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I tried all the wines on the drink package! Here’s the lowdown on 23 of Princess Cruises’ house wines.
Gangway crossed, drink package purchased, Princess Medallion® in hand. It was time to attempt a feat of exploration and endurance: Tasting all of the available wines before disembarkation day on a 7-day Caribbean cruise. Buying the drink package presented an irresistible opportunity. Normally, I have to pay for the glasses and bottles I review for…
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Six takeaways from Wine Paris 2026
We’re back from three days of tasting, learning, and exploring at the colossal Wine Paris trade show! Each day, I wandered the exhibition halls from open until close to try and soak up clues about what’s happening in the international wine biz. On Friday, I shared seven personal moments that defined my Wine Paris experience.…
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Wine Paris 2026: A trip to remember
“Mind-blowing.” “Insane.” That’s how Wine Paris was described to me before I went–and now that I’m back home, I’ve got to say that I agree. As a new-to-the-industry person, I’ve wasted no time jumping straight into the deep end. (If not now, then when?) The opportunity came to go to Paris. So I cashed in…
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Champagne Road Trip (Part One): Cathedral and cellars of Reims
Just over an hour from Paris is a city of wonders both sacred and profane. Above ground: The extraordinary Reims Cathedral, its Gothic spires piercing the sky. Below ground: Over 150 miles of chalk tunnels lined with an estimated 200 million bottles of Champagne. To walk among the dusty bottles is a wine lover’s dream.…
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Wine Road Trip: Sonoma County in winter
The hills were gray and damp, but the mood was jolly. Twelve wine lovers were gathered into a big white van–not friends just yet, but soon to be. “Who’s ready for wine this morning? Everybody!” We made introductions and sipped hot Americanos from a café stop in Sausalito, right over the Golden Gate bridge. We had…
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San Francisco’s Queen of Sauvy B: Eco Terreno Winery
Beer for breakfast and wine for lunch–this is how you pass a wintry day in San Francisco. Today, I have tasted everything from cinnamon-sugar pumpkin ale in a toasty brick basement at Fisherman’s Wharf to vegan gluten-free beer (made with sushi rice) at a queer-friendly microbrewery in North Beach. And before strolling off to reconstitute…
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The Wine Fairy 2025 recap: Our first year by the numbers
Wine friends, The Wine Fairy blog was started in December 2024. That means I’ve just wrapped up my first full year as a wine writer…and what a busy year it’s been. I have been through months of studying, gallons upon gallons of wine, and several short exploratory trips to United States wine regions. (Napa Valley…
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Merlot Thursday: Peter Cellars Carneros Estate Merlot (2019)
Each week we drink a different Merlot, and sometimes we drink it in a cool place! Today’s #MerlotThursday wine is a special one indeed, because I got to enjoy it at the winery with the winemaker. Do vineyard vistas make the wine taste better? Of course they can. But Peter Cellars’ Estate Merlot is excellent,…
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Local wines by the Bay at Winery Collective (San Francisco, CA)
Fisherman’s Wharf in December is not a bustling place. The cruise ships have mostly left for the season and the sidewalks are nearly empty. It’s too chilly and gray to catch any California sunshine on the waterfront. The Ghirardelli Chocolate building shines on the top of the hill, its marble counters spotless, its sundae glasses…
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Wine, food, and more wine at the DFW Italian Festival (Irving, Texas)
It’s State Fair of Texas season in Dallas this month–but if sharing Fair Park with 100,000 people doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, there are lots of smaller community events to choose from. On Saturday, we dropped in on the DFW Italian Festival, a celebration of Italian food and heritage that’s now in its…
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These are North Texas’s favorite wines: The People’s Choice Classic winners!
Thousands of GrapeFest revelers have turned in their ballots, and the results are in! The winners of the People’s Choice Wine Tasting Classic were revealed on the afternoon of Sunday, September 14 in Grapevine, Texas. All together, 34 wineries brought more than 120 wines to compete over the four days of GrapeFest. It’s all Texas…
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A celebration of Texas wine at GrapeFest 2025 (Grapevine, TX)
Turn down Texas’s thermostat by a few degrees, pack tens of thousands of wine lovers into an old railroad town, and you got yourself a party! GrapeFest is a wholesome (yet wholly wine-soaked) event that arrives in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine every September. With grape stomps on the schedule and BBQ smokers on every…