The Wandering Vine

08/26/2026

It’s a good time! I’m still available for these kind of events if anyone is interested. Just message through FB!

In-home tastings are becoming immensely popular—and a significant source of income—for wineries across California.

08/22/2026

100% agree with these. Their rose is my go-to!

You'll want to fill up your wine cart with these bottles — all $17 or less 🍾. Check them out at the link in the comments!

07/22/2026

❤️❤️ Pairing great literature, wine, and well, Matt Damon🤣

Wine is mentioned a lot in "The Odyssey," so we tracked down real-life bottles.

07/18/2026

We’ve been busy exploring the area of Trier. We did a great Wine Walk Trier tour with Simon through GetYourGuide yesterday. It was a small group of 8 learning the history of the area and sampling local wines. The primary grape in the area is Riesling -mostly dry ones that are light, crisp, and refreshing! We visited Weinstube Kesselstatt - they’ve been doing this for over 675 years! We sample 5 total -all from the area.

07/17/2026

We’ve wandered over to Germany by way of Luxembourg. First stop after 12 hours of travel was Domaine L&R Kox! It was perfect-just what we needed. We had the garden to ourselves and Elisa could not have been a better host! I know we looked tired🙂
We did a ins tasting of 5 wines and then chatted about them. The wine growers are a community and it was great to hear the story. We became fans of ‘Orange’ wines in Spain several years ago and were excited to try theirs. It follows the traditional Georgian wine model of using a clay pot for fermentation. Couldn’t take too much with us this trip and shipping is not really an option these days so brought a bottle to enjoy on the next leg of our trip…
Next post from Trier, Germany!

07/09/2026

Thabks for all your support! I need your help in getting into the final grouping for Voting ends tomorrow at 7pm PST so 10 EST. Daily votes are free. The James Beard Foundation is a reputable non-profit. If I win, I pledge 10% of the $25000 to Giving Kitchen-also a winner of the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian Award. If you eat out, this nonprofit should be on your list! Please share if so inclined!

https://favchef.com/2026/amy-sparks

06/29/2026

06/29/2026

ISO an engraving business in LKN area that can do an etching on glass high ball glasses of Duke Chapel.

06/10/2026

Do you know about ? Giving Kitchen is a award winning nonprofit that supports food service workers in need. We recently attended a fund raiser where one of the workers shared her story of how GK helped her and her family navigate a health condition that kept her from working for a short period of time. Their work has inspired me to commit 10% of any winnings I may receive from the Favorite Chef competition.

Only 1 more day to help get me in the top 20 for my area.

One chef will win $25k, a feature in Taste of Home, and a cooking experience with Carla hall.

05/24/2026

It’s Memorial Day weekend but it is also the 50th anniversary of how California launched onto the wine scene…Raise a glass of California wine today!
What’s your favorite California wine?
Share pics below🍷🍷🎉🎉
Learn more below….