrounded by art, she took the opportunity to travel quite extensively throughout the world before settling down in the valley of my hometown, of Napa. She is an accomplished painter, graphic designer, and also the owner of a small wine label called Ruby Kurant Wine. With a foreword by none other than the Senior Editor of Wine Spectator, James Laube, her book promises to return a life back to inspired luxury and sensual awareness within each moment, ie. bring sexy back.
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September 16, 2012
OK, yes…Italy is IT-tal-ly, I know. But still, I was not expecting the wealth of life experience that I encountered in the rolling Tuscan hills of the Chianti Classico (WineLog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) wine region. As announced previously, in late May of this year, I had the chance to tour through the majestic, rural countryside of the Chianti Classico DOCG. Much our our time was spent in many of the nine small, ancient villages that dot the rolling hilltops of that portion of Tuscany. They sit above the long-planted vines, gaining sustenance from the fantastic soils that have produced renowned wine for over a thousand years. One of these truly unique villages, Panzano in Chianti, lounges above the Conca d’Oro or “Golden Shell,” considered the most beautiful and highly regarded vineyards in all of the DOCG. It is here that we spent some of the best food and wine moments of my life.
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August 2, 2012
Following the great success of the Wine Riot (#WineRiot) events in Boston, Washington D.C., & Chicago, Second Glass (Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo) is bringing their riotous event to the great cities of San Francisco & Los Angeles. I will be front and center at both with our newest Le Wine Buff, Sam Klingberg (Twitter, Facebook), by my side as we sling the tastiest of affordable Bordeaux (Twitter, Facebook, WineLog) to the vinous masses. The Bordeaux crew have already hit up the first three Wine Riot events this year, with my boy Sam getting his kicks in before me, repping his home ChiTown. So what exactly is a Wine Riot and how does one partake in this wine drinking tasting event? Leave it to the crazy peeps at Second Glass to provide a riotous guide for the multitude of activities in which each vinopanion can partake.
More deets after the break!
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July 8, 2012
This last day (09/22/12) in the Kingdom of Navarra (Twitter, Facebook) were both a happy and a sad dream, in multiple ways. On the one hand, we visited another stunning estate in the Navarra DO of Spanish wine country, but on the other hand it was our last day of the trip, so…As you can imagine, we had many moments of elation and wistfulness that day, all bouncing around together, in our heads and hearts. Similar to the previous days on the trip, we began our morning with a historical lesson followed by an eye-massagingly beautiful bodega, with lunch provided at said estate. It was a tremendous way to end our #Navarra5 trip.
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June 13, 2012
Oohhh, happy days are here againnn, for Pinot Days (Twitter, Facebook) is BACK again! My imbibing readers might remember that I’m a rather large fan of this grand tasting, held each year at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, along with a few other cities around the US of A. While it has become something of a cliché in this enlightened age of Pinot enjoyment, I truly believe that Pinot Noir is a wonderful conduit to the sense of origin that a wine can transmit to one’s happy taste buds. As such, it is an exhilarating experience to have the chance to taste over 500 Pinot Noir wines from every major domestic growing region (and some international ones). The Pinot Days Grand Festival Public Tasting (06/16/12) provides this unparalleled comparison tasting experience along with a whole bunch mo’ coolness, each and every year. This year I can help you experience this Pinotphoria, with a handy ticket discount. More after the jump!
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May 20, 2012
It is with great excitement that I can announce a new media trip, close on my Vinopanion horizon, to the venerable and very historic Tuscan wine region of Chianti Classico DOCG (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WineLog). I will start my trip to Florence, Italy to rendevous with the traveling #ChiantiClass12 group this Thursday, May 24, 2012, with the official start of the trip on Friday the 25th. Much like my previous adventures across the pond, I will be posting a lot of microblog content in real-time, including Twitter (#ChiantiClass12), Flickr, and through my Facebook profile & on Vinopanion‘s. Learn more about this fascinating wine region after the break, cin cin!
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May 12, 2012
Regular followers of the Vinopanion wine madness know that I regularly partake in the fun online Twitter tastings, brought to us by TasteLive! (Twitter, WineLog). Many a post has been written and a wine has been reviewed about their solid tastings. Now the innovative wine minds behind #tl_wine are kicking it up a notch, launching Café 140 as their latest online, and now physical, wine & lifestyle event series.
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May 7, 2012
Dawn broke for our third day (9/21/11) in the Kingdom of Navarra (Twitter, Facebook) with brilliant signs pointing to even more glorious weather to accompany our travels around this Spanish wine kingdom. From the window of my hotel room at the historic Palacio Guandelain in Pamplona, I could see and hear the rumblings of the (rare) early rising Navarrans in the plaza that stretched out from the hotel front. I couldn’t wait to get started on our travels back to the Ribera Alta sub-region of the Navarra DO appellation. I felt rather rested, since I had given my body the morning off from my usual run, following my great success at getting thoroughly lost, the prior morning.
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April 19, 2012
Yes, that there in the title is the name of a spirit…a SPIRIT!? You ask such a question since I’ve never written about any spirits in the long history of Vinopanion, except for the occasional mention of Bourbon, after the previously enjoyed wine and Port, ahem, or something. Yet, I am finally throwing down the spirit gauntlet (goblet?), and am excited to talk about the Peruvian grape-distilled spirit known as Pisco. Yet, discussing the fine premium aspects of true Pisco does not put a slash across my wine-writing obsession, it merely adds to the annals of my vinous discovery. For what is Pisco distilled from? Come now…you must have guessed it by now: grapes! Pisco is the national grape brandy of Peru and as such, is as highly regulated for quality and style as the finest and more widely known grape-distilled spirits found across the fine continent of Europe.
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March 24, 2012
I attend a large number wine events. That might even be an understatement, to which my fine readers can attest! Thus, I feel that it’s saying something to describe an upcoming wine event as one of my favorite series of wine events, ever. The San Francisco Vintners Market (Twitter, Facebook, WineLog) wine tastings are those exact events: totally fun, onsite wine purchasing available, and of course, fantastic wines to taste in unlimited amounts. And lucky readers, for round 5 (DING) of the #SFVM, I now have a fat discount so you cats can partake!
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