May 19
Love3

How to Convert Someone Into A Kentucky Bourbon Enthusiast in One Taste

By Spirits No Comments

I hadn’t been to Kentucky since 1971 when I drove cross-country (during those halcyon days of my youth) in a ’61 VW Van with four of my college chums. While I was there I tasted Kentucky bourbon for the very first time. Here is what I remember: I thought I was going to die.

I coughed, I gasped for air, my eyes burned red and ran with tears. It wasn’t a fun experience at all. I was quite the novice when it came to alcoholic beverages.

Fast forward to last year.  In April, I flew to Louisville for eight days to put the final touches on our Taste Vacations Kentucky Bourbon tour. I had a very busy schedule in front of me meeting our business associates, restaurants, distilleries, and chefs. On day one, I met one of our local partners at his office. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then he told me that before we get started on our day of activities, we were going to do a little bourbon tasting together… it was nine o’clock in the morning.

He wanted to introduce a novice like me to the wonders of Kentucky bourbon. So without further ado and with a twinkle in his eye, he lined up four bourbon glasses in front of us. Next he went into his (locked) liquor cabinet and brought over four different bottles of bourbon. He then poured 1 oz. shots into each glass.

It was a progressive tasting, meaning I started with the lightest style bourbon progressing my way up the bourbon complexity chain to experience more and more flavor profiles.

I can’t remember having tasted Bourbon since that 1971 experience. I clutched the glass with trepidation, held it to my nose and, inhaled the aromas of the drink. Hmmm…it smelled quite good. Good start. Next, I took a small sip, closed my eyes, and swished it around my mouth letting the liquid gold dance on my tongue for a few seconds before swallowing it. This was my first taste of a premium bourbon: Makers 46.

And my opinion about bourbon changed in about a nanosecond.

This drink was really very smooth, nothing like I remembered at all. The OMG finish had flavors of vanilla, caramel, honey and butterscotch. I sadly realized how much of a good thing I had missed over the years. But wait … it gets better!

I still had three more bourbons to taste. I was definitely up for the challenge. The next three were:

  • Woodford Reserve
  • Blanton’s Single Barrel
  • A 17 Year Old Buffalo Trace Eagle Rare “Antique” 

Each bourbon was uniquely different and I’m not even sure which one I liked the best. I’m certainly going to have to do more “research” in the future.

The following eight days were spent meeting some of the most hospitable people on the planet. “Southern Hospitality” is for real. I also saw the best of the best the Kentucky Bourbon Trail has to offer and was able to arrange visits for our tour that are generally not open to the public, making our Taste Vacation to Kentucky a very special and memorable trip.

 

May 07
Love2

Sonoma County and Wine Tourism: A Love Affair

By Wine No Comments

We at Taste Vacations and Zephyr Adventures have had a love affair with Sonoma County for 17 years.

Believe it or not, our first-ever tour in the area was a 1998 inline skating tour of “San Francisco and the Wine Country” that included, among other routes, a beautiful loop in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County. We then expanded to include biking tours that combined Napa and Sonoma and this naturally led to us choosing Sonoma County for the first-ever Wine Bloggers Conference.

We have since run a number of Sonoma Hiking Tours focused on the wine country and continually offer one-day Sonoma Vineyard Walks.

So it is no mystery why we think Sonoma County is the perfect place for our new Sonoma County Wine Tour. Here are a few reasons why we love the area:

  • Sonoma County has vast, varied, beautiful terrain ranging from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Mayacama mountains on the east.
  • The county has 16 distinct grape growing areas such as the Russian River, Alexander Valley, and Sonoma Valley, all of which produce amazing fruit for delicious wines.
  • The Sonoma County Airport is super convenient, in the middle of the county and such a time saver. But you also have options to fly in through San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and Oakland.
  • Santa Rosa, the county’s largest town, is hip and fun. If you get tired of wine, you can visit the acclaimed Russian River Brewing Company to taste their famous Pliny the Elder beer.
  • Cute small wine towns are a must for a good wine vacation and Sonoma County has three gems: the towns of Sonoma, Healdsburg, and Geyserville.
  • The people in Sonoma County are extremely welcoming and warm. For the most part they are genuinely happy to have visitors and to take the time to pour wines and explain their county.

Our Sonoma County Wine Tour is October 27 -29 and we welcome you to join us! You can also plan your own private Sonoma wine tour with a group size as small as four people.

Apr 23
Love1

Travel Items You Can’t Live Without – A Taste Vacations Team Dish

By Taste Vacations One Comment

For this month’s Taste Vacations Team Dish, we asked “What travel item can you not live without?”  As frequent travelers, there seem to be a few items that begin to become essential to our packing lists for our various journeys. Once you get past the toothbrushes and clean underwear, it’s interesting to hear what makes the list.

Here’s what the team had to say:

Reno Walsh Reno Walsh

Some of the most fascinating aspects of travel are the people we meet, the new sounds we hear and sometimes the new languages we interact with along the way. For me, however there are also certain times tuning out from these new sounds and conversations and tuning in to my own musical accompaniment enhances the journey. Watching the world go by from a window seat, walking through streets filled with color and history, watching waves reach their final destination or kicking back with a drink at a local café, these are times a cool soundtrack can help me transcend the now. Travel is an experience that gives us an opportunity to think a little bit about what we believe, about where we came from and about where we are going. Music helps me appreciate those opportunities for perspective.

Kris Thomas Keys Kris Thomas Keys

I have two things I don’t travel without, and apologies if these sound like product commercials, but I love them so much!

  1. My Patagonia down shirt. Temps on flights (or even car trips) can vary, so I always have it with me in my backpack or purse (it can crumple down to the size of a grapefruit). Even when I travel to where it is “summer,” there are places that turn on the AC or get cooler when the sun goes down. This lightweight item provides a layer of insulation that ensures that I am always the right temperature. Because it is black, it also doubles as a dinner jacket when necessary and looks classy with a dress or jeans. Bonus: every one of Patagonia’s down products come from birds that were not live-plucked or force-fed.
  2. My Oofos sandals. I don’t love to wear shoes and always prefer sandals or bare feet whenever possible. These babies are super comfortable to wear when pounding the pavement of a new city or taking a hike, especially when it’s hot out. And I’m kind of funny about having my bare feet touch carpeting or showers in some hotel rooms, so these are handy to have since they are waterproof. They are very lightweight and easy to pack, plus they are also black so can pull double duty as my dress-up shoes (if you know me, you know what a fancy dresser I am…not) when going out to dinner. When I get home, I can throw them in the washer, too! Bonus: they are designed to revitalize your feet!

Sarah Wolcott Sarah Wolcott

They aren’t sexy travel items…in fact, they are just rectangular in shape. Typically the color white. And really flimsy. But I can not live without (drumroll, please…) ENVELOPES!

Letter sized envelopes are handy to travel with for a number of reasons: to stuff receipts into and organize (especially if there are any write-offs!); use as bookmarks in your travel books; and to house a “kitty”. Two of my girlfriends and I travel to a new, international destination every year and the kitty makes splitting up expenses so easy. The idea behind the kitty is to make paying for common expenses like gas, transportation, groceries, hotel and f & b as easy as possible. Everyone traveling together contributes the same amount of cash every time the kitty needs to be replenished, one person is in charge of holding onto the kitty and handling each bill, and as a result, the haggling over who owes who what is eliminated. Voila! Envelopes are necessary for housing the kitty which has become a staple way for me to travel with friends.

Beth Peluse Beth Peluse

I always try to pack a comfortable, yet versatile dress that can either be dressed up or down depending on our plans for the day or night.  Usually a LBD (Little Black Dress) does the trick – I can wear it over a bathing suit as a cover up at the beach or I can pair it with heels and a colorful necklace to go out to dinner. Another travel essential for me is a wine opener that can also open beer bottles (though when flying, I’ll bring it only if I have a checked bag). Nothing’s worse than packing up a picnic, getting to a beautiful, peaceful spot, and realizing that you have no way to open your delicious bottle of wine!

Kerry Dopler Kerry Dopler

Other than dental floss (which is a pretty boring topic), the one thing that takes precedence over all other items, the one thing that I think about for weeks before a trip, the one thing that is always with me, that I look forward to almost as much as the vacation itself, is a paperback classic. It has to be one I haven’t read before and a lot of it depends on the destination.

If it’s a winter trip, Russian Literature: Turgenev, Tolstoy, Pasternak or of course the safest way to avoid disappointment, Dostoevsky. Now if it’s a beach trip, Latin American Literature all the way. They are by far the best storytellers in the world. I have burned through thousands of pages sitting by the most beautiful beaches in the world. When I think back to Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, yes I think of the beautiful water and the fresh coconuts and the amazing mangrove tree that provided so much welcome shade, but mostly I think of my dear friend Maqroll the Gaviero and his Adventures and Misadventures by Alvaro Mutis. While in Malaysia I got to know Isabel Allende and have never been taken to such far away places in so few words. During my treks through the Himalayas, I began to relish classic English Lit from Charles Dickens to Virginia Woolf, even straying to Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

I love history, and perhaps the journeys I was taking with my fictional friends created a richer context for the wild and ancient lands I was exploring. I find my memories of travel are woven into the fabric of a collective imagination, both dreamed and historically grounded, that found its most perfect expression in those beautifully rounded soft pages of so many paperback classics.

Apr 10
Love0

Wine Touring in Paso Robles

By Wine No Comments

I was recently in Paso Robles, California running our Wine Tourism Conference. This conference, now in its fifth year, gathers approximately 200 wine and tourism industry leaders from throughout North America and beyond to learn about the current state of wine tourism.

Meeting industry leaders at this conference is one of the many ways the events side of our business contributes to the tours side of our companies – for both Taste Vacations and Zephyr Adventures. Not only do we learn about what is hot and new in the world of wine (and food and beer) tourism but we meet people who help us provide unique, intimate experiences on our wine tours or help us create brand new tour itineraries.

Paso Robles is one of the cutest small wine towns in the country. The town of 30,000 is situated between LA and San Francisco, about 30 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, and is considered part of the Central Coast region of California. Paso (as many locals call it) has a cute main plaza, excellent restaurants, and fantastic wineries in the area.

We don’t yet run a tour in the Central Coast region but if you find yourself in the Paso Robles area, I can strongly recommend doing a little wine touring with The Wine Wrangler. Coy Barnes, the owner, is an ex-teacher turned wine educator who is competent, organized, and friendly – just want you want from a tour company.

Coy spoke at the Wine Tourism Conference and I had a chance to sit down to lunch with him. It is always a pleasure meeting attendees at our conferences but Coy and I, naturally, had a lot in common. The beauty of taking a day tour with Coy or one of his guides is they select the wineries to visit – with 170 in the region, it helps to have expert advice – and handle all the driving.

So until we at Taste Vacations create a Central Coast trip, look to Coy and The Wine Wrangler for your wine touring in the Paso Robles area!

Mar 26
Love0

Talking Washington Wine with Sarah Wolcott

By Taste Vacations No Comments

Washington Wine Country

Talking Washington Wine with Sarah Wolcott

Q & A with Taste Vacations Founder, Allan Wright

Sarah Wolcott

Sarah Wolcott is Zephyr Adventures’ Marketing Manager for our conferences and events and a frequent guide on our Taste Vacations wine tours around the world. She grew up in SE Washington State, went to college in Walla Walla, and has strong experience in the Washington wine industry, all of which she used to create our new Washington Wine Tour.

 

 

Q:  You are from West Richland, Washington.  What was it like to grow up in the agriculturally driven east side of the Cascade mountains?

A:  West Richland is part of the greater Tri-Cities area of Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick.  The region is a major national producer of wheat, potatoes, corn, asparagus, apples, cherries and winegrapes.  The other major economic driver in SE Washington is Hanford – the top-secret government site that produced plutonium in the 1940’s for use in WWII.  Over 200,000 people make up the metropolitan area and its definitely a mix of proverbial small-town USA and a more mid-sized town. I grew up with farm kids and friends whose parents had PhDs in all disciplines of the sciences.  My family grew Fuji apples and Bing cherries commercially.  My first job was running cherry picking crews during harvest in June when I was 15 years old.  When I could drive I sold apples and cherries at farmer’s markets in the Tri-Cities and Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Growing up in SE Washington was awesome!

Q:  How did you come to include Prosser in the new Washington Wine Tour?

A:  My parents moved from West Richland to Prosser, WA about 10 years ago.  It’s only 25 minutes NW of where I grew up.  I have spent a lot of time in Prosser, getting to know the area and the wine industry and am part of the Prosser Wine Network, a group of wineries and wine businesses that have banded together to focus their collective efforts on the area.

Q:  When did you first come in contact with the wine world and what made you decide to make this a career?

A:  Growing up on a farm, I was naturally predisposed to the fundamentals of the wine world which is agriculture.  I led a few wine tours in Walla Walla in the late 90’s when I was in college and when there were only 16 wineries in the area!  There are well over 100 now.  Wine is truly “farm to table”, or more accurately, “farm to bottle to mouth”.  I am a social person by nature and am interested in what makes people tick….there are so many personalities in the wine industry and I just love getting to know the “schtick” behind the winegrape grower, vineyard manager, winemaker, tasting room staff, and sales people involved in getting a bottle of wine to market.  Everyone has a different story to tell!  It’s always fascinating, entertaining, and educational to seek out this information.

Q:  In addition to Prosser, our Washington Wine Tour spends two nights in Walla Walla, where you went to school and now sort of the center of the Washington wine tourism industry. What is your take on Walla Walla?

A: Walla Walla is esthetically stunning and yes, definitely a hub of wine tourism in Washington state.  It is naturally set up for the wine tourist:  nestled in the Walla Walla Valley and with the backdrop of the Blue Mountains, summer evenings are beautiful…the temperatures are conducive to sitting outside and enjoying a glass of wine while taking in the beauty of the wheat fields and vineyards that dot the landscape below the rising mountain elevations.  Walla Walla is an old and historic town.  It was incorporated in the 1860’s, at one point was the largest town in the Territory (before it became a state) and has a robust Native American history.  Downtown is charming and full of personality (and wine!).  The entire valley is full of varied dining options, accommodations, bike trails, tasting rooms that each have a different take on wine tourism. I graduated from Whitman College, one of the three colleges in the area.  Because of the college influence, there is a lot of other cultural influence in the form of art, theater, music that comes to Walla Walla.  The WWCC has its own enology and viticulture program and teaching winery.  Walla Walla is buzzing with activity in a very authentic Washington wine industry way.

A:  What are your views of the wines coming out of Washington State?

I think you probably can already guess my answer to this question 🙂

Sure, it’s impossible for absolutely every single bottle of wine from any area to be amazing.  But the quality to price ratio of Washington wines is proven to be outstanding.  You can statistically obtain higher quality wines at lower prices in WA.  More importantly, Washington state has the ability to produce a breadth and depth of wines that is outstanding.  Because of Washington’s growing conditions, the state can grow so many different types of wines.  Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Tempranillo, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Roussanne…the list goes on and on.

The vast majority of grapes grown in WA state are grown on the much warmer, arid climate east side of the Cascades.  This is the opposite of Oregon where the majority (with the exception of parts of the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Valley dip into Oregon) of grapes are grown on the west side of the state where it is considered a cool climate growing area (with another exception…most parts of southern Oregon are warmer and more arid).  Oregon has a (fabulous) connection and history with Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley.  I think it’s all about educating the current and future Washington wine consumer about Washington’s ability to produce a wide variety of many different types of wine really, really well.  The Washington wine industry is just going to continue to be recognized for excellence.  It’s an exciting time to be a part of the wine world!

Q:  You live now in Bend, Oregon, only four hours from Prosser. How often do you get back to Washington state?

A:  My parents now live in Prosser.  I’m an only child (lucky me???!!) and I visit them and Prosser, every month for a minimum of 2 days and sometimes up to 2 weeks!  My husband is a fly-fishing guide and operates a guide service based in Bend.  Whenever he is on the river (which is ALL the time in the summer!) I typically head up to Prosser to spend time with my family which, of course, involves drinking Prosser wine every afternoon on the back patio!