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Nothing could be finer than finding another hidden wine gem that's just a quick pedal away from Calistoga. While people have been known to flee from red hot lava, except when rubbernecking at Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park, I urge you not to flee from Lava Vine (the winery), and here's why. Sweet indulgence. While I love a good cupcake as much as the next gal, the only thing that trumps that sugar high, is port. We can't technically call this wine a port, but Joe's non-vintage dessert wine isn't fooling this wine scribe. Much like a lamb in sheep's clothing this wine is a port dressed up as a dessert wine. Regardless, this baby sang as it slid down my wine tube. Lightly sweet, yet supple. Well, it made me feel supple while drinking this delight. A hint of this, a hint of that. All I know is that this mish-mash of vintages swirled into one bottle, is divine. The best of many worlds. Joe wouldn't tell me much more than that, but I lost interest in the semantics and gained interest in s
coring my own case of this juice. I'd recommend snatching up some of the Cabernet Franc, too. A spicy, bawdy counterpart. The vibe in this tasting room is casual-friendly, with soulful tunes wafting in the background, and vintage photography (the pink caddy photo would do The Boss" proud) pinned to the walls. A good time is prime for the picking at this joint. Wacky WineSense rating: 4.5 Grapes
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I am in no way a pork lover; in fact I avoid pig meat at all costs. It could be that I was marred at a young age. My most vivid Xmas memories are of Wilber, cooked and sprawled out on our dinner table, kicking up his poor unsuspecting back hoof. The apple artfully placed in poor porky’s mouth didn’t help. I have avoided pork ever since, until now. But I’m in a safe zone because this plate of bacon is actually an art exhibit, premiering at St. Helena’s Silverado Brewing Company (excuse this redention of the photos, they were taken on my phone with blinking tree lights in the background, you'll have to check them out in person to get the full affect). And while bacon specials are abounding at the brew co in concert with the exhibit, that is not what’s got me excited, it’s the art of the self-dubbed “Bacon Girl,” Bigi Voix. This vegetarian turned pork fiend had a life altering brush with bacon that forever changed her and the local art scene. Bigi accidentally fell off the vegan wagon over a bacon-binge weekend which led to her inspiration for this whacked out (in the best possible way) art exhibit that pays homage to pork, in strip form. Bigi has become all bacon, all the time, turning her exhibit into a calendar that is due out in 2011. Even I, who avoids pork, couldn’t keep my eyes in their sockets in the presence of these portraits. Who needs a muse when bacon is in the picture? The photos go as broad as a fifty’s pinup pool girl with a bee-hive hairdo done up in bacon, 
to a reincarnation of Bruce Springsteen’s classic Born in the USA album cover, where bacon is stuffed into the Boss’s back pocket instead of a baseball cap. And if that is not enough to wet your arty and pork-filled appetite, some of the more racy renditions feature Bigi and her “unmentionables” sloughed over in bacon. What I love most about this ingenious collection is that it exudes the very essence of what art means to me. All night long I couldn’t stop talking about these off-beat photos. The visuals and their creative concoctions left my mind lingering on the memory of each long after I’d left the exhibit. Who would have thunk it? That someone as anti-pork as me could grow to see pig in a brand new light. So whether you love bacon, hate it or yearn to bring a little of Bigi’s bacon to a home near you, you don’t want to miss out on this one of kind display of art in the making—bacon. Check it out at Silverado Brewing Company for the month of December. Wacky WineSense Rating: 5 Grapes! (The actual exhibit version of these photos were shot by Robin Bordow)
Nothing could be finer than finding another hidden wine gem that's just a quick pedal away from Calistoga. While people have been known to flee from red hot lava, except when rubbernecking at Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park, I urge you not to flee from Lava Vine (the winery), and here's why. Sweet indulgence. While I love a good cupcake as much as the next gal, the only thing that trumps that sugar high, is port. We can't technically call this wine a port, but Joe's non-vintage dessert wine isn't fooling this wine scribe. Much like a lamb in sheep's clothing this wine is a port dressed up as a dessert wine. Regardless, this baby sang as it slid down my wine tube. Lightly sweet, yet supple. Well, it made me feel supple while drinking this delight. A hint of this, a hint of that. All I know is that this mish-mash of vintages swirled into one bottle, is divine. The best of many worlds. Joe wouldn't tell me much more than that, but I lost interest in the semantics and gained interest in s
coring my own case of this juice. I'd recommend snatching up some of the Cabernet Franc, too. A spicy, bawdy counterpart. The vibe in this tasting room is casual-friendly, with soulful tunes wafting in the background, and vintage photography (the pink caddy photo would do The Boss" proud) pinned to the walls. A good time is prime for the picking at this joint. Wacky WineSense rating: 4.5 Grapes
