This was the final leg home on a trip that took me to Niamey, Niger in West Africa. The trip from Niamey to Washington took almost 24 hours, with a long layover in Paris’s Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG). Niger may be far off the beaten path for most travelers, but Air France between Paris and Washington, DC certainly is not. Despite the layover, overall I had a fine experience in economy class to bring my trip to a close. This is my complete review.
Read moreHouse (Wine) Hunters: Two whites and two reds that taste much better than their low price
Last time we recommended a lineup of House Wines, it was in the form of Four tasty Italian reds from Barone di Bernaj, at $8.99 per bottle. Today we're once again hunting for great wine at great prices. This is a fairly well balanced lineup featuring two whites and two reds, all of which are rather different from one another. Serve some at your next summer party, and enjoy. Cheers!
Read moreDelighted by Sweden's Vingården i Klagshamn wine found at Göteborg's Swedish Taste restaurant
Light shining through the windows from the long-setting sun twinkled upon a line of glasses through which the varied hues of white and rosé wine refracted, one glass after another in a row. Five wines from Vingården i Klagshamn, a winery in Sweden's southern Skåne region, awaited us at the splendid Swedish Taste restaurant in Göteborg, Sweden's second largest city.
Read moreWTF's guide to navigating British Airways Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport
London's Heathrow Airport is one of humankind's truly immense connecting points. The United Kingdom might be leaving the European Union, and there are larger airports, but LHR and British Airways -- its largest tenant -- converge the people of the world together at a single geographic point like few other institutions. In less lofty terms, LHR generally and Terminal 5 in particular also happen to be the closest thing to a sure bet for anyone who crisscrosses Europe and North America more than a few times in their life. Here's what you need to know when navigating through it.
Read moreCelebrate Rosé Day with these four wines we tried at Slate Wine Bar in Washington, DC
With National Rosé Day just around the corner on Saturday, June 10, Wine:ThirtyFlight would just like to put it on the record that we were on the Rosé train way before it was trendy and became a fad. That said, despite some smugness about being the OGs of Rosé, I am still fully on board with a good trend and will gladly rock a Rosé All Day shirt while sipping on some Frosé down by the Georgetown Waterfront. For this year’s National Rosé Day we are going to take you back to Slate Wine Bar in Glover Park, where we recently tried these four wines with which we recommend you celebrate the day!
Read moreOur top wine picks for June, these five refreshing white wines will keep you happy all summer
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 highly diverse lineup of whites from around the world will keep almost every combination of tastes happy as summer hits the northern hemisphere this month. Cheers!
Read moreHow to get and use Priority Pass lounges to find peace, quiet, (free) wine, and food at the airport
I smiled as I set my coffee upon the table. Morning sunshine from cloudless blue sky streamed through the floor to ceiling windows to light this open, modern, and quiet space. I bit into my sandwich. At 10:15, I though it too early to be drinking wine. A Boeing 737 in SAS airlines colors taxied past Göteborg Landvetter Airport's (GOT) Menzies Business Lounge in which I was sitting thanks to my Priority Pass membership, granted to me as a benefit of credit cards issued by Chase, Citi, and American Express. Here's how it works…
Read moreShould local wine shops sell local wine?
A friend and Wine:Thirty Flight reader sent me this question one morning last week. Should local wine shops sell wines from nearby regions? There was some background here, but suffice it to say, he was perplexed as to why a shop in Manhattan with a self-professed focus on "wine education" not carry any bottles from New York at the very least, nor from (relatively) nearby wine regions in states like Virginia or Massachusetts.
Read moreOff to Sweden in search of wine from Europe's northernmost winemaking region (and a lot more)
We're off to Sweden, a week-long follow-up to my thirty-six hour jaunt last November. I'm particularly excited to try the wine from the Europe's (and I believe the world's) northernmost wine region, specifically from Vingården Klagshamn and Hällåkra Vineyard. I'll also be flying aboard my first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an experience that I've thus far been denied thanks to the likes of the Boeing 767, Boeing 747, and Airbus A330 that have recently stepped in to ferry me across the ocean. I hope you'll keep up with Wine:Thirty Flight via Twitter and Instagram.
Read moreCelebrate National Wine Day with our favorite bottles from the first half of 2017
May is a big month for wine themed holidays and celebrations. We've not only celebrated Oregon Wine Month and Aussie Wine Month, but tomorrow, May 25th, is National Wine Day in the United States. While we wish this occasion rose to the level of day-off-from-work holiday, we're settling for five of our favorite wines we've reviewed thus far this year. Think of this as a midyear preview of our "Best of 2017" lineup. Cheers!
Read moreFine dining in Virginia Wine Country at Winchester's One Block West restaurant
It's springtime in the old town of Winchester, to which we've driven through the lush green in the heart of Virginia Wine Country, just north of that sparkling constellation on the map, stars formed by some of the Commonwealth's brightest wineries: Delaplane, RdV, Linden, Glen Manor. We've come looking for One Block West, the unassuming restaurant tucked away on South Indian Alley, (unsurprisingly) one block west of the main street that traverses the historic town.
Read moreHow to fly for free using Chase credit cards
Next week my wife, Meghan, and I fly to Sweden on our third trip to Europe in seven months. We've paid exactly $0 for trans-Atlantic airfare thanks to to the way we our Chase Bank credit cards for most of our every day purchasing. I've written in the past about how to Travel further for less (or no) money by smartly earning and using credit card points, but here I'll specifically address why I find the Chase ecosystem to be so good at maximizing travel value, and I'll offer some simple tips so that you can realize this value yourself.
Read moreThese three great reds from three different regions are our picks for Aussie Wine Month
Our friend Casey at Travelling Corkscrew in Australia has reminded us that May is Aussie Wine Month, a momentous occasion that we're celebrating with these three great red wines from three of the country's wine regions. We're sad that we couldn't get our hands on a Pinot Noir from Tasmania -- one of our favorite tough to find (in the United States, at least) bottles -- but we're excited to share these with you. If you love Australian wine, consider following Travelling Corkscrew for more.
Read moreNasty Woman Wines offer great snark and a lineup of crowd pleasing wine from Oregon
Here at WTF we try to keep from getting political, but we believe that good wine is good wine, no matter where you are on the spectrum. So when Nasty Woman Wines sent us three wines to review a couple months back, we pledged to take a non-partisan standpoint on it, and it did not disappoint! We had a spring soiree at our apartment this past Saturday night, and decided to serve Nasty Woman Wines as the first round. Here’s what we found.
Read moreCelebrate Oregon Wine Month with these excellent, yet very different bottles of wine
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 moreReview: Madrid to Philadelphia in American Airlines economy class aboard the Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 has been my ride back to the United States from Europe a couple of times lately, most recently flying in American Airlines main cabin extra from Madrid to Philadelphia. While I missed the business class seat I had on my previous experience aboard this plane, I can actually say that the A330 is currently one of my favorite planes to fly on in any class of service. This is a really great flight by economy standards, one that I am sure we'll take again.
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.
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