This luxury food and wine vacation to Sonoma and Mendocino is a true ‘Farm to Table’ odyssey. Not only will you stay in style at award-winning boutique inns and enjoy mouth-watering culinary delights at some of California’s most highly regarded restaurants, but you’ll also harvest, forage and catch the fruits of the region yourself, as you spend time with local producers, ranchers, and chefs.

You know how I swore in this very space just a couple of weeks ago not to make any big wine purchases till this house situation was sorted out? Okay, so. What had happened was… I had this app on my phone from Princeton Corkscrew, one of my nearby fine purveyors, and it has alerts to sales. A sale on saperavi popped up.

Beginning in November, the U.S. will allow vaccinated travelers from 33 countries, including China, Brazil, South Africa, India and the 26 nations in Europe’s Schengen zone, in the country for leisure travel. They will need to present a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of their departure to the U.S. They will need to have taken either one of the vaccines approved in the U.S. (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) or another approved by the W.H.O. (Oxford/AstraZeneca, Covishield, Sinopharm or Sinovac).

Last Saturday I had a friend over for drinks, and I bust out the 2014 William Heritage Estate Reserve Chardonnay. It was gorgeous, stately, great structure and a still exuberant floral palate. But I’ve talked about chardonnay plenty lately, and we all know my buds at William Heritage.

Last week was Father’s Day, and all my dad wanted was steak. “Dad, I can do something on the smoker if you wa—…” Nope. Steak. Ask a silly question.

I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t already know this. I’ve railed against unoaked chardonnay before: why would you bother, there are other grapes I’d rather have, chardonnay needs oak. Well, duh on me. Turns out Chablis, from the northernmost part of Burgundy, is…unoaked chardonnay.

It’s been a wild couple of weeks here at Wiz Manor. I had to get my cat Fido in to the vet, and it turns out he has serious heart disease. A few days after that, I had a chimney inspection done, and it’s the only thing around here that’s sicker than Fido.

After months of stress, hours of hashing out agreements via attorneys, and days of packing, I still can’t quite believe it but… I moved. Finally. Into my new house, this week. The day of the actual move went great, thanks very much to Chase, Brian, Caspar, and Ish (yeah, that’s what he told me to call him!) from Strongmile Movers. These guys have my heart forever.

This is the last WineWiz! That I will write in this house. (Ha ha, suckers. Yeah, I move in four days and this is all the level of comedy I can muster.) I feel a little bad that I don’t really feel that bad? I thought leaving this house would be more of a wrench and so far, it isn’t. There are things about the house I’m going to miss, like the fab engineered hardwood floors I put in everywhere and my (I think) pretty darn clever coat closet turned into a wine cellar. It’s as if part of me knew I wasn’t going to be here forever (though just over 6½ years is no slouch).

Well, it’s spring! And there was a freeze warning for the night of April 22. Of course. Speaking of things that should be heralding springtime, but aren’t totally, we should be getting ready for the NJ Winemakers Co-op Spring Portfolio Tasting. Where we get to meet the actual winemakers from the five participants, taste great local wine, hear about what’s going on in the vineyards.

Oh no! Disaster! And for once I’m not talking about house stuff. (At the moment. That could change. I haven’t checked my email or text messages in the last couple minutes, so who can say.) No, this time the disaster is the Barolo I’d wanted to try with my shepherds’ pie last week was long past it. When I poured it into the decanter, it was entirely brick red. I hoped it would still be OK, but alas. It was practically vinegar.

One of the nerdiest holidays of the year occurs this Sunday, 3/14, known as Pi Day. It's also the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birth, which is kind of a big deal in and around Princeton. And while I'm all about promoting better mathematics education and supporting nerdery, who are we kidding. I'm here for pie on Pi Day, and food puns any day of the year.

Hey, how are you, insomnia? ‘Twas the night before I had to write a wine column, and I’m still up. I have this fun thing nowadays where if I drink more than one glass of wine, it keeps me awake? Whee? So tonight’s experiment is, if I drink wine, then stay up super late, will I still fall asleep? Also if you’re super tired, will the wine still taste good? These are the questions that consume my thoughts. That, and the fact we’re heading into the one year anniversary of living in a pandemic.

Saturday night is Open That Bottle Night, a holiday conceived by authors Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher. (And did you know Mr. Brecher used to be a senior editor at a little place called Bloomberg!) It’s meant to encourage us to enjoy that bottle we’ve been saving and stop it collecting dust. From their Wikipedia article, I see they devised a rating scheme of "Yech", "OK", "Good", "Very Good", "Delicious" to "Delicious!”

Taking another break from drinking this week, so I went back to wine-related media. This week I watched Somm (2012), a documentary about four candidates for the Master Sommelier (M.S.) exam. It’s the hardest examination in the wine world. At the beginning of the film, they note that in 40 years, there have only been 170 Master Sommeliers ever. This exclusivity can throw open the doors to lucrative paths of employment and teaching.

Oh, Chrissy Teigen. The Internet is mad at her again. She posted a question on her Twitter on Wednesday, "What's the most expensive thing you've eaten that you thought sucked?" Then she answered her own question: "one time john and I were at a restaurant and the waiter recommended a nice Cabernet. We got the bill and it was 13,000 dollars. HOW DO U CASUALLY RECOMMEND THAT WINE. we didn't even finish it and it had been cleared!!!"

I may have mentioned before: I'm moving. At some point. I don't know exactly when yet, and right now there's no particular where in the offing. Stressful? Not at all. But I've had to accept certain realities, chief among them that anything I bring into my current house I will need to pay someone to take out of it. Including my roughly ~100 bottle collection of wine. (Built up since about 2017, for you comedians in the back.)

I don't know, there's just something about this week that makes me want to change things up a little bit. Something...new Something...slightly different? What could it be. I can't imagine. On Wednesday, for some reason, I felt a little celebratory, and I decided to open up a Jefferson's Golden Ale from Yards Brewing, in the heart of Philadelphia. You know, the cradle of American liberty, where they wrote the Declaration of Independence. Ben Franklin. The guy who invented the stove and all that.

Monday, December 7 was my birthday. (Cue the "date that will live in infamy" jokes, I've heard 'em all!) I didn't plan a big blowout bash or anything, because oddly enough when a million scientists all say it's a bad idea to have indoor gatherings, I take that seriously.

Hope you in the U.S. had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I listened to Dr. Fauci and didn't go to anyone else's house. Luckily I have mad cooking skills and made my own deliciousness. As for what to drink... Well, I was sitting around, and the turkey breast was bubbling away in the sous vide. The legs were braising (not mine, the turkey's). Potatoes were cooking away in the pressure cooker in anticipation of a good mashing later. I had some time to kill, and whatever shall I do to occupy myself...