san diego

We are proud to announce that we are now members of the prestigious 500 Club! What’s that, you’re asking? We’re tickled pink to tell you. We’re just bursting at the seams with pride, in fact, because what that means is that we have now received more than 500 five-star reviews from the TripAdvisor community.   Sure, this may come across as bragging, but the truth is we know that we wouldn’t be able to make our trips wonderful without the people who come along with us. Sampling fine foods and delicious beers and wines is a wonderful thing, but without people to share them with, the pleasure is dulled.  We’re so happy to have such wonderful company along for the ride, quite literally.  When we’re on the train watching a glorious sunset over the Pacific Ocean, our bellies full of the best…

Photo Courtesy: Flickr user Kulicki San Diego has a lot going for it. Beaches, mountains, great weather, great people, great beer – and great golf.  It’s a well-kept secret that San Diego has some world class golf courses – more than 90 throughout the county – and they’re all great for different reasons.  Of course,…

October is here, again! Already! It’s a wonderful time of year.  Time to break out your best pumpkin carving skills and Halloween or Day of the Dead decorations, because the autumn winds are blowing away the last bits of El Nino humidity and making it the beautiful season it always is in San Diego! It’s possible to find some scary good wines out there to augment your grown-up costume party, and it doesn’t have to be a terrifying experience.  So if you’re looking around for something new, try one of these ideas on for size. If you’re rushing to the supermarket, don’t just grab the same tired old chardonnay you’ve been getting for the past couple of years. In fact, don’t get chardonnay at all. Everybody loves chardonnay, so try something different. Plus, it’s fall. Go for a big bold California red!…

Labor Day is almost upon us again – already!  It’s been an odd year, thanks to an El Nino that has kept things unseasonably warm, but now that warm weather is going to be a blessing, because this is the official weekend Americans love to get out and fire up their barbecue. Burgers are the traditional grilled food of choice, but there’s no need to worry too much about pairing your beer to your food. Since Labor Day is a time to hang around outside with friends, consider pairing your drinks to the weather instead! Since the odds are that it’s going to be a warm day, stock up on light beers with light flavors and a relatively low alcohol content so that you don’t get thirsty and end up taking an impromptu nap and missing the party! IPAs, or…

The dog days of summer are upon us. Hammock Day, July 22, 2015, is a way to celebrate the warmest days of the year by embracing the sunshine, grabbing a drink, and – you guessed it – basking in a hammock. San Diego Beer and Wine Tours invites you to enjoy the rest of your dog days by partaking in one of their various excursions which allows you to sit back and enjoy the best brews and wines of San Diego, car-free! Their all-inclusive tours offer a VIP experience for you and your party to indulge in a “vine to glass” or “hop to table” experience with local food and wine or beer appreciated at the production facilities. The best part being that there is no need to drink and drive. Their guided tours provide transportation between the vineyards, winery,…

Oh, hey! It’s nearly July 4th already?  How did this happen so fast?  It feels like just yesterday that we were waiting up to see in the new year, and here it is Independence Day. We love the Fourth of July.  It’s nice and warm, the day is long and punctuated by food and cold drinks, and at the end of it we get fireworks!  Usually, we put up a guide to pairing wines and beers with your barbecue foods, but this time, we’ve scoured the web to find ways for you to work your favorite drinks into your favorite summer recipes. If you’re grilling beef, accompany it with a porter or stout reduction sauce to simultaneously tenderize it and bring out the smoky tanginess of the beer.  Reductions are super easy and really delicious – all it means is…

We officially entered summer in the northern hemisphere this week! So far it’s looking like a wonderfully mild summer – the stuff dreams of people who aren’t lucky enough to live here are made of.  It also is looking more and more likely that we’re entering an El Nino season, which means we might not have to worry so much about drought in the near future.  Hooray! So now that we’ve finished talking about the weather, let’s talk about what makes the summer so special in southern California – specifically, San Diego. If you think it’s because of the beer, give yourself a gold star.  It’s definitely the beer! Summer is when all the best local IPAs start to really shine, and they really are the best local IPAs.  West Coast IPAs were born and perfected right here in San Diego….

San Diego is famous for many things – the sun, the surf, the craft beer (of course), and in the past few years, Comic-Con has made headlines all over the word.  The convention started out in 1970 as a tiny group of comic book aficionados, and since then it’s not only become a model for conventions worldwide, but also blossomed into a huge annual event that brings hundreds of thousands of people to San Diego. Comic-Con is great, not only because it’s a lot of fun even if you don’t attend the main event there’s still a ton of fun stuff going on all over downtown.  And luckily, you’re not the only person who’s noticed that Comic-Con and beer are a perfect combination. It looks like beer events with a proudly nerdy flavor are here to stay. So how’s your…

It’s one of the best weeks of the year! American Craft Beer Week starts today, and it’s gonna be a good one. American craft beer has only gotten better and better every year. This week starts today, and runs all the way through Sunday, May 17th, so you have plenty of time to get your tastings on! This week exists to honor the thousands of American brewers who have made the United States one of the world’s premiere beer destinations. The epicenter of this movement is California, and the absolute heart of the American craft brewing community is right here in San Diego. That’s why we feel particularly blessed to live right here! Not only is the weather fabulous and the scenery unbeatable, it’s also one of the best places on earth to be a fan of excellent beer. That’s…

Happy Mother’s Day! This is the weekend people acknowledge and celebrate motherhood, whether you have one, are one, want to be one, or just appreciate moms. There are days to honor women and mothers all over the world, but the one in the United States has a fascinating history. Mother’s Day, in its original incarnation in the US, actually started as a way to stop wars.  In the late 1800s, Julia Ward Howe was so horrified by the Civil War’s effects on individuals and families that she wrote a poem exhorting women to keep their husbands from fighting, and pushed for a Mother’s Day of Peace. This was ultimately unsuccessful, but a generation later, Anna Jarvis successfully petitioned the American government to dedicate one day a year to mothers.  It was signed into law in 1914. Today, we just want…