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Latest Wine Headlines: April 2—8

This week was one of those crazy busy weeks. What month is it? What day is it? What time is it slash what time zone am I living in—mentally, emotionally, physically? Yah. But one must keep up on the wine news. So here it is. I do hope you appreciate and enjoy. Cheers to the weekend.

 

by studios Atelier Manasse, Viena, ca 1920s

 

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Weeknight Wine Drinking—Wine Not?

I think that sometimes we get a little too precious about our wine pairings. Too focused on the ‘perfect’ pairing. Too fussed on which days are ‘ok’ to have a glass of wine (or two!) with dinner. Blah blah blah. Now I’m not saying I drink every night—sometimes one wants a break; sometimes one wants to drink something not wine (*gasp*) and that’s all a-ok too. But I recently cleaned out my wine cellar and dedicated one whole section to ‘weeknight drinking.’ Meaning, any day of the week either I or the man should be able to walk in and choose something and it should be fine. Choose something based on the food, the mood, the weather. Close your eyes point and say ‘ok.’ (Um…maybe not that last one…).

The following is a list of some of our weeknight pairings. These are not reviews of specific wines/wine brands per se. More my/our comments on styles of wines that, for us, seem to par well with classic Briscoe mid-week meals. The perfect pairings? Probably not? But, isn’t the perfect pairing the pairing you’re enjoying at the moment anyway? (Answer: yes.)

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Latest Wine Headlines March 27—April 1

Hello and happy weekend and wine-news-round-up day. Lots of great stuff to scroll through this week. A personal highlight of mine is this podcast I conducted in honor of Women’s Wine Month, interviewing Dr. Lucia Gilbert, professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and author of Women Winemakers: Personal Odysseys. I’m so happy I got to connect with her and learn from her research and expertise. If you haven’t yet, take a listen directly on the Wine Enthusiast website or wherever you download your podcasts.

I’m also happy to say that I’ve taken the next steps to becoming an instructor at my WSET alma mater, Napa Valley Wine Academy. While I so love teaching for Odyssey Wine Academy in Healdsburg, it’s truly a pleasure to give back to the school that gave so much to me. So, stay tuned for upcoming classes—in-person and virtual.

This weekend I’m attending my first wine club pick-up party at Smith Story Wine Cellars, also located at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg (just across from the Odyssey Wine Academy). I’m so stoked: I’ve known Ali for so long and for some reason just never joined her club. Truth be told, I don’t belong to a lot of wine clubs. But the ones I do are very purposefully selected—typically small-batch, female-owned businesses making innovative wines that just don’t compare to those I’ve found elsewhere.

That’s all from me (for now). Hope everyone has a lovely lovely weekend.

 

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Latest Wine Headlines: March 19—25

Happy weekend all. Hope everyone’s had a good week behind them and something exciting to look forward to ahead of them. I’ve got your weekly wine-newsy roundup (of course). A few pieces that spoke to me—Puck Futin beer (raising money for Ukraine refugees), why wine brands should start utilizing Tik Tok, Asimov’s piece on the language of wine, and there are quite a few interesting articles coming out of VinoJoy News this week for those who are interested in the latest in the Asian wine industry.

On a personal note, I recently cleaned out my wine cellar. What I had intended to be a one-hour job morphed into an all afternoon and into the early evening project. But, as such, I’ve got a lot of wines that I think would warrant a fair review/write up on this site—some new releases and others some excellent ‘cellar finds’ if you will. I know I’ve been a bit more news/news-round up focused on this site, which you all seem to be enjoying. How about some good old fashion wine write-ups? If that’s something you’d like to see more of, just shoot me a quick note with like—I dunno—a thumps-up emoji? And let me know.

Tis all for now. Happy (safe and healthy) drinking!

 

Me—when I see the wine glass getting a little too empty…

 

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Latest Wine Headlines: March 12—18

Hope everyone is off to a good start to their weekend. I don’t have anything specific to chat about today. Nor can I think of any kind of clever/witty/snarky comment about this week’s news round-up. So I will, for once, leave you in peace to enjoy your read-through.

Cin-cin!

 

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