Welcome to the first posting of Nosing and Noshing, an on-line history of our wine and dine experiences for 2008. It's a lot easier to post to the blog rather than the numerous wine and food sites on the blogosphere. This doesn't mean we still won't post on Yelp or Chow hoping to seriously change the culinary world, but this can be a place where we at least place the fresh notes from our various travels and tastings for us and others to check out.

For a start, tonight while I'm typing this I'm drinking a 2005 Avila Santa Barbara County Chardonney purchased at Trader Joe's this weekend for $4.99. It's suprisingly refreshing, but a tiny bit harsh on the back end and is a bit drier and citrusy than than your typical California malolactic chards most everyone seems to like. It's a high volume wine that may be ending its reign at Laetitia Winery in Arroyo Grande, California - we were just there last week and it was on sale half price at the winery for $5 a bottle but we didn't buy any. This Avila brand has nothing to do with nearby Avila Beach - it is their "affordable" wine line for mass distribution and I seem to recall from the conversation at the tasting room they were eliminating the label entirely It's a good deal at that price, tasty, and any of the Avila wines for under $5 are very good buys, since they used to retail at more than twice that price. Go to http://www.avilawine.com/ for more info about the specs and more professional (but biased) tasting notes - good reading -might even make the wine taste better (!).

ps: Laetitia Winery is the first wine stop on the San Luis Obispo/Edna Valley - Arroyo Grande Wine trail. It is right off 101 before Arroyo Grande and the must first stop for the wine trekker to that area. Be very mindful of the traffic as it is a driveway right off the "freeway" to the winery. The entire facility has a very interesting and long history in the area and in addition to the regular Chards and Pinots there are some very decent sparkling wines. Before the French got all uptight about us 'Merican's using the word Champagne, the place was called Maison Duetz back in the '80s and they made some pretty good methode champenoise - it still has one of the only special presses this side of the Rockies for sparking wine. More on Laetitia later..