First up, there’s a new wineglass on the block.  Read all about it here.

The New York Times explores the benefits of buying local wines here.

In health news, a new study has begun to explore whether resveratrol – found in red wines – may be helpful in preventing alzheimers.  And another study has found that wine may be beneficial for your stomach – read about that here.

And finally, The Seattle Times has interviewed Mike Veseth, an economics professor specializing in wine who has recently written a book.  Now that’s an economics course I wish I’d taken in college!

Happy reading everyone – Cheers!

This weekend, our youngest visitor kindly helped her mom by holding up the wine list at eye-level.  What service!

We are open today, but will be closing early so we can treat Clyde’s mom to a nice dinner.  So, the tasting room is open today from 11am-4pm.  Bring mom by for a picnic if you are searching for something to do.  Cheers to you all!

]]> http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/13/happy-mothers-day-3/feed/ 0 http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/11/weekend-update-3/ http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/11/weekend-update-3/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 14:46:05 +0000 Katie http://peacefulbend.com/?p=2863 Hi everyone.  Sorry to be so absent the couple of weeks here on the blog.  I’m popping in quickly to let you know about all the events going on this weekend.

I’ll be heading to Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis this evening for the Art Fair from 6-9pm tonight.  Come on by to sample some wine, enjoy music, and browse through all the great art tents at the park.

Tomorrow we’ll be hosting live music here at the winery.  Enjoy the bluesy sounds of the duo Greybeard from 2-5pm Saturday afternoon.

Finally, I don’t have anything formal planned for Sunday, but the tasting room will be open starting at 11am.  Pick up your mom and bring her by for a little wine tasting and a nice picnic!

I hope to see you this weekend!  Cheers!

The Columbine has blanketed the hillside next to our porch.  I’ve seen at least two hummingbirds enjoying the wealth in this spot the last couple of days.

And we have three colors of Dianthus out at this point.  The white and pink variety that you see above, white, and a pink with red as you see in the next two pictures:

All of these flowers have self-seeded, and are barely any work at all on our part (i.e., more time to sit back and enjoy some wine!)  I’ve noticed other people in the area have irises in bloom, but ours haven’t done anything this year so far.  Maybe they are taking a wine break!  Which is your favorite dianthus variety?

Cheers!

First up, those recycling projects I spoke of earlier.  This lifehacker  article shows how to use corks as garden markers.  I shared this on our facebook page on Sunday, and lots of folks seemed to like the idea!  Unfortunately, we don’t have a BevMo retailer here, but if we did I would definitely donate wine corks to be used to create attractive foot gear!  Learn about that project here.

Wine education this week falls into the ’102′ category in my opinion.  101 links are all about wine basics, then 102 goes a bit more in depth on focused issues.  So this week you can find out all about whether wine glasses make a difference in the wine tasting experience.  And you can also read about something called ‘hyperdecanting’.  I’ve never tried hyperdecanting myself as I like to keep thing pretty simple when it comes to serving wine…..but it was interesting to read about Ms. Shreeves at-home experiment in any case.

Of course, all the hyperdecanting and the best quality wine glasses in the world may not make one whit of difference to you.  This article debates whether wine expertise is genetic and what the ramifications are for us all if it is indeed genetic.  Personally, I think that while most of us may not be ‘super-tasters’, we all can enjoy wine at whatever level we want to take our tasting experience.

That’s it for this week; I hope you’ve had fun checking out the links!  I might have jury duty tomorrow & Friday.  If so, Clyde will be working the salesroom – you might need to dig him out of the cellar, but he’ll be happy to come upstairs to serve you.  Cheers!

In the education category this week, the kitchn.com has another entry about wine words – this week focused on ‘sweetness.’  And for a more in-depth look at the wine judging, you might want to check this article which has a video accompaniment about the wine scoring system used in many of the wine magazines and competitions.  The video is more of a primer, while the write-up below the video goes a bit more into specifics.

You may already know that April is Women’s History month and unfortunately I haven’t seen any articles about women in the wine industry yet much.  However, Tom Wark has an interesting blog entry –  not really about women’s history, but about the role women currently play in the CA wine industry.

If you are a proponent of the legalization of marijuana, then you might be interested in this article about marijuana infused wines.

And the last link I have for you today goes in the art category.  It is a video titled ‘Wine’ and showcases musician See Joo Yang and illustrator Claudia Madera.  The visuals do remind me a bit of wine stains (the music I would describe as a classically inspired modern instrumental), but there isn’t a whole lot about wine in the video.  I’m not sure how many of you this two and a half minute video will appeal to – let me know what you think of it in the comments and if you want me to include things like this in the WWWW entries in the future.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s round up.  Cheers!

Ed contacted me a few months ago to arrange for a surprise birthday party for his wife Sandy.  They were supposedly going to head into St. Louis to go to the casino to celebrate.  Just before leaving they received a call from another friend who ‘just happened’ to be in the area.  Of course Ed and Sandy swung by the winery to chat with their friends before heading into the city.

So that was the ruse to get Sandy to the winery on Saturday.  The friends met them on the porch and told them they just ‘had to check out this crazy mural in the wine cellar!’  So down to the wine garden and towards the cellar door they went.  The cellar door opened, and all their family and friends yelled ‘Surprise!’  That’s when I caught this fun shot:

I love all those big smiles and out-stretched arms!  Sandy was definitely surprised and had a great time.  She even had a second surprise later when Ed gave a birthday speech and had her turn around to find her kids and grandkids in from Texas to help celebrate!  I have more photos of the afternoon up on our facebook page if you’d like to check out a bit more of the celebration.

Thanks for hosting the surprise here Ed.  And happy, happy birthday Sandy – I hope you treasure the memories of your afternoon here for many years to come!

I’m jumping right into health news, with an important recall update.  Click here if you own a painted ceramic wine goblet.

On much happier wine-related health news, this article explains that red wine may help prevent fat.  Good to know as I down my fatty cheese with my red wine!  And a University of Illinois study reports that drinking a glass of wine might even make you smarter (at solving brain teasers!).

Two articles jumped out at me that fall in the ‘wine 101′ category.  If you’ve ever wondered what causes the ‘legs’ in wine, then click here for an explanation.  The second article is from the Gloucester Times, whose author gives out some advice for when you are at a wine tasting party and trying multiple wine from the same glass.

Finally a few more things that just go in the ‘cool stuff’ category.  This red wine chicken & mushroom recipe sounds delicious!  While this is an awesome idea for storing your wine glasses when not in use.  And finally, this packaging just looks so cool – great idea.  Unfortunately it isn’t available outside of California, but if anyone visits out there, keep your eyes peeled!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s WWWW.  Cheers!

In any case, to celebrate we are offering you the anniversary present today!  Anyone that makes a purchase at our tasting room today will receive a 13% discount!  Cheers!  :)

What is your favorite anniversary celebration memory (your own or someone else’s)?

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