In June I made a short trip to Frederick, MD to visit my daughter and son-in-law.  We had dinner at a favorite spot, The Tasting Room.  Conversation with the sommelier, Jarrett Walsh, led to the decision to “go out on a limb” just a little and try a wine made from 100% Cinsault.  This particular wine is made by Michael…

During the 2013 Charleston Wine and Food Festival, I had the distinct pleasure of attending Merry Edwards‘ Single Vineyard Pinot Noir tasting.  Merry was one of the first women wine makers in CA, beginning her career in the industry in 1974.  In 1997, family and friends joined Merry to found Merry Edwards Winery, with a focus on producing Pinot Noirs…

An unusual experiment is taking place right here in Charleston Harbor.  Mira Winery of Napa Valley, CA, submerged four cases of 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon to test the effects of “ocean aging.”  The bottles were treated with additional wax seals and placed in specially designed steel mesh cages that allow the water to circulate around the bottles. The wines are in…

A beautiful new book, Rock and Vine, will be available soon and I have two gorgeous pre-release copies of this book to give away!  There is no cost involved and no”catches”. It is the story of California’s evolving wine business.  Most of us know some of the names of the great pioneers of wine in California, the likes of Robert and…

The autumn season is upon us, even though it doesn’t feel like it here in Charleston.  We did have a “taste” of fall, but then the humidity set back in.  There have been a number of interesting events over the past few weeks.  One of our new local eateries is called Butcher and Bee and it has a unique format,…

A second visit to Two Boroughs Larder on August 3 proved to be as good or better than my first experience. The Larder was happy to allow me to bring in a bottle of wine and I selected a bottle of the 2008 Newton Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon that was mentioned in my post about the Newton Wine Dinner at Carolina’s….

Slightly North of Broad (locally and fondly known as “SNOB”) is offering a new Chef’s Table Dinner on Sunday evenings.  There are two seatings, one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 8:00 p.m.  My daughter, Hilary, and I occupied two of the six seats at the chef’s table overlooking the kitchen and were joined by two couples who were visiting…

Newton Vineyard and Carolina’s Restaurant teamed up to present a wonderful wine dinner on a recent Tuesday evening. Debbie Marlowe of The Wine Shop of Charleston coordinated the fine event. The 30 of us in attendance were greeted with Chandon’s Étoile Rose (Newton and Chandon are sister companies within the Moët Hennessy Group) and passed hors d’oeuvres.  Soon after, we were seated…