Archive: Feb 2013

Green beer is okay, but “going green” on one of our train tours is much better! We have barely recovered from Valentine’s Day, but St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us. As we adore Ireland with every fiber of our being (that’s where our lovely Shira Bliss is from!) we are happy to share some insider love with you. Now, you could celebrate the old-fashioned way – by pinching people and drinking green beer until you can’t look at anything green for the next month – but why go that route? Celebrate in style. Here are our suggestions. Don’t let its reputation fool you. Ireland is not just a country of craic and Guinness. It is also a land of epicures and microbreweries, which in recent years have started springing up like mushrooms after a rain. Unfortunately, not many Irish…

Happy Mardi Gras! Today is Fat Tuesday, a tradition that hails at least back to medieval Europe, when revelers would slaughter a fatted calf and party the night away before the next day, Ash Wednesday, marked the beginning of Lent. That meant an enormous party as people consumed their best food, beer, and wine to steel themselves for the Lenten fasting season. In some cultures, this time of year is also known as Carnival or Carnaval, which comes from the Latin root "carne," meaning "meat" (there's that fatted calf again.) It also marks the end of winter as it turns the corner into springtime. In New Orleans, which arguably has the best-known festival, people dance in the streets all week long, wearing elaborate masks, beads, or (in some cases) nothing at all, while sipping Hand Grenades or Hurricanes and watching…

It's Groundhog Day! This is the day, so the story goes, that Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his hibernation to check the weather.  If he sees his shadow and skitters back into his burrow, we'll have six more weeks of winter, but if the famous groundhog doesn't get startled, it will be an early spring. (This year, according to Phil, we'll have an early spring.)   San Diegans don't have much to worry about, no matter what the groundhog does.  We're lucky to live somewhere that has beautiful weather, no matter what.  We are, however, fans of the movie "Groundhog Day," in which an increasingly hapless Bill Murray is subjected to the same day again and again until he finally gets it right.   We at San Diego Beer and Wine Tours want to help you get it right every day….