tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13296015443535750612012-02-16T08:52:07.719-08:00Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-64872243319519966262011-05-25T20:04:00.001-07:002011-05-25T20:20:39.270-07:00

I set a record last weekend. It involved a 3800-foot-tall mountain, which made the accomplishment easier. Combined with a bicycle and a bottle of wine from New Zealand, it was a shoe-in: I pedaled up Mount Diablo with a bottle of Cloudy Bay 2007 Marlborough Pinot Noir in my pannier and opened it on top. Though I can't entirely verify it, I believe that this was Cloudy Bay Pinot's first excursion

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-18519971309402183992011-02-10T11:32:00.000-08:002011-02-10T11:35:24.012-08:00

I'm just a journalist. I know nothing but what people tell me - and a near consensus of North Bay activists say that Sonoma County's government is trading fish for wine.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-26733830753811039882011-02-05T09:36:00.000-08:002011-02-05T09:41:15.116-08:00

It's winter - and barleywine season, and instead of drinking one of these big, sweet beers by the fire with a bearskin rug grimacing from the plank floor, as much marketing literature indicates is the classic way, we decided to drink five at once. Read our opinions here.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-87926069078257698152011-02-01T06:40:00.001-08:002011-02-01T06:43:38.606-08:00

As long ago as July, winemakers statewide were sweating—and not from the high temperatures, but the lack of them. They wrung their hands and watched the sky; the sun soared in all its flame and fury, but where was its heat? Read more here.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-5507101513462551842010-12-23T17:23:00.000-08:002010-12-23T17:25:21.035-08:00

Update: The box of it. went with me to a party, then home again. In effect I managed to not only provide more alcohol than anyone else but look tacky in doing so. Beat that.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-45902271435192553842010-12-19T20:16:00.000-08:002010-12-19T20:56:08.685-08:00

It's a dangerous business, wine in a box.I have a new one on my table kitchen table - a 2009 Lodi Reserve Chardonnay named "it." whose volume equals four bottles at roughly $4.50 each. I thought the box would make an unimposing addition to my apartment's decor, but the box haunts and taunts me. it. eyes me as I make my morning coffee, as I work at my desk, as I come in the door from a bike ride -

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-17539613900494535992010-11-22T06:11:00.000-08:002010-11-23T14:05:54.582-08:00

Follow this link to my Smithsonian article about a government fruit-collecting expedition to Georgia.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-69279585866563613032010-10-31T04:15:00.000-07:002010-11-01T11:00:17.080-07:00

What can best pull a man and his brother up a mountain and across 50 miles of terrain, racing the fall of night and the fatigue of flesh? Wine, of course, and the promise of a three-course gourmet meal - and so it was that my brother, Andrew, and I arrived last week at Concannon Vineyard for an eating and tasting event at the ancient Livermore location. We robbed a roadside Fuyu persimmon tree

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-75690024648435824812010-10-20T08:33:00.000-07:002010-10-20T08:38:13.609-07:00

I'm back home. Thanks for reading my blog entries about the trip. It was probably the most exciting bike tour I've been on, though Portugal and parts of Spain and Greece have been very nice to me, as well - and in the former two nations, espresso, a particular joy of my life, is easily found. Not so east of Italy. But Turkey was still a dreamland - absolutely fantastic and unspoiled inland of the

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-28370095442117659162010-10-10T09:31:00.000-07:002011-06-10T14:51:02.335-07:00

Purchased: Ticket to Cyprus from Tasucu.Time of Departure: Midnight.At hand: A bottle of wine on the promenade as the boat warms its engine.And with that ends my two months in Turkey and the most rewarding bike tour I have taken. Oh - that's right. I talk like I didn't spend three weeks in Georgia. Oh Georgia. I'll check in with you again in 20 years and see if you've learned yet to clean up

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-45796381963934679932010-10-08T10:46:00.000-07:002010-10-08T11:41:46.903-07:00

I have rented out an entire hotel for $17.50 US. No one else is here - and it's a good thing since the whole place now smells like moldy feet. My apartment's kitchen is fully furnished, with a mini fridge and complementary coffee. I'm not wild about about the bedroom's floor tile pattern and the wireless connection is a bit slow, but I'm no complainer. I am still in southern Turkey, as I'm rather

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-55785501980977494232010-09-27T08:39:00.000-07:002010-09-27T09:17:25.670-07:00

In the daylight they are nowhere, but at night they play. They trample through orchards and stampede past campers in the mountains, waking them from their sleep as they root across the meadow in the light of the full moon - and if there is any doubt as to what those shapes are in the darkness - "What are those?! Goats?! Sheep?!" - then they stop, look arrogantly your way, and snort like only a

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-59781078208026422172010-09-21T06:18:00.000-07:002010-09-21T07:12:22.961-07:00

The southern coast of Turkey has tremendous potential. Just as soon as the resorts and hotels and coastal promenades are demolished, the region will be a spectacularly attractive getaway. Unfortunately, this place is still just on the rise. Antalya some years ago was only a "village," a local man told me recently. Today, the roadside town marker 20 kilometers from the center, way out in the

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-9893252754016696512010-09-15T07:59:00.000-07:002010-09-15T08:32:38.920-07:00

I wıll not attempt to mıtıgate the effects of thıs bızarre Turkısh keyboard, so deal wıth the dotless Is, and the absence of apostrophes. In my travels, I have taken up an old game that I played ın my youth - makıng road wıne: I have crushed a gallon grapes ınto a jug and allowed a natural fermentatıon to begın. The experıment ıs currently thrıvıng ın my pannıer outsıde thıs cafe, and I am afraıd

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-57009101163109703332010-09-05T20:08:00.000-07:002010-09-21T07:15:01.678-07:00

It's a lonely world for a big spotted cat. Georgia is what many of us would call a "small" country, having "only" 4 million humans. Yet you wouldn't think there was any shortage of humans here if you rode a bicycle 60 miles in any direction. Why, I'd bet money that you would see thousands and thousands of people every single day - so many that you would think the resource is boundless. These

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-72650411376274715062010-06-14T18:11:00.000-07:002010-06-14T18:13:50.652-07:00

For 15 years, Kenny Manzoni of Adventure Rib Rides has been motoring paying customers out of San Diego to watch whales and other marine mammals. He recalls the late 1990s, when he sometimes saw in a single season as many as several hundred gray whale calves, newly born in Baja California and migrating north along the coast with their mothers, bound for their summer sub-Arctic feeding grounds in

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-53766020039065160712010-05-28T12:08:00.000-07:002010-05-28T12:16:10.053-07:00

Liquor Barrel Beers Get Nailed By Alcopop TaxIn the fall of 2006, concerned parents and anti-alcohol-abuse groups set out to curb the proliferation of sugary, hard drinks that appeal to teenagers. They were particularly worried about so-called "cheerleader beer" and "alcopops" — soda-like drinks that are fortified with alcohol, such as Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice. So they convinced

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-92045634312251604372009-12-23T21:58:00.000-08:002009-12-30T20:43:52.052-08:00

For my second review I take on two wines, both $20.99 suggested retail price (though you never know what those high-end groceries will charge), both dark reds, both 100% varietally unblended, and both from the century-old Luigi Bosca winery in Mendoza, Argentina. The grapes for each were grown in desert regions receiving less than 10 inches of rain annually - in case you find that morsel

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-80401028712768936062009-12-20T19:36:00.000-08:002010-01-04T20:26:02.512-08:00

Wine may be the simplest of alcoholic beverages, consisting of fermented grape juice only. Yet somehow it has become dauntingly complex. Wines are differentiated by region, vineyard, variety, winemaker, yeast, barrel, time, year and other factors. Thus, while all wines are virtually identical genetically and at first taste, each is absolutely unique. Thus is justified the esoteric pastime of

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-60018651727746868232009-04-22T09:29:00.000-07:002009-04-22T12:54:12.220-07:00

Among us who ride the roads on two wheels and without engines, there is a lower life form among us. He is human, yet bears the mind of a three-year-old. He frequently takes easy bike rides in the Marin Headlands, and he dresses up theatrically like he is setting out on a heroic expedition. He even packs rations for these little trips - as though the ride is so strenuous and challenging that he

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-70774555759474726672009-01-13T17:40:00.000-08:002009-01-13T17:42:03.595-08:00

Why the hell are the google boys advertising anti-wrinkle skin cream on my blog again? I take this personally.

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-79172671447386354842008-11-26T18:34:00.000-08:002009-01-16T21:22:23.339-08:00

I just discovered a new line of Spanish wines. I did some inquiring with the publicist about the label, which is a curiosity I'll describe in a moment. It seems the Codorniu Group, which distributes the wines - a red and a white - has wised up to the fact that Americans prefer wine labels without the fuss, excitement and endless vowels of most European labels. American shoppers want to see wine

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-47234528222544503922008-11-14T08:45:00.001-08:002008-11-14T09:00:55.754-08:00

So, it's November and the summer of San Francisco is, I suppose, finally over. I kept no accurate tally, but between June and the present I must have brought home 400 Agaricus augustus, also known as The Prince. The season began, I suppose, when my brother and I discovered the mushroom along a major roadway near San Francisco coming back from a diving trip. We found a clump of fresh ones about 30

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1329601544353575061.post-6272180823792772402008-10-22T08:59:00.000-07:002008-10-22T09:14:18.648-07:00

I struck a hot deal at a local grocery store - about eight pounds of prickly pears for two bucks. Does anyone have any simple suggestions for a recipe? Act quick or I swear I'm going to juice and ferment the things into prickly pear cider.Unfortunately, that's as far as I can get through this entry without lapsing into the realm of wild mushrooms. In Golden Gate Park, the gardeners just dumped

Alastair Blandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00950535297572026328noreply@blogger.com0