featured – Page 5 – WineFashionista

Drink, eat and sleep around Healdsburg’s square

Wineries

(Photo courtesy of the Healdsburg Chamber)

Ever since multiple wildfires raged through bucolic wine country and neighborhoods in Sonoma County and Napa Valley, one message is clear. The region is resilient, rebuilding and open for business. Some of that business — namely tourism, through hotels, restaurants, and wineries — was very slow to come back in the weeks and months afterwards. January and February are traditionally slow and quiet months, but now that spring is in the air, folks are finding their way back to all that wine country has to offer.

Keep Reading

Many ways to love Chenin Blanc

Wine

Fresh and invigorating, slightly sweet or honied, but always perfumey, Chenin Blanc is one of the world’s most versatile wines.

I’ve always been partial to this grape that calls France’s Loire Valley its spiritual home. Thanks to a tasting hosted by Val de Loire Millesime at the impressive Chateau Royal in Blois, France, overlooking the Loire River, I’ve discovered many ways to love Chenin Blanc.

Keep Reading

Alara Cellars: Wine Meets Fashion

Wineries

We pair wine with food, music and holidays, so why not fashion?

I was super excited when I first learned about this new fashionable wine project a couple years ago. Now, Alara Cellars has made its debut.

Janu Goelz in her Alara Cellars tasting room at Gilroy’s Stomping Ground.

Winemaker Janu Goelz loves wine, and she loves fashion just as much. For her, blending them is a natural. Goelz is co-owner and co-winemaker Jason-Stephens Winery with her husband Jason. Together, with Tim Slater of Sarah’s Vineyard, they created The Stomping Ground in Gilroy, home to about half a dozen local boutique wineries.

The craft winery venue was perfect launching pad for Goelz’s own label, Alara Cellars. Her eyecatching labels are original illustrations, the work of Vancouver-based fashion designer and illustrator Malene Grotrian.

Keep Reading

10 Reasons To Drink Tokaji

Wine

Tokaji has an identity crisis. You may have never heard about wines from this area of eastern Hungary. They are white wines and mostly all are sweet. And sweet wines are hard sell. Yet the Tokaji wines remain fresh, with bright acidity — even after years of aging. No cloying, overly sweet wines here. This makes Tokaji highly drinkable – and not just for dessert. Therein lies Tokaji’s issue. While it is a perfect after dinner drink, the wine, thanks to the crisp acid, pairs beautifully with all sorts of dishes, and not just creme brûlée or chocolate.

Keep Reading

The Bitters Truth

Spirits

A jigger of rye, a pour of coffee liqueur — Stephen Shelton mixes it up at Los Gatos’ Lexington House, concocting a smoky libation called Cocktails & Cigarettes. He stirs, he pours and then, with a flourish, Shelton adds that final explosive touch, a few dashes of Workhorse Rye’s Coffee Rye bitters.

In today’s cocktail world, bitters are the “it” ingredient. It’s a trend so hot, craft bitters are even called out by name on cocktail menus.

Keep Reading

Meet Georges Duboeuf, the Champion of Beaujolais

Wine

Georges Duboeuf is a modest man. He is modest in stature and rather reserved, in an elegant, French way. He is extremely modest about his contributions to the international wine world, of which championing Beaujolais — the region and the wines — will be his legacy. He is also modest about his success with promoting Beaujolais Nouveau, even though it has become a an overhyped caricature of itself.

Keep Reading