Category Archives: Wine

Family Traditions

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My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Ever since I was a kid my extended family and nuclear family gather for Thanksgiving. It is a lot of folks, it’s loud and lively, and there are a boat load of pies. The location has evolved as my family has, people have come and people have gone. My heart is filled with memories that keep me happy and loved throughout the year. I loved standing in a misshapen circle hand in hand and saying grace with my family. I love that my Aunt Penny is bound to make us all laugh. I love seeing who will eat the most. I love that we always have stragglers (friends) that attend and I love that my husband loves my family’s Thanksgiving just as much as I do.

The young and newest members of the family remind me of myself as a kid. I was always so excited to visit my family. As a kid it meant going to my Grandmother’s beautiful home in Santa Barbara, wearing a pretty dress, and observing these zany and nice.. very kind people who I knew as my family.

As the Channel family grew the cousins started a new tradition: after-Thanksgiving wine tasting. This tradition has taken place for seven years. The day consists of scouring my parents’s house for leftovers, a trip to Trader Joe’s and caravaning around in Paso Robles. This year sadly eight members could not attend due to illness or work. However, my cousin Kacey, her husband Matt, Rick and I would not stop the tradition and ate and drank for the loved ones who could not attend.

We started the day visiting Charlie (my cousin) at Tablas Creek. If you ever go to Tablas Creek to wine taste I recommend asking for Charlie. He is typically in the back but can do tasting and tours. Rick and I purchased our favorite Tablas Creek wines Esprit de Beaucastel, a wine that ages beautifully and is a table pleaser at dinner parties and a bottle of Patelin de Tablas, which is a nice everyday red wine.

Our next stop was Cypher, formerly know as Four Vines, a bottle of the Phoeniz Syrah and a picnic in the sunshine. After we drank and ate, we put our heads together to choose another winery. We wanted something new out of the 180+ options. Rick read about Ambyth Estate, we were intrigued by the minimal intervention (dry-farmed, chemical free), and their strong wine traditions, and use of native yeast.

When we arrived to the destination it was a dirt road, a right at the fork of two dirt roads, to another dirt road. We all were dancing in our seats (dirt roads means no limos/adventure). We went on a bit of a journey to find cell phone range to make a call to get the gate code, code in hand and up a windy steep hill on another dirt road, passed the sheeps and deers, we arrived to the top to stunning vistas, free range chickens and the delightful owner Mary. Amybth Estate, Welsh for forever (Phillip, the winemaker, is Welsh) is 100% biodynamic, not just on the vines but in the production process.  Using indigenous yeast or native yeast, the process is not to make a better tasting wine but a better wine for you. However, the wines were terrific {Grenache Blanc Orange Wine), so good that after wine tasting for 12 years I finally joined a wine club. I never had the wish to, but I enjoyed the wine, the experience and the strong farm principles and philosophy behind Ambyth Estate. They truly have a love for their land and a love for life. I am looking forward to wine dinners, as Phillip is a chef, and their cattle, turkey, chickens, bees, olives, vegetables and fruit are raised on their property. What a life and what a wonderful tradition.

Next year after Thanksgiving we plan to take the fallen soldiers (aka the hungover and the sick) back to this winery. We blazed a trail and discovered a new tradition.

What about you? I would love to hear about your favorite traditions? Or tell me about your zany family?

Wine Party 101

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I hope today’s post inspires you to have a party!

Some of the best parties are the most simple. Friends, cheese and wine sounds fine to me.

I was pretty excited to use our chalkboard for this post. It lives in our garage because the scale of it is too big for our house. It makes me sad, but I know in our next place it will work and I look forward to putting it in our kids play room (in the future).

Flowers are essential to a party or potted plants (succulents, perhaps). It brings warmth and color to a space. I have flowers in my house just about all the time.

Oh, cheese! You are a vice that I can’t live without. A forbidden love. Cheese and wine are the best of friends and have a great liking for each other. They bring out the best in each other, (saltiness from cheese mixed with sweetness of wine) enhancing, oozing, amplifying in my mouth, they make a party.

Having a wine party is fun, but having a blind tasting wine party is fun and an art. Make wine bags by using brown paper bags and tie with a string and write down a number on the bag. Try guessing what varietals of grape/grapes are in the wine, age, region? Focus on the sight of the wine: look at the pigment of the wine and then focus on the viscosity (legs of the wine), sniff and use your senses to differentiate the many smells;  then sip the wine, look for complexities, acidity and tannin levels, and flavor. Then ask yourself the important question: Do I like this wine? Make notes on a piece of paper. At the end of the night discover your results by revealing the bottles.

Blind tasting allows you to create an unbiased opinion on wine, as well as allowing you to formulate your preference in favorite wines.

Happy Partying!

Chamisal Vineyards | Edna Valley

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A couple of weeks ago, my brother Patrick and his girlfriend Katie, along with my husband and I, stopped at Chamisal Vineyards. A first time for Rick and I but a return visit for Patrick and Katie. Chamisal Vineyards is in Edna Valley, a viticulture region of San Luis Obispo. A close distance to the ocean, the area has ancient sea life characteristics in the soil and a cool foggy morning/sunny afternoon climate which creates interesting complexities in the varietals. A personal side note: Rick and I were married in Edna Valley and the wine we had at our wedding was from various wineries in Edna Valley.

What makes Chamsial such a special winery is that it is the first established vineyard in Edna Valley, but what I liked about it was the openness of the tasting room and outdoor area as well as the exceptional views, a perfect way to spend a couple of hours and enjoy a packed lunch with great wine. The tasting room is modern and rustic, and has a great staff. I can imagine they throw a lot of great wine events and parties.

A couple of my memorable tastings was the 2009 Estate Chardonnay, now I have mentioned in the past that I am not a big white wine drinker, so when I really enjoy a white wine I always feel it is worth mentioning. I find some white wines overly tart or overwhelmingly sweet, but this was buttery and had a mildly coconut and pineapple taste. We purchased a bottle and I am still planning an exceptional dinner. Coconut nut crusted halibut? The Chamisal Syrah was also quite enjoyable with an abundant nose of berries and plum with peppery, smokey notes and a smooth finish.

Chamisal is a prime destination if you are tasting in San Luis Obispo, come for the wine and stay for the gorgeous ambiance.

Also, I must add they are having a Lobsterfest event the first weekend in August. Visit the website for more information.

Summer Must Have: Groundwork | 2011 Grenache Rose

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I was enjoying a warm afternoon with one of my favorite wine buddies, my cousin Kacey, and she shared with me a glass of “pink” wine, a Rose to be exact. It was a glass of Groundwork 2011 Grenache Rose. I sipped and talked and then suddenly expressed pure joy and had to know where this wine was from. I examined the bottle as I finished the glass and conversation. A couple of weeks went by and I still was curious about the wine, so I visited the Groundwork Wine website, also known as Sans Liege, and ordered a well-priced bottle to share with my husband.

I like this wine, a lot. In fact, it is the best rose I have had this year, if not ever. It tastes like a summer vacation full of travel and epicurean quests. The nose is a Provencal-style rose, fruity and floral, with the aroma of fresh strawberries and a zip of lemon zest, and on the palate is a bit of spice and sweetness like sweet basil from Greece, and extra qualities which reminded me of tropical fruit from South America. This wine is like a well stamped passport.

Sans Liege/Groundwork is owned and operated by Curt Schalchlin, Schachlin does all the cellar work himself, sourcing the fruit from various key vineyards, the vineyards are thoughtfully chosen by Curt. His story is pretty interesting, he began working at Trader Joe’s when he was young, later he built relationships with Herman Story Wines and Barrel 27, he developed his craft with unpaid, hands-on learning in winemaking, soon he was on to producing his own barrels in the Central Coast and now wholeheartedly moving forward with his wines.

Find them on facebook here

Tasting room location:

870 Price Street  Pismo Beach, California

D.I.Y | Home Decor : Wine Cork Art

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I am having an affair with a hot glue gun, it’s hot, sometimes it hurts and overall it is on and off. Seriously though, I am not really a hot glue gun person. In fact, I had not picked up a glue stick since I was an art teacher but a few recent projects have me back on the horse.

My most recent date with my hot glue gun was with wine corks. A lot of corks.

I love wine corks. In fact, we are just big fans of wine period over here at The Sunday Sparkle. But those little stoppers that keep the thing we love properly preserved and aged have a great style to them that are fun to display.

When emptying out my purse, it is safe to say I have come across corks from time to time. I like to write the wine opening date on them, the restaurant or bar or a memory down on the side. My father works in the wine trade so we always have plenty of corks leftover. And it was time that I did something with all those corks and that brings me back to my friend my glue gun. With just a simple hand-drawn heart outline, the corks, the gun and my husband and I, we created some special wall art.

Wine Cork Wall Art

Need:

  • Wine corks
  • Glue gun
  • Cardboard or Wood

How:

Gather those corks, you will need a lot of them. Try asking your friends and family for their corks or a restaurant and wine bar. Decide on your shape or design, you could do your first name/family last name or initial. Create your outline and use this as your guide. Cardboard or wood will serve as your backing.  Simply glue the cork to the bottom, hold secure for a few seconds and then on to the next. This is where doing the project with a friend helps. It speeds the process up. When completed hang it on your wall, mantle or give it to your favorite wine lover.

You can also buy pre-made wood cutouts at stores like Michael’s, and other craft stores.  Thank to my parents who shared a box of corks and their jigsaw for the wood.