wine

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!…

We’re coming up on the end of August, the slow and heavy days where nothing seems to happen and the bustle of early summer has been replaced by sleepy, sultry afternoons.  These are the Dog Days, so called because Sirius, the Dog Star, rises with the sun this time of year, at least in our hemisphere. It’s also the quiet interlude before Wine Country’s biggest time of year: the harvest!  This is a great time to travel to California if you don’t live here, or explore the region around you if you do, because there are all kinds of events that take place around harvest season. Harvest time lasts a couple of months, because some grapes take a little longer to ripen than others or are left a little longer on the vine.  It starts around September (although some grapes…

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,…

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…

Photo Courtesy: Flickr user Identity Photogr@phy It’s Friday the 13th. The name of the day alone can inspire a superstitious shiver. There’s even a name for fear of it: paraskevidekatriaphobia. It causes all kinds of issues, because so many people won’t travel, get married, or even leave the house on this date! But really, it’s nothing to be afraid of. First of all, it’s Friday. That in and of itself is a wonderful thing! Second, what’s wrong with poor number 13? It didn’t do anything to anybody. When you dig a little deeper into the origin of just why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky, it becomes extremely interesting. First of all, thirteen has been considered a strange number in many different cultures for centuries, although not necessarily an unlucky one. Historians think this might be because of simple mathematics:…

Image Source: Flickr user Mark Gstohl Mardi Gras is almost here! This is one of the best times of year to be a lover of food and drink. It’s related to Carnaval, which comes from the phrase “carne vale,” or “farewell to the flesh,” and in the Christian calendar is the time of feasting before the self-deprivation of Lent begins. The Mardi Gras feasting and partying day is also known as Shrove Tuesday, the day that precedes Ash Wednesday. Both days are known as “moveable feast” days, which got their name because their dates move throughout the year in relation to Easter Sunday, which is always held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox. That’s a mouthful, so to speak. But we love moveable feasts so much that’s what we do! Every…

San Diego Restaurant Week is almost here! It should go without saying that we love San Diego's food scene.  We may be San Diego Beer and Wine Tours, but tasting beer and wine without knowing what foods to pair them with takes at least half the joy out of the whole experience! That's why we always offer food on our beer and wine tours.  When you correctly pair, it brings out nuances and dimensions to your drink – and your food – that you never knew existed. It's like a voyage of discovery with every meal! San Diego's craft beer scene has been extolled and admired as one of the best on the planet for years, and with good reason.  Its wine scene is also gaining attention, too, as more people realize how wonderful it is.  But the food scene…

Happy New Year! `Tis the season to look back on the preceding year and make resolutions for the following one.  But, as news story after news story tells us, we’re doing it all wrong by focusing on the negatives instead of the positives. Anyway, as you may already know, we don’t really believe in resolutions around here, because they’re so easy to break – only 23 percent of people who make resolutions keep them!  Instead, we tend to follow the research that indicates good habits are easier to pick up if they’re folded into our everyday lives slowly, over time, and with lots of rewards. However, I suppose in this instance we’re going to make a resolution after all. Really, it’s the same one we always make, and it’s pretty easy to keep. Best of all, our resolution contains its…

Spotlight on… Café La Rue! We've been talking about some of our favorite places to get eats as well as drinks lately.  Right now, it's Café La Rue's turn!   Café La Rue is a relatively new place in an old haunt – the bar and bistro reopened last year at La Jolla's historic La Valencia Hotel, which is known as "The Pink Lady," after closing down for a makeover and taking over the space of an iconic bar called The Whaling Bar – traces of which still live on in its décor and some of its drinks. Café La Rue has also updated its menu, favoring simple foods but with a European flair: their dishes include smoked cheddar bratwurst – made with IPA beer cheese – and pork belly confit poutine.  Delicious!  Even their french fries are simple yet superb: they're…

It’s officially time for the Christmas countdown! Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you can’t help but get caught up in the holiday spirit – lights are twinkling against our gorgeous California sunsets, the malls are full of specials (and people!) and there’s just a certain feel in the air as the days get shorter and cooler. It’s also a great time of year to start switching up your wines.  This cooler weather is not only welcome, it lets you consider completely different tastes and flavors!  Light and fruity, for example, is nice enough in the heat, but what you really want during a December downpour is a good, bold red or a hearty white. Luckily, the jamminess and spiciness that chilly weather really demands is readily available from California wines!  Here are some good picks for sitting inside and…