Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month the World Wine Travel writers are taking a virtual trip to New Zealand's North Island. Linda of My Full Wine Glass is hosting. You can read her invitation here . All of these posts will be live between Friday, October 21st and Saturday, October 22nd. Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm: A Fun Halloween Birthday Feast featuring Supernatural Spook Light Pinot Gris Orange Wine Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla: 3 x 3: Triple Porcini'd Polenta + a Three Grape Red Blend from Gisborne Nicole on Somm's Table : “Cooking to the Wine: Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay with Roasted Sheet Pan Chicken and Vegetables” Susannah at Avvinare : “Taking a Look At Waiheke Island Wines” Linda at My Full Wine Glass : “Two Hawke's Bay whites for virtual visit to NZ North Island” I myself had never really explore the North Island and was excited to find a red wine from Gisborne. It might be pretty difficult to read the text in that graphic from winetourism.com. Sorry. Basi...

This month I am hosting the French Winophiles as we look at French grape varieties that are cultivated and made into wines around the world. You can read my invitation here , but I asked the group to get  creative and look, for example, at Cinsault but made in Chile; Semillon from Australia; or Négrette made in California. If you are reading this early enough, feel free to join our live Twitter chat on Saturday, March 20th at 8am Pacific time. Follow the hashtag #Winophiles and be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here's what the group is sharing... Allison & Chris at AdVINEtures share French Grapes Around the World: Chardonnay in BC's Okanagan Valley . Andrea of The Quirky Cork declares Ooo la la! French Grapes in Turkey! Gwendolyn of Wine Predator pours West Coast “Bordeaux” Blends with Beef Bourguignon . Jeff of FoodWineClick! takes A Reluctant Look at French Grapes Outside of France . Jill of L'Occasion features Rhône Grapes in Paso Ro...

One evening last week, Jake and I sat down to watch something on Netflix after the boys went to bed. Falling Inn Love  popped up as a suggestion and I was in the mood for a silly romantic comedy. He obliged. On the Screen It definitely fell into the silly little rom-com category. Meet Gabriela, an upwardly mobile young urban professional, who lives in San Francisco and has a penchant for environmentally friendly buildings and renovations. On a lark - after far too many glasses of white wine - she enters a "Win an Inn in New Zealand" contest by writing a 400 word essay about why she wants to win an inn. And, the following morning, she discovers that she's won. So, off she heads to New Zealand where she meets local hottie Jake when her luggage rolls down the hill and collides with his truck. You guessed it, right? The inn isn't all is was chalked up to be. Read: disaster of a building. And hot guy Jake is - you see where this is going, right? - the best contract...

This is a sponsored post written by me in conjunction with the August #WinePW New Zealand event. A wine sample was provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. This month Lori of Dracaena Wines is hosting the Wine Pairing Weekend - #WinePW - bloggers as we explore the wines of New Zealand. You can read her invitation:  here . And she also arranged for several of us to receive samples of New Zealand wines. Such a treat! It was especially nice to see that we received such a variety - everything from sparkling Sauvignon Blanc to Pinot Noir. Here's the line-up of the #WinePW New Zealand posts... If you are reading this early enough, join us for a live Twitter chat: Saturday, at 11am ET/8am PT. It is easy to join along, even if you don’t have a blog. Just tune in and follow the hashtag #winePW. In the meantime, check out my friends suggestions for meals to pair with NZ wines... Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla paired Hāngī in a Dutch Ove...

This is a sponsored post written by me in conjunction with a virtual wine tasting event hosted by  Snooth for Villa Maria Winery.  Wine samples were provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. When I received an email from a contact at Snooth about taking part in a virtual wine tasting, featuring wines from New Zealand, I was intrigued. First, because I was completely unfamiliar with the winery - Villa Maria - itself and, second, because I can't think of many other wines that I've tried from New Zealand. I always love learning more about a new-to-me area. Besides, I love an excuse to have a wine pairing dinner. At first I was hesitant to ask my friends because it was mid-week, but with the boys out of school anyway for Fall Break, she said it wasn't a problem. And because I didn't want to leave her husband out of the fun and games (he's in a boot after surgery and my stairs are hard to manage), I barged over to her house. Thank goodne...