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October 2024

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  It's been quite a few years since Kastro Tireli debuted its first "natural" Hermos wine, a blend of Narince and Viognier. The line takes Kastro Tireli's clean winemaking practices one step further. The winery has always used organically-grown grapes and, when possible, native yeast fermentation. Hermos goes another level by using skin contact for the white wines, no filtration, and adds the barest hint of sulfur before bottling. What started with one wine is now five: the original Narince-Viognier blend, a Bornova Misketi (one of my favorite wines), varietal Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. I have not tried any of the reds, but very much enjoyed the two

  Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This past summer, I took a trip I've been wanting to make for a few years now: Sofia. Bulgaria may not be on the top of everyone's travel wish list (although it should be, it's beautiful!) but it's been on mine for a while now. Why? Wine, naturally! I've heard great things about Bulgarian wine and two years ago, Shoyu Sugar brought back an amazing Riesling pét-nat that cemented my desire to explore the country's wine scene.  [easy-image-collage id=20618] As I've only been to Bulgaria once before and wanted to do at least one non wine activity. In the end, I settled on a day

  For my birthday in August, my friend Malia of Shoyu Sugar made SPAM musubis for me!! I remember eating SPAM a bit when I was a kid. My mom mixed ground SPAM with American cheese and white onions and we made hot sandwiches with it. I actually really kind of liked it. But it wasn't until I had Malia's musubis that I understood what kind of magic you can make with this meat.  I won't go into the history of SPAM or how deeply embedded it is in Hawaiian culture. Suffice to say, SPAM musubis are a common snack food in Hawaii. When she can get the ingredients, Malia

  Two years ago, I was privileged to try Paşaeli's experimental, super limited edition Karasakız Pét-Nat. Due to a supply chain problem, they were unable to make one for the 2022 vintage. Lucky for me though, everything came together for the 2023 vintage and I was again privileged to receive a bottle.  Karasakız has long been an underappreciated grapes here. Not unknown, not exactly rare. It has recently caught a lot more attention though with four wineries (since my last post about the Paşaeli pét-nat) making wine with it. Long overdue in my opinion! I'm so happy to see it getting more recognition. As far as Paşaeli is concerned though,

  How is it October already?! I know that I for one wanted the heat and humidity of summer to be over, but I blinked and it's October?? Possibly I missed September while my power and water were out because this city can't get itself together to actually fix the infrastructure. Hopefully though, October will go better than did September.  Regardless, autumn is truly upon us! Calendarily in any case and if we're lucky, cooler weather and lower humidity will follow. Does this mean that it's time to break into all those big red wines again? Read on to find out! Aquarius (January 20 - February 18) October invites you to engage