Exploring Madiran with Vignobles Brumont #Winophiles
Southwest France, Unknown in the US The wines of Southwest France are little known in the US. Deep in the shadows of Bordeaux (which geographically should be considered part of the region), the wines are difficult to find and even knowledgeable wine shop employees may not discern a difference between Sud-Ouest (Southwest) and Languedoc-Roussillon. The … Continue reading
Come Along as the French #Winophiles Explore Southwest France
Explore Sud-Ouest France (Virtually) with the French Winophiles The French #Winophiles are a group of wine writers and bloggers who love French wine, food and travel. Every month, we all explore some pre-arranged aspect of French wine. We all post and chat about our experiences on the third Saturday of the month. This month’s topic: Southwest … Continue reading
Cool Kitchen Seafood Rolls for an Easy Summer Supper #WinePW
Kicking Back for an Easy Summer Supper with Wine Pairing Weekend Members of our Wine Pairing Weekend group work pretty hard to pair great foods with great wine choices. Sometimes, though, it’s fun to just relax and take an easy path to dinner. The food still needs to taste great and pair with some nice … Continue reading
French #Winophiles Return to Sud-Ouest (Southwest) France
Explore Sud-Oest (Southwest) France with the French Winophiles on July 15th! It’s been 2 years since our #Winophiles group first explored the wines of Southwest France. As French wine regions go, it’s near the bottom of the list for familiarity. It’s time to return to further our investigation! Looking at the map, you might realize … Continue reading
Friday Night: Sipping as Our Forefathers Did – Madeira
Dessert Wines – Wines with a Story Almost every dessert wine I know has an interesting story. Sometimes it’s the vineyard conditions: foggy fall mornings, early freezes, long dry autumns. Often, the story involves history and the challenges of transporting wines over long distances before the age of refrigeration. On the Friday evening of our … Continue reading
Italian Wine 101: Italian Wine Intro and Chianti!
Italian Wine 101: Intro to Italian Wine and Chianti After spending a few months virtually cruising around France, you have hopefully gained some insight into affordable French wines. In case you missed France, the posts are available here. Ready for more? Let’s jump over to Italy. No time? Jump right to the Cheatsheet here: Italian … Continue reading
Villa Maria Virtual Visit
A Virtual New Zealand Visit to Villa Maria via Snooth Virtual Tastings/Chats are a blast, if you’re an action junkie. The biggest challenge is managing your time for the hour of the chat. We taste, eat, tweet, photograph, and often are chatting on a custom media outside of the usual suspects (Twitter, Facebook, etc…). Tonight, … Continue reading
Friday Night: Pizza and Trediberri Barbera d’Alba
Friday Night: Easy Pizza and a Nice Bottle of Wine When we make pizza at home, I usually make everything from scratch: dough, sauce, and a wide variety of toppings. It’s a bit of an all-day affair, not exactly easy to start at 6pm on Friday night. Unless you like pizza at midnight! This week, … Continue reading
Rosé Time 2017!
Welcome to Rosé Time! Spring has sprung, and the hot weather has arrived. In Minnesota, it always takes us a few extra weeks to be really sure the cold weather has gone for the season. Farmers markets have opened, the yard has greened up, and the mosquitoes are due any day now. That can only … Continue reading
Salmon and Morels with the Domaine Wines of Louis Max #Winophiles
French Winophiles Linger in Bourgogne Our winophiles group loves Burgundy (Bourgogne) so much, we decided we needed to spend two months exploring the region. Last month, we were in Chablis and the Northern part of the Côte d’Or: the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. The wines of these northern regions are real … Continue reading















