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Month: March 2020

DTC Winery Tasting Rooms Are Empty…

Gary and I purchase a significant amount of wine from direct to consumer (DTC) wineries that we have visited, been referred to, or worked with doing local tasting parties.  Wine region economies are built on the backs of the DTC winery, and this pandemic is suffocating entire swaths of California, Oregon, etc.. Some of these wineries make less than 2,000 cases a year. For those, 100% of their business usually comes from sales in their tasting room and from consumers who join their wine club. (Winery wine clubs are super cool. But that is another post for another time.) Tasting…

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Bisquick Saves the Day

If your house is anything like mine, it may feel like the meme below. We are social animals, and this isolation is driving me and Gary nuts. We take turns at being mad at the situation and venting at each other for things that are totally out of our control. But we also use humor to keep the mood light. In one such situation, Bisquick saves the day. Humor Saves the Day Gary is a morning person. I am not.  So the other day, I came downstairs after Gary had already been up for several hours to see this note…

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Local Wine Shopping…

… in the Time of COVID-19 Since Gary and I typically buy wine 12 bottles at a time (for the case discount), we are never out of wine. The current inventory stands at 60 bottles of white and rosé and 70 bottles of red. But where we do our local wine shopping is super important to us. As we manage our way through the quarantines in this time of COVID-19, it is essential to support our friends locally.  Each of these stores is doing curbside pickup and phone orders. Supporting Your Local Wine Shop Locally, we are big fans of…

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Your Five Favorite Recipes

Your Five Favorite Recipes of All Time in the Time of COVID-19 I imagine that you are cooking much more since our restaurants have been shut down. Except, of course, for takeout in much of the country. So I thought that this is a great time to share with you your top five favorite recipes from the blog since its inception in January 2017.  These are your favorites. How do I know? I went to my blog analytics to see what recipes were read by most readers. So here are your top five. If we are still “in the time…

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Wine Dinner – Innate Wines & Edmund’s Oast

Innate Wine Dinner at Edmund’s Oast If you are a wine enthusiast, one of the best value’s in Charleston is a Wine Dinner at Edmund’s Oast. I have attended at least five or six of these dinners. Each time they blow me out of the water, and I think that this is the best they have ever done. The reality is that they do the pairings so perfectly that your senses are in high gear. While last night was amazing, fun, delicious, perfectly paired, quenching, unique, and fantabulous. They all have been. You should make a point of getting on…

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CHS Wine & Food – Culinary Village 2020

This past weekend marks the end of the 2020 CHS Wine & Food Festival. I am already looking forward to 2021, but before I get there, I want to share my thoughts about this year’s experience. And when I say experience, I mean, at the Culinary Village only, as I do not attend any of the formal tastings, seminars or lunches or dinners*. CHS Wine & Food – Culinary Village – Friday Tickets for the CHS Wine & Food Festival go on sale sometime in August of the previous year. Tickets for any of the most popular events sell out…

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Tastings, Wine Dinner, More Tastings: Pt. 1

Tuesday Wine Tastings Last week, we had my sister’s two dogs for eight days while they went skiing. If there were ever a time that we “needed” wine as much as we wanted wine, this would have been it. Don’t get me wrong; we loooovvvvve these puppies, but a 14-week-old can be a holy terror, and Aspen is no exception. Thankfully, Breezy is very patient with her, as are we.  The scheduling of the puppies and the wine events was a coincidence because we could not have planned this if we tried. But having several wine events, including two tastings…

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