Good Morning!

Yes, That is me with a box of Sunset Blush wine. I am proud to say, I drank several glasses of this lightly pink, lightly sweet wine while I was on vacation. I was thrilled when my mama opened her refrigerator and she had some wine in there. She said, this might not be any good, it’s been in here for a while. I said, you know the box wine does not get any exposure to oxygen so it should not be “bad”.

I poured each of us a glass and and it was cold and refreshing, it was fine, not great wine but it was wine with my mom so I had no complaints. I have blogged many times about how wine is an experience as much as it is a taste/aroma/flavor profile. I was in Florida last week with my family and they are not drinkers at all. My mom will have a glass or two a wine once a year. Sitting around having a glass of this wine with mom and catching up on family gossip and hearing about the world’s issues, might be the best wine experience I have had the entire year.

Over the past year I have had some special drinks, 200 year old Grand Marnier, I have had several wines that were from the 1970’s from Napa that blew me away, I had some 1980’s Bandol’s and I can honestly say, I will remember the box of blush from the porch at mom’s before I will the “great stuff” I had over this past year!

Before you think I had a vacation of pink sweet wine, I went to the wine store and found some awesome great wines from South America and we had some reds that were pretty impressive as well. We enjoyed the pairing of hummus and Syrah, and Malbec and corn chips actually paired well too. I know it sounds crazy, but my week in Florida was kinda wacky when it comes to wine!

My days in LA and Palm Springs, I will talk about those wines tomorrow….prepare to hear about some amazing wines and amazing people as well.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I had planned on writing my blog outlining my vacation and what I had to drink but then I noticed the date and had to pay tribute to the 21st Amendment!

What’s up with the out law of any beverage that could provide a buzz back in 1920? For the next 13 years the 18th amendment was a law that in general said any manufacturing, sales and transportation of alcohol was illegal. The only exception was wine for communion at church or for home winemakers. Just a couple of months ago I watched the documentary by Ken Burns on PBS, called Prohibition. It was a 3 night series and a total of 5 plus hours of information.

The documentary was well laid out, discussing the religious reasons for the amendment and then the boot-legging and other “ways” around the laws. It was really interesting to hear about the winery and vineyard side of this law. Many wineries shut done or up-rooted plants and planted other crops. It was only legal to ship grape juice to home winemakers back east and there was a limit to how much each winemaker could make at home.

If you get a chance to see the series, it is very informative and well done. I recently read the book From Demon to Darling by Richard Mendelson and it is a awesome book on the legal history of wine and I particularly found the insight provided about how much revenue the wine business creates, not just considering the sales volume, but the jobs the industry creates, the other industries that have been created because of the sales of wine.

The alcohol industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and I read also that when the country is feeling stressed, like during a war or economically challenging times, the sales of alcohol raises as well. People spend less on luxuries and spend more time at home and they will splurge a little more on wine, but they will cook at home. I also read in the same article that the last thing families will cut out is carry out pizza….I thought that was kinda funny, so I thought I would share that with you!

Back to prohibition, I am not one to question why we have many laws, I assume they are made to either protect us from something or to help someone. Yes, I know I could open a whole can of political worms here, so I will not say anymore, but that is my sincere hope of why we have laws. I am sure when the law first passed, too many folks were drinking way too much and someone wanted to protect them and there might have been folks who made some money from the law passing.

As I watched the documentary, I saw how much power women and churches had and it was exciting to see how a few folks with a vision and passion could create interest and change. That part made me feel empowered.

Right or wrong the 21st amendment is here to stay and I am happy about it, I love making wine and enjoy drinking all wines. I guess if I could not make wine for a living, I would have to find a creative way to express myself!

Tomorrow, I will tell you about the wine my mama and I enjoyed last week and I will start blogging about the wines I am going to ask Santa to deliver to my cellar!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I just returned from the grocery store and we have a huge wine and beer section, but they have expanded for the holidays! I swear there were 3 reps with stations set up and the end caps were now packed with new wines and the place was like a frenzy of wine fun. Most of the wines they were peddling were aimed directly for the local market, light, sweet and less than $10.

I LOVED one rep’s sales pitch…people hate egg nog or it would be rude to serve egg nog with so many folks being lactose intolerant! That one made this old sales person giggle. I was surprised at the amounts of wine people were buying. They had these folding six pack carriers for wine stacked up and if you bought 6 bottles you would get another 10% off.

I moved past the end caps and headed to the wines I knew I wanted to have around during the holidays and found a sale! I purchase a lot of wine so any discount is a massive SCORE for me. I actually went crazy with Chilean wines, you know my weakness for Casa Lapostolle! I saw each of my fav wines were $1 off per bottle, this gave me that gleam in my eye and I ended up with a case of wine, that I would have normally spent $140-150 for and when I left with the $1 off plus the 10% discount, well…just a little over a hundred bucks I had what I wanted. I ended up also picking up a couple of “splurge” bottles…meaning the higher dollar bottles, but there will be many parties to attend in December and I hate to show up empty handed!

Go check out the sales, but while I was chatting with one of the reps he said the best time of the year to buy wine is now, they mark down many of the wines just to get people to try them….I do not know how true that is, but if you are on the fence about trying something new, I’d spend and try it now just in case you love it, stock up while it is less expensive.

Most grocery stores have pretty large wine selections these days and I bet any day from now through the new year you will find a rep pouring samples and you can ask them anything wine related. Just keep in mind they rep a particular brand (of at least most of them do), so they might guide you toward one wine over another, but either way I bet you can create a great holiday memory with the bottle of wine.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I want to thank each of you that read my blog daily and all the questions and comments you send me. My journey into making wine is a constant learning experience and I love sharing what I know or don’t know with you!

Much LOVE and wine, Blessings to you and your families!

Tammi

Good Morning!

Our Thanksgiving dinner will happen about 4 pm on Thursday at my in-laws house just outside of Palm Springs, CA. So planning which wine can be a challenge each year, because we always fly into LAX early on Thursday morning.

Traveling with wine is not like back in the good old days, you could just carried it on the plane. They frown upon that now and take your wine away, which makes me very sad. I have become an expert at packing bottles in the checked bags, coming home from Chile, I had 10 bottles of wine and I would have put more in, but the bag would have been over 50 pounds.

We have found a grocery store in Palm Springs that has a pretty massive wine selection so we stop in there for my supplies. This side of my family is not much on wine, so I am mostly buying for myself, which is fine by me. This year I am doing all bubbles!

I love how celebratory bubbles feel and taste. I will bring 4 or 5 bottles, because someone will say oh, let’s have some Mimosa’s! I have no intention of wasting great sparkling wine with OJ, but if they like it, great! So 1-2 bottles will be the least expensive and I will get one bottle of Asti Spumonti for them to work on if they want to try some bubbles and they all tend to like the residual sugar.

I will look around the store and if they have Domaine Carneros, that is my first choice, if not Mumm, Moet or Gloria Ferrer are all excellent for pairing with all the savory, salty and sweet flavors of the day. I wish I could smuggle in some real flutes instead of cartoon cups so I could really enjoy total wine experience. But maybe for Christmas I will purchase flutes to give to grandma so each year I will have a glass I love to drink out of.

Of the 25 or so us at grandma’s most of them will have Diet Coke or Corona with Lime, so I will enjoy the bubbles alone and giggle to myself and be thankful for my big happy family.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

Back in August, I decided I would challenge myself to everyday start out being more grateful…yes, this was when Oprah was still on her daily show, before the OWN network was all fired up. Anyway, back in August, I had a birthday and I said I was going to post every morning the first thing each day I thought of that I am grateful for. I wanted to make sure I was not taking anything for granted.

I can not tell you the impact this exercise has made on my life and I think on many lives of my friends and family. Some mornings I wake up and I think of something or someone who has impacted my life and I thank them. Some mornings, it is something trivial, like whoever thought up that green stick thing that goes in the coffee lid, to keep the coffee from splashing in the car.

I noticed many people post things on Facebook about politics, pop culture or their current rant and it was beginning to feel so negative to see what my pals were up to. Once I started to post what I was grateful about, I started noticing small things in my daily routine that I was grateful for. Odd things, started noticing the little things, like when the trash guys did a deep cleaning of the roads around where I walk to daily. I noticed when the guy at Walgreen’s got a great new haircut and when one of my neighbors got a new suit and how sharp he looked one morning heading to work. I noticed when people went above and beyond what they promised or when people do nice things for others, like open doors or pick up something for someone else.

Being grateful has made me slow down and celebrate little joyous moments. It started like a snowball and grown like it is rolling downhill. I have been touched when others have mentioned how much the look forward to what I post every morning and then they mention something they are grateful for. Recently, a friend from Texas said, I can tell you are on the West Coast because your posting is later in the morning! When I was back in Indianapolis, everyone commented when my posting happened about 3 AM west coast time.

I am grateful for a happy, healthy life, a wonderful (dysfunctional) family, supportive and loving cast of friends and others who I cheer on each day in their personal journey. I hope this week, maybe not just Thursday, you will take a minute and write down something you are thankful for and share it with someone. It has changed the dynamic of my entire life.

I will chat about wine again tomorrow, I just felt the need to share how much being grateful has opened my mind to the concept of gratitude.

Much LOVE with deep gratitude, and of course much wine!

Tammi