Travel to Doswell, Virginia and participate in the Save Our Food Holiday Festival on December 11. The event takes place at 13111 Dawn Blvd ?Doswell, Va. According to the website, “Every year, 104,000 acres of Virginia farmland disappear forever.” Enjoy a day of local wine and food. More information is available at the Save Our Food website.

While traveling to winery tasting rooms be on the lookout for some delightful gift options. Some wineries go way beyond the usual corkscrews and stemware and offer an amazing array of possible gifts. On occasion we have been told that a staff member travels to a major city or two in search of the perfect giftware for the tasting room. (Sounds like a job, I might enjoy!)

Cheers! Kathy

We returned home last night at about 12:30am after a wonderful trip to New Zealand where we were with the Washington State University winery tour group. Our trek began in the middle of November. After we landed in Auckland, Terry and I went to visit two boutique wineries on Waiheke Island. After that we visited 18 more wineries from Auckland south to Christchurch.

The schedule left little time for shopping which was good although we thought the prices were high in most stores.

Things that surprised us were the size of many of the wineries as well as the up-to-date equipment they are using. We visited one winery producing 200,000 cases of wine and the winemaker commented that was on the low end of the middle of wine production for New Zealand wineries. Many of the wineries are exporting their wines. We sampled many Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir wines plus other familiar varieties including Syrah, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Many wineries are using sustainable methods in their vineyards. We enjoyed visiting Seresin Estate winery that focuses on organic and biodynamic methods.

Although we had a wonderful time in New Zealand, it’s nice to be back home.

Cheers! Kathy

In January 2009 I wrote about Lookout Ridge Winery, a California winery that focuses on supplying wheelchairs to those in need. Since I was very impressed with what was happening at the Lookout Ridge Winery, I decided to check it out once again. Owner, Gordon Holmes, has a deep interest in helping to provide wheelchairs for the underprivileged. Gordon is also a wine enthusiast and appreciates high-end wines.

Besides the Lookout Ridge Winery estate wines, wines are also available that are produced by a “portfolio” of renowned winemakers.  These winemakers include Richard Arrowood, Cathy Corison, Marco DiGiulio, Andy Erickson, Greg LaFollette, Drew Neiman, Aaron Pott and Gerhard Reisacher.

Visitors to the winery’s website will discover that for every bottle of current releases purchased a wheelchair will be donated. Not surprisingly, these wines are not your $20 or $30 bottle of wine. Many of the wines are available in packs of 3, 4, 6 or cases. The current releases are available on the Lookout Ridge Winery website.

This is a great gift, for those who have everything. Even more important, it will help to provide a wheelchair to someone in need. A pdf page on the website ends with “Because of the generosity of wine lovers like you, someone now has mobility and freedom.”

Cheers, Kathy

While in the Air New Zealand lounge at Christchurch airport we had the chance to taste wines from Tohu. Tohu is the first Maori owned wine company and began in 1998. The Koru symbol is predominant on the front label. This spiral symbolises growth, life and the natural world in Maori culture. It also parallels the growth, life and natural world for grapes in a vineyard. Wines are crafted with grapes grown in Gisborne, Marlborough and Nelson. With the connection to the land common for the Maori, all their vineyards are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand.

The 2009 Tohu Sauvignon Blanc was straw colored with light green hue. The aroma and taste offers mineral and citrus notes. The crisp finish ends with citrus yielding to mineral. Grapes for this wine are from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. The straw colored 2010 Riesling offered yellow stone fruit and a mineral aroma and taste. The crisp finish had multiple layers of fruits and minerals and slate was predominant on the aftertaste.

Cheers,
Terry

After a wonderful Thanksgiving, it’s already time to be thinking of Christmas baking to be done. If you are looking for a new cookie recipe check this one out for Almond Sherry Cookies from Galleano Winery in California!

Cheers! Kathy

Almond Sherry Cookies

Ingredients

½ c butter
1/3 c granulated sugar
2 egg yolks, unbeaten
1 c coarsely ground almonds
½ t grated lemon zest
¼ t vanilla
¼ c Galleano Sherry
1 c all purpose flour
1/8 t salt

Directions

1. Cream butter; add sugar slowly
2. Add egg yolks, beat until fluffy.
3. Ad ½ c almonds, lemon zest and vanilla.
4. Sift flour and salt together. Stir in Sherry alternately with flour and salt.
5. Drop by tablespoon onto remaining almonds sprinkled on waxed paper.
6. Pick up the ends of the paper and toss dough until coated with nuts.
7. Shape into balls of 1” diameter. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Place in upper middle of pre-heated 400-degree oven.
8. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light browned.

Recipe provided by Galleano Winery, California

AprèsVin, a unique business, located in Washington State has some delightful items that may be perfect for a holiday or Christmas gift.  I’ve mentioned AprèsVin before and how delightful their infused grape seed oils are to use in the kitchen. In addition they also produce four varietal grape seed flours. The AprèsVin website now has 40 recipes available that use their products. However, if you have a recipe at home you like to use, consider adding a splash of varietal grape seed oil.

In addition to a wonderful selection of various types of grape see oils, they have now added soap produced from grape seeds. Included in the package are four soaps, Rose Riesling Pure Varietal Soap with Riesling Grape Seed Scrub, Evergreen Chardonnay Pure Varietal Soap with Chardonnay Grape Seed Scrub, Lavender Merlot Pure Varietal Soap with Merlot Grape Seed Scrub and Sage Cabernet Pure Varietal Soap with Cabernet Grape Seed Scrub.

For more information, visit the AprèsVin website. If you decide to order for the holidays, be sure to order early!

Cheers, Kathy

I’ve been asking our group for their impressions of the New Zealand wine industry and several asked me what I thought. It’s a good thing that we visited a couple of boutique wineries last week on our day of arrival. Since then everything has been big, bigger, biggest. We have seen the 2,000 case production small wineries and the over two million case production wineries. Delegat’s was one of the larger wineries we visited. This state of the art facility makes Oyster Bay wines, in the millions.

Our group marveled at the high use of technology to control the presses, transferring juice and wine from one location to another and making the blends. Their winery building is impressive and follows the “form follows function” theory. During the tour, winemaker Michael Ivicivich explained that there is a reason for everything that we will see. What one doesn’t see are hoses on the floor. Wine from tanks can be transferred to oher tanks via a simple process. There are a lot of buttons to push on computer screens. I asked if there was ever an audible “Oops” and Michael explained that there are safe guards built into the program such as a message that asks, “Do you really want to do this?” Mistakes are hard to make.

New Zealand offers a wide range of wines produced by small wineries as well as the large ones. Sauvignon Blanc remains the largest produced wine and is exported to many countries. We saw a good use of technology and state-of-the-art winemaking techniqes. However old-world winemaking is also practiced by some of the smaller producers. New Zealand is a lovely country to visit. The wineries visited were very welcoming. Consider traveling to the country and visit the wine country.

Cheers,
Terry

If you will be in the Washington, DC area for the weekend of December 4 and 5, be sure to check out DC’s Holiday Wine Mall! It is at the Dulles Expo Center. This event features over 200 wines. Visitors can shop for artisan wines, gourmet foods, art as well as unusual gift items. More information is available at the Holiday Wine Mall website.

On the other side of the country in California, the Livermore Valley Wine Country is hosting Holidays in the Vineyards from 12pm-5pm. This is a wine country tradition. According to the website, “Guests are encouraged to bring toys to their favorite wineries. All toys will be donated to the Pleasanton-Livermore Fire Association’s Toys for Tots Program after the event, directly benefitting children in need thoughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.” More information is available on the Livermore Valley Wine Country website.

Cheers! Kathy

Lou Foppiano, renowned for his role in the Sonoma wine history, will turn 100 on November 25.

According to the PressDemocrat.com, Lou Foppiano celebrated his 100^th birthday on Sunday in Healdsburg. In the article, Lou Foppiano turns 100, celebrates in Healdsburg, the author, Sam Scott, writes about the contributions that Lou Foppiano made to the wine industry.

Scott writes, “Foppiano helped transform Sonoma County from its jug-wine days selling bulk into a leader in the industry. At the same time, he led Foppiano Vineyards in Healdsburg to becoming the county’s oldest winery continually operated by its founding family.”

Wine Trail Traveler visited Foppiano Vineyards and enjoyed learning about the winery and its place in Sonoma wine history. The article is available at Foppiano Vineyards.

To read about Prohibition in which Foppiano Vineyards survived through, read When the Rivers Ran Red by Vivienne Sosnowski. A review of the book is at http://winetrailtraveler.com/reviews/generalbooks.php#riverrunsred.

Cheers, Kathy