Seems to me there’s a “day” or “month” for everything: Official Macaroni and Cheese Day, National Cow Day and each calendar month has a disease attached to it. Some designations make sense to me (Cancer Awareness Month, although to not be “aware” of cancer would require hermit-level ignorance) and others, not so much — National Waffle Month (??).
But every year for the past six, California has celebrated Wine Month during September. The timing makes sense, harvest starts and the Valleys are teeming with activity and tourists. Great time to entertain all those people wanting to spend money and time at California’s 3,000 wineries where 90 percent of domestic wine is birthed. Social calendars are chock full o’ events throughout the state, kicking off with Sonoma Wine Country Weekend and ending with the Taste of Lodi Festival, guaranteed that the best and brightest wineries will be showing off their stuff. To see a full lineup of the tastings and pretty cool harvest experiences at various wineries, check the Discover California Wines webpage.
On a recent trip to Hogue Cellars in Eastern Washington State, I tasted pretty much every wine they make. The 2008 Genesis Riesling — they have three tiers of wines: Hogue, Hogue Genesis, Hogue Terroir — impressed me like the cured salmon and crème fraiche they paired it with. But when I blind-tasted the red blend Meritage a few weeks ago (and again during the trip), I knew things had
Read more: Wine reviews: Hogue Cellars 2008 Genesis Riesling and 2007 Meritage
The fledgling food scene in West Tampa just wiggled a bit. Founder Jessica Raia-Long sold her interests yesterday to The Noho Bistro in North Howard’s district to her chef partner Tina Hurliss and former server/sommelier Tomàs Carrasquillo, now General Manager.
Read more: Tampa’s NoHo Bistro changes restaurant ownership: A bittersweet departure
In my Diary of a Wine Junket post, I copped to accepting a trip from Hogue Cellars, whose wines I admire. Bought and paid for, wined and dined, etc. And now I find myself respecting them even more, but for all the right reasons. The pictures and lessons herewith:
Read more: Washington State wine country with Hogue Cellars: Pictures and lessons learned