Owner: Winehiker Witiculture URL:http://www.californiawinehikes.com/winehiker Join Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:07:48 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: From the hiking trail to the tasting room, Winehiker Witiculture author and wine country trail guide Russ Beebe shares observations about our human connection with Nature, the California wine country experience, and the delicious fruit of the vine. Site statistics:Click here
links for 2006-12-14 2006-12-14 09:27:56 Google For Educators
Google and My Wonderful World have teamed up to use Google Earth as an educational tool for spreading awareness about people, places and diversity of our wonderful planet.
(tags:...
{{ The above is just a summary of the entire post. Please visit californiawinehikes.com/winehiker for full links
, other content, and more! }}
links for 2006-12-15 2006-12-15 09:27:29 America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Coming soon: one pass, entry to many national parks and wild lands, available January 1, 2007.
(tags: national...
{{ The above is just a summary of the entire post. Please visit californiawinehikes.com/winehiker for full links
, other content, and more! }}
Links for 2006-12-14 [del.icio.us] 2006-12-15 07:00:00
America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Coming soon: one pass, entry to many national parks and wild lands, available January 1, 2007.
From ENN: Climate Change Threatens Alpine Resorts
Global warming poses a serious threat to Alpine ski resorts and the regional economies that depend on them, especially in Germany.
Fundamentals of Wine Studies II: Sensory Evaluation of Wines and their Components
Enrollment just opened today for this fun wine class taught by Derrick Schneider who, among other things, writes the Obsession With Food blog.
The Wine Chicks: Y'all Got Me Poppin'
It's time to shop for bubbly with those bubbly Wine Chicks.
links for 2006-12-15 2006-12-15 09:27:29
America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Coming soon: one pass, entry to many national parks and wild lands, available January 1, 2007.
(tags: national park parks pass entry permit BLM NPS FWS USDA USBR)
From ENN: Climate Change Threatens Alpine Resorts
Global warming poses a serious threat to Alpine ski resorts and the regional economies that depend on them, especially in Germany.
(tags: climate change global warming ski resorts)
Fundamentals of Wine Studies II: Sensory Evaluation of Wines and their Components
Enrollment just opened today for this fun wine class taught by Derrick Schneider who, among other things, writes the Obsession With Food blog.
(tags: wine class berkeley extension san francisco derrick schneider)
The Wine Chicks: Y’all Got Me Poppin’
It’s time to shop for bubbly with those bubbly Wine Chicks.
(tags: wine chicks sparkling sparkler champagne)
Read more:links
Cool links for Thursday 2006-12-14 09:27:56
Google For Educators
Google and My Wonderful World have teamed up to use Google Earth as an educational tool for spreading awareness about people, places and diversity of our wonderful planet.
(tags: education google map geography awareness earth diversity)
Wine review: 1994 Staglin Cabernet, Rutherford Bench, Napa Valley
I'd had a Staglin Cab or two previously and had found them to be superior wines. Darn near anything from the Rutherford Bench had wowed me; however, I'd never formally scored a wine from this locale. Until now.
(tags: wine review reviews gary staglin cabernet rutherford bench 1994 earthy dusky mineral minerality wines)
Read more:links
, Thursday
Wine review: 1994 Staglin Cabernet, Rutherford Bench, Napa Valley 2006-12-14 03:42:44 15 winehiker points*
Some of you may recall that I celebrated the results of last month’s congressional elections when my friend Vindu cracked open a 1994 Staglin Cabernet
from the oft-toasted RutherfordBench
of Napa Valley
, California. Vindu had been storing this bottle for quite awhile, and had been suggesting that he would uncork it if the Democrats won.
Unless you’ve been thru-hiking the PCT all summer, you probably know that the Democrats won.
I’d had a Staglin Cab or two previously and had found them to be superior wines. Darn near anything from the Rutherford Bench
had wowed me; however, I’d never formally scored a wine from this locale. Nevertheless, the two of us held great expectations for this ‘94 Staglin. Alas, the experience of drinking it was anticlimactic.
Damn. I really wanted to like this wine. I really really did.
I may have felt that I’d enjoy the Staglin because Vindu has made some good recommendations in the past; perhaps it Read more:review
, Napa Valley
Over the hump! Links for Wednesday 2006-12-13 09:34:42
It’s a wine blog. It’s a hiking blog. It’s Winehiker Witiculture!
I'm going to try an experiment here - a sort of wine review digest.
(tags: wine review reviews digest winehiker)
Setting expectations for the hiking trail
By keeping my ears open for signs that learning can occur, I find that people really enjoy putting a name to a bird call, seeing a coyote for the first time, or learning the difference between a pine cone and a fir cone, or a columbine from a larkspur.
(tags: hiking trail hike hikes nature wilderness outdoors learning education fun california winehiking wine winehiker californiawinehikes.com)
Read more:Wednesday
Setting expectations for the hiking trail 2006-12-13 03:59:47 Knowing what to expect when stepping onto the hiking trail
can often mean spreading the joy.
Um, excuse me, but how now, brown cow?
OK, chances are you love to hike, or you know somebody who does. There is nothing quite like getting your heart to beat a little faster while you breathe the sweet fresh air of a forested mountainside and saunter along its spectacular trails with friends new and old.
Hiking, as many of us are aware, is a healthy activity and, if the proliferation of hiking and other outdoors-inspired blogs is any indication, appears to be growing in popularity. Many residents of California engage in regular hiking activity and will boast that California has many, if not the most, varied and beautiful hiking trails in the West. That's indeed a sentiment that is hard to deny.
I love hiking. I also love bringing people along with me to enjoy the outdoors - I’ve enjoyed doing that for years - and I often endeavor to augment peoples’ experiences beyond what t Read more:Setting
Wine Reviews Amalgamated 2006-12-12 19:23:14 I’m going to try an experiment here - a sort of wine review digest. I can’t in good conscience call the following compendium “tasting-sized pours” in the same manner as Dr. Vino, so instead I’m going to call them “Polishing The Glasses”. For now. But please do upgrade my current mental flaccidity with a better handle if you possibly would.
Meanwhile, on with the Amalgamated Show.
From PB over at WineCask comes a review of a popular-brand table wine, a vintage 1986 from Sonoma County. PB posts a lot of wine reviews in cahoots with his blogging partner, NW. But wait, a 20-year-old table wine? PB examines the good, bad, and ugly process by which he chose the Rodney Strong, even if the main influence was its drastically marked-down price:
I asked, “What are the odds that this wine will even be drinkable?” The man took the bottle, held it up to the light, and pondered it. I was skeptical about what seemed to be a “show” more
Cool links for Tuesday 2006-12-12 09:26:49
Get ready to nominate your favorite wine blogger at the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards
The first American Wine Blog Awards are scheduled to occur sometime next year. Nominations will be start to be accepted in early January 2006.
(tags: american wine blog awards blogs bloggers wines writers background information nomination)
Read more:links
, Tuesday
Get ready to nominate your favorite wine blogger at the American Wine Blog Awards 2006-12-12 01:09:50
Tom Wark has just laid out some background information about the first AmericanWine BlogAwards
, which are scheduled to occur sometime next year. The date of the awards presentation is yet to be determined; meanwhile, nominations for The American Wine Blog Awards will be start to be accepted in early January 2006.
According to Tom, the purpose of the AWBA is to:
“…encourage the proliferation of high quality, thoughtful and innovative wine-related communications using the Blog format. By recognizing the best wine blogs in a number of categories, we hope to persuade all wine bloggers (and wine bloggers to-be) to produce high quality contributions to the wine writing genre.”
For more info about the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards, including a breakdown of the seven categories for nomination, check out today’s post on Tom’s Fermentation blog.
[Insert shameless self-promoting plug below.]
Thank you for reading Winehiker Witiculture! I’m glad you’re Read more:ready
Cool links for Monday 2006-12-11 09:28:02
Legendary Football Coach Mike Ditka to Release New Wine: "Kick A$$ Red"
From football to wine? Some say “what’s the connection?” and others say “it was only a matter of time”.
(tags: mike ditka kick ass red parducci wine blend price 49 dollars)
City Utilities End Coal Fired Electricity Contracts in California
In what is hopefully the start of a new trend, several Southern California cities have decided not to renew long-term contracts for coal-fired electricity
(tags: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY BLOG Solar Wind Power)
Gridlock in wild areas: Time for new policies
Up high on the Butano rim, I sailed around a corner on my mountain bike, an exhilarating downhill glide — and suddenly ran head-long 40 feet ahead into two horseback riders on the right, three hikers on the left.
(tags: mountain biking bikers hikers trails multi use ride rider hike trail encounter policy policies single track)
Ocean Fish, Seafood Could Collapse by 2048
The world’s f Read more:links
, Monday
The Winehiker gets coveted listing on revamped WineCountry.com 2006-12-10 02:48:46 Recently I was contacted by Dawn Miller-Croft, Consulting CEO and CFO of WineCountry.com, the well-known lifestyle resource for all things “wine country”, including food, lodging, spas, events and more as they relate to the wine country experience. The website is extremely popular with online readers, serving over 3 million unique visitors annually and over 4 million page views a month.
When you couple those stats with a new site design and additional content that is designed ostensibly to have broader appeal to a younger wine consumer, it’s no small feat to imagine why Ms. Croft felt obliged to include blogs and message boards as important parts of her site’s new arsenal.
Imagine, then, how charmed I was to receive the following query from Ms. Croft via my website, californiawinehikes.com:
“We are in the process of updating our website and were interested in providing a link to your blog as part of our Connect Page. We admire your work and think our visi
Site change: post recategorization by title, not numbers 2006-12-16 01:12:36 If you subscribe to Winehiker Witiculture via FeedBlitz, then you probably received an email today from the FeedBlitz system announcing changes to my posts. You can be assured that nothing is broken; you’ll still find my posts in each future email just by clicking them the same way you do now.
I’ll attempt to explain the change I made and why.Â
As I review how my posts are viewed through various web channels, I’ve come to the conclusion that I needed to update the way they are presented in your browser’s URL bar and in certain feeds. I’ve decided to reorganize how Winehiker Witiculture manages my posts so that they display by title, rather than by sequential number, in the URL bar.
It is my hope that this reflow will help you, my readers, to find what you’re looking for a little more easily by using actual human words rather than numbers. It will also help me when I review my metrics reporting, which I’ll now be able to do at a glance inste
Fun Friday links 2006-12-15 09:27:29
America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Coming soon: one pass, entry to many national parks and wild lands, available January 1, 2007.
(tags: national park parks pass entry permit BLM NPS FWS USDA USBR)
From ENN: Climate Change Threatens Alpine Resorts
Global warming poses a serious threat to Alpine ski resorts and the regional economies that depend on them, especially in Germany.
(tags: climate change global warming ski resorts)
Fundamentals of Wine Studies II: Sensory Evaluation of Wines and their Components
Enrollment just opened today for this fun wine class taught by Derrick Schneider who, among other things, writes the Obsession With Food blog.
(tags: wine class berkeley extension san francisco derrick schneider)
The Wine Chicks: Y’all Got Me Poppin’
It’s time to shop for bubbly with those bubbly Wine Chicks.
(tags: wine chicks sparkling sparkler champagne)
Read more:links
, Friday
Cool links for Thursday 2006-12-14 09:27:56
Google For Educators
Google and My Wonderful World have teamed up to use Google Earth as an educational tool for spreading awareness about people, places and diversity of our wonderful planet.
(tags: education google map geography awareness earth diversity)
Wine review: 1994 Staglin Cabernet, Rutherford Bench, Napa Valley
I'd had a Staglin Cab or two previously and had found them to be superior wines. Darn near anything from the Rutherford Bench had wowed me; however, I'd never formally scored a wine from this locale. Until now.
(tags: wine review reviews gary staglin cabernet rutherford bench 1994 earthy dusky mineral minerality wines)
Read more:links
, Thursday
Wine review: 1994 Staglin Cabernet, Rutherford Bench, Napa Valley 2006-12-14 03:42:44 15 winehiker points*
Some of you may recall that I celebrated the results of last month’s congressional elections when my friend Vindu cracked open a 1994 Staglin Cabernet
from the oft-toasted RutherfordBench
of Napa Valley
, California. Vindu had been storing this bottle for quite awhile, and had been suggesting that he would uncork it if the Democrats won.
Unless you’ve been thru-hiking the PCT all summer, you probably know that the Democrats won.
I’d had a Staglin Cab or two previously and had found them to be superior wines. Darn near anything from the Rutherford Bench
had wowed me; however, I’d never formally scored a wine from this locale. Nevertheless, the two of us held great expectations for this ‘94 Staglin. Alas, the experience of drinking it was anticlimactic.
Damn. I really wanted to like this wine. I really really did.
I may have felt that I’d enjoy the Staglin because Vindu has made some good recommendations in the past; perhaps it Read more:review
, Napa Valley
Over the hump! Links for Wednesday 2006-12-13 09:34:42
It’s a wine blog. It’s a hiking blog. It’s Winehiker Witiculture!
I'm going to try an experiment here - a sort of wine review digest.
(tags: wine review reviews digest winehiker)
Setting expectations for the hiking trail
By keeping my ears open for signs that learning can occur, I find that people really enjoy putting a name to a bird call, seeing a coyote for the first time, or learning the difference between a pine cone and a fir cone, or a columbine from a larkspur.
(tags: hiking trail hike hikes nature wilderness outdoors learning education fun california winehiking wine winehiker californiawinehikes.com)
Read more:Wednesday
Setting expectations for the hiking trail 2006-12-13 03:59:47 Knowing what to expect when stepping onto the hiking trail
can often mean spreading the joy.
Um, excuse me, but how now, brown cow?
OK, chances are you love to hike, or you know somebody who does. There is nothing quite like getting your heart to beat a little faster while you breathe the sweet fresh air of a forested mountainside and saunter along its spectacular trails with friends new and old.
Hiking, as many of us are aware, is a healthy activity and, if the proliferation of hiking and other outdoors-inspired blogs is any indication, appears to be growing in popularity. Many residents of California engage in regular hiking activity and will boast that California has many, if not the most, varied and beautiful hiking trails in the West. That's indeed a sentiment that is hard to deny.
I love hiking. I also love bringing people along with me to enjoy the outdoors - I’ve enjoyed doing that for years - and I often endeavor to augment peoples’ experiences beyond what t Read more:Setting
Wine Reviews Amalgamated 2006-12-12 19:23:14 I’m going to try an experiment here - a sort of wine review digest. I can’t in good conscience call the following compendium “tasting-sized pours” in the same manner as Dr. Vino, so instead I’m going to call them “Polishing The Glasses”. For now. But please do upgrade my current mental flaccidity with a better handle if you possibly would.
Meanwhile, on with the Amalgamated Show.
From PB over at WineCask comes a review of a popular-brand table wine, a vintage 1986 from Sonoma County. PB posts a lot of wine reviews in cahoots with his blogging partner, NW. But wait, a 20-year-old table wine? PB examines the good, bad, and ugly process by which he chose the Rodney Strong, even if the main influence was its drastically marked-down price:
I asked, “What are the odds that this wine will even be drinkable?” The man took the bottle, held it up to the light, and pondered it. I was skeptical about what seemed to be a “show” more
Cool links for Tuesday 2006-12-12 09:26:49
Get ready to nominate your favorite wine blogger at the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards
The first American Wine Blog Awards are scheduled to occur sometime next year. Nominations will be start to be accepted in early January 2006.
(tags: american wine blog awards blogs bloggers wines writers background information nomination)
Read more:links
, Tuesday
Get ready to nominate your favorite wine blogger at the American Wine Blog Awards 2006-12-12 01:09:50
Tom Wark has just laid out some background information about the first AmericanWine BlogAwards
, which are scheduled to occur sometime next year. The date of the awards presentation is yet to be determined; meanwhile, nominations for The American Wine Blog Awards will be start to be accepted in early January 2006.
According to Tom, the purpose of the AWBA is to:
“…encourage the proliferation of high quality, thoughtful and innovative wine-related communications using the Blog format. By recognizing the best wine blogs in a number of categories, we hope to persuade all wine bloggers (and wine bloggers to-be) to produce high quality contributions to the wine writing genre.”
For more info about the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards, including a breakdown of the seven categories for nomination, check out today’s post on Tom’s Fermentation blog.
[Insert shameless self-promoting plug below.]
Thank you for reading Winehiker Witiculture! I’m glad you’re Read more:ready
Cool links for Monday 2006-12-11 09:28:02
Legendary Football Coach Mike Ditka to Release New Wine: "Kick A$$ Red"
From football to wine? Some say “what’s the connection?” and others say “it was only a matter of time”.
(tags: mike ditka kick ass red parducci wine blend price 49 dollars)
City Utilities End Coal Fired Electricity Contracts in California
In what is hopefully the start of a new trend, several Southern California cities have decided not to renew long-term contracts for coal-fired electricity
(tags: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY BLOG Solar Wind Power)
Gridlock in wild areas: Time for new policies
Up high on the Butano rim, I sailed around a corner on my mountain bike, an exhilarating downhill glide — and suddenly ran head-long 40 feet ahead into two horseback riders on the right, three hikers on the left.
(tags: mountain biking bikers hikers trails multi use ride rider hike trail encounter policy policies single track)
Ocean Fish, Seafood Could Collapse by 2048
The world’s f Read more:links
, Monday
The Winehiker gets coveted listing on revamped WineCountry.com 2006-12-10 02:48:46 Recently I was contacted by Dawn Miller-Croft, Consulting CEO and CFO of WineCountry.com, the well-known lifestyle resource for all things “wine country”, including food, lodging, spas, events and more as they relate to the wine country experience. The website is extremely popular with online readers, serving over 3 million unique visitors annually and over 4 million page views a month.
When you couple those stats with a new site design and additional content that is designed ostensibly to have broader appeal to a younger wine consumer, it’s no small feat to imagine why Ms. Croft felt obliged to include blogs and message boards as important parts of her site’s new arsenal.
Imagine, then, how charmed I was to receive the following query from Ms. Croft via my website, californiawinehikes.com:
“We are in the process of updating our website and were interested in providing a link to your blog as part of our Connect Page. We admire your work and think our visi
The Winehiker's Trail Tips No. 1: Basic Gear 2006-12-17 02:12:14
In the next days and weeks, I’ll be sharing checklists that cover a number of hiking and travel essentials, as well as pre-hike precautions and wilderness etiquette. Today I discuss what I consider to be the most essential items for having out there on the trail either on you or with you, and that’s just plain basic gear.
Why “basic”? Well, let’s just say that if you’re out of range from the nearest cell network, as being in the wilderness often causes you to be, and you need what you could have brought with you, the issue you have at hand will suddenly confront you as being a very basic issue.
Veteran hikers and adventure travelers have learned many tough lessons from their travels, and we can learn from them. Perhaps you've already learned that it's essential to have the right gear when you travel with adventure in mind. To aid in your adventure planning, I've assembled a list of items that I consider important for everyone to have with or n Read more:Trail
, Basic
Technical challenge on Winehiker Witiculture: Feedus interruptus 2006-12-18 20:56:36 If you subscribe to Winehiker Witiculture via FeedBlitz, Bloglines, or other feed reader, then you may be wondering why you haven’t seen any feeds from me over the past few days. Perhaps you’ve received emails from the FeedBlitz system announcing changes to my posts. Unfortunately there is broken code on the server that hosts my blog.
My site developer, Kevin McNeese, is working on a fix. With luck, my feed to you will be restored tomorrow, and you’ll be able to resume reading my posts as you normally have.
It was my own silly fault. In an attempt to optimize the way search engines read and index my site — in short, to enhance my “SEO” and page rank — I caused an error I hadn’t foreseen, one I can’t repair myself.
Why did I make a change?
As I review how my posts are viewed through various web channels, I’ve come to the conclusion that I needed to update the way they are presented in your browser’s URL bar and in certa Read more:Technical
Technical challenge on Winehiker Witiculture: Feedus interruptus 2006-12-18 20:56:36 If you subscribe to Winehiker Witiculture via FeedBlitz, Bloglines, or other feed reader, then you may be wondering why you haven’t seen any feeds from me over the past few days. Perhaps you’ve received emails from the FeedBlitz system announcing changes to my posts. Unfortunately there is broken code on the server that hosts my blog.
My site developer, Kevin McNeese, is working on a fix. With luck, my feed to you will be restored tomorrow, and you’ll be able to resume reading my posts as you normally have.
It was my own silly fault. In an attempt to optimize the way search engines read and index my site — in short, to enhance my “SEO” and page rank — I caused an error I hadn’t foreseen, one I can’t repair myself.
Why did I make a change?
As I review how my posts are viewed through various web channels, I’ve come to the conclusion that I needed to update the way they are presented in your browser’s URL bar and in certa Read more:Technical
The Winehiker's Trail Tips No. 1: Basic Gear 2006-12-17 02:12:14
In the next days and weeks, I’ll be sharing checklists that cover a number of hiking and travel essentials, as well as pre-hike precautions and wilderness etiquette. Today I discuss what I consider to be the most essential items for having out there on the trail either on you or with you, and that’s just plain basic gear.
Why “basic”? Well, let’s just say that if you’re out of range from the nearest cell network, as being in the wilderness often causes you to be, and you need what you could have brought with you, the issue you have at hand will suddenly confront you as being a very basic issue.
Veteran hikers and adventure travelers have learned many tough lessons from their travels, and we can learn from them. Perhaps you've already learned that it's essential to have the right gear when you travel with adventure in mind. To aid in your adventure planning, I've assembled a list of items that I consider important for everyone to have with or n Read more:Trail
, Basic
Fun Friday links 2006-12-15 09:27:29
America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Coming soon: one pass, entry to many national parks and wild lands, available January 1, 2007.
(tags: national park parks pass entry permit BLM NPS FWS USDA USBR)
From ENN: Climate Change Threatens Alpine Resorts
Global warming poses a serious threat to Alpine ski resorts and the regional economies that depend on them, especially in Germany.
(tags: climate change global warming ski resorts)
Fundamentals of Wine Studies II: Sensory Evaluation of Wines and their Components
Enrollment just opened today for this fun wine class taught by Derrick Schneider who, among other things, writes the Obsession With Food blog.
(tags: wine class berkeley extension san francisco derrick schneider)
The Wine Chicks: Y’all Got Me Poppin’
It’s time to shop for bubbly with those bubbly Wine Chicks.
(tags: wine chicks sparkling sparkler champagne)
Read more:Friday
, links
Cool links for Thursday 2006-12-14 09:27:56
Google For Educators
Google and My Wonderful World have teamed up to use Google Earth as an educational tool for spreading awareness about people, places and diversity of our wonderful planet.
(tags: education google map geography awareness earth diversity)
Wine review: 1994 Staglin Cabernet, Rutherford Bench, Napa Valley
I'd had a Staglin Cab or two previously and had found them to be superior wines. Darn near anything from the Rutherford Bench had wowed me; however, I'd never formally scored a wine from this locale. Until now.
(tags: wine review reviews gary staglin cabernet rutherford bench 1994 earthy dusky mineral minerality wines)
Read more:Thursday
, links
Recommend Site To A Friend
