Featuring Benchmark Wine Group CEO David Parker Over the past year, so much of our conversation has been about coping with COVID-19 and how to continue to enjoy our wine lifestyles while many of our favorite activities remain on hold. While creative new activities like Virtual Tastings serve as somewhat satisfying substitutes for the real thing, many of us are eager to find other creative ways to stay engaged. If you’re looking for something fresh ...
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Just how much more can they throw at us? These days, being a wine enthusiast is not without its challenges. Without a doubt, those of us who derive pleasure from the fruit of the vine are all about fun. We want to kick back and have a nice time, enjoy our wine and be joyful. Much to our dismay, however, the past year has been a major pain in the backside because every conceivable thing ...
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Lodi wine – It’s almost impossible NOT to think of the Creedence Clearwater classic, when the town Lodi comes up in a conversation. Yep, it was more than 50 years ago that John Fogerty sang about a little known California town where it was easy to become forgotten. The funny thing is, while Fogerty was poking fun at this small agricultural town south of Sacramento and east of San Francisco, many of the grapes planted ...
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While it is the goal of every episode of Grape Encounters Radio to present compelling, informative, and entertaining content, there are times when interviews significantly standout. That is certainly the case with this episode of Grape Encounters Radio, featuring one of America’s all time acclaimed chefs, Charlie Palmer. Charlie is a bonafide Yankee original, acclaimed for his signature progressive American cooking, a style built on rambunctious flavors and unexpected combinations, with a deep and lasting ...
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If you want to see Host David Wilson’s demeanor change from affable to outraged in a matter of seconds, all you have to do is toss the term “new normal” into the conversation. There’s no doubt that we’ve all had to make major life adjustments to cope in a Covid world, but David refuses to accept the status quo as being even remotely normal. Sure, we’ve all had to make do. We’ve compromised and agonized ...
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Few segments of the economy have been impacted by Covid-19 restrictions more adversely than wine tourism. With countless wineries temporarily (and indefinitely) shuttered in an effort to contain spread of the virus, wine countries throughout America and much of the world are seeing very few visitors. There was, however, a considerable spike in visitor traffic to the wine country of California’s Central Coast when an unexpected and otherworldly attraction appeared in the middle of the ...
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It’s a holiday season unrecognizable by most of us. We’ve all been asked to adapt to the deeply difficult circumstances that presently dominate our lives and will for the foreseeable future. It’s not what we would have chosen for ourselves, but sometimes you just have to improvise. That being said, David has some holiday wisdom to share that might bring your family closer together, even if you can’t be in the same place at the ...
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