Ipod, Check. Wireless laptop, Check. Snow-covered Alps, Check. Swooshing through the land of chocolate & coo-coo clocks via hi-speed rail, listening to David Gray songs, washing down a mini-baguette stuffed with salami with Eau Naturelle, surrounded by snow-capped peaks outside and Gucci-loafered mafiosa inside, the thought occurs to me that I should do this more often. Save the date of July 22nd, 2006. Launch Atlanta & Atlanta Wine School will be staging an evening of French cuisine, wine, and musique for the benefit of Angel Flight of Georgia. Details forthcoming. In you missed the front-page of the most recent weekend section of the Wall Street Journal you would note it is "Festival Season" for food & wine lovers. We're no WSJ, but our own Wine on the Road Editor Greg McCluney was in lock-step with his own account of places to taste, taste, taste. Finally, our attraction to winemakers is normally justified, as their passions are transformed into sacrifices of sweat, money, family & emotion. Read an interview of Raffaldini Winery co-owner Susan Lyons for a local account of their quest to create a quality Italian product in North Carolina. On my last bite of chocolate-stuffed croissant, we cross into Italy, cruising past Lake Como. We'll post an entire photo journal of this trip next month. Buongiorno!

	Wine on the Road by Greg McCluney, Wine & Travel Editor Festival Season! Pick the mountains or the sea; days of wine and food are waiting. Tasting festivals are HOT. Pay $40-100 and spend 4-5 hours tantalizing your palate in exotic places, with exotic themes, and celebrity chefs, wine experts, etc. Greg McCluney has some picks for you here.
	Interview with Susan Lyons, Co-Owner Raffaldini Vineyards & Winery NC Winery with 13th Century Heritage Susan Lyons discusses why she and her husband Stephen, formerly at Ravenswood Winery in CA decided to risk it all and move to NC, starting a winery dedicated to Italian varietals. The Full Article
Atlanta Wine School's Calendar of Events
	New Listing ~ New Location in Alpharetta Introduction to Wine, Part I April 24th The original Introduction to Wine Course is referred to Part I as we now have a Part II! Our most popular class is now offered in Alpharetta--convenient for all of those on the North end. More Info
	Pinot Envy! April 27th This tasting will center on two related grapes, Pinot Noir & Pinot Gris. Six of the twelve wines tasted will be King Estate wines, which consistently score 90+ with wine reviewers. More Info
	New Course ~ New Location in Vinings! Introduction to Wine, Part II May 2nd In Part II, we explore these thriving but lesser known wine production areas: Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria and South Africa. The class also includes discussion on two styles of under-appreciated wines: sparkling and fortified. More Info
	Viva Italia May 23rd The "land of wine" discussion will feature 10+ wines, maps and entertaining conjecture on the world's largest producer. More Info

• Cult Winery Screaming Eagle SOLD
  One of the buyers of Screaming Eagle is Stanley Kroenke, the owner of the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, as well as the arena in Denver where both teams play. Well, I guess if you're used to paying Carmelo Anthony's hourly wage, you don't balk at dropping a purported $30 million on a winery that makes just 500 cases of wine per year! More
• Vinum Cellars Tasting at 283 BAR in Athens, Georgia
  April 5th, 6pm - $38. Five wines and three courses. Veronica French from Vinum will be the guest speaker for these wines that are anything but mainstream. Event sponsored by Shiraz Fine Wine & Gourmet; tapas by Speakeasy. Call 706-208-0010 or Website
• Your Can't Make Wine Without a Dog
  Winery dogs are greeters, grape tasters, entertainers, herders, healers, protectors, hunters, celebrities and sales enhancers. Whatever their job at the winery, dogs bring out the best in people and then people give their best selves to the wine. Info on the Book
• Wine BLOGS
  A BLOG (or Weblog) focuses on a particular subject, lists text and images in chronological order, and essentially functions as an online diary that is shared by visitors. Wine is not new to BLOGS. Here are few: Atlantan Tiffany Brown's Cultured Wino; a French Photographer interested in wine, Wine Terroirs; Craig Camp, self-professed Italian-wine-lover has VinoCibo; Time Magazine's wine & travel columnist Alice Feiring's In Vino Veritas; Dr. Tyler Colman, a real doctor, has Dr. Vino; Eric Asimov, chief wine critic for the New York Times, has The Pour; and a new favorite, The Zinquisition, stirs opinions with a discussion headline, "Does the lack of HOT female wine workers hurt wine sales?"
• Macho Merlot for Men
  Hot on the stiletto heels of last year's wines-for-women trend, new releases from Ray's Station Vineyards in Sonoma County are being pitched to the Y-chromosome set as "Hearty Red Wines for Men." More
• First International Wine Exhibition for Israel
  The Israeli climate is very conducive to grape vines--arid with sandy soils, unrelenting sunshine during growing periods, and cooler evenings. If you want a wine to make it into the grocery stores there (the primary point of sale for wine) it has to be Kosher. Although there are more and more producers making non-Kosher wines. More on the 1st Annual IsraWineExpo 2006.
• Carmelize Your Nuts
  I get a serious sweet-tooth at times, and munching on carmelized nuts provides some relief. They can be great accompaniments to an off-dry Champagne, a sweeter Oloroso sherry, or tossed in the 'ol pie-hole with a Port & Stilten. Or include them with goat cheese into your spinach salad, add dried cranberries, a balsamic/honey dressing, red onions and voila! This local Atlanta forum has nice tips from members on cooking; my favorite is the detail provided to carmelize nuts. More
• Red Wine Can Prevent Periodontal Diseases
  Atlanta Wine School student Dr. Page Barden brings us the results of a new study published by the International & American Association for Dental Research showing that components found in red wine can help in preventing and treating inflammatory periodontal diseases. More
• Goldfarb on Terroir "What the Hell is it and Why Should We Care?"
  At Terroir 2006 nearly 200 wine industry types listened to a gaggle of speakers on such esoterica as global warming, sensory validation, soil amendments, plant biology, phenols and other compounds, as well as biodynamism; and how the gestalt pertains to wine and terroir. But what they came away with was a cornucopia of definitions of the meaning of terroir. More
• There Goes the Romance
  One of the enduring attractions to wine is the process of making it, a ritual of respect for mother nature, and a painstaking system of crushing, fermenting, racking, fining, oak aging, stabilization, and bottling. None is easy, but the reward is the product that is created along this path of sweat and risks. Unfortunately, many winemakers are finding that the wine can taste the same while they avoid the expensive and time-consuming steps of oak barrel aging. Oak "chips" they say produce an identical product. More
• "The Enemy is Liquor and Wine"
  With beer sales stagnant, Anheuser-Busch (50% of the total industry) is leading a campaign to raise consumption of the beer segment. Their motto? "Once consumers start drinking martini's they're not long for this world." More

Caught in the Act! Check out the following photos:

Feb 24th ~ Chef Glenn Butler of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy tells patrons about the South African Wine Dinner for the evening.

March 9th ~ Making Magnificat Attendees blend their own $50 version of Franciscan's Magnificat under the direction of Winemaker Janet Myers.

March 30th ~ Setting up 672 pre-poured wine glasses for the Bordeaux Tasting with Winemakers Marcel Ducasse & Emmanuel Cruse.

March 30th ~ Another shot depicting the awesome Bordeaux vintage vertical spanning 18 years, along with some charcuterie.