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PART 1 ~
Hi, my friends, and Happy New Year! I hope that 2011 is off to a flying start for you.
Welcome ~ I'm so glad you're joining me on my Wine, Food and Fun adventures!
I’ve been busy creating some very tasty content for you to enjoy ~ and it’s my great pleasure to welcome you to the very first issue of my newsletter, WineFoodBUZZ!
If you’ve checked out my RosinaWilson.com blog during 2010, you know how much I love exploring the beautiful Bay Area and the world-famous wine regions nearby. There’s so much here to see and do ~ and, of course, so much to taste.
Luckily for us all, the only thing I love more than all this exploring is the fun of bringing *you* along for the ride. (Literally! As you can see, below, there’s plenty of room in my trusty ‘vertible…)
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The 'vertible racked up *lots* of miles during Harvest season. Right now I'm in the Sierra Foothills wine region, after a *fantastic* tasting at Sierra Vista.
I’d love to share some highlights of my recent adventures with you. Ready? Let’s go retrace some of my steps, through the San Francisco Bay Area, the California Wine Country, and beyond…
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The final months of 2010 were incredibly busy, in all the right ways. And somehow, without venturing out of California (well almost, read on…), I managed to cram a year’s worth of tasting and traveling into a few short weeks.
Here, I’m tasting 160 “ultra-premium” Cabernets with Wilfred Wong and his Beverages and More team. (Purple tongues all around!) You may remember Wilfred from my June post about the San Francisco International Wine Competition. As in previous years, he served as the fearless leader of “Panel D” for our three days of wine judging.
As they say, it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it...
By the end of the tasting, our tongues were almost *black*!
Most of the Cabernets were really, really fine. (Prices ranged from about $40 to over $200 a bottle.)
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Enjoying excellent Pinot Noir at Handley Cellars in Mendocino's Anderson Valley
In the VIP area at the huge, walk-around SF Vintners Market tasting at Fort Mason in San Francisco
At Wente Vineyards in the Livermore Valley, east of San Francisco.
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FOOD AND WINE EXPO ~
The first big event of the season (I’m backing up to early October here) actually took me a few steps *across* the state line into Nevada, to Harrah’s Hotel and Casino in South Lake Tahoe. Harrah’s was hosting a three-day Food and Wine Expo, featuring sumptuous dinners, a gala walk-around tasting event, and appearances by culinary celebrities such as Martin Yan, Anthony Bourdain, and the inimitable wine guru Gary “Gary Vee” Vaynerchuk.
Here’s a taste of the Food and Wine Expo for you ~
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During the Expo, I linked up with my good buddy Patrick McIntosh at Gary Vee’s private wine tasting, held on the 19th floor of Harrah’s, with a spectacular view of the lake. You’ll be hearing lots more, btw, about Patrick, his wife Toby, and the “Daily Crushers” group he co-founded, where I’ve been designated “Goddess of Food and Wine.” Meanwhile, you can meet them here (just click) in a recent blog post.
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ON THE OCEAN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ~
Between visits to five separate areas in the Northern California Wine Country, (Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, Livermore Valley, and the Sierra Foothills), I spent a week in Southern California, a stone’s throw from the Pacific.
As for the wineries ~ I’ll bring you the full stories, with pics and vids, in Parts 2 and 3 of this Debut Issue of WineFoodBUZZ ~ and also in my upcoming World of Wine (WoW) eBook series.
We paddled out from a tiny cove, just outside Laguna Beach
Loch Ness Monster? Nope ~ just a sea lion!
Kayak guide Marti after our ocean adventure
During my SoCal road trip, I ventured out into the ocean twice ~ first kayaking through a kelp forest (with a curious sea lion keeping me company), then the next day, riding the bow of a speedy catamaran surrounded by dolphins. (Wow. Pretty incredible!)
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Hope you won’t need Dramamine to watch this “Dolphin Safari” video adventure. (Glad I took mine, though ~ it was quite a wild ride!)
BTW, the boat’s skipper, “Captain Dave” Anderson, has produced an amazing, award-winning documentary ($20 plus shipping) about the whales, dolphins and other marine mammals of Southern California. Here’s a quote from Captain Dave’s website: “The spectacular, never-before-seen footage includes: dolphin herds numbering in the thousands, including common dolphins, Bottlenose, Risso’s, Pacific Whitesided, Northern Right Whale dolphins as well as the elusive Blue Whale, Killer, Sperm, Grey, Minke, Humpback and Fin Whales. Southern California hosts the largest dolphin population in the U.S. and more Blue Whales than anywhere in the world.”
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LOTS MORE TO COME ~
Hope you’ve enjoyed Part 1 of this *looong* WineFoodBUZZ Debut Issue. I’ve certainly enjoyed bringing it to you!
You can subscribe below (it’s free ~ the signup box just helps me keep things organized) to receive future issues of WineFoodBUZZ. I’ll send you Parts 2 and 3 in the next few days.
And very soon, I’ll also send you the first release (it’s free too) in my World of Wine ~ (WoW) eBook series.
Wondering what’s up next in Parts 2 and 3 of this WineFoodBUZZ Debut Issue? Well, get set for a *surreal* Thanksgiving feast among giraffes, lemurs, cheetahs and other African critters. We’ll also enjoy a colorful “fall foliage” tour through Wine Country vineyards, where we’ll follow Harvest 2010 step by step ~ from picking the grapes, to “punchdown” and “crush,” to *plenty* of tasting.
Perhaps best of all, though, (from my standpoint, at least), I’ll introduce you to my wonderful daughter Siri ~ and I’ll bring you along with us to some of the restaurants we enjoyed together during her recent visit.
Meanwhile, I send you my very warmest wishes for a happy, healthy, and TASTY 2011!
Cheers, Rosina
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This is fabulous ~ love it! Esp. that pic on the top…
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Hey thanks, Satya ~ *So* glad you like it! Stay tuned for *lots* more…
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