Wining at year's end...

JD & the Goddess

Hard to believe it's the last week of 2012. The Goddess of Wine and JD have gone to lots of wine tasting events, lots of dinners, lots of gatherings, lots of wineries. There has been good wine and bad wine - some astonishing in both directions - and a lot of drinkable, but ordinary wine. We've made new friends, said goodbye to some old friends, made discoveries both personal and professional.

Wining on New Year's Eve? Try Cheers@All Corked Up!

The First New Year’s Celebration Sponsored by Eve’s Wine 101 is a Perlis Pick: Cheers@All Corked Up

Ring in a new year in a new venue that promises all the bells and whistles, along with wine, beer, live music and an outstanding menu, at Santa Clarita’s only Puerto Rican themed restaurant and wine bar: Cheers@All Corked Up.

This year, to ring in the inaugural event, Eve Bushman, owner of Eve’s Wine 101 and editor Michael Perlis have chosen to sponsor the event. “We support all locally-run wine events, but never two on the same night,” Eve began. “And Cheers@All Corked Up is our choice this year as we were looking for something new and exciting for our wine friends to try.”

Guests with reservations will be able to select in advance one of four tasty main entrees in a four-course plated dinner created by Chef Dominik. While seated in one of two expansive dining rooms, guests have a choice of being close to the live music (The Bobby Cuba Band followed by the multi-talented G3 Band) in the main room or wine-ing and dining with pals in the VIP room.

Exciting news from Santa Clarita...

 Santa Clarita Valley’s

First Winery Crush Pad Opens

Soon to Follow:

First Beer and Winemaking Supply Store

SANTA CLARITA, CA – 14 December 2012 – Local Santa Clarita commercial winemakers Steve Lemley and Nate Hasper, owners of Pulchella Winery, are pleased to announce the relocation of their winery from Paso Robles to Valencia, as well as the opening of the first certified winemaking facility of its kind in the Santa Clarita Valley to service the Ventura, Santa Barbara, Central Coast, Southern California Los Angeles and Temecula area vineyard owners, winemakers, distributors, restaurant owners or anyone else looking to have their wines produced in a professional facility by professional winemakers with a proven track record. 

Wining with the Garagistes...

Having attended last year's Garagiste Festival debut at the gorgeous Windfall Farms outside of Paso Robles, I was looking forward to the 2nd Annual Garagiste Festival with great anticipation. As with the sophomore year of any project, some things were great and some not so much.

Organizers/Founders Stewart McLennan, Doug Minnick, Lisa Dinsmore, and Melanie Webber expanded the fest over 4 days, including winemaker dinners and other special events. JD and I chose to avoid the dinners (about which we heard nothing but praise), and bought the VIP package in order to attend the seminars on Saturday and Sunday.

Wining in general...

Maybe it's the unrelenting ugliness of the Presidential electioneering, or the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, or it's just that time of year when we reflect about where we are in our lives...despite some pretty wonderful people and things, the Goddess of Wine is feeling a bit low. [Note: Post-election day, feeling much better, thanks.]

Waiting for a wine bar to open in Burbank. We hope it will happen in December, but there are still details and discussions taking place at various levels, so it may not be for another month or two. When it does open, there is an opportunity for me to have a local spot to spread the good word about wine. Fingers crossed!

Have a couple of Wine Camp classes scheduled for LearnAboutWine in December for which I'm grateful, and yet, something feels anticlimactic at this point in the year. But enough with doom and gloom, let's talk about the wonderful and fun things I've been doing:

Wining to help...Pour Into Sandy Hurricane Relief

Pour Into Sandy

Hurricane Relief

News Release                                                      For Immediate Release

Media contact: Eve Bushman, eve@evewine101.com

SANTA CLARITA-November 5, 2012 – In an effort to offer assistance to those hurt by Hurricane Sandy, members of the community of Santa Clarita, with the assistance of Cheers at All Corked Up restaurant (www.cheersatallcorkedup.com), Eve’s Wine 101 (www.evewine101.com) and All Corked Up wine storage (www.allcorkedup.com) have planned the first wine tasting fundraiser on November 14, 2012 from 6-9 p.m.

This year, to date, the donators include private cellared wines and other items from Steve and Amy Elzer, Michael and Karen Perlis, Larry and Gloria Stahly, Marlee Lauffer, Don and Cheryl Dellepiane, Jason Park, Al Robles and Shelly Schutz.  Wineries to date include Stillman Wines, Clavo Cellars, Zeppelin Winery, Les Deux Chats, Pulchella Winery, Stephen Hemmert Wines, Two Hearts Cellars, Reyes Winery, Alonso Family Vineyards, Nuggucciet Estate Vineyard, Bouquet Vineyard, Bobcat Wines, B & P Winery, Six Foaks and Whistling Vineyard wines.

The idea sprang from Eve’s Wine 101 editor and writer, Michael Perlis, who was quickly joined by Eve’s Wine 101 owner Eve Bushman, Cheers owners Al Robles and Terri Rivera, the managing general partner of All Corked Up, Shelly Schutz, and Robert Reyes of Reyes Winery.

Cheers at All Corked Up is located at: ​26340 Diamond Place Ste 100, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.  Tickets can be reserved in advance by calling 661-259-2000, payable in cash at the door.  100 percent of the event price of $25, and the auction, will go to the American Red Cross. 

Wining and wining and wining...

It's been a crazy couple of months. Lots of projects at the day job getting in the way of the Goddess' wine plans, but we still managed to get to a few places. We'll start with the most recent and fill things in as we go.

My dear friend, Rico Mandel of Miz en Place, invited me to cover the opening of a new wine bar in Malibu, Malibu Beach Wines. MBW is the brainchild of Jim Palmer, proprietor, grower and winemaker of Malibu Vineyards wines. It's a lovely space, right on Pacific Coast Highway, where you can taste and purchase boutique wines grown in the proposed Malibu AVA and Central Coast. When I say 'boutique' I mean small production, lovingly-tended and passionately-made. The winemakers and wines being spotlighted for this opening event were Jim Palmer and Malibu Vineyards, Carol Hoyt of Hoyt Family Vineyards and Shawn Shai Halahmy of Shai Cellars.

Wining by proxy...SF Int'l Wine Competition Double Gold winners...

Once again, I sent JD to taste in my place. This time it was the Tasting Panel magazine tour of Double Gold winner selections from the San Francisco International wine completion. Here are some highlights of that very interesting tasting:

Duplex on Third

This event was at Duplex on Third, just a little west of the Beverly Center in mid-city west, across the street from Cedars –Sinai medical center, a beautiful, fairly new restaurant converted from what had originally been an early 1900’s duplex. There was a nice cheese, fruit and bread spread provided. I overheard that they bake their own bread based on a starter the chef has had for a few years. It was quite good, alone or with the cheese.

Started with a little bubbly, always a great way to begin. 075 Carati 2011 Sparkling Ribolla Gialla, IGT, delle Venezie, Italy $19. www.pieramartellozzo.com. Toasty. Good starter.

Wining by proxy...Slovenia and Croatia...

Croatia/Slovenia

Once again, the Goddess sent her trusty First Acolyte, JD, to taste some wines in her place. After reading this account, she is sad that she wasn't able to taste these first hand!

9/11/2012 - At Lucques on Melrose - Our host, importer Vinum USA, Inc., began with some historical and geographical background. Like Italy, just across the Adriatic Sea and bordering to the north, Croatia & Slovenia have many different grapes that are special to the region, besides growing grapes from other areas and putting different names to them.

There has been grape growing and wine making in the region for centuries, but real work most likely started with Greek settlers in the fifth century BC, growing during Roman times and continuing through the Middle Ages. Production survived during the occupation by the Ottoman Turks through the Catholic Church’s need for wine in their services. Production flourished again during the Hapsburg Empire.

Wining in Lake County...Hawk and Horse Vineyards

Back in May, I received a bottle of wine from a winery with whom I was unfamiliar - Hawk and Horse Vineyards. It was a beautifully packaged bottle of 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, with lots of great information about the winery, a small, family-owned and operated ranch and vineyard estate located in the Red Hills AVA of Northern California. They incorporate both organic and biodynamic methods in their farming, and are Demeter Biodynamic and CCOF Organic certified, and their winemaker is the renowned Richard Peterson. I was excited!

I invited my fellow wineaux, Debra B., to join me for dinner so I could take advantage of her excellent palate to assist with tasting this wine, but we were dismayed to discover upon opening the bottle that the wine was damaged, probably from the brief intense heat spike that occurred during shipment.