plcb rebrands shop designs, tasting bar now included

If you live in Pennsylvania, or you've hit up a liquor store while visiting friends in my dear Keystone State, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s (PLCB) shop designs are antiquated and we are surely in need of a recess from them. 

However, great news: The PLCB has heard our pleas. As part of its ongoing efforts to reform state liquor stores, the agency has re-launched approximately 18 stores throughout the commonwealth that now flaunt spacious, swanky interiors.

Read the full scoop on the new features — all of which is making booze shopping a bit brighter — in my  article I just scribed up for Drink Philly, available by clicking here.

wined and dined with tamanend winery

In conjunction with Uncork, York, the darling wino duo of my close friend and I journeyed to the outskirts of Lancaster to indulge in a denched winemaker's feast of Tamanend Winery. Catered by the Fenz Restaurant, a local love to many in the area, the exciting evening was spent pairing delicate courses with twice the amount of deliciously versatile wines.

The adored (and engaged!) winemakers, Linda Jones McKee and Richard Carey entertained their packed warehouse space with incredible class and sass, and not a dear soul could even remember by the night's end of how incredibly dreary it was outside their pleasurable place.

Below, is a pictorial recap of my dashing date of fine food and drink, as well as the friendly faces of the affair.

Winemaker Linda Jones McKee and I, who I now absolutely adore!

Tamanend's Lab Manager Beth Hess who shared our dining space with us and was such a wonderful companion to the evening. Here, she allows us to sample both the orange and lime margarita wine.

The feisty first course of a miniature corn quiche splashed with red pepper coulis and arugula pesto. Wines: Ole & Cardinalis

The saucy second course with a perfectly-prepared, seared scallop plopped in a luscious lobster sauce and topped with an adorable potato crisp. Wines: Moonstone & Irresistible

A nicely roasted duck rounded out course three, dosed with a cherry and green peppercorn reduction. Wines: Alleluia 2004 & Alleluia 2006 (seen below)

With beautifully-served beef being one of my most favorite things, it is no surprise that the short ribs braised with red wine demi-glace and sided with roasted root veggies was my utmost adored course.

Wine: American Beauty 2003

To graciously note, saying that we were skimped on wine would be a ridiculous thing to mention, and completely untrue. I would love to thank our new friend Leann (seen here on the left) for taking care of us sloshed, silly girls.

Finalizing our feast was this fancified flute pumped with a pear panna cotta. Wine: Azul D'Oro

And also, hello to our other dashing dining companions, this dear couple who are smartypants in the health service field.

Sadly, I couldn't make it to the after dinner drinks, since I had already exceeded my petite frame's limit, but I hear what was served was a succulent ending to an overall incredible evening. Wines: Altissimo 2008 & Cerise Amour

To conclude, I beg of you to give Tamanend a go, ASAP!

for valentine's, waltz on wine and chomp on chocolates

For wine-loving locavores, the Berks County Wine Trail has a Valentine's Day gift that might be more welcome than the typically gifted fresh bouquets of flowers or heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.

Offering lovers a weekend-long event of self-guided wine tours throughout their eight participating locations that span from Reading to Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, each winery is set to host an array of activities sculpted around chocolate tastings that specifically accompany their locally produced varietals.

The Berks County Wine Trail requires no reservations, and all wine pairings will be offered for free, and even better, couples are encouraged to start and finish at any winery location most convenient to them. Also, to lessen the pressure of traveling from one winery to the next, each location offers directions to journey to the following sipping spot that falls nearest to them.

In appreciation of what southeastern Pennsylvania has to offer to individuals who adore smooth sips produced in our neighborhoods, the Berks County Wine Trail encourages couples to plan a pleasurable afternoon locally, all while providing what every lady loves - chocolate in all its assortments.

Begin at one of my closest winery, Kog Hill of Morgantown, and you will be delighted by the tastes of their Raspberry Dessert Wine paired with the light bites of chocolate torte. Their bottled raspberry sips are rich in flavor and color, and offer an excellent comparison to the sweetness of the cocoa dessert.

Kog Hill, Morgantown's winery is a close stop to either Clover Hill of Robesonia and Manatawny Creek Winery of Douglassville, who will entice traveling samplers with sugary treats like cannolis rolled with miniature chocolate chips or a slice of ultra-chic chocolate Cabernet cake.

Pinnacle Ridge Winery of Kutztown will serve classic French crepes pumped with strawberries, drizzled with decadent bittersweet chocolate sauce and dusted with confectioner's sugar and chocolate shavings. The winery's homemade crepes will be paired with one of their decadent red wine, the beloved bottle of Sweet Seduction.

Family-run Blair Vineyards of Mertztown, who are slated to relocate to Kutztown in April, will tantalize sweet teeth with a dessert titled Mocha French Kiss, which is a coffee truffle treat that goes perfectly with their Lower Block Pinot Noir. Bashore & Stoudt Country Winery of Shartlesville will offer chocolate fondue for fresh fruit dipping, which is offered inconjunction with their series of fresh fruit wines like pear, peach, elderberry and blueberry.

Also participating is Calvaresi Winery of Bernville and Long Trout Winery of Auburn. Long Trout plans to whip up wine-infused Chex Mix batches to accompany their series of cocoa wines, while Calvaresi warps into a chocoholics' haven by joining their Cayuga White with chocolate-covered mango and their 2009 Concord red wine with triple-chocolate malted-milk balls. The Auburn winery also produces sherry, which they will offer to individuals with chocolate-covered red raspberries.

Although J. Maki Winery of Elverson is not a partner of the wine trail, they too make for a great Chester County sipping spot, offering boldly distinctive red and white varietals made in the European premium dry wine tradition. The winery of Grove Road will be open both days of the wine tasting weekend, on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 5 p.m.

Also published here.

from punchy pinots to tarty sips of bright red beets

Since my first sip of a rosy red until now, I have always shared my wine adoration with my dearest friend. We hold an evening of wine and girl time very highly in our must-do-frequently, to-do books. And we, without hesitation, reoccurringly jump for journeying to near-and-distant vineyards for a sample or two (or twenty) of their specialty blends.

This weekend, we decided we were due for a stress-free sipping splurge and opted to attend Wine Chill Weekend of the Berks County Wine Tour. There are eight wineries scattered throughout the countryside of this county, however, being that each are over twenty minutes apart from one another, we suggest you stay of a time-structured track if you would like to sample each and every one. (We um, were bombarded with goodness from the get-go and by close, we only made it to four.)

First stop: Blair Vineyards. Traveling back rocky, dirt roads under a wooded canopy, we arrived at the adorable home of Richard Blair where he and his family maintain an up-and-coming wine business that is slated to move soon to the Kutztown area. Specializing in stainless steel-and-oak-barrel made blends, including exceptional Pinot Noirs, Charonnays and Merlots (I can't recall actually appreciating any dry wines as these, in the past). With a decent taste of their handful of whites and reds, we both gushed over their Rockland Red, which mixes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinot Noir into one corked bottle. In addition to their generous sips, the family also offered us a slice of their summery fruit pizza, which was plopped with fresh berries that had been dosed in a Cabernet Franc reduction sauce.

Second stop: Pinnacle Ridge Winery. Not a virgin to these award-winning wines, Pinnacle deserves the right to wear their metals proudly. Hardly a wine I can say I dislike, the Kutztown-based vineyard excels in smooth semi-sweets including a top-notch Riesling, a Naked Chardonnay (made in stainless steel, not oak), and my favorite, the Caguya White, which, for the weekend, was used in their pitchers of mojitos (skip the rum, add this wine for some more punchy fun).

Third stop: Long Trout Winery. Squeezed into the backwoods of Berks, almost in Pottsville, situates the psychedelic haven of wine. Their silly slogan, "where the wine is cool and the hippie chicks rule," may not be their selling point (hippie? I am definitely not), but their quirky mix of everything bohemian and the Beatles surely crafts a hell-of a wine tasting experience. On top of their red and white grape concoctions of smoky and sweet, comes singular fruity bottles of peach, plum, pear, currant, orange-banana, teaberry, and more. Then, like any woman can dream of, they make five light and anti-syrupy chocolate wines with sexy names like, "Heavy Breather," "Instant 'O'" and "Swollen Member." And, just when you thought you had enough, they whip out their cooking wines, which may not be best to sample solo, but are told to enhance the best of burgers, sautes, pastas, etc. From hot pepper with garlic wine, to a garden medley (tastes like a sip of salsa), onion, and even, a beet, which is raved to be very similar to drinking the red juice out of a jar (I agree).

Fourth/final stop: Bashore & Stoudt Country Winery. Honestly, I was still squealing in disbelief from Long Trout that we could have ended our tour there. But, what's a tour with three stops? We made a brief detour to Bashore, which was conveniently located in Shartlesville off the interstate. Quaint, serious and proud of their locavorism, their berry-blended wines were likeable, especially the strawberry and the elderberry. Opting to grow most of their fruit themselves, and if not, selecting it from local PA-based farms, the winery is small, but successfully striving and always adding new fruits to their ever-expanding inventory.

Although only half of the area wineries were tackled on our "serious" sipping adventure, I hope to soon retrace my steps and do it all again--plus more.