On my little jaunt to the Hill Country with Mariam, I picked up this handy little wine book. It lists the wineries in Texas by region. Keep in mind that the Texas wine industry is continually growing so it won’t have the newest of the new places. However, I did find it had a fair amount of wineries from across the state.

The information provided is handy such as general directions on how to find the winery and a small map. The wineries address, phone number, website (if available), and e-mail contact are listed at the top. Next, readers find tasting room hours and varieties produced by each winery. Finally, a small description, history, awards or general information is provided about each winery.

I’m working my way through this book, and planning a few visits. Or at least maybe a few stops when we’re traveling on the road in Texas. I’m finding they really do make wine all over Texas.

I guess I took a little hiatus and didn’t even know it. With Jonathan out of the country for a month (he’s back now), all the household duties fell to me. And while it was certainly manageable, I didn’t want to spend all of my time at home so I planned outings with friends, went to visit family and spent some time rediscovering Austin. My spare moments at home were then trying to catch Jonathan online so we could have our daily chat date via Skype. I’ve also been consumed lately with finding a teaching position for next year. Yes, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a teacher by trade. So blogging sort of fell to the side for the last month or so.

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My friend Laura came across this during her busy lawyering day a.k.a. she saw it on Twitter. Knowing my love of all things wine, she was kind enough to pass it along. These new three-liter boxes (about four bottles) from Underdog Wine Merchants feature wines many people have seen in stores before and have already tried. So much for the guessing games and random choices. And they aren’t too bad of a deal at $25 a box.

I Didn’t Think Boxed Wine Could Get Any Better. But it Has.

Last Thursday, I participated in my first Taste Live event. I know, I’m always the last one to show up to the party. But hey, better later than never. The featured wines for the evening were from Nautilus Estate Winery in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. I was excited to sample traditional, racy, fresh Sauvignon Blanc since New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favorite white wines. However recently, I’d been reading a lot about the Pinot Noir they were producing so I was eager to sample some for myself. The third bottle of the evening was a Pinot Gris, which most of the bloggers/tasters admitted they don’t drink often, but were rather impressed by the quality and complexity of this particular Pinot Gris. With Jonathan in India, I invited over some of my best girlfriends, and we got down to the serious business of tasting wine.

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It’s no simple task, understanding the classification of wines from Burgundy. However, knowing a little about the classification system helps consumers make the right purchase. No one wants to overspend for a bottle of wine, only to be disappointed when it is opened. And think about how good you feel when you find a great deal on an amazing bottle. You feel like you won the lottery! So knowing a few of the basics can prevent those ill-advised purchases and lead to more lottery winning purchases.

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