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California Travel / Summer Travel / Wine-Tasting / Fourth of July Travel / → All Tags

We Might Consider Paso Robles This Summer After All

The city of Paso Robles firmly believes that tourists will be drawn to a series of their fun-filled summer events. So much do they believe it that they keep sending us offers for "affordable, family-friendly ways to ward off the mid-summer doldrums."

To the city of Paso: please consider this post our very public acknowledgment that, yes, our inbox works. To everyone else: airline prices and checked baggage fees suck and Paso Robles is highly accessible and some of these events genuinely seem interesting. So why not.

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France Field Trip / Biodynamic Wines / Wine-Tasting / AOC / Wine Travel / Calce / → All Tags

French Wine's Green Revolution

All this week Jaunted contributor Eric Rosen will be filling us in on his recent field trip, drinking his way through France. Any questions about what he saw, did and drank? Let us know.

Down in the deep south of France lies the vast wine region of Languedoc-Roussillon, which produces nearly a third of France’s wines. Unfortunately, those wines were pretty bad for many years. Decades, even. Now, however, a new generation of young French winemakers is bucking tradition, resuscitating worn-out vineyards, and using organic farming methods to create some phenomenal wines that are also affordable.

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France Field Trip / Cathar Country / Castles / Wine-Tasting / → All Tags

History And Wine On The Cathar Trail

All this week Jaunted contributor Eric Rosen will be filling us in on his recent field trip, drinking his way through France. Any questions about what he saw, did and drank? Let us know.

In a little-visited corner of France, way down south near the Spanish border, and bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Pyrenees on the other, lies Cathar country. The area was the domain of Romans and Visigoths, medieval troubadours and heretics, fiercely independent mountain men and cultured damsels.

Today, that checkered past makes for some fantastic travel options where you can go hiking to mountaintop Cathar castle ruins one day, and taste some of the region’s unique wines the next (or do both the same day, if you’re in a hurry).

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Rome Field Trip / Wine Travel / Wine-Tasting / → All Tags

Drinking With Nobles In The Seven Hills

Is there really no place like Rome? This week Ellen Wernecke chronicles her first visit to the Eternal City.

For high tea with the Queen of England, gloves are a good idea and so are pearls. But I drank wine in sneakers with a title -- or at least, at the historic family farm of one -- and no one called me out on it. Did it improve my tasting? Possibly.

The hills outside of Rome are not as well known for their wine as other regions in Italy -- in fact, you'll probably be told at some point to avoid the fruity white Frascati that is its regional trademark. (I didn't mind it, personally.) The first surprise in store for me at on my visit to the Principe Pallavicini vineyard in Colonna was that they didn't just grow for white wine -- nor were they even wine-specific. Before I'd attempted to guess the "nose" of a single grape-based beverage, I enjoyed the subtle but flavorful house olive oil, which ought to put your bulk bottle of EVOO to shame.

The Pallavicinis can trace their roots back to the 12th century, have been making wine for about 500 years, and it all started on an estate you can visit today. (The family, though, has moved into Rome's city center, a 21st century method of displaying their massive wealth.) On display are wine presses from even earlier, and the wine is still stored in an underground cavern for natural refrigeration as it ages first in barrels and then bottles.

The tasting area and store, about a 3-minute drive away, is the ultimate low-pressure sales environment -- I got the feeling that hours had gone by in which I was just hanging out and drinking wine, and not the tasting portions either. I walked away with a bottle of the Poggio Verde -- a bargain at €5.80.

I organized my tour through Dark Rome, but anyone with a rental car, an Italian land line and a little money could line one up for himself. Don't forget to bring someone to drive you back to the city that night, unless you're planning to crash at the B&Bs that dot the hillside -- next trip!

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· Wine Travel [Jaunted]
· Soaking in Vino in Japan [Jaunted]
· Rome coverage [Jaunted]

Drinking / Wine-Tasting / Shopping / Wine Travel / Napa Valley Travel / → All Tags

Eat, Drink and Shop at Napa's Ma(i)sonry

We’ll be honest: normally we don’t like fancy concept names with strange punctuation in the middle of them, like Ma(i)sonry, but in this case we’ll forgive the misguided parentheses and focus on the positive.

That’s because there’s a lot of positivity at this new one-stop destination in the heart of Napa Valley. Opened last October, Ma(i)sonry's purpose is to create a “life aesthetic” by pairing artisan wines with art and furnishings in a historic setting.

Basically, that means that there’s a bunch of cool art and furniture to look at (and sit in) and think about purchasing while you sip your glass of artisanal wine from the tasting room. Or just wander around the 104-year-old stone building and its grounds, which are down the block from The French Laundry in Yountville.

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