LA PRIDE can wine along at the LA WineFest!

LA PRIDE guests invited to attend LAWineFest, held in nearby Hollywood; receive $15 off day rate

The 7th Annual LAWineFest, the largest educational wine tasting event in Los Angeles, is extending a special discount to attendees of LA PRIDE, the largest gathering of the LGBT community in Southern California. Both are being held June 9-10th; their close proximity to each other makes it easy for people to enjoy two festive gatherings in one weekend. Guests who enter the code “PRIDE” at check out will receive $15 off the day rate.

Wining with Paso Garagiste...Sneak Peek!

It's Garagiste Season!

And no, we don't mean you should put on your orange vest, pull the 12 gauge off the wall and tiptoe into the hills of Paso like Elmer Fudd. 

You should, however, be sure to hightail it down to the first Garagiste mini-event of 2012 which will be taking place this week at 15c Wine Bar in Templeton, CA. Here's the full press release: 

Wining Sideways! The play, that is!

SIDEWAYS THE PLAY-World Premiere with wine tastings
MEDIA ALERT                                                                           
WORLD PREMIERE at Ruskin
Revised May 9, 2012
Press Contact: Judith Borne (310) 305-7888  or judith@borneidentities.com                                                                       

                                                                                   

Rex Pickett’s SIDEWAYS THE PLAY

 A WORLD PREMIERE staging at

Ruskin Group Theatre OPENING May 18, 2012

Fridays-Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm through July 22, 2012

TASTINGS OF PINOT NOIR WINES AT PERFORMANCES will include offerings from Sonoma Coast Vineyard,  Dunstan Wines, Sharp Cellars, Silver Mountain, Carlton Cellars, Domaine Gerbuaut, Gioia, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Bouchaine Vineyards, Roots Wines, Leucadia Red, Waits-Mast Family Cellars, Alysian, and more...

Los Angeles, CA – Sideways The Play, adapted by Rex Pickett from his own novel, is the story of two friends - Miles and Jack – and their journey across the Santa Ynez wine country, on one last blowout trip before Jack gets married. Miles and Jack must face their uncertain futures…just as soon as they figure out how to survive their chaotic present.

Wining in the Santa Rita Hills...sort of...

Shortly after attending the extremely hot and hard to navigate Santa Barbara County Vintners Festival in Los Olivos, we had the opportunity to sample several of the wines we had missed by showing up for the Santa Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance event at the Wine House in Los Angeles.

JD and I are big fans of the Santa Rita Hills. Cool climates and sea influences help create lean and elegant wines. SRH is a relatively small appellation of approximately 100 square miles. Intersected by the Santa Ynez River, the cool climate appellation is located between the towns of Buellton and Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, California. The Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance includes both vineyards located within the geographical boundaries of the appellation, and those who craft wines from grapes grown there.

Wining with the Santa Barbara Vintners' Association...

Some of my favorite wines in the world come from Santa Barbara County. So you can imagine my delight when I received the notification that the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association annual celebration of spring, the Vintners' Festival was scheduled for April 21st at a new venue called The Carranza on Zaca Station Road.

We drove up Saturday morning. It was cool and foggy along the coast, but when we emerged from the Gaviota tunnel, we knew we were in for a scorcher. After a hearty breakfast at Mother Hubbard's in Buellton, we headed to The Carranza. It was already almost 90 degrees when we arrived at noon. We were happy to get in early with the media, and immediately discovered there were significant problems with the venue.

Miscellaneous wining...ZAP & Family Winemakers & some random thoughts...

In January, JD and I went north for ZAP - the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers 4-day event. Well, we didn't go for four days, we went for the Grand Tasting. It was immense - over 200 wineries all pouring Zinfandel from all over the world.

Some wineries, like Ian Blackburn's Beekeeper Cellars, poured one wine; others poured anywhere from 3 to 9 wines - all Zins! We were grateful to have been included as media, so that we were able to enter the tasting at 10 a.m., and we still tasted only a fraction of the wines by the time we left at 3:30 p.m. There were writers who reported within 24 - 48 hours that they had tasted hundreds of wines. By my reckoning, we tasted the fruits of around 40 wineries, so maybe we tasted 80 - 100 wines.

It was fascinating to taste the regional differences among all those Zins. I discovered that if I'm going to just sip a Zin, I want Zin from Paso Robles or Lodi, but if I'm going to pair it with food, I want a Zin from Dry Creek. I also realized - well, I knew this already - that I would rather taste fewer wines and have a bit more quality time with the winemakers to get the inside story about their passion and process.

Come and wine with the Goddess on May 12th...

I'm really excited. Why? Because I've chosen the wines for my Old World versus New World class on May 12th and I can hardly wait. For those of you who are afraid it's going to be too geeky - don't worry! The very reason I'm providing this kind of education is to take out the mystery and pretentiousness and provide clarity and ease.

Wining with the Wineaux of the Goddess...Merlot...

The April meeting of the Wineaux of the Goddess Marching Band and Chowder Society took place Wednesday evening at Fab's, our home away from home. In attendance were the usual gang of picky palates: Marya Glur, Shawn Shai Halahmy, Rico Mandel, Xochitl Maiman, Debra Bizek, John Dickey, and myself, the Goddess of Wine. Our mission: Merlot!

There's so much information about Merlot, much of it obscured by the unfortunate scene in 2003's Sideways in which the hapless Miles, trying to sabotage a situation to disguise his discomfort at Jack's actions, blurts out, "I'm not drinking any fucking Merlot!" Rex Pickett, the author of Sideways, says he was surprised at the venom with which actor Paul Giamatti said the line - and doubly surprised at the immediate reaction in the wine world: Consumers stopped buying Merlot-based wines, and growers ripped out their Merlot vines and planted Pinot Noir! Heavy sigh...

Wining with the Goddess - Old World vs New! Join us!

Wine with the Goddess

Fab’s Corner Cucina

Saturday, May 12, 2012, 1 PM

Let's talk about wine - Old World versus New World.
It's not a battle, it's fun!

It’s the Old World versus the New!

• What's the difference between a Red Burgundy and an Oregon Pinot Noir?
• Do your French-wine-loving friends make you feel inferior because you love California Chardonnay?
• Do Old World wines come from classic wine-making regions?
• Is New World wine from everywhere else?

Join Goddess of Wine Denise Lowe as she leads you from the Old World to the New!

• Learn about terroir and how it styles wine.
• Discuss wine-making techniques through the ages.

Class fee of $45 includes 4 flights of wine, small munchies, tasting notes.

CONTACT FAB'S CORNER CUCINA AT 818-995-2933 FOR RESERVATIONS!

About the Goddess of Wine: Denise is certified through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the Wine Academy of Spain, and LearnAboutWine. She is a Professional Member of the Society of Wine Educators, and is a Wine Educator for LearnAboutWine. Her blog, Goddess of Wine, details her adventures in the wine world, accompanied by her faithful acolyte, husband John Dickey.

Join the Goddess for an educational - and fun - experience!

For more information, email goddessofvino@gmail.com or call 818-903-6397.

Wining by proxy...kind of...Shai Cellars wine dinner at Fab's Corner Cucina...

The Goddess was ready to write her recap of a truly delicious evening, when First Acolyte, JD, sent her his write-up. What a good Acolyte he is! Here are his thoughts:

Shai Cellars

There was a wonderful winemaker dinner at Fabs Corner Cucina on March 21, 2012. This delectable event, hosted by Amelia Yokel, paired the Shai Cellars wines of Shawn Shai Halahmy with the food creations of Chef Ian Jerde.

OMG. Now that I have that out of the way I’ll move on, starting with a little background.

Fabs is a relaxed and friendly family owned restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California serving mainly Italian-based fare. One can get marinara-sauced or other lighter-sauced dishes along with other things such as Risotto del Giorno. More on the risotto later. There are always specials available which often distract one from trying items on the regular menu: the entrees, the soups, the salads, the appetizers. There are so many delicious choices and don’t forget the yeasty rolls.

Wining with the Wineaux of the Goddess...Pinot Noir...

Got together for our monthly meeting of Wineaux of the Goddess at Fab's on 3/14 to do a blind tasting of Pinot Noir from all over the world. Turned out to be a very interesting and tasty evening!

Some basic info about Pinot Noir:
Pinot Noir is often described as being a difficult grape, to grow, to deal with in the winery, and to find truly great examples of, but fans are passionate about this variety, as sensually expressed by the dialogue between Miles and Maya in the 2004 movie Sideways. Difficulties plague Pinot Noir at every step, from propagation to its bottle-aging characteristics. Genetically unstable, the parent vine may produce offspring that bear fruit that is nothing like the parent's in the size and shape of the berry or cluster, and will frequently even have different aromas, flavors, and levels of productivity. There are 46 recognized clones (genetic variants) of Pinot Noir in Dijon, France. Experts estimate there are as many as 200 to possibly 1,000 clones of Pinot Noir worldwide. By comparison, Cabernet Sauvignon has only twelve identifiable clones.

VINTNERS WILL CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF THE 2012 VINTAGE

“Showcasing the Region’s Diversity… Annual Festival to be held in Santa Ynez Valley”
 

SANTA YNEZ, CA – The 100+ members of the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association will herald the arrival of spring and the beginning of the new vintage at their 30th annual Vintners’ Festival on April 21, 2012.
 

The Festival will return to the Santa Ynez Valley on the pastoral grounds of “The Carranza”. “As the festival has grown over the past 30 years, we look for venues that not only will accommodate all of our vintners and guests, but that also showcase the stunning countryside that makes Santa Barbara County one of the most beautiful locations on earth”, states Jim Fiolek, Executive Director of the Association. “We’re excited about holding the Festival at “The Carranza”, a meadow tucked into a valley created by Zaca Creek as it leaves Foxen Canyon. We strive to move our venue to different areas every few years to allow our guests to see firsthand the many microclimates that support growing a diverse assortment of grape varieties.” The Carranza is located on Zaca Station Road between The Firestone Vineyards and Highway 154, northwest of Los Olivos, California.

Just wining...with gratitude...and fatigue...

Well, we did it. We lived through the 2nd Annual Santa Clarita Wine Fest at the Bridgeport Marketplace in - you guessed it - Santa Clarita. It was a beautiful day, a large and friendly crowd and a group of happy VIP's hanging out in the evening. There were some challenges, but we met them head-on with smiles on our faces, and we got things squared away.

Santa Clarita Wine Fest - It's almost here!!

Join the Goddess of Wine on March 3, 2012 at The Bridgeport Marketplace for a day of food and wine with over 125 wineries represented and over 350 wines, beers and spirits being poured. This year will benefit the Michael Hoefflin Foundation, which offers hope, help and healing for Children's Cancer.

General Public from 1p-6pm
VIP event 5pm-7pm

For tickets, visit: http://santaclaritawinefest-autohome.eventbrite.com/

Use discount code 'goddessofwine' to get a huge discount - $40 for a $75 ticket!

See you at the Fest!