by Shona Milne on March 14, 2010
I spent part of my Saturday afternoon at Columbia Winery Taste of White event. I’m by nature a red wine drinker but I had a great time tasting through a number of their white wines. I found a great unoaked 2007 Yakima Valley Chardonnay. I was a big fan of the 2007 Small Lot Series Riesling and 2007 Covey Run Dry Riesling. Both would pair great with curry, thai, or BBQ. I did drink every last drop of the Covey Run 2006 Semillon Ice Wine with flavors of mango, pineapple, and honey. Ice wines and Late Harvest wines are the new dessert. Bottle prices range from about $10 to $20. You can still attend today from noon-6pm.
by Shona Milne on March 13, 2010
On MondayI spent the entire day at the Twitter Conference #140tc. It was an incredible event and I learned so much. I also realized that I am now a geek and I didn’t see it coming. After a full day of Twitter information and how it can be optimized there was a Tweetup at the Hotel Andra. There were about about a dozen local wineries and @SeattleWineGal as hostess. The wineries included Bartholomew Winery, Cadence Winery, Northwest Totem Cellars, Andrew Will, Walter Dacon, Queen Anne Winery, Flying Dreams Wine, Pomum Cellars, Laurelhurst Cellars, Barrage Cellars, Salida Wines, and Brian Carter Cellars. Shakers Vodka was also there. You can follow me on Twitter @Shona425.
by Shona Milne on March 12, 2010
Gordon Brothers is @gordonwines. Barrage Cellars is @BarrageCellars. Pomum Cellars just joined a few days ago as @PomumWine. Sparkman Cellars is @SparkmanCellars. Dusted Valley Vintners is @DustedValley. I finally got Village Wines to sign up and they can be found at @MyVillageWines. I sat with Tefft Cellars to get them signed up as @TefftCellars.
@ColumbiaWinery and @ancwine both just hit the 1000th follower mark. Maybe I can be next? You can follow me at Shona425.
by Shona Milne on March 11, 2010
Looking for a fun day out with your girlfriends? Challenger Ridge has just what you are looking for. On Saturday, March 20th, you can enjoy wines by the glass, appetizers, and do a little shopping and swapping. There will be a clothing exchange so clean out your closets and bring your clean, gently used, unwanted clothing items and see if you can find a new outfit. In addition, there will be a Silpada jewelry show, makeup by Motive Cosmetics, hair and nails by Divine Salon and Spa.
by Shona Milne on March 10, 2010
I had the opportunity to test the Centellino, top of the bottle, wine decanter the other night. The Centellino is blown glass, handmade in Italy. It certainly looks nice sitting on top of my bottle. It looks a little confusing at first but it is easy to use. I had a Columbia Winery Red Willow 2005 Cabernet Franc and I thought it would be a good wine to experiment with. I dusted off a couple of Tiffany & Co. hand blown crystal glasses so I could do a side by side comparison. I was completely amazed right away after pouring some wine right from the bottle and then using the Centellino. I could smell the red fruit, especially the cherries, and some oak in the glass which I had run through the Centellino. The other glass seemed to be 
lacking any aroma immediately after being poured into the glass. I kept going back between the glasses during the evening and found that the oak and cherry flavors intensified and there was also a flavor of vanilla and a long finish. The glass that I ran though the Centellino definitely opened up that wine to a degree that surprised me. I will use this again and again. [click to continue…]
by Shona Milne on March 9, 2010
Reading in the Sunday Seattle Times about Accidental Wine. This company, located in LA, is selling wines on the internet with blemished labels. Business is good with the tough economy. We all want bargains.
by Shona Milne on March 6, 2010
I just saw a story on King 5 Evening Magazine about Canadian Ice Wine. I just love ice wine and late harvest wines and I don’t really like sweet wines. I would rather pass on dessert after dinner for a glass of ice wine. I like to think of it as dessert in a glass. Quails Gate in the Okanagan is the featured winery. I’ll be looking for this on my next trip north.
by Shona Milne on March 5, 2010
I took part in a South African wine tasting on Wednesday night, hosted by Savour Speciality Foods in Ballard. It was to promote the 2010 Drink Well Do Good wine tour through the International Society of Africans in Wine. The Drink Well Do Good tour hopes to raise $150,000 to develop a training center for South African vintners. The ISAW vision is that through the celebration and appreciation of fine wine, they can uplift and educate, while diminishing poverty and inequality. The ISAW advocates reducing poverty through the business of wine. You can help the cause by attending the fundraiser in Seattle which will be Sunday, April 25th at Chop Suey. [click to continue…]
by Shona Milne on March 4, 2010
On Saturday night I attended the launch of the Food and Wine Pairing Network. The site has just launched and they are planning more live meet ups to exchange recipes and wine pairings. I took a Chilled Avocado soup. It was decided that a nice crisp Sauvignon Blanc was the right pairing. Make sure you sign up.
The Food and Wine Pairing Network has evolved from our adventures in wine pairing. We have had so much fun and have learned so much, not only about the alchemy of food and wine pairing but also the bringing together of people to enjoy it. Our goal here is simple; we want to bring people together, virtually, and in person, to share food, wine and conversation together.
We envision the Food and Wine Pairing Network being a place to: [click to continue…]
by Shona Milne on March 2, 2010
What a great event! It’s a nice size event that does not overwhelm you with concern about how you can get to every booth in one afternoon. I’d like to thank Jamie Peha and many sponsors of the Seattle Food & Wine Experience. I was one of eight bloggers & tweeters who were tweeting live about the SFWE as we went along with our eating and drinking adventures. I’d love to list everything I ate and drank but it would take up too much room. [click to continue…]
