Vino Volo - For the Wine Lover in You

Vino Volo in the Seattle-Tacoma Airport

I have a new place that I love spending time when I am traveling and stuck waiting for flights in an airport. It is Vino Volo! Yup--wine available in the airport to calm my nerves, make me feel better and help me learn more about my favorite beverage. 

Vino Volo offers a wine club that provides an expensive wine tasting for a reasonable, $2 price. That alone is worth the visit. But wait, there's more! 

Vino Volo offers a relaxing wine respite in the middle of the busiest airports imaginable. Some airports, like Denver, have two Vino Volo's. 

The shop offers wine tastings--flights of wine constructed to expand the palate and introduce new wines of a similar characteristics to the taster. It is a great way to expand wine horizons AND they offer food too! Each of the wines is served with a specially designed information sheet that explains the wine and the flavors. And they sell the wine too--so if you like it, buy it. 

So instead of grabbing a day old sandwich from some unknown place to take on a flight--stop into Vino Volo's and drink wine and eat a made to order gourmet sandwich while waiting to for the opportunity to be crammed into another too small airplane seat.

Join the club. I love tasting $65 bottles of wine for $2! I enjoy their selection of interesting wines which changes monthly to maintain its creativity while also including some local wines. 

RECOMMENDATION: Join the club and stop buy your nearest Vino Volo to enjoy the wine.

-- Bob Doan, Writing from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Washington

Wine--the Easy Way

Consider, for a moment, that you are standing in a wine store confronted by hundreds of choices trying to buy a wine to take to a friend's house for dinner. 

How much should you spend on a bottle of wine?

What wine is best with what they are serving for dinner--and of course you haven't a clue what's being served for dinner. 

What do they like?

Panic is setting in and enveloping you. The only wine you enjoy is ones that other people pick out. You feel overwhelmed and totally unprepared for the task you are facing.

Your palms are sweaty. 


Stop and take a quick assessment of the situation.

Do you like white or red wines? Sweet or dry? You wonder, should I spend $35? $25? $15 on a bottle of wine? 

Advice: I am a red wine drinker, but in this situation I am going to bring a bottle of white wine, probably a German Riesling,  between $15 and $20 to take as a dinner gift. 

Why? 

Because Riesling is a solid wine that goes with many dishes and stands alone well. Also, most wine drinkers prefer white wines over red wines.

You will be a genius! 

-- Bob and Chris Doan, Elkridge, MD

Wines from the Texas Hill Country

When I think of the Texas Hill Country west of Austin, Texas, I think of Springtime and bluebonnets. I remember driving through the region many times during the years I was assigned to the Air Force base in San Angelo, Texas, and wondering why the base couldn't be 90 miles east of where it was.

The region is beautiful and I always enjoyed the drive, except for one icy, winter day.

But that written, I never associated the Texas Hill Country with wine! Who knew? I didn't. Turns out, Texas is the fifth largest wine producing region in the United States! Wow! And then there comes along this cool contest, sponsored by Wine Enthusiast, to help people become familiar with Texas and Texas Hill Country wines. I am writing this article to hopefully win a trip to Texas as a wine destination! Who knew.

If I win the contest, I definitely want to experience all the various forms of Texas wines. I am familiar with many other U.S. wine regions--California, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, and New York--but I dearly want to add Texas to the list. Not only that, but if I could travel to the Texas wine country during the springtime, I could take a lot of pictures of the Texas State Flower.

With red wines rated in the low 90's and high 80's--there has to be some excellent drinking. You can review the Texas wine ratings for yourself, but wouldn't it be better to do them in person? I thin the Llano 1997 Signature Red, rated 91 for $9 looks especially enticing!

They do everything bigger in Texas, so they say. Maybe that applies to wines, too.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Winter Vineyards

King Family Vineyards during January

Although the leaves are gone and the harvest is long complete and it appears quiet with little activity, the vineyards of Virginia are busy places during the winter. 

Although it may not look like it, this vineyard is being pruned in preparation for the coming growing season. The piles of wood, as it is called, on the ground are the evidence of the activity that continues even with snow on the ground.

Chris took this picture during our Charlottesville wine weekend. The white snow provided contrast against the dark mountains in the background. And the vines, the stars of the show, are shown just after the pruning that prepares them for the growing season ahead.  

Although there isn't a lot of growing going on, vineyards are busy places during the winter.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Consensus Blending at Keswick

The Consensus Team
George, Sue, Peggy, Chris, Mark

Consensus Blending at Keswick Vineyards near Charlottesville, Virginia, is an awesome way to spend a day. I have written about the Consensus blending before--an event sponsored by the vineyard that brings the wine club members together to blend a winning wine that the winery will bottle and sell.

Our team was ready for the challenge of taking four wines with defects and making a good tasting wine that people would buy. It was tough. We were presented with four wines: Touriga, Norton, Syrah, and Chambourcin; all grown on the estate and ready to be blended into a great wine.

The Consensus Tools:
Four wines, graduated cylinder, and a wine glass

Blending a winning wine takes a lot of patience, the ability to find ways to blend imperfect wines into a masterpiece, and a lot of luck. There is science involved, but as the winemakers says every year, we are being asked to do in two and a half hours what takes him six months to achieve. And we do fairly well. 

This year we had a lot of fun, enjoyed some really imperfect wines, and blended what we thought was a great wine (until we tasted it later) all while spending another awesome weekend in Charlottesville. Our wine did not do as well as we had hoped, but when we tasted it later during the blind judging portion of the day, I felt that it got what it deserved. I rated for the winning wine very high and it was a very nice blend. Our wine, was mediocre by comparison and we rated it as such. 

Although we felt bad that our blend didn't do well this year--we learned a lot and I know that I am already looking forward to next year's event.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Overcomplexifying Wine

I decided to explore this word for one more day.

It seems that I have moved down the road in my enjoyment of wine into the realm of overcomplexifying. Yup, no longer is it enough for me to just like a wine.  

Gone are the good old days when I just considered whether I liked the wine or not. Now, whether I like it or not, I am pulling the wine apart and deciding why I like it or what could be improved in the wine to make me like it.

Is is balanced? Is there a complex flavor and aroma presentation? How does the wine feel? How are the tannins? The acidity? The minerality? What aromas are present? Currants or grapefruit or flowers or cherries or leather to whatever flavor you can imagine. I tasted a wine once where the winemaker described hints of bubblegum. 

And I look at how the wine appears in the glass. Is the color good--be it red or white. Does the color go with the kind of grape? 

I have overcomplexified wine drinking and enjoyment.

Even when someone asks what my favorite wine is I find myself unable to give a straight answer? Do you mean for drinking with cheese? Or sitting around the pool on a hot summer afternoon? Or enjoying with pizza, or hamburgers, or salmon, or a hunk of beef? Red or White? 


It used to be so simple--my favorite wine was an Australian shiraz.  But now it comes out something like a 2005 Axios Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. I can't afford to drink it very often, but it is my favorite. On the other hand  depending upon the day, my favorite wine might be an Americana Vineyard Apparition, if I'm in the mood. 

Perhaps that is why life is all about. We take simple things and overcomplexify them, just to make ourselves feel better.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Wine Tasting Evening with Laurie Forster

While it may seem boring to some and it may seem I do a lot of of it, the most important thing that happens when I go out to taste wine is that I meet people. Wine drinkers seem to be a group of people who are willing to celebrate life and enjoy the fruit of the vine.

Last evening Chris and I along with two close friends went to a wine event (not entirely a tasting) at a recreational store in Annapolis and enjoyed not only an evening together but rekindled a relationship with a star of the wine world, Laurie Forster.  We first met Laurie about five years ago at the St Michael's Food and Wine event. I must have made an impression because she remembered me. How do I know? She told me where and when we first met! Wow.

Laurie Forster

During the evening, I had the opportunity to play a how good is your nose game--mine isn't very good because blindfolded I confused a banana with an apple and couldn't identify Old Spice aftershave, and wine a book written by Laurie while enjoying an evening of wine and learning. 

Learning about wine is what makes the whole process fun. It is not all about the drinking, but the learning to slow down and appreciate wine. 

Laurie has a great approach to help people learn about wine without that snobby approach that turns so many novices off.

Wine provides a means to meet people and to share experiences. Laurie has developed a subtle comedy act that helps to to educate while also encouraging the enjoyment of wine--and especially moderately priced, good tasting wines. 

Chris and I enjoy learning about wines from new places and even new wines from known locales. The best part is tasting them to appreciate their strengths and to enjoy their complexity.

Good wines, good friends, and meeting new people. What could be better.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD