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Driftwood Estate Winery Taking Up a Collection for Texas Families Affected by Fires

September 8, 2011 – 1:02 am

Driftwood Estate Winery, a Texas Hill Country winery in Driftwood is collecting items to help people in Bastrop, Texas who have been devastated by the devastating wild fires. According to a Facebook post, “Driftwood is collecting the following items to help the families affected by the fires in Bastrop: Items that we are collecting are: Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Deodorant, Shampoo/conditioner, Razors, Non-perishable foods, Wipes/Diapers, Comfort items (books, games and such), Socks. The items collected will be picked up by one of our Wine Club Members this Sunday at 3 PM. Feel free to share this post to help out our friends in Bastrop!”

Driftwood Estate Winery is located at 4001 Elder Hill Road, Driftwood, Texas. If you would like to know more about Driftwood Estate Winery, check out the article below.

Summary: Enjoy a visit to Driftwood Estate Winery, located in the country with beautiful distant views of vineyards and Texas Hill country. The staff is friendly and helps to make the wine tasting an enjoyable experience. (more)

Cheers, Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine Notes | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

A Wine’s Pleasant Surprise

September 7, 2011 – 1:26 pm

An interesting note about wine is that often one can be pleasantly surprised. In July we bottled the Muscat that Kathy and I made from juice sourced from Lodi. At the time of bottling we were not very enthused about the wine. A month later and we were disappointed in the wine. The aroma was almost non-existent and there was a lot of heat on the finish. The wine was at 14% alcohol. If left out in the glass for a couple hours, the wine was better and the heat on the finish was greatly diminished. It looked like this wine may have been destined to use in a white Sangria.

However surprises do happen and wine continues to evolve while in the bottle. Kathy opened a bottle of the Muscat late yesterday afternoon. My first thought was, “Oh no!” However there was an aroma which took me by surprise. Apricot was predominant. There were also apricots on the taste and finish. I had to hunt for orange blossom, but there was an hint of orange blossom on the taste. The finish had a little heat, but not like the wine had a month ago.

It’s easy to write off a wine if you don’t like it after tasting it. The value of having several bottles or cases of a wine is to discover how the wine continues to age while in the bottle. A wine that you might dislike one day, could tell a different story another day. Given enough time, many wines can have a pleasant surprise.

Cheers,
Terry

By Terry | Posted in Wine Notes | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Travel to Blue Slip Winery in Tennessee

September 7, 2011 – 12:11 pm

Enjoy reading about Blue Slip Winery and planning a visit to this boutique, urban winery.

Summary: Blue Slip Winery, an urban winery, is located in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is the first winery in Knoxville. Blue Slip also has the distinction of being the first urban winery in Tennessee. (more)

Cheers! Kathy

 

 

 

 

 

By Kathy | Posted in Winery Tasting Rooms and Cellar Doors | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Maryland’s Tin Lizzie Wineworks Offers Winemaking Opportunities with Grapes Sourced from Stagecoach Vineyards

September 7, 2011 – 7:33 am

This is the right time of year to decide to start your winemaking experience. A winemaking experience is also a great gift for anyone who enjoys wine – think birthdays, anniversaries, holidays.

Tin Lizzie Wineworks is starting its fourth year as a winemaking school just outside Clarksville, Maryland. Tin Lizzie offers wine enthusiasts the opportunity to learn about winemaking while making a barrel of wine. The facility is located in the beautiful countryside of Howard County, MD.

Winemaker and owner, Dave Zuchero, knows that quality grapes need to be used to make quality wine. His top, premium grapes are sourced from Stagecoach Vineyards in California. When these grapes arrive at Tin Lizzie Wineworks they are already sorted and from our experience the grapes are in great condition.

Zuchero has the experience and equipment to help you learn what you need to do to make wine. He makes it easy for people to learn about wine. In addition, winemaking equipment takes up a lot of room, something that you don’t need to be concerned about since it’s all at Tin Lizzie.Tin Lizzie also has a dedicated space for barrel aging.

Anyone who is interested in learning about winemaking or making their own barrel of wine to enjoy in their home should consider producing wine. Currently 3 different packages for making wine are offered at Tin Lizzie Wineworks. Option #3 is the Ultra Premium Package and includes quality grapes sourced from Stagecoach Vineyards. Grape varieties from Stagecoach are Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot.

If you don’t feel up to a whole barrel of wine, participants can choose to make a half or quarter barrel. For the first time Dave is offering an Adopt-a-Barrel program. Check out what’s available on the website.

Other wines possible to make this year include a Right Bank Red Bordeaux, a Left Bank Red Bordeaux Blend, a California-style Syrah, a Syrah-Viognier Blend, a Rhone blend and an Italian-style blend.

Check out the Tin Lizzie Wineworks website to learn more about this boutique, wine education facility.

If you have any questions call Dave Zuchero at 301-318-9954 or email: dave(at)tinlizziewineworks.com.

Cheers! Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine News/Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Home winemaking: Peach and a Sauvignon Blanc

September 6, 2011 – 1:42 pm

Over the weekend, we started to make two different wines – one from a kit. We thought we would not try a kit wine again after our other experiences. But this kit was a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand’s Marlboro region. To help create a quality wine, we pulled out the testing equipment including the refractometer, hydrometer and acid test kit. With very careful measuring, it looks like our Cabernet Sauvignon is going to be good and enjoyable drinking.

The other wine is a peach wine that I have been wanting to make for a couple of years. We drove to a nearby pick-your-own fruit farm and purchased fresh peaches. Then we had to decide which recipe to follow and how much peach wine to make. Since we had the peaches and a 3 gallon carboy we decide to go with three gallons.

It was quite simple to cut up the peaches, the peaches were fully ripe and the pits/stones came out easily. We did make sure to cut out the red that surrounds the pit as it might have added a slightly bitter taste to the wine. We added water, measured the specific gravity with the hydrometer, added sugar, and yeast.

This morning both the Sauvignon Blanc and Peach Wine are happily fermenting away.

Cheers! Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine Notes | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Maryland Wine Festival – September 17-18

September 6, 2011 – 1:02 am

Save September 17 or 18 to attend the well-known Maryland Wine Festival held annually at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster, MD.

2011 is the 28th Anniversary of Maryland Wine Festival. With so much experience behind it, the festival is sure to be a success for visitors, wineries and vendors. More than 30 Maryland wineries will be represented over the weekend. We have visited many of these wineries and you can discover more information about individual wineries at Wine Trail Traveler. Check out Serpent Ridge Winery that uses the Zork cork.

This year’s Maryland Wine Festival will include wine tastings, craft and food vendors, live music, an amateur wine competition and wine education seminars. Craft vendors scheduled to be at the festival will offer jewelry, alpaca products, dulcimers, stained glass, folk art, quilts, ceramics and much more.

Tickets are available in advance and purchasers get a discount for regular adult tickets and Premier tickets. Advance tickets are printed at your home. Three different ticket prices are available. Tickets for children and designated drivers are $20 each. The Wine Festival Premier Tent tickets are $62 while the Regular Admission ticket is $27. For details and advance tickets go to https://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/apps/fm_sales/default.aspx?id=FM .

This festival is sponsored by the Maryland Wineries Association, Carroll County Farm Museum and Carroll County Recreation and Parks.

When planning your visit, take bottled water and use sunscreen. If you are planning to purchase wine for home take a cooler with you.

Cheers, Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Winery Events | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Restaurants and Local Wines

September 5, 2011 – 1:02 am

The topic of should restaurants serve local wines is of interest to restauranteurs, diners, and wineries. A long article in the Napa Valley Register focuses on this point and has received numerous comments. The situation is focused on Napa Valley restaurants and makes comparisons with restaurants in France and Italy. Local wines and restaurants are an important aspect.

At a session of the the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference this topic came up and led to an animated discussion between two bloggers. One wine bloggers wholeheartedly supported the presence of local wines in restaurants which featured local foods while another blogger pointed out that no restaurant should feel pressured to add local wines if they were not quality.

Both were right in their own way. The last thing a restaurant needs is to have a negative reputation because of not serving quality wines. On the other hand, what is the definition of a quality wine. If a diner is looking for a Bordeaux then he might not be happy with a local wine – not because it wasn’t a Bordeaux but because the terroir expressed would be different.

I find the exploration of wine to be fascinating. How can the same variety of wine taste differently based on the terroir but it usually does? Was it the winemaker or was it the terroir? Every wine region and every winery offers different wines. Perhaps it is time to step back and rather than expect a certain style of wine, learn more about wine and enjoy what you are tasting.

When you order wine with dinner what are your expectations?

Cheers, Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine News/Commentary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

A California Winery with a Focus on Charities

September 4, 2011 – 10:34 am

Steven and Marilyn Rivera, the owners of Rivera Vineyards, are committed to focusing on the winery for philanthropy purposes. The property, located in Napa Valley, is in the Atlas Peak AVA.

The Riveras’ mission statement is “The mission of the Rivera Family Foundation is to support San Francisco Bay Area charitable organizations, with a special focus on enhancing the quality of life and providing fulfilling experiences for children.”

Numerous organizations have been helped and include Festival Opera, Family House, Special Olympics Northern California, Napa Sunrise Rotary Endowment, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Currently Rivera Vineyards wines are bottled at 750ml and 1.5ml. Rivera Vineyards’ wines are available by direct purchase, at restaurants/stores, and for non-profit organizations. Those nonprofit organizations requesting help for fundraising should contact the winery with relevant information. Or you may want to order directly from the winery. Direct purchase information and an order form are available as a pdf at http://riveravineyards.org/images/stories/RV_Purchase2010.pdf.

For more information about Riviera Vineyards visit their easy to use website.

Cheers! Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine Notes | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Summertime Recipe with Zucchini, Rice and Red Wine

September 3, 2011 – 12:02 am

The following recipe is great for summer time with red wine, fresh zucchini, basil leaves and oregano leaves. After adding the red wine, serve the same wine with dinner. Consider purchasing the wine from a local winery.

Cheers! Kathy

Beef, Zucchini, And Rice Neapolitan

 Servings: Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
5 c sliced zucchini (about 1-1/2 lbs)
1 4-ounce jar pimientos, chopped (1/2 c)
3/4 c chopped onion
1 4-ounce can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t salt
1/2 t basil leaves
1/2 t oregano leaves
1/8 t ground black pepper
3 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 c dry red wine
3 c hot cooked rice

Directions

  1. Cook beef in 10-inch skillet until meat is no longer pink, stirring to crumble; drain.
  2. Add zucchini, pimientos, onion, mushrooms, garlic, salt, basil, oregano, pepper, bouillon cubes and wine to skillet.
  3. Cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until zucchini is tender crisp. Serve over fluffy rice.

Recipe provided by USA Rice Federation

By Kathy | Posted in Wine/Food/Recipes | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Relay for Life at Layton’s Chance Vineyard & Winery!

September 2, 2011 – 8:42 am

Don’t miss an opportunity to support a Relay for Life at Layton’s Chance Vineyard & Winery. Tomorrow, September 3 from 2pm to 5pm, a Relay for Life event fundraiser is taking place at the delightful and family-friendly winery of Layton’s Chance.

The fundraiser includes tasting wines, hors d’oevres, silent auction, music vendors. Tickets are $25. Vendors include Tastefully Simple, Mary Kay, and Pampered Chef. Vendors will also provide items for drawings. Raffle tickets for $1 a piece for an Eastern Shore Crab Feast will be available. More information is available on Facebook. Enjoy yourself and help the American Cancer Society at the same time.

We visited Layton’s Chance Vineyard & Winery last week and discovered that it offers a delightful experience. If you can’t make it to tomorrow’s event, be sure to discover the winery and tasting room soon.  Ask about their Watermelon Wine as well as their grape varietal wines!

Cheers! Kathy

By Kathy | Posted in Wine Notes | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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