The Napa Valley sisters are winging their way to NYC for BlogHer10 but we wanted to let you know our August survey is live!  We're calling it the Wine Sisterhood Benchmark Survey because we're turning our focus for the moment to the Wine Sisterhood herself.

If you've been with us awhile, you know in the past we've asked you about label designs, wine names, new varieties--your responses help us create our new wine brands and there's no place else you can do that, can you?

This month, as we celebrate 5,000 Facebook friends, we are going in a slightly different direction and asking you to voice your opinion about the Wine Sisterhood. How did you find out about us? Do you talk about us? What does the Wine Sisterhood mean to you? 

Your feedback will help us better understand you--our wine sisters-- and help us continue to make the Wine Sisterhood a place you want to visit frequently, learn and share about wine, help create new wine brands and invite your friends to join in the fun.

It's super-quick this month--we're told it will take about four minutes. Four minutes--so long for yoga plank--so short for our survey. 

Thanks as always for playing, and be sure to check in this week on Facebook and Twitter for up to the minutes posts and photos on our BlogHer week in New York.

Let us begin, dear sisters in food and wine, with an age-old question? If your purveyor of delicious stone fruits offer you a tequila shot at 11 in the morning, do you accept? Discuss.

The Girl in the Valley and I decided that we should take a journey upvalley from the Clubhouse on Friday am to visit the famous Chef's Market in St. Helena. Our mission was to report back to you what's hot in the world of fruit and veggies here at the end of July 2010 here in our little corner of the world.

In Napa Valley, as we're sure is the case in your part of the world, famer's markets take place throughout the growing season. We especially love the October markets with their piles of pumpkins, but every month brings its own delights. 

Friday seemed a fine day to check out what's local, fresh and in peak of season. We hadn't been to the St. Helena market lately so we decided to get in line with rest of the tourist and head north.

At our very first table stop, the GITV spied a box of pretty green tomatoes and bought a pound for $1 (bargain at NV prices) The plan was to rustle up some delicious Fried Green Tomatoes over the weekend. 

So the GITV has her sack of Green Tomatoes and was content until we ran into a Famous Napa Valley Chef who gave us the down low on the whole Fried Green Tomato situation (are you sisters from the South just laughing right now?) 

Apparently, the best FGTs are made from not-fully ripened tomatoes fresh off the vine in the Fall, the ones that didn't have a chance to go all red and pretty before it gets frosty. These GT's, apparently, have a texture-acid-sugar balance that makes them the ones you want to use.

But because peoples just love the dish and are dying to serve them in the middle of summer with their grilled whatever, farmers will just pick some green tomatoes off a producing vine and sell them to unsuspecting foodies. Like us. Sigh. In any event, we had already spent our dollar and the plan to fry those puppies up and serve them for Sunday dinner remained in place.

We visited other tables and were overcome with the loveliness of the seasonal fruit. One stand, in particular, from Winters, CA (east of Napa Valley) is devoted to heirloom stone fruits. Roving asked about Tiger Peaches, a rare variety of singular taste. The ladies replied that thay didn't have any today, but to check back in the near future. Roving recalled that her family, who farm cherries and almonds in the CA Central Valley, had a Tiger Peach Tree when she was growing up. But Tiger Peach got so old and tired that one day he just fell down. Roving jotted down (typed in her Iphone) the name of the nursery who could provide new Tiger Peach tree stock and she made a note to order one to give to her dad for Christmas.

As we roamed the market, taking a million I-Photos of cute little buches of radishes and such, we were beginning to get a little worried about our state of mind (OK some girls like Louboutins, we like beets). Luckily, that passed quickly, and we got to thinking about wine pairings.

Say, you want to fry up a batch of not-chef-approved August Fried Green Tomatoes as a first course or appetizer In terms of food pairing, the word Green guides us. 

Look at a light white wine. Have you ever gazed closely at an unoaked Pinot Grigio, White Blend or Sauvignon Blanc? (when you're not thinking about the loser you just broke up with--that's a different blog). 

We think you may will see some ever-so-faint green tints in your glass. Flashes of the fresh summer vegetable and herb colors you'd see in your own home garden or in the baskets at the Famer's Market.

Any of these wines, such as PromisQous White (Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer) or Middle Sister Wicked White (similar White Blend), Middle Sister Drama Queen Pinot Grigio, Middle Sister Surfer Chick Sauvignon Blanc. Kate and Cassie Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay or Middle Sister Smarty Pants chardonnay have that ever-so-subtle tinge. What's more, they have acidity (think lemon squeeze) to balance the richness of pan-fried goodness and significantly, they are oak-free.  

Oak, found in many Chardonnays (but not in the ones mentioned above), adds a definite caramel, vanilla, buttered toast flavor. The color of these wines tends more to golden hues. We love oak; it adds complexity, and it's perfect with creamy, rich dishes, but  it might not be the best complement to Fried Green Tomatoes, Zucchini Fritters with Green Goddess Dressing and other vegetable dishes--unless, as we mentioned, you choose an Unoaked or very-ightly oaked style. 

We were thinking we would do an aioli of some sort to serve the the tomatoes, but on our way out of the market we found these incredible organic jams, jellies and marmelades. They are hand-made by The Wild Pear Co. from Tomales out on the coast and are truly exquisite.  We picked the Jalapeno & Garlic Jelly for our tomatoes, but couldn't resist the Peppered Pomegranate Jelly (brush on salmon and grill) or the Pink Grapefruit Marmalade (Fresh Buttermilk Scones, anybody?). The sweet and savory jellies are also wonderful as as effortless appetizer. Spoon over cream cheese and serve with an assortment of crackers or a  crusty baguette. 

P.S. We politely refused the offer of Tequila shots saying those were reserved for the evening-time, preferably 10pm or later. Our farmer friend insisted it was evening-time somewhere in the world...he had twinkly brown eyes and a rugged three-day beard, but we resisted. We are, after all, professionals. And seriously, it wasn't even lunch-time!

Welcome to your summer, wine sisters. Time to get on the bus headed for Camp Wine. Hope you didn't forget your toothbrush and bug spray!

Oh, and of course, the wine. We have some recommendations for wines that pair well with summer. Specifically, we want to tell you about our brand new releases, Haute Red and White Haute. Not only seriously fashionable, but elegantly pairable with your fave summertime foods.

Let's talk Haute White. It's our new California Riesling. Riesling is an ideal choice for summer. It's is a light, crisp white varietal orginally cultivated on the steep river vineyards of Germany. 

With aromas and flavors of white peach and apricot with a floral note, it has a crisp acidity that makes it totally refreshing well-chilled on a hot summer day. 

Reisling can serve you throughout the meal, as an aperitif to the dessert course. Think Peach Cobbler or a cheese plate with soft, young cheeses and summer fruits.

Because it's moderate in alcohol and fuity, Riesling is bright and refreshing with main course fare such as salads and seafoods. Try our White Haute Riesling with spicy dishes such as an Asian Chicken Salad or Grilled Fish with Spanish Spices.

Summertime may seem like the season to leave the reds in the cellar, but for those of us who love red, we just might not want to wait until the frost is on the pumpkin.

Red Haute Pinot Noir is a good choice. It's a lighter style Pinot Noir, fresh and lively. Here's a tip: don't be afraid to put your reds in the refrigerator to chill them off. The recommendation of "room temperature" for red wine service doesn't mean a room in the middle of a summer heat wave.  Red wines shoud be served at cellar temperature--55 degrees. If that means sticking a bottle in ice before you pop it open--no worries.

We like Haute Red Pinot Noir with all things on the grill. That includes everything from fresh farmstand grilled veggies to burgers, "haute dogs", chicken and ribs. Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein, author of many food and wine books including his most recent, "Perfect Pairings", used to call Pinot Noir "liquid chicken", meaning it's a wine immensely adaptable to pairing with a huge variety of foods because of its balance and flavor profile. If you're looking for a red wine, and don't know where to turn, turn to Pinot Noir. It's a slam dunk choice. (another "Evanism").

Our Haute wines are newly released and coming to stores near you soon. If you simply can't wait, visit our Wine Shop--you can buy them there.

So stay cool, sisters. Take a swim. Roast a weenie. Sing a campfire song. And for goodness sake, have a glass of wine!

It's that time again, sisters. Time for our new monthly survey party. July is the month we decided to get nosy about your wine buying habits. 

Just six quick questions to help us make sure we get our wines where you like to shop. And remember, one lucky survey-completer will be selected at random to win a cool prize!

We are busy tallying the results of our June survey where we asked how you stand on Moscato. We'll let you know the results shortly...but here's a hint, maybe you'll get a sneak peak on the next Middle Sister!

Last month, we asked the Sisterhood the eternal question: is bigger better? We were speaking, of course, about our PromisQous wine label. 

PromisQous was one of the Wine Sisterhood's two inagural wines, launched in June of 2008.  (The other was Middle Sister). The style we selected for the wine was a blend--a blend of mutually attractive grape varieties--hence the name.

OK, sometimes we have too much fun around the clubhouse. At any rate, after some time in the market and some good success, we were hearing a few comments from our trade partners that perhaps the name should be bigger.

If you ever wandered into the wine section of your favorite retailer and have been confronted with the "wall of wine" you'll understand the importance of having a label "pop" out 'acha. A wine label is your tiny little billboard on the shelf often surrounded by hundreds of other tiny little billboards saying "pick me, pick me".

And we can all agree that it's often the label that is the deciding purchase factor. So, wines have a little space to make a lot of impact--really at the point of purchase, just a couple of seconds. So your label must work as hard as it can. This is especially holds true in the supermarket setting, where unlike your local wine shop, there likely won't be an expert there to offer guidance.

For our May survey, we showed the sisters four versions of the PromisQous label--the original, and three additional versions which enlarged the name incrementally--all the way up to 120% of the original font size.

According to our survey results, the winner was the label with the largest name. In this version, the name PromisQous appeared 120% of the original size. (The version is shown upper left). Runner-up was the original label (shown lower right). Votes in favor of the original praised it as elegant and refined. Those who favored the larger version liked its impact and read-ability and believed the larger size would help to cut through wine wall clutter.

In one of our favorite quotes of the survey:

"Size DOES matter especially when speaking of pro*mis*Q*ous. If ya got it flaunt it!"

Are there any other ways you think wine labels could work harder to help in the buying decision? More technical info? Less technical info? More pairing suggestions? Quick recipes? Do you read back labels? Add your comments and us know.

Thanks to all who took the May Survey and sat in on our design meeting. And be sure to take our June survey and weigh in on if you think the world is ready for a Middle Sister Moscato.

Hey, Wine Sisters.  We've just made it easier than ever to join in the conversation and take the monthly survey.  Now, you can just click on the link on the left, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to register your wine opinions. And when you take the survey, you'll be entered to win a Target gift card!.

This month's survey asks you about a wine that's been around for a long time, but has recently surged in popularity. Moscato is the Italian name for a light, white varietal with low tannins and soft acidity made from the Muscat grape. Vinified in a off-dry style, but not by no means heavy or syrupy, it's a refreshing quaff. Served well-chilled, it's especially pleasing to drink as we move into the warm, summertime months.

With aromas and flavors of apricots, white peaches and orange blossom, Moscato is typically enjoyed as an aperitif or a sipping wine. You can also serve Moscato with the final course. A pairing with fresh peach cobbler and homemade ice cream or with a plate with soft, mild cheeses and farmstand fruits and nuts of the season would be delicious.

Off-dry wines such as Moscato and Riesling are also classic pairings with foods that are spicy or fiery, such as many Asian and Latin dishes which contain chili peppers and other strong seasonings.

BTW: here's a wine pairing "rule" about wine with dessert: make sure the wine you serve with dessert is as sweet or sweeter than the dessert. The theory is this: sweet desserts can make dryer, more tannic wines taste stronger. If you love chocolate with red wine, as many of us do, make sure it's a softer, fruitier red. Reserve your big, bold, pricy trophy cabs for the meat course. 

Tawny port, which is considered to be medium-dry to sweet, is one of our favorite pairings with sweet summer fruit tarts or gallettes, especially those with nuts such as almonds or walnuts either ground into the crust or toasted and sprinkled on top. The nutty, fruit flavors in the dessert and wine mirror one another other. Mirroring flavors is a classic wine pairing principle.

Ironically, one of the most famous June pairings--champagne and wedding cake--is one of the least successful. Unless the champagne or sparkling wine is quite fruity and made in the demi-sec, or partially sweet fashion, sweet wedding cake will make the finest champagne taste bitter. Kind of like taking a swig of O.J. after you've brushed your teeth. So save the Dom Perignon for the honeymoon and offer your guests a toast with a fruity, off-dry sparkling Asti Spumante or Moscato d'Asti--yes, Moscato with bubbles!.

We're thinking about adding a Moscato to our Middle Sister portfolio.  We've discovered through our conversations with you at wine tastings that many of you do prefer an off-dry wine. Please take our June survey and let us know if you'd like to see an off-dry Moscato join the Midde Sister family.

We were sitting around the Napa Valley clubhouse, looking out at the dreary weather and looking forward to the long weekend.  We got to talking about our favorite subject --wine and food--and started thinking about wine pairings with our favorite meals to signal the start of summer--especially BBQ!. Here are some of our ideas:

Let's start with the reds. Red wines with higher alcohol, tannin and oak, can taste more tannic and alcoholic alongside foods with a lot of spice or heat. Red wines friendlier to a BBQ tend to be fruity, medium-bodied, moderate in alcohol with just a touch of oak. Red Blends (such as Middle Sister Rebel Red which is a blend of Cab, Merlot and Zinfandel, or PromisQous Red --a Cab, Merlot, Zin and Petite Sirah blend) fit the bill.  You can bring on the spice and the heat and the wines will still taste soft and approachable. 

If a Cowboy BBQ is in your future, may we suggest Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red Cab-Syrah or Purple Cowboy Night Rider Merlot. Great with thick, juicy Rib-Eyes or T-bones, marinated flank steak or Carne Asada, creamy Pinquito Beans, sweet summer grilled corn with Lime-Chile Butter and a tossed green salad or a mound of cole slaw. Purple Cowboy tends to have a bit more structure that our red blends but are still balanced enough to take on hearty foods and withstand a little heat.

Try fruity red blends or single varietals Cab, Merlot or Zin with grilled, smoked or BBQ ribs, brisket, tri-tip steak or chicken rubbed with a flavorful dry spice blend, a tomato or vinegar-based sauce or a garlicky, herb and olive oil condiment like Chimichurri. Our Deep Purple Zin is one of our favorite BBQ wines--fabulous with a sausage mixed grill.

These ligher style reds and blends are not only delicious with casual, flavorful foods, they're great values as well. We'd love for you to try our wines, but remember you can also look to Spain, Italy, Argentina, Chile and the South of France for affordable wines that are BBQ food-friendly and will make your crowd happy.

White Blends (such as Middle Sister Wicked White or PromisQous White). These wines are a blend of Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Chenin Blanc. Very much on the fruity side with a refreshing crispness, they'll go well with lighter, bold-flavored foods. Think fish tacos with jalapeno-crema, Cajun-spiced boiled shrimp or grilled veggies with a Balsamic glaze or a garlicky lemon aioli.

Pinot Noir (such as Haute Red Pinot Noir or Middle Sister Goodie Two Shoes Pinot Noir).  We're big fans of Pinot Noir and one of the reasons is because it goes so well with so many different kinds of foods. Grilled, glazed salmon is a classic but for something a little different, how about lamb or duck sausages? Pinot Noir's slight earthiness is also perfect with a grilled Portobella Mushroom or veggie burger.

Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc (Middle Sister Drama Queen Pinot Grigio or Surfer Chick Sauvignon Blanc).  We like these light whites on a picnic.  Be sure to pack in ice so you can serve well-chilled with Buttermilk Fried Chicken or a classic New Orleans-style Muffaletta. If you're a Chardonnay lover, try Midde Sister Smarty Pants Chardonnay. 

Riesling (such as White Haute Riesling) is well-known for its affinity with Asian flavors. It's crisp, fruit-forward, and very moderate in alcohol. Refreshing and delicious with Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese or Japanese dishes. Try with a cold Soba-noodle salad with peanut suace, grilled Miso shrimp, Teriyaki chicken or sweet and spicy baby back ribs with Hoisin sauce. Pairs beautifully with Latin and other ethnic cuisine as well.

If you can't find these wines, they are all available at our Wine Shop. And remember, we're running a very special Insider Sister Sampler featuring the newest Middle Sister and Haute wine releases. Savings of $26 and $5 from every sampler sold goes to Dress for Success.

We're headed to the New Orleans Wine and Food Festival this weekend. Be sure to stop by a have a taste if you're attending the event!

Cheers! 

They're here! An exclusive preview of our newest wines. Made with input from you--the Wine Sisterhood. Our Insider Sister Sampler Pack is now ready to order.

This pack features one bottle each of Middle Sister Goody Two Shoes Pinot Noir, Middle Sister Surfer Chick Sauvignon Blanc, Haute Red Pinot Noir and White Haute Riesling.

Each wine has a great story to tell, so whether you're a beach kind of girl or a class president type...or heck, you just like shoes and wine, we think you'll enjoy.

These wines will not hit store shelves until June and beyond, so this is your chance to take them for a test drive before anyone else. If you order and taste them, we'd love to hear your comments. 'Cause talking back is what this is all about.

BTW, we're offering these wines at a great price as a way to say thank you for helping in their creation. ($26 total savings on the pack when ordered direct to your doorstep).

And, with each purchase of the sampler, we'll donate $5 to Dress for Success, a charity devoted to empowering women to achieve their professional goals.

All in all, win-win. Or should we say, wine-wine. Have a great weekend. And do something very nice for yourself. You deserve it. To buy our newest wines, click here.

Cheers!

Your friends at the Wine Sisterhood.

The results are in!  A Wine Sisterhood real-life gathering is an idea most of you love and many would be very likely to attend. To refresh your memory, last month we asked you to weigh in on a proposed off-line Wine Sisterhood weekend, tentatively scheduled for February, 2011.

The top five activities sisters wanted to see were Wine Education, Touring & Tasting, Fine Dining, Cooking Classes and Spa Time.  But we also had some great write-in requests for chocolate, cheese, bocce, chocolate, icebreaker games, fondue, goodie bags and music and more chocolate (not necessarily in that order). All of you must know that chocolate (like red wine) has lots of antioxidants and definitely should be part of any healthful diet or girls-days-out!

As far as where our gathering should be held, Napa Valley came out the favorite. That's nice for us since that's the world headquarters Clubhouse location and where we have lots of nook, crannies, cellars, shops and other secret places we'd love to share with the group.

In our former winery lives, the Napa Valley sisters both planned and attended numerous wine events which were strictly industry only. We always thought it would be great to share some of those insider experiences with our wine-loving friends. 

With the Wine Sisterhood gathering, we intend to pull back the curtain on the wine biz as we know it and let our fellow sisters in on all the action and fun. Your input is invaluable in helping us organize a very special get together that we preomise will enhance your knowlege and enjoyment of wine as we meet and mingle face-to-face.

Last but not least, the winner of our Facebook survey post drawing is Vonda Walker.  Vonda suggested wine tasting, official T-shirt contest, making your own wine label and/or creating your own wine.  Vonda, a $100 Target gift certificate is on its way!

Drum roll please: The Wine Sisterhood is on track to hit a major milestone this week.  We have 498 members in our NING community and hope to reach 500 when the sun sets on Wine Wednesday!

We are beyond thrilled to have almost 500 fabulous sisters (a a few dashing misters) on board with us on our journey to create new wines. The Wine Sisterhood is pioneering the application of crowdsourcing to develop new kinds of wines that consumers really want,. We don't want to know what the critics think. We want to know what YOU think!

Since our community launched in the Fall of 2009, our members have voiced their opinion about all things wine--from names and packaging, to pairings and positioning. Your suggestions have been heard and noted. As a result, what we believe are the wine industry's very first crowdsourced wines will be on your store shelves this summer. Middle Sister Goody Two Shoes Pinot Noir, Middle Sister Surfer Chick Sauvignon Blanc, Haute Red Pinot Noir and White Haute Reisling – all were created with the input of the Wine Sisterhood. 

We've had some great conversations with you all on Facebook, NING and Twitter, and we've learned a lot from all your comments and posts.  We truly appreciate your ideas and participation and just wanted to take a moment to say thanks.  Now go have a glass of wine.

Cheers,

Your friends at the Wine Sisterhood

This month, we're asking your opinion about a potential update to our PromisQous wine label. PromisQous is one of our original wines, launched along with Middle Sister wines in 2008. The label has received a number of accolades and awards, but lately some comments from our trade partners have made us wonder if we should make the name "PromisQous" larger. There's a lot of competition for attention on the wine shelves and the thinking was that perhaps a "Super-Sized" name would "pop" just a bit more.

What makes you gravitate toward a wine package? Bigger and bolder or more subtle and elegant? Or does it really not make any difference one way or the other?   

This month, you'll have a chance to vote on which label version you like the best and think is most effective.  You will be asked to chose one of four versions: the original and three new versions taking the font size of the name "PromisQous" up in increments. It's somewhat of a subtle exercise but these are the questions we face each time we are working on a new wine package. And we'd love to have your feedback..

We will once again be selecting one lucky survey-taker to win a Wine Sisterhood special treat when we report the results of this survey at the beginning of June. 

So put on your design caps and voice your opinion!

We are very excited to announce that four new wines that you--the Wine Sisterhoood--helped create are almost ready to launch. Middle Sister Goody Two Shoes Pinot Noir and Surfer Chick Sauvignon Blanc and Haute Red Pinot Noir and White Haute Riesling have been on the bottling line all this week at our winery in Sonoma County.

You may recall that we asked you to vote on Goody's name and which version of the Haute Red label you preferred. As far as we know, these are the very first "crowdsourced" wines in history--we used Social Media as a way to have a conversation directly with you, wine lovers and wine sisters. We listened to what you had to say and now there's new wine for all. How cool is that!

We're headed to Sonoma on Monday morning to pick up samples and as soon as we take some shots we'll post them here EXCLUSIVELY so you'll be the very first to see the "total package"!  You got a taste of some of the label art if you participated in the surveys but for the most part the new packaging is a pretty big secret.  But you'll have a front row to the "reveal".

Although the wines will start shipping next week, it will may awhile for them to reach your store shelves. So in appreciation for your support of our newest projects, we are preparing a very special Insider Sister offer, which you will be able to access via the Wine Shop right here. 

The offer will go up on Monday, May 10. We'll tell you more in a future post, but it's a great deal and a portion of the proceeds will go to a great cause.

Be sure to check back next week for more news about the newest Wine Sisterhood wines.

P.S.  If you're wondering where all the links are, we are in the process of  updating the Middle Sister site and building a new one for Haute Red.  Stay tunes.

Hello, Sisters & Misters. It's almost the end of April. Hello flowers, goodbye showers. If you haven't had a chance already, be sure to voice your opinion on our April Survey. We're gathering opinions about a proposed Wine Sisterhood wne country gathering in 2011. 

We want to hear where you'd like to go and what you'd like to do. Yes, there will be wine. Vote now!

April showers bring May flowers.  And the April survey will help us plan our first annual Wine Sisterhood Girlfriend Gathering. Tentatively scheduled for February, 2010, our gathering is designed to bring our on-line community together in a real-life setting to have some fun with wine tasting, education, touring and pairing with food.

Since this event will be especially for our members, we want to make sure we get your input on what the event will be:  where should it be held, what activities should be offered etc. 

So if you're already a member, be sure to log in soon and voice your opinion.  And if you're not, maybe it's time to join!

First of all, thanks to all the Wine Sisterhood members who voted in our March survey. We asked you to comment on the name and label , "Wade & Sons Rowdy Vines" and appreciated all your responses and comments. They will be taken into consideration as we further refine this wine and potentially launch later this year.

Some of you wondered what was behind the name "Wade & Sons."  Wade is actually the son of Wine Sisterhood founder Terry Wheatley and a professional team-roper. Terry comes from a ranching family, and both her husband and son are former professional rodeo cowboys. Wade now does the color commentary for the  PRCA's (Profesional Rodeo Association) live webcases of rodeo action. Wade and wife Lacey are also the parents of two energetic little boys (a.k.a. the "Rowdy Vines"). The illustration itself was inspired by some of famed artist Georgia O'Keefe's iconic imagery of the Southwest. 

A little more about the proposed Wade & Sons Rowdy Vines. The first bottling will probably be a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Paso Robles appellation, the fastest-growing wine region is California. Located on the southcentral coast of California, Paso is sometimes known as cowboy wine country because of its ranching heritage and colorful frontier history. 

Today, Paso is becoming the hot wine-country tourist destination. There are great restaurants, hotels and wineries, of course, but the region is also at the forefront of agritourism . You can go on a cattle drive at a working ranch, pick almonds, even work the grape harvest. For those of us who like to have an active adventure, sounds like fun. 

When you have a chance, be sure to vote in our April survey and help us plan our First Annual Wine Sisterhood Gathering!  You'll need to join our community to vote, but it just takes a moment and you're in!

Cheers!

If you're looking for a unique event to share with your sisters, book your pedicure, polish your peep-toed pumps and join us at Wine, Women & Shoes.  

The Napa Valley sisters will be pouring on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 from 5 to 8:30 pm at the beautiful Claremont Hotel Club and Spa in Berkeley, California. The event features wines, fantastic food, Accessory Marketplace, shoes, shoes and more shoes plus a fashion show. $75 individual admission or $95 VIP admission. Proceeds benefit the St. Rose Hospital Foundation.

Wine, Women & Shoes was founded by a group of Napa Valley vintner women who wanted to help their community. So they came up with an idea for a fundraising event combining some of our favorite things--wine, shoes and friends. 

Their slogan is "Change your shoes, and change a life..." To date, Wine, Women & Shoes has raised over $4 million dollars for women's and children's charities. We're proud to be pouring our wines such as Middle Sister,  Monogamy, PromisQous and Purple Cowboy at Wine, Women and Shoes events across the country in 2010.

You can find out more about Wine, Women and Shoes by visiting the website. There are events happening all across the country.  Check out the calendar to see if there is an event near you.

Chardonnay doesn't get any respect. It got to be so hugely popular a couple of decades ago that it almost became a cliche. Wine snobs loved to hate it. "ABC" was the code for anything but Chardonnay. Chardonnay was for ladies who lunched. Ironically, Alanis Morrisette found a black fly in a glass of Chard and had a hit song.

While we love the song, we have no use for the attitudes. They suck the pleasure out of wine, which is 110% a matter or personal taste. If you like Chardonnay, drink it. If you don't, drink what you like. Can't we all just get along?

We appreciate Chardonnay deeply. When we pour it at tastings, people love it. When we don't people ask for it. Far from being  a one-dimensional variety, Chardonnay is made in a variety of styles and comes from many different places. The range in styles makes Chardonnay extremely versatile with food. It's still the most popular varietal in America. 

One of our favorite wine and food writers, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, has written an entertaining and educational essay about Chardonnay for Minnesota Monthly Magazine.  "Chardonnay, Uncorked" is an excerpt from her recently published book: "Drink This:  Wine Made Simple."  Dara breaks down the Chardonnay facts: various styles, where each style tends to be produced and how to serve and drink each style.

She also gives detailed instructions on how to throw a Chardonnay Wine Tasting party. The piece was just nominated for a James Beard Award for Wine Writing.

Highly recommended reading for all Chardonnay lovers out there--and maybe of few of your "ABCers", as well!

Cheers!