Wine is a topic that isn’t thought of in a vacuum. When discussing wine, one often ventures into a discussion of food. It made sense that as we journeyed into the world of wine, food accompanied our travels. After five years of visiting and writing about 750 wineries, WineTrailTraveler introduces a companion website about food: Food.WineTrailTraveler.com. The initial food site will focus on cheese, vinegar and olive and grape seed oils.

Wine and cheese simply go together. Wine vinegars are made from wine. The process of producing olive oil and grape seed oils have similarities to making wine. These topic areas were selected for the new companion website that will feature articles about these topics as well as visits to places that make them. Articles are featured in the Epicurean section of the site. The Recipe section of the site features recipes that use cheese, wine vinegar or olive oil or grape seed oil as one of the ingredients. New recipes are added monthly. The Calendar section offers glimpses of events that feature cheese, vinegar or oils. The Forum section is a community of visitors to chat about cheese, oils and vinegar.

This new companion website has been six months in the making. During the time visits were made to two Maryland creameries, three California olive oil producers and a Washington grape seed oil producer. Articles will continue to be added. In January, WineTrailTraveler staff will visit an olive oil museum in Umbria, Italy.

Life-long learning is a practice by former educators Terry & Kathy as we continue to learn about cheese, vinegar and oils. In 2008 we decided that if we were going to write about wine, we should make it. The companion website, Winemaking.WineTrailTraveler.com debuted in 2009. Since then we have made eight wines including six at home, one at a Maryland teaching winery and one at a Virginia winery. It made sense that if we were going to write about cheese, we should make cheese. The same applies to vinegar. The new website will chronicle successes and failures faced with cheese making and vinegar making. Take time to explore the newest site.

Cheers,
Terry