Wine, Beer and Restaurant Reviews

NJ Blues and Wine Festival - May 26th and 27th

Save the date on your calendar for this great opportunity to experience NJ wines.

We attended this event several years ago when it was at Waterloo Village. We had a great time but frankly we were not all that impressed with the wines.

Since then NJ wines have really gotten much better. We have tasted some really good ones lately like Hawk's Haven, Unionville and Valenzo. We're excited to have the chance to try others that we have heard good things about. See this report in NJ Monthly - Jersey Wine

Tickets are now on sale Garden State Wine Growers Festivals

We Loved the Wines of Hawk Haven Vineyard, Cape May at the NJ Wine and Food Festival

Honestly, I really have always wanted to like NJ wines. I'm no wine snob that insists on Napa or Bordeaux, I enjoy wine from all over the world. I just haven't found many made in my home state of New Jersey that I've liked. 

I've watched jealously as NY wines from the Finger Lakes and the North Fork have gained acclaim. So you can imagine my delight when I found  New Jersey wines that I really liked.

It was at the recent NJ Wine and Food Festival where I met Todd Wuerker the proprietor and wine maker of Hawks Haven Vineyard in Cape May, NJ.

NJ Wine & Food Festival 2012 with Thomas Keller and So Much More

We will be here this Saturday - Hope to See You.

The most exciting New Jersey Food and Wine event of the year is on March 30-April 1 2012 at the luxurious Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg, NJ.

The Featured Guest of Honor Chef Thomas Keller along with many other notables of the food and wine world will be presenting a fabulous program not to be missed. The event benefits James Beard Foundation and Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation.

Beginning Friday evening and continuing on until Sunday morning there are over 14 fabulous events for your to choose from.

Tickets are now on sale! Click here to purchase or call 973.827.5996 ext. 3.

Ravines Wine Cellars Makes it Easy to Fall In Love with Finger Lakes Wine

Winebow's 22nd Annual Vintners' Harvest was a spectacular showing of the latest offerings of many of the worlds greatest winemakers. I did not have a lot of time so I focused on finding some new wines that I had never experienced before. I saw that there was one vineyard from the Finger Lakes so I set my sights for their table.

I have been hearing more and more about how great the  wines from this region have become. There are over 100 wineries along Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga and Canandaigua lakes. The region's micro-climate provides the ideal growing.

Still I did not expect a lot. To my very pleasant surprise I was completely blown away by how good Ravines Wine Cellars's wines are.

Wine Bloggers Conference North America 2011 Charlottesville VA

In 2008 "Web Logs" or "Blogs" really hit a critical mass and began having a big impact on the topics that the authors of these blogs addressed.

There were 100's of wine bloggers then, now there are probably 1,000's. In 2008 my friends Gabriella and Ryan Opaz, two exciting and adventuresome Americans from the Midwest who now live near in Barcelona Spain, decided to found the European Wine Bloggers Conference as a forum for wine bloggers, new media innovators, and wine industry leaders to learn, share and discuss the intersection of wine with the world of new media including blogging, social media, and more. The North America Wine Bloggers Conference was organized by the OpenWine Consortium and Zephyr Wine Adventures. See also catavino.net.

This year we had the good fortune to attend the first East Coast event in Charlottesville, VA. the fourth NA conference. It was inspiring, enlightening and a lot of fun.