• General Wine Stuff

    Greenbar’s Grand Poppy Liqueur–California in a bottle

    I do not generally devote an entire blog post to a single wine, or a single bottle of spirits (unless it’s just a quickie kind of review). But this is different.  Really different. First, a preamble and a bit of a explanation for why I am so besotted with Greenbar’s Grand Poppy bitter liqueur (or “bitter brandy”).  In my work as a nature photographer, my focus for the last year or so has been on my Land/Sea project.  The “land” part of that is centered on California’s chaparral ecosystem.  What is chaparral, exactly?  The technical definition, courtesy of the California Chaparral Institute, is this: Chaparral is a special plant community…

  • General Wine Stuff

    If you go to one wine festival all year, go GARAGISTE!

    Wine festivals are fun things to go to–an impressive number of wines to taste as you wander at your own pace.  Who wouldn’t have fun doing that? But the California Garagiste Festival, which has its 6th annual event in Paso Robles this weekend, is a little different than your usual wine festival. Why?  Story.  Everything comes back to story (stay with me, I’ll explain).  As I’ve mentioned here previously, and as I detail on my “about” page, story is what took my interest in wine from whatever I could pick up at my local wine shop that tasted good to wanting to know everything about wine, and being able to…

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  • General Wine Stuff

    Greenbar Distillery–Los Angeles’ oldest craft spirits producer (since prohibition)–and they’re organic, too!

    You could (and should) be excited that LA has a well-established and (really) high quality craft spirits distillery.  You should be excited that it’s downtown in the always-lively Arts District (location, location, location!).  And you REALLY should be excited that this distillery is not just organic, they’re so focused on sustainability that you reduce your own carbon footprint with every 2 ounces of their spirits you consume. Did you ever think it could be so easy, so fun, so delicious to be kind to the environment?  Well, WELCOME TO GREENBAR. I know.  I’m excited about it, too. Greenbar had its genesis over 14 years ago when husband and wife team…

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  • General Wine Stuff

    Getting my feet wet

    As I work my way through some preliminary and background posts in my Year in the Life of Wine project, this early work is as much for my own edification as it is my audience’s–and it’s got some fun photographic challenges. I wanted to do some light coverage of this year’s harvest to feature in these preliminary posts, and that would mean shooting when they harvest at Tablas Creek.  They harvest at night.  And that is a tough thing to shoot–action shots in almost total darkness?  Hey, I’m always up for improving my skill set–and will need to if I’m going to shoot this intensively next fall.  First, thank goodness…

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  • General Wine Stuff

    Beautiful wines and beautiful food, beautifully paired

    I was invited to a trade luncheon last week featuring the wines of one of the oldest Chateaus in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Chateau La Nerthe, at Georgie restaurant in Montage Beverly Hills. More about the Chateau and Georgie in a moment, but first, about the lunch itself:  it was such a wonderful reminder of why I–and I suppose all of us–love wine so much.  I love to settle in with a glass of something delicious all by itself, but there’s something transcendent when you have just the right great wine with just the right food.  It can be downright revelatory. If you’ve never dined at Georgie, it’s well worth a visit.  All…

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  • General Wine Stuff

    So I have this little project. It involves wine.

    A few months before I started this blog, I was working away on a proposal for a new documentary project.  (If you’ve not read the “about” page here, you may not know that I’m a nature photographer!)  In fact, that proposal is what led me to create the wine-stained lens blog as an ancillary pursuit. My previous documentary project, the Owens Lake Project, concluded for the most part after six-plus years.  While there will be some ongoing work for years to come, the major work on the project is finished.  Since I like to have a personal photography project going at all times, I wanted to jump right into something…

  • General Wine Stuff

    Lovin’ la Vida Lodi (Part 2 of my adventure)

    So I had quite the introduction to Lodi wine country last week, and my second day there only got better. Filled with enthusiasm and warmth from the previous evening’s festivities, I bounded onto the shuttle at 5:30 a.m. the second morning, ready for a sunrise harvest at Michael David Winery. Oh, who am I kidding. I dragged my zombified self onto the bus, clutching my to-go cup of hotel coffee like a life preserver and wondered what the heck I’d gotten myself into. But the enthusiasm would soon return for real the moment we stepped into the vineyard, now bathed in a soft pre-dawn glow.  The air still had a…

  • General Wine Stuff

    Surprised by Lodi (Part 1)

    I’m one of the first people who’ll urge you to put aside your assumptions when you go into any new situation, but even I wasn’t sure what to expect when I traveled to Lodi, California for the ninth annual (and my very first) Wine Bloggers Conference last week. And boy, was I blown away by what I experienced. Known in the past mostly for its (very) large-scale production of wine grapes, used mostly in bulk wines, it’s so much more.  Lodi was named 2015’s Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine–no small accomplishment–so I suspected I was in for a treat.  I already have a soft spot for…

  • General Wine Stuff

    Home, home on the Range(land)

    If you happened to run into Laird Foshay in town in Paso Robles, you’d quickly figure him for a local cowboy–the requisite boots and hat, perfectly placed (as an exiled Texan, I can speak to the subject of cowboy hats; more finesse is involved than you might imagine). But you’d be wrong–to an extent.  Foshay, whose first career was in tech publishing, is a Nova Scotia native who grew up in Palo Alto.  His startup INVESTools was one of the early web-based investment newsletters; he sold that and in 2000 purchased some of the sweetest west side Paso land you’re likely to encounter, Adelaida Springs Ranch, and moved the family…

  • General Wine Stuff

    Rhone Rangers Los Angeles tasting is this Saturday!

    I’ll take any opportunity I can think up to drive up to Paso Robles for a little quality wine-tasting time–but one of the benefits of living in a big city like Los Angeles is that sometimes the good wine comes to YOU. And the Rhone Rangers tasting event in Los Angeles is one of those lucky, lovely times. If you’re not familiar, the Rhone Rangers began as a way to educate the public and introduce them to (and promote) the great new-world Rhone wines being made in the U.S.  Originally a solely California creation, it now boasts member wineries from Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Michigan, New York, and Virginia. The Los…

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