About Girl
Feb 1st, 2007 by Alana
Every evening, I go into my art studio aka kitchen. I pour a very small glass of wine and begin to think about what I am going to create. My paints are my wines in my 75 bottle refrigerator. My canvass is whatever groceries I have in the house. Because of lack of space, I don’t have a cellar, but I don’t mind. I tend to live in the moment and while I feel sad when I can no longer get a special bottle of sold-out wine, I am free to move on and discover something new.I spend a little time each day indulging myself by playing around with food and wine. My journey has been to test, try, fail, learn and to occasionally experience a perfect pairing. It is all fun. Even when a pairing goes badly, I’ve learned to try again by opening a different bottle, trying something new. For me, wine and food pairing is all about guaranteeing at least one moment of pleasure every day. I hope my stories inspire you to use wine and food to build your pleasurable life. Cheers!
pretty cool Alana
Thanks Michael!
Alana -
I love it! Thank you so much for sharing that you do this blog. I’m a novice in the wine department but trying to learn more - I suspect your blog will help. Now if only I can do away with the dreary New England weather (of course, that’s helped tremendously by a good bottle!)!
Keep up the great work!
Thanks Andrea! I hope you will come back often and find simple tips to learn more! You Go Girl!
Alana,
I work with your sister in-law Kimm. (She’s a great gal.) She just showed me your site. It’s awesome and very informative. My husband and I are wine enthusiats or should I say we’re tasters. We enjoy learning about different kinds of wines and visiting vineyards. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more by visiting your site regulary.
Nice job, thanks!!
Hey Sista!!
I’ll have to try those Ice Wine pairings. I was back in Michigan last month and tried to get to Lemon Creek Winery for their Ice Wine, but the snow kept me away!! I’ll have to order on line
Cheers!!
Thanks for writing Harriet! I’d love to hear about your wine experiences. I’m happy to further explore the cork question with you. Comment on the post and I’ll reply. What do you think about screw tops and synthetics?
I just shared your blog with my bosses wife. She wants to know how you feel about synthetic corks vs cork corks. Also how do you feel about screw on tops?
Oh good question! May I refer you to my blog?
I think this link will take you there. http://girlwithaglass.com/blog/?p=37
Saving the Portugal Cork Forests is a great thing to do for many, many reasons.
Overall I despair at screw tops and won’t buy a lot of wines because of them. They not only lack cachet they are not recyclable and create pollution when they are made. I’ll buy a rose for a picnic and that’s all. (Can hardly find a New Zealand wine with cork anymore!)
I don’t like the synthetic corks for the same reason but I’ll tell you the vast majority of everyday wines have synthetic corks.
I get a bad bottle from natural corks way too often but I often blame it on the way the wine was treated before I bought it, e.g., oxygen got into to it because it wasn’t kept cool enough or on its side. These wines are more often from South American or France. I have to be careful where I buy the wines. You can always return them and hope they have another one you can try.
Since I am not a collector (I’m an every-night pairer), a corked bottle doesn’t kill me because I don’t lay down my wine for 20 years.
Hi Alana,
Thanks for sharing your site with me the other day while you were in the salon. I poked around a bit and can’t wait to spend more time reading through it. You really know what your talking about and I am impressed! Your site is now in “my favs”, I’ll come back often!
Good job!
Carrie
Face Value Salon
Thanks so much for poking around Carrie!
Let’s take the Roadster out to some wineries soon. Email me…I need to go to Lynmar to pick up some wine. They have a complimentary wine and food pairing for members called the Lynmar Experience. I’m dying to go…daylight savings ends soon…yeah…a beautiful sunny Spring afternoon would be awesome.
Hi Alana!
I have been awol from my computer lately, my mom has been in Italy, and I’ve been taking care of business at the salon, her house and my house!
There is a great little place to eat in Sebastopol called Elmo’s Steakhouse, it is on your way to Forestville. My favorite things to order are either the scallops or the portabella mushroom dish, they are wonderful! You’ll have to try it sometime, only thing is they do not have a huge wine selection, so maybe bring your own? Certain times of the year they don’t have a corkage charge, but I’d call ahead to find out when that is (I can’t recall when it is!).
Have a great day!
Carrie
Hi Carrie,
I haven’t been to Elmo’s, thanks for the tip! I’d love to try it. I lived in Sebastopal part-time as a kid, love the area!
Hi!
This weekend we went to K&L Bistro in Sebastopol, have you been there? It was so good and I can’t wait to go back. We ordered a “03 cab from Just Nat. I wish I could find it because I really enjoyed it. Got any leads on it?
Thanks!
Carrie
I can’t find Just Nat as the vintner anywhere. Do you have any other info, like what state/country/appellation? Was Just Nat the popular name? Like Earthquake is the popular name of a Petite Syrah but the producer is Michael-David Vineyards.
And thanks for the K&L lead, I’m keeping a list!
I looked for it too, because I really enjoyed it and wanted to pick-up some for home, but I have had no luck. Looks like I’m going to have to make another trip to K&L and order a bottle again! Darn!