Tuscaloosa Wine and Food Festival

Saturday, April 30th , 2011
1:00pm-6:30pm
Government Plaza
Downtown Tuscaloosa

Come stroll through the Government Plaza, listen to laid back music and enjoy good times with friends. All while sampling some of the newest and best food, wine and beer Tuscaloosa has to offer.


Food, Wine & Beer Tastings provided by the following participating restaurants and wine/beer suppliers:

Brickhouse
Carmelo Cafe
Chloe's Cup
Chuck's Fish
Cypress Inn
FIG
FIVE
Grassroots Wine
Moe's BBQ
Pinnacle Imports
Taziki's Mediterranean Grill
The Source Distributing
And MORE!!!

A percentage of the proceeds will help to benefit the following wonderful organizations:T-Town Paws and The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Ticket Pricing:
$30.00 pre-sale price
$35.00 at the gate

This is a 21 and up event. ID will be checked upon entry.


For more information go to www.tuscaloosawineandfoodfestival.com

Warm Weather Wine-Cavit Pinot Grigio

Spring has sprung and it's time to bring out the white wines! One white wine that I would suggest is Cavit's Pinot Grigio. I decided to try it after I saw Snooth.com mention the brand on Facebook. That same day while browsing the wine aisle in Wal-mart, I saw the Pino Grigio and quickly snatched it up. A few days passed before I opened the bottle on a laid back Sunday afternoon with my family and some friends. The first thing I noticed when I tasted it was how crisp it was! It's a little dry but not too dry.

Here are some things you should know about Cavit's Pinot Grigio:

-The bottle cost about $7.97 at Wal-mart (Great price!)
-Imported from Italy
-It has fruity and floral scents
-Nice gold color
-It goes great with almost any food:chicken, veal, pasta dishes or fresh seafood.
-Make sure it's well chilled

It's a very nice wine to mellow out with and you'll definitely enjoy it with your dinner or a nice appetizer. I would definitely suggest it for a gathering with friends.


Happy Wine Drinking!

There is a Right Way to Hold a Wine Glass

Wine is served in stemware because the temperature at which wine is served can have a profound impact on the tastes and the enjoyment it yields. Wine glasses should always be held by the stem of the glass rather than the bowl since the heat of your hand will quickly warm the liquid.

Warming a wine above its desired serving temperature will yield unwanted and unpleasant characteristics. The alcohol in wine will give a sharpness or 'bite' to the taste if the wine is served above 74 F. degrees.
Enough said. Just hold the glass by the stem unless the wine is served at too cool a temperature and you need to warm it for a minute or two.

To find out more go to www.cellarnotes.com

5th Annual Spring Wine Release at Ozan Vineyard

The date is set for Ozan Vineyard and Winery's 5th Annual Wine Release!

Join them on April 22-23rd for a Chilton County Peach wine from tree ripe white peaches, plus their 2010 Vino Rose' will be featured along with seasonal hors d'Oeuvres as they mark the beginning of spring at the vineyard.

For more information go to www.ozanwine.com

Happy St. Patty's Day!!-Green Wine Spritzer Recipe

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a Green Wine Spritzer!

Ingredients
green food coloring
1 chilled 750ml bottle of dry white wine
1 liter chilled plain or lime-flavored seltzer

Preparation
Place 1 drop of green food coloring into each of 8 wine glasses (or 8 drops in a large pitcher).

Divide 1 chilled 750ml bottle of dry white wine among glasses, or pour into pitcher.

Top with 1 liter chilled plain or lime-flavored seltzer; stir lightly. Serve promptly. Serves 8.

For more recipes go to fine.myrecipes.com

Wine Humor Tuesday

Men are like a fine wine.

They start out as grapes.

It's our job to stomp them, and then keep them in the dark until they mature.

And hopefully they'll turn out to be something we would like to have dinner with.

The Preserve Jazz Festival

Sunday, June 5th, Hoover, AL at Regions Park

Featuring Boney James with Earl Klugh, Eric Essix with special guest Eric Darius and Roman Street. Tickets are on sale now for $35!

For more information go to www.preservejazz.com

Check out the Neo Jazz Collective Birmingham's premiere young jazz ensemble perform at The Preserve Jazz Festival 2010!

The Cork Is Stuck!

So you're hanging with your friends and one of them pulls out a bootle of Moscato D' Asti. You all have grabbed your glasses and are so ready to get that first sip and what happens? THE CORK IS STUCK!!!!!! Ahhhhh!!! Well this actually happened to me last week. I screwed the corkscrew through the cork and pulled until my arm began to hurt! The cork would not budge! So what did we do? Nothing! We were afraid to keep trying to use the corkscrew because the cork was crumbling. A brand new bottle of wine wasted right? Not really.

Here's a method to the MADNESS of a stuck cork:

Push the cork into the bottle. If pieces of the cork get into the wine, use a mesh strainer to catch pieces of the cork as you pour the wine. You can opt to pour the wine into a decanter. This method is probably your best option.

If you ever run across this dilemma, (and trust me for wine lovers this is a dilemma)this method will be sure to work.

And if you want to save the wine bottle, check out this video of how to remove a cork from a wine bottle.

Happy Wine Drinking!

April 30th: Grape Expectations Art & Wine Festival

Grape Expectations Wine and Art Festival

April 30th, Saturday

12-4 P.M. At The Waters in Pike Road, AL


The Waters and RSVP Montgomery present Grape Expectations Wine and Art Festival. Come sample over 50 wines, enjoy live music by Henry Pugh and view art displayed by several local artists.

Donations accepted.

$15 to participate in wine tasting and receive commemorative wine glass. All proceeds and donations benefit the March of Dimes.

Tickets available at Peppertree Steaks N’ Wines, RSVP Montgomery, or The Waters Realty Office.

For more information go www.thewatersal.com or call 334-356-4598

Wine Humor Tuesday: Water vs. Wine

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine, and to those who don't, and are always seen with a bottle of water in their hand.

As Ben Franklin said:
In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria
found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we DO NOT run that risk when drinking wine and beer (or vodka, tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor), because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and / or fermenting.

Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine = Health.

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of ...you know the rest!