The Wine List

As holiday office parties and family gatherings begin, wine stores everywhere stock up and promote their favorite holiday wines. Some of these wines are good values, some have great labels and some are to complement holiday meals. But,…

Photo courtesy of L.G. Patterson Eating and drinking according to the season is great for your body. Of course, this means eating vegetables that are currently growing in your garden or at your local farms, but it also means changing…

For the month of September the challenge was to discover the perfect food-friendly, tasty, refreshing Chardonnay. I was hoping to find a wine light enough for hot days yet robust enough for the rich foods that seamlessly meld with…

As the weather heats up, our bodies begin to crave foods that hydrate us. So it makes sense that warm weather produces some of our most delicious, hydrating fruits. Citrus fruits, tropical fruits, peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes and…

When you hear words like “organic” or “biodynamic,” you might jump to conclusions about cost or quality. Trust me, I have had the same reservations. It’s been nine years since I ran the first all organic/biodynamic wine by-the-glass program…

I once heard “when roses bloom, it’s time to drink rosé.” I think about this every spring, and I feel a tug to drink the pretty pink stuff, especially since spring has warmed the ground and the heat of summer is right around the corner.…

Firing up the grill at our house means there is a holiday to celebrate with friends and family — and more food and drinks than should be consumed. On the kitchen counter, both red and white wines would be open, on the porch would be coolers…

Every spring, I have the urge to spring clean my house and my diet. When the comfort foods and holiday spreads of winter no longer sound appealing, I am drawn to lighter, cleaner fare. This is actually perfect because the first vegetables…

During the final weeks of winter, I deplete our pantry’s jars from last year’s garden. This winter we still have fruit butters, heirloom tomato salsa, pickled vegetables, hot sauce and several jars of tomatoes. This is a good thing for me,…

If you browse the web for wine and chocolate pairing ideas, you will get a wide variety of suggestions and opinions. To explore how well chocolate pairs with wine, first you should recognize a bad pairing versus a good pairing. For example,…

Living with a chef whose creative inspiration comes from our heirloom garden, I realize our everyday meals might be a bit different than yours. But what I bet we have in common is the urge to indulge in robust dishes that are warm and stick…