Alcantara take three… I realized the first time Alcantara appeared in my blog it was in the Verde Valley Wine Trail list of wineries and I told you I’d tell you more about it when I wrote the Water to Wine blog. However, when I looked back at that post, I mostly talked about our amazing kayak trip not much about the winery. Now I’m going to write about this pretty cool horseback ride to winery excursion!! I will try to tell you more about the winery this time, but let’s move

I have to give a little context to the totally awesome photo below. I know y’all have met my oldest [and by that I mean my first.. LOL] and very good travel nurse friend, Andrea White. We met and worked together on my first assignment in Charlotte back in 2014!! Well, after I left Charlotte, we went on to spend the summer in Albuquerque, NM for my next assignment, and I started seeing tumbleweeds everywhere. [Turns out that it’s always windy in Albuquerque... LOL] So, I had t

Once in a while, you come across a person, place, or thing that resonates. I have been pretty fortunate to have had more than a few people and my share of places over the years that fall into this category. Vino Zona is definitely right there with them. I can think of a number of reasons why Vino Zona has wormed its way into my heart. First of all, Shawn and I found it when we were taking a stroll while on holiday in Sedona. I’m not quite sure why even saying the towns name e

Now before you go and say that Trevor’s Liquor doesn’t sound like a winery or wine bar… let me tell you that it’s not!! Haha!! This is another establishment that I’m not 100 percent certain how I came across it. I think I may have seen something about it and wine on Facebook. So, I went to check it out on my own and when I pulled into the parking lot it really did look just like your average liquor store. However, when I walked in I was pretty impressed. First glance to the l

Do y’all know the phrase "right under your nose"? It means that something is in plain sight or directly in front of you, and yet you fail to notice it. Well, that perfectly describes L’Entrata, and that is the name of the place... in its entirety, no wine bar or winery or anything having to do with wine behind it!! So, I think you can see why I may have overlooked it. There is nothing really to indicate what it is, just the name on the side of the building. Unless you speak I

I'm really racking my brain to remember how this little outing came about. I mean, other than just a few totally amazing mutual wine-loving friends [in the form of two of my favorite humans, Sherri and Hannah] deciding to get together for wine and tapas. That part is not in question. How did we end up in Chandler!? Do either of you lovely ladies remember how we found Mingle and Graze? However it happened, I simply love that introducing a friend to a friend can breed new frien

So, you know how nosy and intrusive your cell phones can sometimes be, right!? Like I’ll be telling Shawn that I am looking for a new blender or something and lo and behold, when I open Facebook later the same day, all these blender ads pop up! Well, sometimes you are alerted to wine events in your area because you have either talked about it, looked it up, or even participated in similar events in the past. This is exactly how I found out about Singh Meadows Wine Festival. I

Guess what!? I found a new place to taste wine!! I totally loved the name of the wine pub, and the first time we went, I thought we were going to a dog lover/friendly wine bar. The place, after all, is named Terrier [which is a dog of any one of many breeds, all of which are typically small, wiry, and fearless] how cute, right!? I was even hoping that maybe the Terrier would be in residence as the winery mascot!! [Haha!!] Well, it turns out that I missed and/or jumbled up som

Since Bacon, Eggs, and Toast was such a blast to write about a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d keep the momentum going!! Eggs had been talking about this wine bar near her in Gilbert where she had taken several classes to create different and really cool things. Even though she has always invited me to join her, nothing really piqued my interest until the cheese-making class came around! Cheese… wine's best friend, so… we grabbed Toast to get our cheese on!! LOL!! I also i

Remember how I've told you in the past that my wine friends are always telling me about new places they've seen? Well, one of my wine tribe, Aimee Aldous, pictured in the photo below with me, and Deb Flanagan [also part of the same wine tribe] told me about driving by this new wine bar. I looked it up, found the name, and tried to wait for her to be able to go with me. Honestly, I think I visited many times until it finally worked out for us to be there at the same time!! Thi

Ohmygoodness, this week is going to be so fun to write about!! I hope y’all are ready for Bacon, Eggs, and Toast, I did picture the girls in my Postino blog back in April but here is rest of the story... not only is it the best breakfast sandwich, it is the perfect description of how well this trio of girlfriends complement each other! Let me tell you about how we came to be… you already know my good travel nurse friend, Sherri Lee [you met her at a couple of different wineri

I have been known to travel a little out of my way if I found a new spot that I thought looked worth traveling to. I have also been known to find a place nearby to where a friend lives to meet in or near her hometown. Well, I was looking for such a place to meet up with one of my tribe, Amanda Rae (whom you have met several times by now) over in the Surprise, Arizona area. Once we found the place, I sent out an invite to Hannah (my new ICU travel nurse friend, whom you just m

Welcome to 2023 and welcome to O.H.S.O. Brewery!! Maybe with the New Year, I’m turning over a new leaf and drinking beer instead of wine… [NOT!! Hahaha!!] But I will tell you all about my wine experience at this brewery. First of all, most breweries also offer wine and besides that, O.H.S.O. has some really good food offerings. We really love the atmosphere here and sitting out on the patio. I am not sure if it was on this first visit or a couple of visits in, but I’m about t

Welcome back... let me introduce you to my favorite wine bar: Raven's View!! If you remember, I touched on Raven's View a couple of weeks ago in a mead blog. Not ringing a bell? I will refresh your memory. So, I was telling the owner of the Meading Room how excited I was that there was a place to do tastings so close to home since before they opened, the town of Scottsdale was the closest place to have a wine room. They proceeded to tell me about Raven's View Wine Bar just ou

I almost feel like a broken record saying this, but I do love learning about a new winery. My friends know this about me, and they are always letting me know when something new pops up, if I haven’t already learned about it. LOL!! Last week I mentioned divine intervention on several levels, so here we go… When I was a baby operating room nurse, I did my training [on the night shift] at Peninsula Regional Medical Center [PRMC] in Salisbury, MD. Long story short, one of the Cha

As you know, we are always away [somewhere cooler] for the summer, so my work daughter, Hayley Hodges Little Lepore [Hahaha!! IYKYK], and I usually miss getting together around my birthday to celebrate. So, we usually plan a get-together in some type of fashion for when we get back into town so we can play some catch-up. Hayley is a fabulous gift giver; she always has something unique that I don’t know how I ever lived without it… I invariably love it and her!! This year, we

Sigh, another meadery… as I said last week, this is a new and local place up in Cave Creek. Since it is not too far from where we spend our winters, I really wanted to go and show my support. I can honestly say that I think this will be the last meadery I will be visiting. They are just not really to my taste, so even if I happen to find myself tasting mead again, [unless it is incredibly remarkable] this will be the last time I write about mead. LOL!! I read about The Meadin

So, you would think that by now I would know not to be so easily taken in by the word “winery” in the name of a winery. [Haha!!] By this, I mean that when I find out about a new winery, I get all excited about going for a wine tasting... but then sometimes when I get there, I find out that they do not actually serve wine like the wine I am used to tasting. I’m usually not too disappointed, though, because it is still a new experience and I always have fun; there simply is no

Remember how I was telling you in last week’s blog that I was debating whether I was even going to write about my next wine tasting?? I’m going to be honest and start off by saying the reason I hesitated was becuase I didn’t want to offend anyone. With a winery name like Naughti Wines, I’m sure you can imagine why I might think such a thing. But, as you can see… I decided to go ahead and write about it. I mean, I did stop for a wine tasting here, and this is a wine blog!! You

I found this little winery not far from the campground where we were staying while we were in town visiting Mt. Rushmore. If you explore the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota it will eventually lead you to Prairie Berry Winer!! They have the best location with fabulous views from the tasting patio, steeped in history going back to the 1870’s. Why don’t we take a quick walk down memory lane, all the way back to 1876 when Anna Pesa Vojta and her husband Jon emigrated to the

Welcome back to Montana!! By now, we are about halfway through our summer in Driggs, Idaho, and my involuntary winery sabbatical. [Hahaha!!] Do not feel sorry for me, though… what an amazing summer it has been so far!! The time off from the operating room, the views, the outdoor activities, and the ballooning are all just what the doctor ordered. Plus, there is still wine available and places around to drink wine, just no tasting rooms or vineyards in the area. I have survive

We are on the road again!! Whoop whoop!! As you know, we are headed to a new location this summer, Driggs, Idaho. As you also may know (since I mentioned it when we went to a new location last summer HA!!) that when we go to a new location, we usually travel a different route, and that leaves things wide open to discover new and never-seen-before wineries!! Hahaha!! Y'all know what a wino I am, and that I am always on the lookout. I do my due diligence and research the areas

I had no idea when we decided to check out D.A. Ranch Vineyard that its humble beginnings were as an actual working cattle ranch. The story is quite interesting, with its history going back to the 1870s. This is around the time when the first settlers were starting to arrive in the Verde Valley area. Around 1910 [and I love this part] a pioneer woman by the name of Gertrude Gates bought 360 acres here and named it Delta Alpha Ranch, better known today as D.A. Ranch. Gertrude