Vinotrip

Feeling really disappointed about this right now, but I don’t know why. Early on, I felt that this thing had no chance. There was a bigger groundswell this year though led by the blogs, the twits, and the MWBBL. Through letter writing and showing up to hearings, people did a great job of letting the [...]

March 27th, 2009 | Tags: bitter, crying in my merlot, despair, disappointment, downward spiral, hb1262, maryland wine shipping, omfg, sb338, so depressed, still bitter, tailspin | Category: Maryland, Wine bars, Wine shipping, Wineries | Comments (3)

Taverna Corvino, the restaurant the replaced Junior’s in Federal Hill, is open. Beer in Baltimore has some scoop. I stoped by before opening today and perused the bar menu, a range of appetizers in the $6-$9 range, as well as cheese plates (three cheeses $11); dinners reportedly hover around $16-25. Grape Leaves Online reports that [...]

March 18th, 2009 | Tags: church street cellars, federal hill, hit the button again, juniors, Maryland, taverna corvino, vienna, Virginia, wino | Category: Maryland, Restaurants, Virginia, Wine bars | Leave a comment

Junior’s, the Federal Hill restaurant that I held near and dear to my heart for their Winesdays, has closed. It has been replaced by what looks to be a culinary batting cage. Test Kitchen? What is a Test Kitchen? The big banner over the doors that offers another clue. So the new spot will be [...]

March 13th, 2009 | Tags: charlottes, closings, drink natty boh instead, juniors, quit crying | Category: Maryland, Restaurants | Leave a comment

Fiore 2005 Maryland Merlot. Initially got a lot of excited oak on the nose but it all mellowed over a little bit of time. Nice solid red color. Not a lot of fruit here, some spices, some heat. A finish that wasn’t memorable because I can’t find anything about it in my notes. Not bad [...]

March 11th, 2009 | Tags: don't eat me oak moster, fiore, merlot, red | Category: Maryland, Tasting notes | Comments (2)

After a prolonged absence, my Maryland and Virginia Winery Map is back up and running. It’s a little clunky at the moment because I didn’t keep pace with Ruby on Rails’ blistering build-test-release-breakeverything cycle. Soon I’ll have it up running with Passenger and Capistrano and blah blah geek nerd geek snooze…. If you’re interested in [...]

March 6th, 2009 | Tags: asleep at the switch, geek factor 5, gmap, it's about time, lets go drinking, relaunch, vmap, web 2.0, winery map | Category: Map, Maryland, Virginia, Wineries | Leave a comment

Commenter Regina gets a gold star for excellence in sending stuff to me that I can blog about. The latest was a letter sent by some Maryland liquor retailers to Mike Miller, President of the Maryland Senate. The letter encapsulates arguments against SB 338 and HB 1262, both of which which would bring direct wine [...]

March 5th, 2009 | Tags: hb1262, oh come on, sb338, seriously?, stop kidding, stop playing, Wine shipping, you can't be serious | Category: Maryland, Wine shipping | Comments (2)