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Tags: Train Travel / California / California Travel / Napa Valley Travel / Thanksgiving Travel / Thanksgiving Alternatives / Wine Travel / Wine Country / → All Tags

Gourmet On A Train: Ditch Cooking For A Napa Wine Dinner

There is a certain romantic allure to train travel—just ask fictional sweethearts Jesse and Céline of Before Sunrise. But Stateside, unfortunately, the mode of transport isn't as common as it is in other parts of the world. While you continue to dream about hopping aboard a Darjeeling Railway car, we're happy to report that a smaller-scale train trek can be had in California, even if it is less grand than journeying across exotic international ground.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a refined alternative to unofficial "drunk buses" tourists often book to stay safe while sipping wine flights throughout the day. Equally drinker-friendly, and much more respectable, the train is holding a special Thanksgiving dinner aboard its Gourmet and Vista Dome cars for $104 and $139, respectively. Sadly, lunch tickets have already sold out.

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Tags: In-Flight Drinks / LAN Airlines / Wine Travel / → All Tags

LAN Calls On South America's Top Nose To Pick The In-Flight Wines

Did you know there's only one master wine sommelier in the whole of South America? LAN Airlines does, and they've convinced this sommelier, Hector Vergara, to help design them a crackin' in-flight wine list. The idea is to "excite passengers" as they learn about some of the local New World wines that South America has to offer.

Designed to complement the various South American-style dishes that the in-flight caterers serve up, the new LAN wine list features a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, and a Malbec and a Chardonnay from Argentina. So yeah, not exactly covering the continent that well, but we can only presume that Vergara has picked the best of the best, and we'll be ready to knock back at least a few samples next time we're flying south of the equator. Also, this partnership between sommelier and LAN is just another notch on the wine discovery post for the airlines, after most other major airlines did the same with their own noted connoisseurs years ago.

Related Stories:
· Getting the LAN Bump To Biz Class [Jaunted]
· Wine Lists Turn To Social Media at L'Anima Restaurant in London [Jaunted]

[Photo: slasher-fun]

Tags: Wine Travel / California Travel / Wine Country Travel / → All Tags

Madera Vintners Say Drink Up and Get Into the 'Holiday Spirit'

Barrel room at a Madera winery

The Central Valley region of California is lesser known than its stately Napa counterpart, but its products aren't any less stellar, and the wine flows like, uh, wine. That is to say, there's wine, wine everywhere, and more than a drop to drink along the Madera Wine Trail. Lined with Cabernet-Franc and Merlot grapes galore, the area will play home to a Holiday Spirit Weekend, a pre-Thanksgiving and Chrismahanukwanzakah rev up celebrating local wineries, including newcomers like the San Joaquin Wine Company and Idle Hour.

Taking place from 10:00-5:00 on November 14th and 15th, attendees can get their cup to runneth over with vintage offerings, sample special food pairings, and enjoy local art and live music. As you can probably guess, this is hardly a "drink to get drunk" beerfest, but its organizers aren't naive, either. With all of those quick sips and wine flights, they're keeping guests grounded by letting them know about special travel packages courtesy of Touch of Class Limousine Service, and a shuttle for those traveling form the Fresno/Clovis area. Stumble responsibly if you're planning on taking advantage of all the wine-related revelry that weekend.

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Tags: Wine Travel / Mexico Travel / Top Chef / Rick Bayless / → All Tags

'Top Chef Master' Rick Bayless Recommends Baja For Wine

For oenophiles in search of a good grape escape, you have options other than Napa. Top Chef Master Rick Bayless suggests heading to Baja California, specifically Adobe Guadalupe, a winery in the Guadalupe Valley near Ensenada. Bayless tweeted that it was one of the best of the 50 wineries in the region.

Adobe Guadalupe's 60-yard vineyard produces varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvedre, Merlot and Viognier. The winery, which makes 5,000 cases of vino each year, names its blends after archangels, such as Gabriel, Serafiel and Uriel.

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Tags: Movie Set Travel / Wine Travel / Australia Travel / Clive Owen / → All Tags

Clive Owen Is Outback Bound in 'The Boys Are Back'

In The Boys Are Back, opening today, Clive Owen plays a macho sportswriter living in Australia and raising two sons on his own after his wife dies. Though the content of the movie sounds like a downer, the South Australian setting is sure to be uplifting. It even sounds like The Boys Are Back could be the next Sideways. Take a look at the fabulous wine country that serves as the movie's background and judge for yourself.

Where to Stay, Eat and Drink, after the jump.

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Tags: Wine Travel / Interactive Menus / Social Media / London Restaurants / → All Tags

Wine Lists Turn To Social Media at L'Anima Restaurant In London

The L'Anima Italian restaurant in London has gone one step further than just letting you choose your wine from a touch screen; last month they ran an online contest so that blog readers (some of whom, we presume, were also restaurant goers) could choose three new wines for L'Anima to add to their impressive wine list.

And it wasn't just a case of voting for your favorite wine off a list. L'Anima went to the trouble of getting three pairs of wine experts to explain their favorites off the shortlist of nine, made these explanations into YouTube vids, and got voters to decide which video was the best.

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Tags: Wine Travel / Interactive Menus / Technology Travel / Wine Bars / → All Tags

Pick Your Poison Via Touch Screen At Clo Wine Bar In NYC

Lovers of interactive restaurant menus (a geeky group we do admit belonging to) need to know about a wine bar in New York that's got the geek thing going: Clo, on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center.

Whether you know heaps about wine or only care whether it's red or white on a given night, you will probably have a lot of fun choosing your wine using Clo's "motion-activated" touch screen list. Not only that, you can pay by credit card and then—the ultimate geek touch—the wine is automatically dispensed into your glass, in 2oz or 4oz measures. No waiters required. And they have some special preservation system in place so all those open bottles of wine don't go bad.

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Tags: Wine Travel / Chicago Travel / Fall Festivals / Festivals / Events / → All Tags

Get Tipsy at Chicago's Windy City Wine Festival

Oprah's massive Magnificent Mile block party—where more than 20,000 people showed up to see celeb guests like the Black Eyed Peas, Jennifer Hudson and James Taylor—is a tough act to follow. But only three days later, on Sept. 11 and 12, another outdoor event will hit downtown Chicago, the Windy City Wine Festival.

Instead of a roster of A-list musicians, the fifth annual festival will offer a lineup of more than 250 domestic and international wines being poured in Grant Park's Daley Bicentennial Plaza. The fest will also have interactive wine seminars. Master Sommelier Serafin Alvarado, director of wine education for Southern Wine and Spirits of Illinois, will discuss new recipes and the best food to pair with your red or white.

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Tags: High-Tech Restaurants / Technology Travel / Drinking Travel / Interactive Menus / Wine Travel / → All Tags

The High-Tech Menu At An NYC Wine Bar Is So Lush 2.0

Ordering a meal off a geeky interactive menus absolutely makes our day, and we just realized that at Adour in the New York St Regis Hotel they've taken the geek factor to a really nerdy extreme by making their wine menu interactive.

It's nowhere near as flashy or game-like as other high-tech menus we've been ogling recently, but neither should it be: choosing a wine is a serious business. Adour itself has this to say about their interactive wine screens:

The wine list is organized in an entertaining format, color-coded and classified by origins, one specific appellation within each region ... an innovative way for guests to discover wine producing areas.

High-tech but refined, as you can see. Nothing wrong with that—we just like being able to push a few buttons instead of having to ask the staff all our dumb questions.

Related Stories:
· Adour – St Regis [Official Site]
· The Touchable Tasting Menu [Business Week]
· We Love Geeky Restaurants, And LA Does Too [Jaunted]

Tags: Labor Day Travel / Chicago Travel / Wine Travel / Events / Barack Obama / Washington D.C. / → All Tags

Three Cities, Three Totally Awesome Labor Day Celebrations

It's a sad, oft-repeated reality that Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. Barbecuing opportunities, fireworks shows, and spontaneous beach trips become less frequent as we collectively settle into fall's slower, more consistent day-to-day pacing. Of course, that doesn't mean that travel has to cease post-summer, and it certainly doesn't mean that your Labor Day plans should be any less entertaining than weekends past.

Keep the festive mood of summer going with our roundup of Three Awesome Labor Day Celebrations:

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Tags: Wine Travel / Dubai Travel / Airport News / → All Tags

Only In Dubai: A Duty-Free Bottle of $27,000 Wine

When you go to Dubai, the general consensus says to go big or go home; this idea applied to duty-free shopping at Dubai International Airport means just as great a broad a luxury selection in the airport as on the main shopping drags.

Not to be left behind in the luxury duty-free party is fine wine, the best of which is now available at Le Clos within Terminal 3, which prides itself on featuring the rarest of rare vintages. Staffed by six wine advisors and two spirits advisors, Le Clos will help you make that difficult decision between prized bottles of $12,500 Château Petrus 1947, $15,750 Château Cheval Blanc 1961, and $27,778 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2005. At this shop, the vintages begin with wines from 1945, but we'd be pretty happy popping the cork on that last one in the list.

Considering that there's this pesky recession and you might be in a bit of a hurry, exchange the visibility and time of in-store browsing by pre-ordering your bottles at their website and picking up at the airport.

Related Stories:
· Le Clos at Dubai Airport [Official Site]
· Shop Opens In Dubai Airport Selling Some of World's Rarest Wines [Decanter]
· Dubai Airport's Ultra-Pricey Wine Shop [Luxist]
· Dubai Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Emirates Airlines]

Tags: Wine Travel / Sonoma / Biking / Bike Tours / Cycling / California Travel / → All Tags

Bike Sonoma And Drink Back Any Calories Dropped

If the Wine Road facebook promo we told you about last week drank you in, then you're probably looking for yet another excuse to finally visit California wine country.

Being fans of the "work out, then indulge" travel routine, we say next month's Healdsburg Harvest Century Bicycle Tour is as good an excuse as any to head to the wine roads. The itinerary is flexible: take a 23-, 37-, or 60-mile spin through one of Sonoma County's most scenic roads—which Bicycling Magazine called one of the "7 Greatest Rides on Earth"—then spend the rest of the day (or weekend) exploring the more than 100 wineries nearby.

The July 18 tour starts at 8am in Heraldsburg, and no matter how far you're biking, should be over by 2pm, giving you plenty of prime afternoon hours to hit the vineyard and reverse all those calories you burned off.

Related Stories:
· 23rd Annual Healdsburg Harvest Century Bicycle Tour [Official Site]
· Cali Wine Country Hooks Up Facebook Fans With Freebies [Jaunted]
· Nothing Motivates Better Than The Promise Of A Big Buffet [Jaunted]

[Photo: deszertbuzz]