Wine events come in all shapes and sizes, and last weekend Seattle hosted one of the biggest annual wine and food events in the Northwest, Taste Washington. This was my first time to attend Taste Washington, and I spent the majority of the day Saturday serving guest some of Chef Frank Magana’s mind blowingly delicious goodies. The Chorizo Stuffed Prawns [...]
Those of you who are connected to me on Facebook have already seen that last week brought some big news for me in my wine industry journey. Last week I started working for Alexandria Nicole Cellars, one of the wineries that made me want to move to Washington in the first place. My dream of working in a multi-faceted role [...]
Last night I was awakened by a dream, a dream so glorious that I had to rush to write it down so that I would remember all of the details to recount to you. Like a magic portal to my subconscious, this dream featured dancing midgets (little people that is), crushed velvet robes, giant sandworms, a disembodied human ear, and [...]
Getting older sucks. Of course, it’s not really the actual aging that is a problem; it’s the changes that go along with aging that bother us. We have the great pleasure of watching our bodies slowly deteriorate, despite our best efforts to fend off the visible effects of having outlived our physical peaks. There are some of us who decide that [...]
One of the biggest local wine events of the year here in Eastern Washington is the Tri-Cities Wine Festival that is put together by the Tri-Cities Wine Society. Roughly 100 wineries participate every year, and this was Thomas O’Neil Cellars first trip to the festival. The original plan was for Tom O’Neil to join me at the festival while his [...]
Small businesses always present owners with unique challenges, and a small winery is certainly no exception to that rule. All that fancy equipment that you see at the larger wineries is not always an option for a smaller place. You start out with the items that are essential to operate, and then year after year you add on as you are [...]
Here I am, after a long hiatus from the blogging world, jumping back into the fray. There were a lot of reasons for my absence from the world of wine blogging, which we don’t really have to get into in this post. I have missed all of you guys while I was away from it all, and I’ve been planning [...]
The last few months have seen some exciting developments in the local wine scene here in Eastern Washington. There have been several wineries that have opened tasting rooms here in the Tri-Cities, including Thomas O’Neil Cellars, Kitzke Cellars, and Hamilton Cellars. Add to this mix the addition of some great new restaurants cropping up, such as Picazo Restaurant and Bar [...]
This is the time that I consider the real start of the year. We’ve languished through the death throes of Winter’s chilly grasp. Nothing of importance happens in January and February (okay, there’s this big football game, but that’s it.) Finally in March you start to see some action. Baseball spring training is in full swing, culminating in opening day [...]
Anyone who has been paying attention to the ways of the world in the last few decades could tell you that the times, they are a changin'. There has been a steady move away from the locally owned mom and pop businesses in favor of larger corporations. In some industries this comes in the form of big box retailers moving [...]
