In Search of 50 Great Cava’s in Spain

Wow, where did the summer go?

It’s been a whirlwind of great wine and food in Santa Barbara, Mendocino, the Okanagan, and now I’m off to Riga, Latvia, to visit @SigneMeirane -- then on to Spain in search of 50 Great Cava’s as part of a tasting panel and the so called "Dream Team”.  (I think you need to drink a lot of Cava before our group approaches dreamy, but whatever.)

I’m excited to be catching up with my pals, the dynamic duo of travel writing and photography-- Lara Dunston and Terrence Carter, of Grantourismo. I originally met Lara and Terence in Portugal and had a very memorable birthday celebration with many glasses of vintage Port and a homemade birthday cake.

The Birthday Girl and Lara Dunston

Also on the 50 Great Cava’s trip will be photographer Andrew Barrow @wine_scribbler, with whom I also spent a very memorable birthday, snowbound in a hotel in southern Italy. Although I believe it was more memorable for me as Andrew claims not to recall much of that night.

Andrew pictured at top left

Follow the trip as it happens October 6-10th as we go Cuckoo for Cava.
Twitter: @50greatcavas 
Hashtags: #50gc #cava #Penedes
Facebook: 50 Great Cavas

Traveling Between the Lines: Writers Explore the Wide World

If you follow this blog it’s a fairly safe bet you like to read my musings on travel and wine. Now you can hear yours truly read in person at LitQuake-- the literary happening of the year in San Francisco. LitQuake is a nine-day literary extravaganza for booklovers culminating with Lit Crawl featuring hundreds of readings.

Come on down to Peace Industry in the Mission on October 18th at 7:00 pm where I will be reading as part of the Traveling Between the Lines: Writers Explore the Wide World event along with  Marcia DeSanctis, Laurie Weed, Lavinia Spalding, Laurie McAndish King, Jeff Greenwald, and Larry Habegger.

You’ll laugh, you'll cry, you'll lose your car keys and find a contact lens, and you may even meet the love of your life and share glass of wine. Well, maybe not all those things, but you will certainly be amused and entertained. Anyway, it would be great to see you there.

More details here: http://www.litquake.org/events/traveling-between-lines-writers-explore-wide-world

Come for the Wine - Speakeasy Interview On Grape Collective

Recently, Jameson Fink featured me in his Speakeasy series on Grape Collective, and asked me about my love for Croatian wine, best wine travel tips, the key to a good travel story, Writing Between the Vines, and that Sasquatch of wine blogging -- the elusive AP wine blogger.

Click here to read full interview on Grape Collective.