Blog Archives
Headed to Portugal: Boats, Trains and Planes
Greetings from the Newark Liberty International Airport, good ol’ EWR. I’m waiting to board a flight to Lisbon then Porto for a media trip sponsored by Symington Family Estates. It’s my first visit to Portugal in (gasp!) six years. What will I be doing while I’m there? I’m glad you asked. My first full day [More]
Is Port Wine on the Rise?
If you want to know a ton about Port and are a beginner when it comes to this legendary fortified wine, check out my interview on Foodista with Roy Hersh of the indispensable website, For The Love of Port. One additional question I had regarded Port’s popularity in relation to red and white wine: JF: [More]
Hungry For Words: A Food Writing Workshop With Kathleen Flinn
I thought I’d celebrate my nomination in the Best Writing on a Wine Blog category for the 2013 Wine Blog Awards with a post about…writing about food? Well, it’s about writing, and applicable to wine writers and writers in general. (See all the nominees and vote; you have until May 24th at 11:59PM.) Kathleen Flinn [More]
Don’t Panic When It Comes to Portuguese Wine Grapes
I will admit to being a bit overwhelmed when it came to learn about Portuguese wine grapes. I mean, come on, isn’t Gewürztraminer hard enough? See how I overcame my fears and encountered some great wines in my guest post on Notes from Esporão. It’s also a bit of a snapshot of my visit to Esporão’s [More]
Blog Post Roundup: Portuguese Food and Wine at Esporão and Quinta dos Murças
Great Portuguese food and wine were on hand during my recent press trip to Portugal as a guest of Esporão and Quinta dos Murças. The regions of Alentejo and Douro where the two wineries are located, respectively, were also dramatic, and dramatically different. Here are links to experience some of the many highlights: A Portuguese Sparkling [More]
Dizzying Heights, Hairpin Curves, and The Vineyards of the Douro
My pale and windblown look certainly had something to do with the journey to reach the top of one of the highest vineyards in the dramatic, and dramatically beautiful, Douro region of Portugal. While on a press trip as a guest of Esporão and visiting Quinta dos Murcas, we took a drive to visit the [More]
188 Kinds of Wine Grapes Growing at Herdade do Esporão in Portugal
Why are they growing 188 kinds of wine grapes at Herdade do Esporão winery in Portugal? And why is this giant rock in the middle of this vineyard? Let’s start by tackling the first question. As one of my colleagues on this press trip, Pamela Busch, observed, this is probably the only place in the [More]
