Recently, Dad (John), Colby, and I spent three jam-packed days in Portland, Oregon, for the fifth annual Wine Bloggers Conference. Over 350 fellow wine bloggers, wine industry participants, and media members participated in tastings, keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and visits to local vineyards and wineries. [See the bottom of this post for a recap of [...]

The day before the recent Wine Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon, Colby and I had the pleasure to attend a culinary bus tour hosted by Wines of Chile. We boarded the Double Decker tour bus at the DoubleTree Portland and headed off for a wonderful afternoon enjoying Portland’s diverse food options paired with some wonderful [...]

Over the past several years, I have shared with you my bucket list of wines and then an update of it, as I have tasted several of the wines. In coming months and years, I’ll update it again as I add to my bucket list and enjoy tasting more of the wines on the list. [...]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2009 Viu Manent Carmenere Reserva from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. [...]

Since we live in Washington State and often drink wines from Washington State, we want to make sure that we continue to hone our knowledge of the entire world of wine and maintain well-rounded palates in order to make us even more objective when we evaluate wines from Washington State. Therefore, we are thoroughly enjoying [...]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2010 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva from the Casablanca Valley of Chile. [...]

Last week, we had the pleasure to take part in an online Chilean Red Blends tasting hosted by Wines of Chile. Eight Chilean winemakers/winery representatives convened in Chile to talk about their wines via videoconference to 50 wine bloggers across the United States. “Chile is red grapes paradise,” said Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer who moderated [...]

Last week, we had the pleasure to take part in an online Chilean Sauvignon Blanc tasting hosted by Wines of Chile. Sauvignon Blanc is the primary white variety planted in Chile. Eight Chilean winemakers/winery representatives convened in Chile to talk about their wines via video conference to 51 wine bloggers across the United States while [...]

Carmenere, a red varietal originally found in the Bordeaux region of France, disappeared from European vineyards almost completely in the mid-19th century. Today, Carmenere is known as Chile’s signature grape, having been discovered in that country in 1994 among vines that were previously thought to be Merlot. It is a deeply colored red grape that [...]

This Saturday, December 20, is the beginning of the annual college football marathon, 34 games in 19 days culminating in the BCS National Championship Game in Miami on January 8. Those of us football fanatics are stocking up on our manly fare of burgers, chili, pizza, brats, chips, salsa, and cheese. Now we need some [...]