Tag Archives: wine

Jul27

Christmas in Slovenia – Gravner vineyard

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Christmas 2025 saw us on an Adventure – Andrea’s friend was working at a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Slovenia, Hiša Franko, and we had the opportunity to join her for a dinner and some adventuring. We jumped at the chance, hopping a flight into Northern Italy before the drive out into Slovenia itself… with a few exciting adventures along the way.


Monday, 22-December-2025

One of our first adventures of the trip was a tour of a vineyard sitting right on the border between Italy and Slovenia. I hadn’t heard of it previously, but I quickly learned the error in that lack of knowledge – Gravner is a cult-classic, a vineyard making amazing traditional orange wine in the Georgian style – storing them in massive amphorae stored underground until they “come of age”.

Our tour was unique – Andrea’s friend was able to get us in as a favor, from a recent visit she’d been on… and let me tell you, private tours of vineyards are pretty freaking awesome. One of the many cool fringe benefits of Andrea’s connections into the world of fine wine and finer food.

We toured, learned a bit about the history of the vineyard, and I stood awestruck at the sheer amount of work that goes into the wines… and the absolute beauty of the landscape itself. We checked out the aging cellar, tried some of the wines, and I got to feel more than a little bit fancy.

Apr24

A breather in Bulgaria – Sofia!

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Tuesday, 26-August-2025 through Sunday, 31-August-2025


Bulgaria.

I haven’t been to this part of the world, before. I knew that I had the best tour guide I could ask for in Andrea, and had done the base background research on the history and culture (and had obviously absorbed some myself, such as Banitsa), but the adventure was a first foray into a new world, regardless.

It was glorious.


I can’t overstate how great of a guide Andrea was / is – I lovingly call her “The queen of Sofia”, and that title was well earned the whole time we were in town. Everywhere we went, people recognized her. Every restaurant saw the owner, chef, or someone similar come out to visit and catch up… alongside consistent extras unexpectedly appearing. Each bite was excellent, and each drink was special. I was in incredibly good hands.


Now, what did we do, specifically? Quite a bit:
– We visited Andrea’s Grandma for her birthday!
– We had amazing food – Italian, Turkish, pastries, and BBQ
– We met fun and interesting people – tons of folks from Andrea’s previous life, all interesting and enjoyable
– We explored. Walking around the city, I even had an afternoon of solo exploration where I got to recollect the fun of my Grand Adventure, exploring a city where I don’t know the language.


It really was an excellent start to an excellent vacation.

Aug4

A Roman dinner… that isn’t actually Roman

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Sunday, 02-July-2023

**Warning – Food post, includes the meats**


Ever since visiting Rome, I’ve loved the idea of cooking more traditional Roman dinners. Not Italian dinners, mind you… Roman.

As in, ancient Rome. Old-school.


I had the opportunity to try an option out one Sunday that I thought was a Roman style… I did some research, confirmed that asparagus and beef were found in Italy at the time (or near enough), and then added polenta because obviously that’s Roman… and cooked it all up!

Turns out – Not so accurate.

Romans didn’t eat beef – they used oxen as beasts of burden, but didn’t eat them.
Romans didn’t eat polenta – it’s actually corn based, which was native to North America.
Romans did totally eat asparagus and drink wine, though, so… win?

Anyways it was delicious and I enjoyed it.

We had ice cream afterward. Not Roman. Yes delicious.