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!

A few days ago, this article in USA Today caught our eye. It seems like none other than Reese Witherspoon has signed on to star in The Pioneer Woman movie, based on the crazy-popular blog. If you've never checked it out, the blog's author, Ree Drummond  chronicles her life as a city-girl-turned-country-wife-and-mom-of-four. 

Her blog, which gets bazillions of visitors, has been on our radar screen for awhile. So we sent her some Purple Cowboy to try a few months ago. Seemed like a good fit for a lady married to an Oklahoma cowboy.

Anyway, she was nice enough to give us a shout-out for Purple Cowboy, so we were happy to see the news. We think it's a great follow-up to the orginal blog movie:  "Julie & Julia".

And who knows? Purple Cowboy at the Hollywood premiere? 

Last week at the SXSW tasting, somebody swore that we looked like Kate Hudson and Kim Catrall (respectively). O.K., maybe it was the Middle Sister Wicked White or she's just the kindest woman on earth. But it got us to thinking, who would play us in Wine Sisterhood, The Movie.

Who would star in your movie? And why?