Food

My second stop on my personal winery tour was at the beautiful Heron Hill meeting with my friend Jacqueline and Bekka. It was a very cold and snowy early evening and i was the only person in the tasting room. Both these ladies took great care of me and gave me VIP treatment as we tasted through a wide variety of wines. My visit was cut short due to the weather conditions and the fact that they needed to close. It was a lot of fun.

Point of the Bluff Vineyards has been around since 2008. They offer award-winning wines with a specialty in producing Old World style Rieslings in a beautiful setting overlooking Keuka Lake on the south-western side of the lake in Hammondsport. The boutique-style of the winery allows the winemaker, Mike Countryman, with more than 20 years of experience, to be intimately involved in every aspect of the process from plantings at their Keuka Park/Keuka Lake vineyards to bottling.

Here ya go Tambi - Part 2 of wine post will focus on aged Rieslings, primarily from Germany, but a brief mention of Alsace Rieslings from France. Riesling is Germany’s specialty. The regions of Pfalz, Rheingau, and Mosel produce some of the world’s best Rieslings with high aromatics, acidity, intensity, minerality, and balanced off-dry styles making it food-friendly. Before we begin to understand these Rieslings, it is important to discuss terminology that is unique to Germany.

For this week’s wine post part 1, we will be focusing on Old World Chardonnay, for example, Chablis from Burgundy region of France, unoaked Chardonnay, and Old World and New World aged Rieslings (part 2 in a follow-up post) as requested by Tambi Schweizer, friend and follower of the blog. Hopefully this topic sparks interest among other followers as well. These wine styles can be different from what we are used to drinking from California, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa to name a few, especially in the case of New World Chardonnay.

I've been anxious to do a wine blog post based on requests from my fans and followers because I want to write "for the people" and what people are interested in. We have to bring back some democracy to this country, right! I am happy to announce that my wish came true. My beautiful friend Bambi is a wine lover and a big fan of FLX wines. More specifically, she likes to sit down and enjoy a "good" red when she is able. You see, Bambi is a busy mom who's time is precious.

I had the lovely experience of sipping a glorious Dry Rosé in January 2020 at the Libertè Lounge in the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. What was the occasion? Well, the reason for my visit on this cold, blustery night in the City of Brotherly Love was to conclude my WSET Level 3 studies upstairs on the 3rd floor with a three-hour tasting and theory exam, which was going to be beyond stressful and intense. I sat there at a high-top table with cushy pillows surrounding me on a plush leather half booth contemplating what to have for dinner.

October 10th marks "International Pinotage Day". In celebrating this unique and misunderstood grape, I offer a glimpse into it's history and factoids. The name Pinotage is a little bit misleading because it sounds so much like Pinot Noir. It is easy to assume they taste alike. Not true. In fact, the South African grape looks and tastes more like Shiraz even though Pinotage is technically related to Pinot Noir. So why haven’t we heard more about this deliciously dark grape? If you love a bold barbecue-friendly wine, Pinotage wine is worth checking out.

The grapes that make a particular wine dictate the general structure of that wine and how it will respond to everything the winemaker and viticulturist does to it. If a wine is white, odds are that it came from white grapes; if it is red or pink, that’s because the wine came from red/black grapes. How did it smell? Herbal, Floral, Fruity, Earthy? Whichever, those aromas come mainly from the grapes.

Since we are approaching the romantic season of Valentine's, why not celebrate with some classic cocktails for "her" and "him". Both cocktails featured in this post are appropriate all-year long, but hold a special significance for this day and weekend because they are celebratory in nature and yummy. But first, let's talk a little history of these cocktails, then we will get to the recipes. They are easy to make at home, relatively inexpensive, and just require some shopping and prep work in the kitchen.