This month kicked off my first-ever vineyard growing season in Wisconsin. Now that winter is finally over it’s time to wake up the vines and get them ready to bear fruit, and time for me to learn how that’s done. Read the full article.
Sometimes it feels like rosé season has to happen one day at a time: spring seems to have arrived, then you get a week of temperatures in the twenties, then you get one 70-degree day and you have to seize it with some rosé and snacks on the porch before it turns cold again. Read the full article.
I’ve made no secret of my affection for Beyoncé’s new album, a remarkable ode to love, marriage, sexuality, parenthood, feminism, and car partitions that plays on themes of sex and power, with Beyoncé’s trademark combination of vulnerability and bravado never more honest or captivating. My friend Lauren and I recently enjoyed the visual album over a bottle* of chenin from a producer I don’t see much here in the US. Read the full article.
My friends Kate and Wes, like many Madisonians, are big DIY types, so it should be no surprise that a recent dinner with them involved Kate’s homemade camembert cream cheese (that’s as earthy and delicious as it sounds), some sort of artisanal charcuterie, homemade bread, Kate’s marmalade, and aperitifs in the form of Wes’s home-brewed stout. (He’s an excellent brewer and this was my favorite of his beers to date.) Read the full article.
I’ve been a fan of Raats Family Wines for quite some time; as if after my own heart, winemaker Bruwer Raats focuses on cabernet franc and chenin blanc––the grapes of the Loire Valley. I ordered this chenin blanc with the intention of bringing it to a tasting, but I couldn’t resist keeping it all for myself and enjoying its evolution over a couple of days, starting with the first Academy Awards ceremony I’ve cared enough to watch in years. Read the full article.