This post is the fourth in a series about our trip to Sicily. This post is about Taormina, our first stop on our two-week excursion. Gary and I spent a day wandering the streets, enjoying the cuisine and sipping wines and limoncello. Check out our first, second, and third posts if you missed them when they were first posted. Taormina! We ate, we drank, we walked and walked and walked (17,000 steps), and we shopped. Then we dropped. Side Note: If you watched or are watching Season Two of The White Lotus on HBO Max, you have seen Taormina. When…
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The last winery visit during our Sicily adventure was to Caruso e Minini in Marsala. This is a relatively young winery that was created when fourth-generation winemaker Stefano Caruso partnered with Northern Italian marketer extraordinaire Mario Minini to create this brand that now exports mostly indigenous Sicilian varieties, including Grillo, Catarratto, Grecanico, Inzolia, Zibibbo, Nero d’Avola, Frappato and Perricone as well as some international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Merlot. Today, the company is helmed by Stefano’s two daughters, Giovanna and Rosanna. I am a huge fan of their wines. In addition to the Perricone, I have enjoyed…
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The inhabitants of Sicily have been making wine for millennia. However, the Phoenicians in the 1100 – 1000 BCE brought vines, advanced enology, and viticulture knowledge to the island, which began the quest for quality wine. Sicily’s wineries have been raising the bar ever since. Wine grapes are grown all over Sicily, including 23 DOC sub-regions and one DOCG sub-region. The island is most known for wines from Marsala DOC, Vittoria DOC, and Etna DOC. Etna DOC wines drew me to Sicilian wines, so we started our trip there. Side Note: In preparation for this trip, I read a couple…
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We have been home from our wine trip to Sicily for two weeks. Jetlag was a real ogre. I was almost non-functional for days. But now there is excellent clarity. We were on the island for a two-week trip using my self-guided itinerary. We accomplished a lot and covered a lot of territory, probably too much. But when I am in a new foreign location, FOMO takes over. I fear I may not return, so I cram the schedule full. Even though I left several days for sightseeing, it sometimes felt rushed, and I did not like that. But such…
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More Paso Robles Wineries Not to be Missed It was quite a thrill to see what the co-owner of LXV Wine said about our first post about Paso Robles. “Omg, super thorough and explains the Paso Robles wine region extremely accurately!” said Kunal Mittal. I have to say, it is always nice to be affirmed by a community member. If you missed the post, be sure to click on the link above. This post will continue to share information about the remaining wineries that hosted us during WWET Paso Robles. And I should start with LXV Wines because that is the…
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As you all know, my favorite vacation is a wine-tasting vacation. What is available at the source is so much better than what distributors choose to bring to our wine and grocery stores back home. At the winery, the variety is greater, the limited production wines are available, the scenery is beyond beautiful, and you always get to try before you buy. I could keep the list going, but there is no need. I am sure you get the drift. Recently, Gary and I traveled to Paso Robles for an annual wine writers event. The “deets” on our trip After…
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Suisun Valley Part One – A seven-minute read. This is part one of a four-part series. If you are like most folks, you have probably never heard of Suisun Valley. But, just for fun, let’s assume you did not see the title of this blog post. Ok, quickly, name every wine region, AVA, or nested AVA you can think of in California. On your mark. Get set. GO! The first name out of most folks’ mouths would probably be Napa Valley and then Sonoma. After that, it starts to get dicey depending on your wine enthusiasm for details. Depending on what…
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Bokisch Vineyards has been on my radar for a few years now. So when my friend Allison told me that they were on the agenda to visit last May, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, then it looked like they could not fit us into their schedule (it was Mother’s Day weekend!) before we headed to the second leg of this trip, Sonoma. At which point Markus and Liz Bokisch (co-owners) invited us to their home Monday morning for a breakfast wine tasting before we head to Sonoma. A “breakfast wine tasting?” Why not! So sure enough, at 8:30 am, we arrived…
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