Rosé Fest 2011- Part 1 Hurray for Pink Wines!
I have a thing for Rosé wines. I’ve been drinking then for almost as long as I’ve been drinking wine. In 2000, I began the (mostly) annual tradition of the Rosé Fest tasting party. Over the next couple of posts, I will be sharing thoughts and dishes from this year’s Rosé Fest.
read moreSanta Barbara Getaway- Part 5- A Stop Along the Urban Wine Trail
On this last day of my Santa Barbara getaway, I stay in the coastal resort town and make a stop along the Urban Wine Trail.
read moreSanta Barbara Getaway- Part 4 – Foley Wines and Ollalieberry Cobbler
A drive up coastal 101 to the wine country, where I’m treated to the sight of rolling green hills with occasional grazing horses to my right, and the vast Pacific to my left, leads to at the blue highway, 246, and Buellton to visit Foley Wines and search for ollalieberries.
read moreSanta Barbara Getaway-Part 3-Spot Prawns and a Perfect Rosé
Dinner at Coast Restaurant during a Santa Barbara getaway offers a perfect Rosé, and the local So Cal coastal delicacy, spot prawns.
read moreSanta Barbara Getaway- Part 2- on the Hunt for Rosé
I happen to have a deep fondness for Rosés, so when I noticed a sizable selection of them on display at Metropulous, I struck up a conversation with the cashier, who directed me down the street to the Santa Barbara Winery to sample one.
read moreSanta Barbara Getaway- Part 1
A drive up the Santa Barbara coast and a great lunch in a discovered spot go a long way to relieving the pressures of life in L.A.
read moreArizona Wine Country- Who Knew?
After our Botanical Garden tour, it's back on the van for us, and we're headed to (yes, from the "who knew?" department!) the Arizona wine country, with a stop at a resort in Sedona for lunch. Some of our group is missing this morning- it was a very long day yesterday, and a very early morning. The Gardens were pleasant- quiet and densely packed with beautiful and exotic plants, although our guide, Emi, was a bit too perky for me so early in the morning. Okay, honestly- it's probably better if I'm left alone early in the morning, and maybe others should be warned to stay away. Emi told us that at a certain point, we'd stop seeing the saguaros, and we'd know we had passed the frost line. Frost line- that's right. Our guides through the wine country told us that, generally, the first thought people have about growing wine grapes in Arizona is that it's too hot, but the truth is, it's frost that poses potential problems. We're headed onto Highway 17 towards Flagstaff, and the high desert area. I keep an eye on the scene passing us, watching for the change in topography. So far, it's a pretty uninteresting landscape on the highway outside the van's window-fast food outlets, cheap motels, industrial parks. So I turn to poring over the wineries' press kits. About half an hour later, I look up to see that the landscape has changed somewhat. It's no longer the suburban, industrial scene- now we are on a two lane highway, a slightly mountainous road, but still lined with rocks and saguaros. 9:25 A.M.-another 40 minutes are so, and there are no more saguaros. It looks like an inland California highway now, with scrubby, mountainous brush. I estimate that we are about halfway there. By 9:45 the roads are beginning to take on a reddish tinge here and there, and we're approaching Fort Verde State Park. After a little initial confusion on the part of our driver, we exit on to a blue highway towards Cottonville, AZ, ending at our first stop, Page Springs Cellars in Cornville, AZ. Corey Turnbull, Page Springs Cellars' assistant winemaker, leads us from the tasting room, into the vineyards, and barrel cellars. The grapes are grown using sustainable and biodynamic practices, although not certified organic because of the burdensome process of being certified- something I hear a lot- on this trip, and back home from local farmers with whom I shop. The vineyards are situated along Oak Creek, a fact I learned when I returned home. I had been told to be sure to see Oak Creek when I made it to Sedona, but The Enchantment Resort where we had lunch in Sedona was situated in Boynton Canyon, not Oak Creek Canyon, so I was happy to learn I had, in fact, seen a part of it. The Page Springs Cellars wines all strive to express Arizona terroir, we're told, and use Rhone varietal grapes grown in Arizona- Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Petit Syrah– to produce food friendly wines. Corey Turnbull leading us through the vineyards Deck outside the tasting room with Oak Creek in the background Craig, the winery's PR rep, tells us more than once that these next two wineries on our tour, are the brainchild...
read moreDinner at The Phoenician and Jean-Georges Tuna Tartare Recipe
A progressive dinner at The Phoenician in Phoenix, Arizona and and the recipe for Jean Georges Vongerichten’s mouth watering Tuna Tartare served at the J & G Steakhouse there.
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