Wine Blog

Last night, I attended a festive wine dinner with friends put on by Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar, a well-established eatery in the Cleveland area. Known as a neighborhood joint with good food and an even better wine list, I was pretty excited about the opportunity to sip and sample bubbles and canapes all night long. While the dinner carried the EU protected name Champagne, most of the wines on the menu were not Champagne at all - fine with me but [...]

Every Wednesday, our Cleveland Plain Dealer celebrates food and wine in a special section of the paper called Taste. Today, my article on the 75th anniversary of the Repeal of Proibition is featured. Since this is the first time an article of mine has been published by the Plain Dealer, I thought I would share the link with you. To read it, click here. Cheers.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. For winelovers, the 1933 ruling gives reason to celebrate. And while I plan to celebrate on Dec 5th by opening a nice bottle with friends, the upcoming anniversary made me think of how easy it is to grab a glass these days. Last night for example, I went to Moxie the restaurant (located just four doors down from our Cellar Door) for dinner with my husband. Typically I sit [...]

I just came back from a fantastic week in NYC devoted to tasting Spanish wines. The semiars were led by the president of The Wine Academy of Spain, Pancho Campo, MW. Having just passed the Masters of Wine exam this past Sept., Pancho was pretty enthusiastic about his new title and shared lots of information on Spain as well as the Masters program. And rightfully so, he is the first and only MW in all of Spain! Did I mention that he was [...]

Many of you know that I am on an acid kick right now. Given the choice, I seem to always reach for bottles of white that have racy acidity such as Gruner Veltliner from Austria and Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Recent additions to my acid collection include a fantastic Leeuwin Siblings Sauvignon Blanc/Semmillon blend from the Margaret River in Australia. We served it in a tasting flight this weekend at Cellar Door and the tasters loved it. Much like [...]

If you have a second - go to youtube.com and search the words Vineyard Fresh. The Cleveland Wine School recently hosted an episode of Made Here that featured a wine preservation system called Vineyard Fresh. Housed in an attractive burgundy colored bottle, Vineyard Fresh is actually Argon gas. The bottle has a long nozzle at the top allowing wine drinkers to deliver the gas right into the neck of the bottle. Here's the good news - Argon is an inert gas so it [...]

OK. This is a test. It is only a test. I created a small video to try out my new flip and I want to make sure you can view it by clicking here.  Give it a try and let us know at [email protected] Thanks!

A few months ago, I entered a national contest sponsored by the Wines of Australia USA. The object of the contest was to find 5 Americans willing to travel to Australia on a fantastic trip coordinated by the Wines of Australia, meet several winemakers, taste tons of wine, see lots of cool sites and then come back to the USA and spread the good news about current trends in Australia. Luckily, I won for the mid-west region and am currently in Australia with [...]

After taping an episode of Wine Library TV at the Brown's Stadium, a group of us went to Moxie (four doors down from the wine school) for lunch. The group included Gary V host of Winelibrarytv and Clevelander Jim Kukral. Jim is very internet/video savvy and he was nice enough to put together a little video on the Cleveland Wine School for us. Click here to check it out. This is the first of many videos we will post on this [...]

Last night, more than 60 members of Cleveland Wine School's Vine-ology Club attended a sneak preview of the new wine movie, Bottle Shock. The film is based on a true story from the 70's in which wine writer/shop owner Steve Spurrier organizes a blind tasting of top French wines and not-so-famous California wines. The results placed California on the vinous map causing palates around the globe to take note. The film is playing at Cedar Lee theatre in Cleveland Hts. [...]