May is Oregon Wine Month! We're celebrating with four (ok, five) recommendations, and we've worked really hard to select different varietals because we think that any "wine month" highlighting a specific region is a great opportunity to try things you'd not have otherwise considered. Cheers!
Read moreWhat to do, and not do, when visiting Porto, Portugal's great wine city on the Douro River
It's all about the river here. The city rises from its banks: festively colored buildings in seemingly ancient repose, crowned by the twelfth-century cathedral atop the hill, a stately contrast to the carnival of wine and revelry down at the waterfront. In times past the rabelos, cargo vessels native to this river alone, hauled Port wine to this the only port from it could be shipped. This is Porto, Portugal's second city and the source of the the fortified wine that has made the country famous in the hearts and palates of generations of connoisseurs around the world. This is what we found to do -- and, critically, what not to do -- when visiting.
Read moreBecker Vineyards is making wine you should seek out, and go visit, in Texas Hill Country near Austin
The urban terrain of one of 21st century America's most vibrant cities melted into rolling hills, a curious mix of green and grey driving west from Austin into the wine country of the Texas hills. Rain poured sadly down, but the pastoral serenity of this place was as lovely as it was surprising to be found in a state conceptualized by most who are not from here as an endless prairie of scorched earth and heat. We had come looking for Becker Vineyards, the next chapter in our long standing fascination with wine from places you'd not expect, and surely but the first chapter in our flirtation with wine from Texas Hill Country.
Read moreTop five wines for May take us around the world with two whites, two rosés, and a great red
Casual wine drinkers, aficionados, and beginners alike: Each month we expose you to new things, educating and diversifying your palate with a lineup of our monthly wine picks. We're sharing some of the best we've tried in the last month so that you can seek them out and bring them to dinner this month. This geographically diverse lineup includes contestants from France, New York, New Zealand, California, and Spain. All are delicious. Enjoy!
Read moreBig, lively, and high quality Stone Tower Winery is a great addition to Virginia winemaking
You'd not expect this at the end of a country road -- stones crackling, trees bending, and through the thicket, green rolling hills and mountains beyond, stretched beneath soft clouds patched across the cerulean sky -- but this is where you will find the immense (by Virginia standards) Stone Tower Winery, a rare feat of a winery that manages to perfectly blend its big, fun atmosphere with seriously well-made wine.
Read moreAdventure, alternatives, and the fallacy of online wine services
We've recently been asked quite a bit for our thoughts on the online wine services and clubs that seem to be springing up everywhere. For the uninitiated, we're talking about services wherein the customer offers some basic personal taste information, and the service sends wine based on those preferences. The ultimate promise is easy wine without risk, always pleasing to its intended recipient, and (thanks to the the power of data) getting better all the time. Great, right?
Read moreOur current picks for great food, wine, atmosphere in Madrid, Spain
I made the case just last week that Insanely great airfares make this the absolute right time to book your Europe trip for later in 2017, so am following up this week with our fourth and final (for now) installation of our Wine:Thirty Flight Guide to Madrid, Spain with what is arguably the most important piece of the series: Our favorite places for great wine, great food, and great dining atmosphere in one of my very favorite cities.
Read moreHouse (Wine) Hunters: Four tasty Italian reds from Barone di Bernaj, at $8.99 per bottle
It's been months since we last shared some good house wine recommendations in the form of a trio of Pinot Noirs last fall, but we're once again hunting for great wine at great prices so you can spend a bit less on wine by serving something that is better than its price. This lineup of Italian wines -- Barone di Bernaj -- all come from the same Sicilian producer, Madaudo. We happened into several cases that we really enjoyed. All were $8.99 per bottle when purchased by the case.
Read moreRevisiting Arrington Vineyards and their "Premier Experience" tasting great Tennessee wine
We decided to revisit Arrington Vineyards for what turned out to be their excellent Premier Tasting experience. We are very glad we did – it turned out to be a very enjoyable day, well spent with some of our most favorite people! Located about 35 minutes outside of downtown Nashville, the winery is co-owned by Kix Brooks, of country music’s Brooks & Dunn fame, but it offers more than a famous owner to its visitors.
Read moreThese Top Five wines for April are perfect for springtime drinking with food or on their own
Casual wine drinkers, aficionados, and beginners alike: Each month we expose you to new things, educating and diversifying your palate with a lineup of our monthly wine picks. We're sharing some of the best we've tried in the last month so that you can seek them out and bring them to dinner this month. It feels a bit like springtime where we live, so we're gravitating to wines that make us feel like this time of year: Four specially selected whites and a red to help us walk the bridge from winter to summer. Enjoy!
Read moreDelicious pairings with Georg Albrecht Schneider wine at Washington, DC's Slate Wine Bar
Georg Albrecht Schneider, a family run winery located southwest of Frankfurt in Germany’s Rheinhessen, produces mostly Riesling on a bit more than 54 acres of land. Chef and Sommelier Danny Lledó of Slate Wine Bar in Washington, DC recently featured a beautiful four-course meal, each paired with a different wine from the Schneider Estate.
Read moreInside the exquisite cellar of Bodegas Alonso Cuesta in Spain's Méntrida wine region
There's magic in the peace and quiet of a small town where wine is made. Midday sun warms you standing next to an unassuming bodega, smiling mindfully because you know there's a barrel cellar beneath your feet. A puppy leaps merrily out the door to great you. Children play in the otherwise quiet streets. Here we stand in the Spanish town La Torre de Esteban Hambrán, a town of less than 2,000 in the Province of Toledo, walking through the door of Bodegas Alonso Cuesta, one of the DO Méntrida region's finest wineries.
Read moreMemories of Jen on her birthday, from the beginning of the journey through wine and life
Anyone who has ever lost someone they love knows how difficult it is to find the right spiritual shelf on which to keep those memories: A place of prominence so we never forget, a place of seclusion so we can remember in peace, or a place by the wine rack so that we might celebrate life -- a beautiful life -- so worth living that it illuminated every other life it touched. I will forever count amongst my most treasured moments those spent with Jen near the beginning of the journey through wine and through life.
Read morePort wine at river's end: Tasting Quinta do Noval in Portugal and beyond
Port wine is one of our favorite evening drinks in autumn, winter, and spring. We recently stepped off the busy street on Avenido de Diogo Leite -- in the city of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, across the Douro River from the city of Porto -- into the tasting room of the Quinta do Noval winery. Widely available in the United States and around the world, I'd recommend Quinta do Noval as a Port to serve at home, and as a place to top into if you ever find yourself in Gaia.
Read moreJoin a wine club to broaden your wine knowledge and appreciation
There are a number of ways you can work towards expanding your knowledge of wine. Wine clubs offer an appealing alternative for those looking to develop their wine collection and interests with minimal time commitments. There are number of different ways to join a wine club. Here we explore the pros and cons of joining wine clubs at shops, wineries, and online.
Read moreOur favorite wine and Girl Scout Cookie pairings
We put a lineup of Girls Scout cookies and wine pairs to the test. Overall, we found that Samoas / Caramel deLites and Tagalongs are the most versatile cookies to pair with wine, while Brut sparklers and California Syrah are the most versatile wines to pair with cookies. At least one of those two wines should pair nicely with at least one of every cookie in the lineup, though we'll give honorable mention to Rioja Tempranillo's dynamic pairing with Toffee-tastics and Samoas.
Read moreRioja and beyond: Exploring the elegant Old World wines of Spain's Bodegas Marqués de Tomares
We found Bodegas Marqués de Tomares up from quiet narrow streets lined with trees, under the bluest of skies just outside the town of Fuemayor in La Rioja, Spain. Wine is in the air here, one of those places where the bodegas seem more numerous than houses, whose road to town was painted with the fall oranges and reds of grapevines of a harvest just concluded. We've come to the epicenter of Rioja, one of the world's most famed and storied wine regions -- one of Spain's only two regions to share the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOC) -- whose 600 wineries produce some of the finest Tempranillo on the planet alongside smaller varieties such as Graciano, Mazuelo, Garnacha.
Read moreSix winery recommendations for your next journey through stunning Virginia Wine Country
We're often asked to recommend wineries in Virginia wine country, a place that I wrote last year "is one of the world's most under appreciated yet truly delightful wine regions". Virginia wine country is our home turf, so to speak. The closest of its delightful wineries are about thirty minutes from our front door. In fact, there are few cities from which hundreds of thriving wineries are as accessible as Virginia wine is from Washington, DC and Arlington, VA just across the river. These are our recommendations for the wine excursion you should be planning as the weather warms into spring this year.
Read moreOur top five wines for March take us off the beaten path to regions you must get to know
Casual wine drinkers, aficionados, and beginners alike: Each month we expose you to new things, educating and diversifying your palate with a lineup of our monthly wine picks. We're sharing some of the best we've tried in the last month so that you can seek them out and bring them to dinner this month. As we focus a bit more on education and exposure to new things, we're also straying a bit off the beaten path with wine from some unique regions. Enjoy!
Read moreOur first take on Spain's excellent, compelling Méntrida wine region
Tracks gently hum as they glide beneath you, the rail yard melts into buildings that melt into hills until the greens and browns of the Spanish countryside just south of Madrid have surrounded you. You step off in Toledo, one-time capital of Spain famous -- we believe ought to be -- the fruits of its Méntrida wine region. We recently visited Bodegas Arrayán and Bodegas Alonso Cuesta, two compelling and uniquely inviting wineries (bodegas) that we will later review separately, and offer this as our first take.
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