The Wine Travelers in the wine country of France and Spain

October 6, 2013 by joe

Lucky us, we will be traveling for almost all of October in the wine country of France and Spain. We have rented a house for a week in both the Rhone Valley and the Languedoc region of France. Then we’ll head to Barcelona and join a group of wine bloggers for a press trip to the Monstant and the Priorat wine regions of Spain. We’ll end our trip at the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Logroño, Spain, the land of Rioja wines.

After landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Thursday, we did something that worked out very nicely. We thought that it would be better to begin our wine country journey as rested as possible. After landing we decided to stay at a nearby airport hotel, the Best Western. A shuttle bus at Terminal 2 F (rail station) to Paris takes travelers free of charge to all of the nearby hotels. Our hotel was just a couple of miles away in the small French town of Roissy. We were able to walk to local restaurants, dine, drink wine, and get a full night’s sleep. Getting a rental car and finding one’s way out of a maze of roads is much easier when well rested.

We picked up our rental car and traveled to Beaune for one night. Beaune is just about halfway between Paris and our rental home in the Rhone Valley in the town of Vaison La Romaine. We should spend more time in Beaune, perhaps on our next trip to France. In Beaune, the day was very gloomy with overcast skies and constant rain. We spotted a small amount of harvesting in the vineyards. The proprietor at a wine shop in Beaune told us that what is left to pick are just a few good grapes. 90% of the crop was lost earlier in the summer when a huge hailstorm hit the area. 2012 was also a very bad year, and two years in a row is devastating to less-established wineries in Burgundy.

Grand Vins de Bourgogne

While staying in Vaison La Romaine, we have appointments at several Rhone Valley wineries that are about an hour or less in driving time north and south of our home base. We are very excited about these visits.

The second week we will be at a home in the small village of Caunes-Minervois. We stayed there for a couple of nights in 1994 and loved the charming town and surrounding area. We ate at a spectacular restaurant at the Hotel D’alibert. The place is still there and operated by the same family. We are hoping the restaurant is as good as it was in 1994. In the Languedoc, we do not have any winery appointments. Instead, we will be adventurous and scout the nearby wineries. The person who we are renting the home from in Caunes says that many small and interesting wineries are open without an appointment each day of the week, except for Sundays. Languedoc has changed a great deal since our visit in 1994 in terms of wine quality. Many wineries have recharged their vineyards and several young winemakers have moved into the area, bringing modern winemaking techniques to this traditional wine region. The prices of Languedoc wines remain reasonable and we are very excited about being able to explore this vast region that contains more vineyard land than any other wine region of France. We hope to be able to visit O’Vineyards, having met winemaker Ryan O’Connell in 2011 at the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Italy.

We will return our rental car at the Narbonne train station and then board a non-stop train to Barcelona. There we will meet our press trip host and the other wine bloggers for a three-night adventure to wineries in the Monstant and Piorat regions. This part of the trip is a very rare opportunity to get acquainted with the fantastic wines from this region. This will be a small group of 18 wine bloggers who get an intense look at both of these wine regions that are making amazing strides in wine quality and production.

The final leg of our trip is the 6th annual European Wine Bloggers Conference, now renamed the Digital Wine Communication Conference. Wow, I love that title. It’s much more impressive than Wine Bloggers. At any rate, we are expecting to have an exciting and educational time that began in Beaune and will end in Logroño, Spain. Please stay tuned to our adventures in the days ahead.

Trends in Wine Tourism

December 5, 2012 by Janelle Becerra

We were delighted to attend the Wine Tourism Conference last month held at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. We met a lot of new people in the wine industry, as well as some new winery owners, winemakers and wine bloggers. We especially appreciated the intimate settings of the winery dinners offered as pre-conference visitations.

The Wine Industry Panel discussed the increased interest in visiting wineries in Southern Oregon, the state of Virginia and the Paso Robles wine region of Central California.

We learned that New York’s Finger Lakes is one of the fastest growing wine regions in the country. After having met author Evan Dawson at the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference in 2011, we read his book “Summer in a Glass,” which is a very personal look at winery owners and winemakers in this upstate wine region. We definitely have added that area to our “wish list” of future wine travel.

Wine Tourism in the Finger Lakes wine country

A great read on the Finger Lakes wine country

Happy Thanksgiving and How to Carve a Turkey

November 21, 2012 by joe

Carving the Turkey

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We always host Thanksgiving dinner and this year we will have 18 people in our dining room. Putting a Thanksgiving dinner together is a challenge. Preparation and organization are a “must” so that everything comes to the table hot and cooked to perfection. But for me, the most difficult task on this day is carving the turkey. I do two things to get this right. I have my two knives sharpened at our local hardware store and I watch this video on Thursday morning. I think it is the best video that shows how to carve a turkey. Here it is and I hope you enjoy your day of Turkey with your family and friends.

The Butcher Caves a Turkey – New York Times

Wines for Thanksgiving

With 16 guests, we have 18 different palates. Some like oaky and big Chardonnays, others want sparkling wine, and some prefer big full-bodied red wines. That is why I open several varietals of wine and let people choose what they like. Here is my list of wines.

Domain Chandon Brut
Robert Mondavi 2009 Napa Valley Chardonnay
San Pedro 1865 Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Chile
Montemaggiore 2010 Rosé
Cedarville 2009 Grenache
Mauritson 2009 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

My nephew Tom is a big fan of Burgundy wines and will certainly provide us with at least a couple of bottles of outstanding quality. I will be sure Tom is sitting at my end of the table. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Nice job of carving a turkey

“The Spirit of the Man” Sculpture Exhibit at Paradise Ridge Winery

November 20, 2012 by Janelle Becerra

Sculpture Exhibit – Spirit of the Man

While attending the Wine Tourism Conference last week in Santa Rosa, we were led by Che Voigt on a guided tour of “The Spirit of the Man” Sculpture Exhibit at Paradise Ridge Winery. The exhibit honors Che’s father, artist Al Voigt, who passed away in 2011.
Al and Judy Voigt founded the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation in 2005. Their passion was to find outdoor venues in which to display large sculptures strategically placed, to allow visitors enough space to walk around each sculpture and enjoy the changes in lighting throughout the day.

This exhibit includes 34 sculptures from local artists as well as artists from other parts of the US. The pieces vary in size, color, and style and are primarily abstract in nature.

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The Voigts’ idea was to combine “food, wine, and art,” and what better location to do that than at Paradise Ridge Winery? This exhibit is perfect for families, as kids would have a great time walking from sculpture to sculpture some of which they can actually play with. The year-long exhibit is scheduled to close in May 2013, but there’s the talk of extending it for another year.

Read our previous post to learn more about the Paradise Ridge Winery.

Exploring the Willamette Valley wine country of Oregon

August 25, 2012 by joe

Johan vineyards in the Willamette Valley

Dag Johan Sundy of the biodynamic Johan Vineyards

The Willamette Valley is where wine lovers flock to visit boutique and small family-owned wineries and to taste Pinot Noir and other cool-climate wines. We had a chance to get an insider’s look at the Willamette Valley at the 5th Annual Wine Bloggers Conference held last week in Portland, Oregon. We were bused to several wineries and got a chance to meet owners, winemakers, and growers. Back at our hotel we also had a chance to taste and compare many wines from this region. The three days were not nearly enough time, so we shall return again to this remarkable wine country.

Teldeschi Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley

July 29, 2012 by joe

Lush grape clusters on this 100 year-old Zin

A little-known and offbeat vineyard resides on Dry Creek Road. Each day hundreds of tourists drive by and never enter the realm of Teldeschi Vineyards and the winery named Del Carlo. There is no signage or tasting room, so the droves of visitors to the Dry Creek Valley never venture into this remarkable world of 100 year-old Zinfandel vineyards and breathtaking views of the Dry Creek Valley’s east bench lands.

We were in the Dry Creek Valley on Thursday and finished an appointment early. On a whim, we called the number on the Del Carlo website. Within 15 minutes we were riding in Ray Teldeschi’s 1950 red flatbed truck through his Home Ranch of 56 acres, 26 of which are planted with vines. We had been introduced to the Del Carlo wines at a trade tasting, and since then had always wanted to visit. Ray and Lori Teldeschi are the second-generation owners of the ranch; Ray’s parents purchased the property in 1948. In 2005, Ray and Lori established the Del Carlo wine label.

Ray Teldeschi

The Vineyard Tour

The vineyard tour on the flatbed truck made a complete circle of the vineyards, with Ray sitting with us giving details of his sustainable farming and his vineyard management techniques. Ray is growing Zinfandel, Cabernet, Petite Sirah, Sangiovese and even some Delicato grapes. Rays sells 90 percent of his vines to several wineries in Sonoma and Napa. These include the makers of the popular Prisoner wine, Seghesio Winery and Carlisle Winery. Ray uses the final 10 percent of his grapes to produce the Del Carlo label, a mere 600 cases of wonderful tasting wine.

Armida Winery – one of the best picnic wineries

May 26, 2012 by joe

Enjoying a picnic lunch at a winery is one of life’s finer pleasures. We have our list of favorite wineries with great picnic areas and views, and the Armida Winery is one of those that head the list. Armida is located on the edge of the Dry Creek Valley on Westside Road, a couple of miles from the town of Healdsburg. It is small family-run winery producing 10,000 to 12,000 cases a year.

The winery is situated high on a hill affording a spectacular view of the Russian River Valley area. Yes, although the winery is situated in the Dry Creek AVA, the view is of the neighboring Russian River Valley. The winery has a good-sized deck with several tables that afford this wonderful scene. A pond just below the deck adds to the beauty of the vineyards off in the distance. Once people experience this beauty, they return again and again to enjoy this spot. Saturdays are very popular here, especially from Spring to the early Fall months.

Virginia Wineries on the Monticello Wine Trail – Wine Bloggers Conference 2011

July 30, 2011 by joe

Last week 300 wine bloggers met in Charlottesville, Virginia, for their 4th annual conference and spent three days learning how to be better wine bloggers, while at the same time discovering Virginia wine and wine country. What better way to learn about Virginia wine than to visit nearby wineries?

On Saturday the 300 wine bloggers were wined and dined at wineries on the Monticello Wine Trail. Each wine blogger boarded one of seven buses that trekked the bloggers out to two wineries for a day of touring, tasting, and feasting on appetizers and a gourmet lunch. The bus we boarded took us to two very interesting and wonderful wineries on the Monticello Wine Trail, Pippin Hill Farms & Vineyards and Veritas Vineyards. Here is a brief description of the two wineries we visited.