Monday, December 5, 2011

Twitter + Food + Wine + Friends = An Incredible Weekend

As many of you know I have been a part of the tweet movement for a while.  Through Twitter I have 'met' the most incredible people in the food and wine realm.  This past weekend was the Portland Urban Winery Winter Wonderland Event.  I spoke with my better half and asked if I could please have this weekend as my Christmas gift and so the weekend began.

Whenever we stay overnight in Portland we always stay at the Courtyard Marriott Portland City Center.  We love this hotel and because I have wonderful connections, we do get quite the deal.  We are never disappointed with the staff or the hotel.  They do go that extra mile for you, even running around trying to find me foam pillows as the Princess cannot have feather.

Courtyard by Marriott Portland, City Center
I love the rooms
Sunday morning our new Twitter Besties Lars and Dave took us to our very first hashcapade.  This is a group of people who love hash and meet once a month at various restaurants through out the Portland area.  What a great group of people and they made us feel so welcome.  I am seriously considering driving up from Corvallis to future gatherings.  We met at Besaws.  I did not take a picture of the restaurant as there were people waiting outside and well you know how that goes right?  So I borrowed the picture of the restaurant from their website.


First order was a Bloody Mary.

Bear's Spinach Omelet and Potatoes

My Incredible Hash.

Dave's UNBELIEVABLE Egg Bacon Burger on top of a waffle!

Our Twitter Besties Lars and Dave and the incredible Maggs our waitress.
Kramer Vineyards, Oregon
Through Twitter I found Kramer Vineyards.  Becky and Kim Kramer were always tweeting about Sparkle Parties and the Princess is always up for a party when it involves sparkles, so I started following them and we became Twitter friends.  This was one winery I wanted to visit while in the area. When we arrived we were given the VIP treatment and tour.  We also got to meet the wonderful Beau, my first wine blogger that I followed and totally value his opinion with regards to wine.  As we were leaving the vineyard we all agreed that it was so wonderful to see the passion that Kim has for her art of creating great wines.  She is incredibly passionate about what she does and it shows.  Once again if I was better with words I would describe everything in more detail, but I am not so you will be subjected to pictures and captions.

The cutest winery dog.  I follow this dog on Twitter.

Yes this all means something.  To me, it's happy juice!!

Tasting from the barrel.  Don't you love my shot of Kim, winemaker, in the background?

Barbera (my love) tasting from the barrel.

I love the smell of these barrels.  Yes I did smell them.

My other happy place.
Next we went on to the Winter Wonderland event at Seven Bridges Winery.  Seven Bridges was the very first winery to follow me on Twitter.  I love their wine and I am slightly Pay Pal challenged so Jill, the owner and wine tweep, has always been so kind and gracious and I was looking forward to meeting her.  I also got to meet other people I follow on Twitter and it was a wonderful evening.

Vincent Winery. What incredible Pinot Noir. On my drink list.

Jan-Marc and his wines.

Without a doubt the best Chardonnay I have ever tasted in the States. Perfect balance.

You have to love machinery that was made in South Africa

The great winemakers from Enzo. Their Zinfandel is yummy-licious-glass-lickable

Bear and our Twitter Besties.

The team from 7 Bridges Winery.  Part of my drink list and wine family now.

More Twitter Tweeps that I got to meet.

I must shout out to Portland Urban Wineries for making this event affordable.  It was so well organized, food was great, wines were great and we were the last ones to leave.  We will be attending the next one!

So after this great event we were all a little peckish so we headed on over to Henry's Tavern.  Happy Hour ALL DAY SUNDAY.  I did not take any pictures of the food, I was so hungry and my beer from Portland was so good I didn't think of the Nikon once!

At least I took a picture of the building.

And the neon sign.
The next morning we headed out to Lauretta Jean's.  A tiny little pastry coffee shop.  We had read an article about Lauretta Jean's in Portland Monthly Magazine. You must stop by and have their Quiche.  Truly flaky crust and the filling is perfectly portioned.

The incredible Quiche

Have to work my way through the menu some day.

Yum.

Stumptown Coffee

My piece of pie heaven.
Just a sample of our stash. Didn't want to look like a lush and post a pic of them all.
The fabulous Ms. T brought this Hestia Barbera for me to enjoy. What a sweetheart.
Last week someone tweeted the following on Twitter.  "Facebook is for the people you went to school with. Twitter is for the people you wish you went to school with."

After my incredible weekend, I have to agree.

19 comments:

  1. Looks like a truly fantastic weekend, I'm so glad we finally got to meet and sip some vino!

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  2. Sounds like a great weekend. All that wine..YUM!

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  3. Tiffany (@stevens_tk)December 5, 2011 at 7:28 PM

    "Twitter + Food + Wine + Friends = An Incredible Weekend": wonderfully expressed through your words and photos...my Barbera loving tweep :-)

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  4. Seven Bridges WineryDecember 5, 2011 at 8:20 PM

    Aw.., so glad to be part of your wine family! Cheers!

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  5. I must admit to slightly misunderstanding "hashcapade." I think it means something different in San Francisco. ;)

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  6. LOL! I also had the same reaction as Todd X.. I thought.. They have restaurants for that stuff??

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  7. @Beau ~ likewise, looking forward to when you and Becky visit us for an evening of curry.

    @Tiffany ~ you are so kind, looking forward to tasting my Barbera.

    @7Bridges ~ May have to forgo groceries to join your wine club. :~)

    @ToddX ~ Thanks for 'splaining it to me

    @dbx ~ How are the hiccups?

    @AlittleSprite ~ it was a great weekend and yeah you and ToddX must be on the same page as he had to explain it to me. :~)

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  8. What an amazing weekend. Saw your blog on Mitchell is moving had a brief look came back and read some more - it's great. I also love the film Chocolat. Back in a bit. Do drop by my blog. I am signing up as a follower.

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  9. No where to sign as a follower but I will anyway!!

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  10. It was such a memorable weekend and we were so happy to have shared it with you. Thanks for capturing the memories in such a fantastic way!

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  11. I really envy you sometimes. You know that? ;)

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  12. You live a fabulous life! So lovely meeting you and I do hope you trek up from Corvallis for the next Hashcapade :)

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  13. So many beautiful pictures! It all looks amazing.

    I know that I'm more geeky than I thought though. I saw Magitec, and wine supplies were not my first thought. Final Fantasy VI should put you in the right direction should you wonder what I mean.

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  14. What a great post and great photos. My mouth is watering. And, yes, I LOVE that photo of Winemaker Kim. Very artsy! Happy Rehearsal Christmas!

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  15. Oh, THAT kind of Hash!
    Had me wondering for a moment.
    You lucky girl. I would love this, ans so would Mrs. Marshmallow.
    The photos and the descriptions made me want to be there sooooo much!

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  16. YOU FOLLOW THAT DOG ON TWITTER?


    I love you.

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  17. The wine was great, but the highlight of the Urban Wineries event was finally meet you! I loved coming across this post and it's even a decent photo of me, but damn, I look like a midget next to Lars. Oh yeah, I am.

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