Half-off Deal to Wine Tasting Class

I've seen this deal pop up on a few of the online coupon sites before, but I haven't purchased one myself. 

This might be a fun activity with friends, or for a date night.  If you're a frequent Wine & Diner or you've been out tasting at the vineyards, I'm not sure you'll learn anything new.  But it could still be fun.  :-) 

WineUP! Wine Shop

 $20 - Improve Your Palate at the WineUp! Wine Shop Tasting Class ($40 value) 

Half-off Deal to the Bite of Oregon!

Portland Perks is offering a great deal on entry to the Bite of Oregon happening August 10th-12th.

For $14 you get two 3-day entry passes (normally $30) to the biggest food, beer, and wine festival in Oregon - and you get to support a great cause as all of the proceeds go to the Oregon Special Olympics!   


The Bite of Oregon features Oregon's largest wine tasting spectacle with 21 local wineries offering samples of delicious, delicious Oregon wines, with one oddball from California.    


Bryann and I will be volunteering on Friday night from 5:30-10pm so come by, grab some "bites" and taunt us with your delicious food and beverages!

To view this fantastic deal and purchase tickets, click here

To view the Bite of Oregon website and learn more, click here

To view to list of participating wineries , click here

Products We Love: Oster Wine Opener

Product: Oster Wine Opener

Why we love it: It's a cinch to open wine bottles with this thing.  Seriously.  There is relatively no effort required!  You position it on top of the cork, hold the wine bottle, press the down bottom, and the cork comes right out!  Then press up and this wine opener will spit the cork back out for you.

I got it as a gift and originally I thought it was silly.  I had my trusty old Rabbit wine opener stand.  Some adjusting of the stand height and two flicks of my wrist and I had an open bottle.  I've probably gotten lazy in my old age, because this is way too much effort for me, now.  I'm giving the Rabbit to Goodwill on our next donation trip.  Unless any of our club members want it?

Where you can find it: Any store with a housewares section - Fred Meyer, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.

Price: $20

Dundee Wine Tasting

{The view from Lange Estate Vineyard}

The weekend of March 2nd my mother came in to visit from Texas. Knowing her love for good wine, I thought it would be a fun experience to take her wine tasting. There are so many great places to go in our area, but I landed on Dundee for this trip.

Dundee offered the best of both worlds for us: there were vineyards with sweeping views so my mother could get the real Oregon vineyard experience, but there was also one large street of tasting rooms that made getting around town really simple. To add to its appeal, Dundee is only about 20 miles from our home.

We started at Lange Estate. It was a bit of a trek up the hill to get there but well worth it. The views were incredible.  We stayed on the hill for our next tasting and swung by Torii Mor. Personally, I thought Torii Mor completely outshone Lange with their offerings- especially their house-distilled port. This is definitely a vineyard we need to go back to in the summer with a picnic basket.

For our next stop we came down off the hill and visited Four Graces- which was my favorite tasting of the day. Everyone was very knowledgeable and welcoming. We felt so comfortable spending time in this tasting room.

Next we hit up Argyle which was along the strip of tasting rooms I mentioned above- which made walking around town very easy.  Argyle has a great reputation for their sparking wines and they did not disappoint. My mom loved sampling all the different bubblies.

 {At the Argyle Tasting Room}

Our last stop for the day was Ponzi. While my mom fell in love with their Chardonnay, it should also be noted that they served the most delicious Italian sandwiches. A nice little break in the day and an easy way to snack and sip.

While we really were happy with a majority of the wines we tasted, there were a select few that were our favorites of the day.

• Torii Mor Syrah Port (Rian's favorite of the day)        
• Ponzi 2008 Chardonnay Reserve (Mom's favorite of the day)
• Four Graces Doe Ridge Estate Pinot Noir (This was my second favorite here. My first was a blend that was only sold at the tasting room. It's current on our bar waiting for our one year anniversary!)

 Next time you're in the area, definitely give Dundee a shot. We had a wonderful time and tasted some seriously good vino :)

10 Easy Projects for Leftover Wine Corks

When one of your major hobbies is drinking/experiencing/learning about wine, over time you go through a lot of wine corks.  Rather than tossing them in the trash (or if you're a savvy recycler like we are, in the compost) hold on to the corks and make something decorative or even useful out of them!  If you search "what to do with wine corks" you'll see hundreds of websites with crazy projects.  Here are my top 10 favorites that are actually feasible to create at home with minimal crafting experience required!  

1.  Classic Cork Board - You really can't go wrong making a cork board with wine corks.  Find a frame you like (or build your own), decide on a pattern, grab a glue gun, and secure corks to the backing of the frame.  If you search "cork board" on the internet, you'll get lots of how-to websites.  Below is the one I just finished, hanging proudly by our wine rack.  My friend John asked me how much I had invested in this cork board...  It took a lot of wine, and over 2 years, but it is worth every penny!

2.  Wine cork bath mat - The original inventor blogs on CraftyNest.com.  Click on the link and you can find a how-to tutorial as well as a few updates on how the bath mat stood up.

3.  Monograms from wine corks - These look awesome and would be a great addition to an empty bookshelf, on the edge of a mantel, or as a housewarming gift for someone.  I just recently spent a goodly amount of time cutting up wine corks, so I know how difficult and irksome it can be.  This project looks a little too labor-intensive for me, but I will be a most gracious recipient should anyone like to make me a set!   

4.  Cork-filled Vases - This reuse of wine corks is so easy and a no-brainer.  Grab an empty vase, or a large wine goblet, fill it with corks and use it as an accent piece.  It's how I put some of my wine corks to use while I was working on collecting enough to make something crafty with them.  

5.  Wine cork wreaths - If I get in the crafty spirit this fall, I'm definitely going to try my hands at creating a wine cork wreath.  Save-on-crafts.com has a great tutorial.  Strap a big festive bow on this and I've got myself an inside wreath for my door!  

6. Wine cork framed clock - HELLO, AWESOME!  I really love this cork-framed clock.  It was sold on Etsy a long time ago, but it doesn't look terribly difficult to DIY.  

7.  Wine Cork Trivets - Oh Martha Stewart... you really know the way into my heart.  These super simple wine cork trivets come from Martha Stewarts sister site Whole Living.  Check out item 10 of 25 in the column "25 Eco-Chic Ideas For Your Home" which gives the tutorial for how to create these eco-chic trivets.  

If you need slightly more of a challenge, or you're feeling particularly crafty, visit CraftyNest.com again and follow her instructions for this half-sized hexagonal wine cork trivet lined with ribbon.  

8.  Cork napkin rings - These are great because they don't require you to collect hundreds of wine corks.  If you have a few on hand and happen to be throwing a dinner party (*cough* Wine & Dine party *cough*).  Drill a hole through the width, thread some pretty ribbon through, and tie together.

9.  Cork coasters - I found these on Etsy, but they look so simple to make!  Take 8 similarly sized corks and glue pairs together with a hot glue gun.  Then, glue the left side of a pair to the base of another pair to create a pinwheel pattern.  Finish off by gluing a decorative ribbon around the edges.

10.  Wine glass cork charms - These would be really useful at Wine & Dine parties!  I've been tempted to buy a set, but now I'm going to make my own!  I also found on Etsy, but I think it's a project that would be fun to tackle.  And it's another project that you can do if you only have a couple extra corks on hand.  If you have any experience making jewelry, these should be a snap to put together.  This might even be a fun group project for us girls!

Hung Out to Dry

If you've ever owned long stem wine glasses, you've probably had to deal with the difficult task of drying them.  You run the risk of breaking them if you put them in the dishwasher, and if you turn them upside down to dry on a towel, they often get splotchy water marks.

One solution is to switch to stemless wine glasses!  However, as we already have a large collection of sentimental stemware, most of which was acquired on wine tasting adventures, and because Bryann prefers the stemware anyway, I've come up with a few drying solutions for those with stemmed glasses.

This StemGrip Stemware Holder solves the dishwasher problem.  It clips glasses in place and settles on top of one of the dishwasher rack pins, so your glasses don't move around and get broken during the wash cycle.  It seems to be pretty well reviewed.

If you don't trust your dishwasher, or prefer hand washing your stemware, try out a stemware rack by Oenophilia.  It holds 16 glasses AND a decanter AND it folds away for easy storage.  It has great reviews, and it's cheaper on Amazon than on the company website.  (I may be putting this on my wishlist!)






Another way to let your glasses air dry without those splotchy water marks is to hang them from an undercabinet stemware rack.  The one featured at the left is also by Oenophilia, but Bryann and I found one at Bed Bath and Beyond, and I'm sure any store with a home storage section will sell this.  It has enough room for up to 9 wine glasses, and even has enough room for our large cabernet glasses.  Just lay a towel underneath and voila!  No more caked on water splotches!

Perfectly Measured Pours

Throwing a wine-tasting party can be tough.  In addition to the pressure of choosing good wines, you have to make sure you buy enough for everyone attending.  And you have to make sure you pour your guests an appropriate amount of wine so they don't get so drunk they can't distinguish flavors anymore!  With a measured pourer, you'll never have to do guesswork again.  

A lot of us in the Wine & Dine club have a 1 oz pourer (thanks to Elizabeth's keen shopping eye), which suits our needs for now.  But a 1 ounce pour is more appropriate for liquor.  It's recommended to serve 2 ounces of wine for a proper tasting experience.  (Whew!  I thought I was a lush for always wanting a second pour...)

Solution?  Pour twice for each person!  Or get yourself a 2-oz. pourer at http://barsupplies.com/measured-pourer-p-2383.html.

Bar Supplies.com offers several measured pourers at $2.49 each.  (The shipping is $8.50 so factor that in.)  In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes open for 2-oz. pourers at the wine shops and liquor stores.

A standard 750 ml bottle of wine is just over 25 ounces which gives you 12 tastes per bottle.  If you have more than 12 guests at your party, buy two bottles of each wine you want to sample.

Pinot Noir and Your Health

Did you know that oxidative stress plays a major role in aging, and an antioxidant in red wine called resveratrol may help extend life by neutralizing disease-causing free radicals?

Well, now you do! Better yet, pop a Pinot Noir for the maximum amount of resveratrol per glass.

Our friends over at Eat This Not That recently published 15 Foods that Cure and named the beloved Pinot Noir a top anti-aging elixir. I'll raise my glass to that!

Looking to try a new Pinot Noir? Oregon's own Erath Winery in Dundee has a fantastic (and very popular) Pinot Noir that is sure to make the ani-aging process extra delicious.

Cheers!

A Little Teaser...

Wine & Dine members, get excited!  Bryann and I stopped at a tasting room in Sonora and discovered some completely amazing and utterly delicious Italian wines.

Gianelli Vineyards is a fairly new winery.  They planted their first vineyard in 2003 in the Sierea Foothills, just a few miles from where Bryann grew up.  They specialize in Italian varietals and are gaining some awesome recognition in the wine world.

Bryann and I walked out of there with an entire case of wine (we're keeping 5 bottles all to ourselves) so you KNOW it's gonna be good!  For our April party, we're taking inspiration from Annie and Aaron's December party and are going to put on an Italian themed dinner and slow down the wine tasting experience a bit.  This will also be the first party to feature only one winery.

Here's a little teaser of what we'll be featuring.

2009 Vermentino
2009 Fiano
2009 Nino (a blend of Grenache, Primitivo, and Petit Syrah)
2009 Petit Syrah
2008 Sangiovese
2009 Barbara
2009 Aglianico
2010 Malvasia "La Dolce Vita" (desert wine)

OMG I'm soooooo excited to share these with everyone!!