So happy you have joined us! This is my first Wine Wanderings Post on Substack. I am Tricia High Conover, DipWSET, CSS, AWE. What are those post-nominals about? DipWSET is a Diploma of Wine designation from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust - our certifying body, located in London, England. That’s a Level 4 wine certification. Does that make me know everything about wine? Hardly! That’s why we are here…..to learn about each other’s experiences. The CSS is a Certified Spirits Specialist designation and AWE denotes an American Wine Expert - just ask me anything about Indiana and Idaho wine!
And yes, my middle name is really High.
My friends and colleagues are continually asking me for advice on wine, wine pairings, cocktail mixes, and travel suggestions. These requests have prompted me to write this Substack newsletter. Their brilliant forum begs for interaction.
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Most importantly, I am an avid wine and spirits traveler. I have been writing about my adventures for 10 years. Some of this “gastro-tourism” has coincided with business travel while in the software business, but most trips were for interviews with my favorite winemakers, master distillers, and travel experts. Family, friends, and colleagues travel with me, and I travel alone, too. I want to hear about your favorite vineyard, winery, distillery, and restaurant in the U.S. and the world. I hope you enjoy hearing about my past excursions, disastrous travel decisions, horrible “corked” wine, best Perfect Manhattan, and optimistic upcoming plans.
“But, above all, you will learn lots and lots about wine and the wine tourism industry.”
My readers skew towards wine lovers, travel warriors, and foodies. My readers include new wine friends, my tech buddies from LinkedIn, frequent travelers, the cocktail crews, slow-food gurus, gastrotourism seekers, my GrapeStone Twitter followers, wine o’clock fans, and searchers for the best vineyards and unique restaurants in the world. A couple of cat and dog lovers visit, too. My ragdoll, Lucy, makes appearances occasionally. See her below.
Comments: Phillip Anderson, Master of Wine candidate
What You’ll Get
I have been writing online for a long time. A Long Time – I was one of the first digital writers to attend the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in 2010. Unlike traditional print media writers, I have had to find my own followers, and find my own voice. Most of my best writing has appeared in:
Caption: Cameron Diaz and Katherine Powers discuss Avaline Wines on a Virtual tasting hosted by Wine.com - See my Next Post on The Best Virtual Wine Tastings in 2020.
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Lucy, My Ragdoll, with Several of Her Cellar Favorites
Lucy is my “mitted” and pointed Ragdoll cat lounging in front of some cellar favorites Named after “I Love Lucy” as a toddler, she entertained us with continuous, hilarious cat antics. This little 7 lb. cat should be submitted to the High Jump Event at the Cat Olympics. She often jumps from my counters to the top of my cabinets- 5.4 feet.
From the left:
2015 Hanzell Vineyards, Chardonnay, Sonoma Valley AVA (100% Chardonnay)
2017 Scala Dei “Ladder to God” Priorat, Spain (grapes are 65% highly extracted Black Garnacha, 15 % Carinyena, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon)
Tricia, very excited to see the site up & running. I have been following your wine travels with interest across various publications. This looks like a great place to bring it all together!
Tricia, very excited to see the site up & running. I have been following your wine travels with interest across various publications. This looks like a great place to bring it all together!
Would welcome your comments!