Today and tomorrow, Miracle Valley Vineyard is providing grilled hot dogs for $1 with the purchase of wine. Miracle Valley is located in Virginia countryside and is a delightful experience. We continue to recall their hospitality and wonderful experience of sitting on their patio and enjoying a glass of Miracle Valley wine. When we visited Miracle Valley last year, visitors were welcome to bring picnic baskets.
Check out other wineries in your backyard to see what specials they have for Memorial Day weekend.
Cheers!
Kathy
With Memorial Day Weekend here, have you made your plans? Picnics are popular but how can you make yours special? Add a bottle of wine to your picnic basket. Since picnics are casual and sometimes spontaneous events, this could be the day to experiment with a new grape varietal, a new winery or wine region. Since the day may be hot and sunny and the air filled with floral scents, you may want to choose a light-bodied white wine. A crisp wine with low residual sugar, perhaps a rosé would also do well with your picnic array of foods. Do have a cooler with you and as a food precaution keep cold food cold and hot food hot.
If you haven’t decided your picnic setting, your backyard may be perfect. Save on transportation i.e. gas. However, if you would rather be on the move, visit a winery. Not all wineries allow food on their premises, especially if they have restaurants but many do encourage people to bring picnics. Do call the winery in advance, so you won’t be disappointed. If you are planning to picnic at a winery, plan on purchasing your wine at the winery. If packing a picnic basket to enjoy at a park, check on the park’s regulations before entering with any type of alcohol.
Drink responsibly and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!
Cheers! Kathy
Located in Denver, Balistreri Vineyards is a family-owned winery. Yesterday we enjoyed a Syrah wine from their winery.
Colorado Syrah 2006 is unfiltered and the color is a deep, opaque purple. Handcrafted and with 16.5 percent alcohol, this Syrah wine is spicy and fruity overall. The aroma was spicy and sweet. With a zero percent residual sugar, the sweetness is from the fruit nuances. The full-bodied mouth feel accompanied a very fruity taste with an explosion of dark fruity berries. The aftertaste was great. Someone commented the wine had an “incredible aftertaste.”
For those who enjoy wine bottles, the top is finished with white wax, which for me provides a delightful detail and experience. The label is a colorful portrayal of a barrel room with an old grape crusher that is also on the winery’s homepage website.
Note: Balistreri’s 2006 Colorado Syrah won gold at the 2008 Tasters Guild International Wine Judging.
For more information about Balistreri Vineyards, read a review of the winery on Wine Trail Traveler’s website.
When you have the opportunity, don’t miss a visit to Balistreri Vineyards!
Cheers, Kathy
This cooler than average spring is coming on the heels of a cooler than average winter in the Baltimore area of Maryland. This provides ideal temperature growing conditions for the potatoes I planted the first week of April. Assuming that I get a modest two pounds per hill, with the fifty hills of potatoes I should be able to harvest 100 pounds. That will give me a ten-fold increase in my initial investment in seed potatoes. Where else in this economy can you get a ten-fold increase in an investment in four months?
I began to wonder about wine. If one spends a modest $15 a week for wine, in four months the wine’s cost is $195. That will give you 13 bottles of wine. In the same time and with the same price, you can buy a high level wine kit and make 2 ½ cases of wine. This is better that a 50% increase on your four month wine investment.
If wine kits aren’t for you, there are other options. Many wineries, check in your area, have programs where you can make wine at the winery. Costs and quality vary widely. Kathy and I are going to make a barrel of California Sauvignon this fall at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Vint Hill, Virginia. We are hopeful that we can make a wine equivalent to a $60 or higher California Cab at half the cost. However this will take a couple of years. There are other wineries that you can produce smaller batches using carboys. If you enjoy white wines that are not oaked, you can make them in less than a year at a winery and just a few months using a wine kit.
Don’t be worried about making your own wine. Winemakers are the most giving and helpful people in any industry. If you ask ten winemakers for help, you will probably receive help from ten winemakers. Although their ideas may differ.
Just as you can save money by harvesting fruit and vegetables that you plant yourself, you can recession proof your wine by making it yourself.
Charles Hodgson, author of Global Wording, has recently released a new book, History of Wine Words: An Intoxicating Dictionary of Etymology and Word Histories from the Vineyard, Glass and Bottle.
This 208-page book provides a look at the origins of words related to wine. The book has three basic categories including locations/regions/, grape varietals and winemaking. While I have not read the book, from page to page, I have enjoyed browsing a large selection of the words. It is interesting that many of the words are so commonplace today that one doesn’t think about the development of the word. History of Wine Words does not cover every associated wine word. Hodgson has done his best to select words that he believes are of interest to people. Therefore while you find “maceration,” you won’t find “riddling.”
The only word I discovered that I was disappointed in was “toast.” Hodgson refers to only one connotation of the word “toast” – the offering of a toast to someone. Nowhere in the discussion does he mention barrel “toast.”
With so many wine books on the market, History of Wine Words, makes an unusual addition to your collection. This book may appeal to the etymologist and wine lover. It is also a good conversation starter. The book is available at Amazon.
Cheers! Kathy
May is a busy month in winery tasting rooms and many wineries offer special events. If you have a favorite winery to visit, you may already know what’s on their schedule of events. However, if you are looking for a new adventure at a different winery, the Wine Trail Traveler calendar may be helpful. The In May, the calendar began listing winery events by the name of the winery and the state. This quickly allows visitors to the site to locate events in their state. Double click the winery name and more information pops up. Of course, please do contact the winery in advance to verify events and times.
Note: Events are listed for wineries that have a featured listing with Wine Trail Traveler, LLC. The calendar is updated monthly.
Also included are any wine festivals that we feel may be of interest to wine enthusiasts.
A link to the calendar is also provided on the Wine Trail Traveler homepage. If anyone has suggestions for the calendar, let me know.
Cheers, Kathy
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FTC and Blogs
In a blog this week, Reign of Terroir discusses changes the FTC may put in effect this summer. The FTC is leaning towards requiring bloggers, who blog about wines and wineries, to clearly disclose if the wine was a gift from the winery. If a blogger writes about a visit to a winery, he or she would need to disclose if transportation etc. were paid by the winery.
The FTC is getting involved in this issue because they claim that blogging about a winery or a bottle of wine is an advertisement. Um… no, not really. I do not consider a review to be an advertisement. If I review a bottle of wine that was a gift and say it’s plonk, how can that be an advertisement? Blogs are all about expressing opinions. When someone starts paying me $ for a blog, then I’ll consider that the FTC has a point. In the meantime a bottle of wine or transportation paid for by a winery is not going to pay my monthly bills.
More importantly, anything I review is given utmost consideration and is as unbiased as possible. Granted that there are some varieties that I enjoy more than others and perhaps I may have more to say about the ones I like but in all circumstances I try to be as fair as possible for the benefit of my readers!
Cheers! Kathy