Episode #565 – Cooking, Vacation Planning and Experiencing the Napa Valley Virtually… From Home!

Well, it’s now been 10 weeks of isolation and David is very proud of himself for doing all sorts of things that he generally doesn’t like doing, but he’s actually having a good time all the same. David says his house has never been cleaner nor has his laundry been this caught up. But among his most important achievements has been spending quality time in the kitchen and doing marvelous things with his Sous Vide machine and Instant Pot. So, as the show begins, David makes an impassioned plea to listeners: Take advantage of this time that you’re not able to go out and use that time to really get into your cooking game. If you have a Sous Vide Machine, Instant Pot or Air Fryer, break it out and discover what you’ve been missing!

David also has a few words of wisdom concerning your NEXT vacation. Granted, things may seem pretty hopeless at the moment, but this too shall pass and life eventually is going to get back to some kind of Have faith! We’re going to be taken vacations again soon and it’s probably not going to be that far off. And one thing that is very clear is that you should strike while the iron is hot. No, you shouldn’t get on a plane and go off on a trip just yet, but you should start thinking about five or six or seven or eight months down the road. If you’ll do that, you can score some travel deals like you just can’t imagine. If you want to take a dream vacation–if you want to go off to any of the wonderful wine countries that exist either in the United States or beyond–if you want to take a vacation that you probably couldn’t have afforded before, airfare in particular is just incredibly low. David shares some of his research with you. Learn how you can go to many, many locations in Europe and Asia for as little as $300 $400 round trip..

Speaking of wine country trips, what exactly is going on right now in America’s premiere wine country, the Napa Valley? Things are on the verge of opening up, so we wanted to check in with Theresa Wall; she’s the Senior Director of Communications for Napa Valley Vintners. This is a very important organization in the Napa Valley and the staff continues to do the important work of the association from home as they gear up for this year’s reset of the visitor season.

Theresa says, “One of the [key roles] that we serve to this Valley is the opportunity to bring everyone together. I think something that really helps Napa Valley to shine and sets us apart from a lot of other regions is [our] camaraderie and that sense of coming together and the really tight knit community that we have developed here. Our main mission is to promote, protect, and enhance our Valley, which means that we do a lot of marketing to tell people our story. We certainly represent our wineries and advocate what’s best for them and we also provide a lot of resources for our members. Our overall mission is to help promote the the Valley itself and to help our wineries tell their individual stories as well as act as a resource to anyone who is looking for information about the Valley.”

One of the ways that the vintners are staying strong is through one of the world’s most ambitious networks of virtual experiences. It’s an extensive list and you’ll hear about some of the most intriguing opportunities on this week’s edition of Grape Encounters!

Today’s edition of Grape Encounters is brought to you by Total Wine & More, where you’ll find thousands of wines produced by folks who started with a dream and never looked back. Be sure to spend a little time online at TotalWine.com. You’ll be very glad you did!

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