Wine Wednesday: Invention Vineyard's 2023 Imaginada (Albariño)

 

In the opening scene of my upcoming book, Que Será, Syrah, my main character is drinking a glass of Albariño (AKA Alvarinho). She's in Gibraltar, so it fits; this being very much an Iberian grape. This is also another wine that I'm not overly familiar with, so of course, whenever I see it offered, I have to indulge. 

Imaginada is a Texas wine--from Invention Vineyard, in Fredericksburg. And, as I mentioned before, the cutesy wine names are on full display. So that's two things I've noticed during my three years in Texas. The winery websites have improved GREATLY since I first started following them, and the wine names keep getting more and more random. But I digress.

Anyway, I very much enjoyed this wine. It's very easy to drink. Definitely a great summer wine. I paired this with lemon chicken and asparagus, but I think it would probably go even better with a light pasta dish. It's very light bodied, a pale straw in color. The flavor is crisp and slightly herbaceous with a hint of salinity. The nose has a lot of fruit notes--ripe pear and tangerine, maybe a little cantaloupe, along with the faintest tinge of something that I swear reminds me of candied bacon.

Here's a sneak peek at Que Será, Syrah:

“C’mon, c’mon,” I mutter impatiently as I frown at my phone, which is taking forever to connect. “Let’s do this already! I can’t miss this call!” I’m reaching for my glass of Albariño, hoping the wine might calm my nerves when—thank you, Jesus! —my sisters’ faces appear on the phone’s small screen.

“Hey, Bee! And Rosy Posey,” I say in greeting forgetting, until I register her slight grimace, how much Rosa’s always hated that nickname. “Sorry I couldn’t make it back,” I find myself babbling. “How are you holding up, Rosy?”

“I’m fine,” Rosa says. “I’m sorry you two couldn’t be here, either.”

I squirm uncomfortably. “You know how it is. I’ll try to be there for the memorial.”

Full disclosure? I’m totally lying. Having been forced to attend my father’s and grandfather’s funerals at far too young an age, I’m really not anxious to go through another family grief circus. 

“You’ve got time,” Rosa says, continuing to push. “We won’t hold it until after harvest season at least. But you really should be here for it, Allegra. After everything Grandma did for us. Pay our respects.”

My lips fold in. “Sure. Of course. I’ll see what I can do.” After harvest season? Fuck me, that’s like…six months away. How can I avoid going back with that kind of lead time? I’m going to have to get creative.

Rosa’s eyes flicker away from the screen as someone clears his throat—our Uncle Geno, I’m betting. And then I do pick up my glass, wishing I’d thought to order something a whole lot stronger.  I’d somehow forgotten that I was going to have to deal with my entire family. My sisters. My cousins. My uncle. Ugh.

Que Será, Syrah: Pour Decisions, Book 3

Que-Sera-Syrah

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

 

Allegra

 

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

​

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

 

Clay

 

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

​

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

​

Releasing May 27, 2025

Romance Writers Weekely ~ April Fool's Day ~ #LoveChatWrite

This week, on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop, we're asked, "It’s April Fool’s Day! What’s the best prank you’ve ever heard about (or done)?"

I am NOT a fan of April Fool's Day--it's a by-product of two things. Being somewhat more gullible than many other people, and having a slightly younger sister who luuuuvvved jokes and teasing. Particularly me. 

I mean...I like jokes just fine--when I'm not on the receiving end. But I'm a big believer in not doing unto others what you wouldn't want done to you. So I generally refrain.

HOWEVER, I do love seeing the creative pranks that companies like Google come up with every year. And I can't wait to see what they'll come up with this year.

In case you're unfamiliar with some of the pranks they've played in the past, here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools%27_Day_jokes

In the meantime, hop on over to Brenda Margriet's page to find out what pranks she admires. And don't forget to check out her book, Suspect Attraction.

AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW!

COMING IN ONE WEEK

A silver-haired charmer with a shameful secret. A broken-hearted matchmaker with a guilty burden. And a bewildering disappearance that could wrench them apart.

Regina Blynde knows Seth Updike is trouble the minute he strides into Blynde Dating Agency. That’s trouble with a capital T—tantalizing, tasty, and tempting. 

Resolved never to risk loving someone only to lose them again, Ginnie keeps things strictly professional and matches him with a wealthy widow.

Who promptly goes missing.

Ginnie’s search for the truth makes it impossible to avoid Seth. And when he sets out to woo her, she finds him too hard to resist. 

But as the evidence mounts up and mysterious circumstances multiply, Ginnie must face a shocking fact—she’s falling in love with the prime suspect.

https://books2read.com/SuspectAttraction

POUR DECISIONS

A New, Multi-Author Series Coming Soon!

Meet the Martinelli sisters: Rosa, Bianca and Allegra. These partners in wine have just inherited a once-storied winery in the heart of Napa Valley. They’re living the dream, right?

 

Not so fast! Because, as it turns out, not everybody is happy for them. And that includes their Uncle Geno who’d assumed the property would come to him.

 

There are hoops to jump through, barrels to get over, and a mountain of regulations they'll have to scale. But the sisters are crushing it—and we don’t just mean the grapes. They’re making wine, falling in love, and working together to restore their inheritance to its former glory, one pour decision at a time.

https://www.pgforte.com/pour-decisions

Musical Monday: Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology (Jack Johnson)

 I discovered this song by accident while I was putting together the playlist (still a work in progress) for Que Será, Syrah (which is totally wine-centric). There are A LOT of wine-themed songs on the list. I think this is one of my favorites. And the live version gives all the right vibes.

Wine Wednesday: Grape Creek 2022 Cab Trois

 

So, in case you haven't noticed I blog about some of the wines I like. I don't mention the wines I don't care for but, to be honest, there aren't that many of them. My thoughts on wine are like the old cliche about pizza--that it's like sex, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. Which, I have to say, I don't think is actually true. Not about any of those. But I get the point (and I'm sure you do, too) and it's not all that far from the truth, either.

But I digress.

I tend to drink mostly low to mid priced wine because that's what I can afford. And, like with coffee (one of my other habits) I like it enough that I'm not going to be turned off very often.  None of which means that I can't appreciate really good, or relatively expensive wine. Really, really good wine can be amazing. But ordinary wine, can still live up to the words of Robert Louis Stevenson and Galileo Galilei:

"Wine is bottled poetry" 

Robert Louis Stevenson

"Wine is sunlight, held together by water" 

Galileo Galilei

But, yet again, I digress.

Today's wine is another Grape Creek offering. Their Cab Trois is a combination ofCabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Ruby Cabernet. I've never heard of Ruby Cabernet. Maybe it's a new hybrid? According to the winery's tasting notes, there's also some Petit Verdot in the blend as well. 

This is one of Grape Creek's more moderately priced wines. But, as I mentioned earlier, it's still pretty good. 

It has a pretty garnet color--no, not ruby. Sorry. There's a little too much of a hint of rust color for that. It's light bodied, no noticeable tannins. Which might be a little disappointing, but I suppose that makes for a  more quaffable wine. 

All the Heath Family Wineries seem to be focusing on wines that are lower in alcohol content. Which, I guess is good. I don't drink to get drunk, so that means I can drink more wine. But I think it tends to make the wine taste a little flat. 

That could just be me, however. 

I could imagine drinking this wine around Christmas time. There's a lot of cinnamon and cedar on the nose, along with some sort of dark fruit. The tasting notes suggest black cherry or black current. I don't get that. I think it's more like very, very ripe blackberries. The soft kind that you eat straight off the sun-steeped vines and that-were it not for the seeds--would literally melt on your tongue. There's also (I think) a hint of leather.

The wine has a very soft mouthfeel with more than a hint of salinity. More than several hints, in fact. It's almost brackish. Which probably sounds horrible, but in reality is giving very strong hot summer night at the river vibes. 

Ain't nothing wrong with that. 

My main characters in Que Será, Syrah first meet each other on a hot summer night at the river. This was back when they were both teenagers, btw. She was drinking white wine and he was drinking beer, but I bet if they ever tried this wine, it would bring it all back to them, all the same.

Here's how it went: 

Excerpt: 

I can’t recall now how we’d even found out about it. I know that I’d gotten a ride there with some friends and I imagine one of them had heard about it from someone else—who may have heard about it from someone else again. That’s how those things usually worked. 

Other than the guys I came with, I didn’t know anyone there—they mostly looked like prep-school types to me, which was something that I very much was not. I’m also pretty sure we were trespassing on private property, because if we’d been on public land, the place would have been crawling with cops. Instead, it was just a bunch of kids—maybe three dozen in total, maybe four, maybe less than that. It was hard to tell exactly. We were outside at night and there wasn’t a lot of light to be had. People kept slipping away in groups of twos or threes, disappearing into the trees, or into the bushes that lined the dusty dirt paths, or into the backseats of nearby cars. 

There was music coming from somewhere not too far in the distance (I had no idea from where. Perhaps a local festival? Or a house party?) and people were dancing. There was wine—a lot of wine, and not all of it labeled—because, again, it appeared that quite a few of the kids present had ties to wineries, and ready access to Napa’s most famous and ubiquitous commodity. There was some beer as well, and a few bottles of stronger stuff. Weed was only mostly legal, at that point. Not that it would have mattered, since we were all under twenty-one, as far as I could tell. But it was enough of a gray area that it was a safe bet that no one was going to come out and investigate the smell like they probably would have done a few years earlier. 

The theme of the party was Midsummer. I do remember that, because someone (or maybe several someones?) had strung solar-powered twinkle lights all through the manzanitas that clustered around the riverbanks, prompting several of the girls to remark that it looked like fairyland, to which someone else (usually a guy, trying to sound knowledgeable) would respond that it was meant to, and then mumble something vague about Shakespeare. 

My man-card was still pretty new at that point, so I wouldn’t have been caught dead saying anything about fairyland myself, but that didn’t stop me from thinking it, too. 

I’d managed to snag one of the few bottles of beer and between that and the zaza I was feeling pleasantly crossfaded as I headed down a path that seemed to wander alongside the riverbank. And that’s when I saw her. She was humming to herself, dancing in the shallows, with her hands above her head and a bottle of wine clutched in one of them. Her hair was long and loose, curling nearly to her waist. It swayed from side to side following the movement of her head. 

She was not exactly dressed to impress, in cut-off jeans and a graphic T. But I was impressed, all the same. Her legs were long, and the shorts were cut very short and the T-shirt hugged her breasts in a way that made the slogan stretched across her chest a little difficult to decipher; but I managed. “Sonoma Makes Wine,” I read silently. “Napa Makes Auto-Parts.” Wow. I figured it took a lot of guts to wear that shirt here in the heart of wine country. Either guts, or civic pride, perhaps? “Are you from Sonoma?” 

Her eyes shot open.  “No?” she said, sounding slightly confused. “Are you from Sonoma?”

“No, I’m from here,” I said, then added. “I mean, I’m from Clear Lake originally, but yeah, I’m…I’m local.”

“Clear Lake,” she repeated as she tilted her head to the side. “I’ve heard of it. It sounds pretty.”

I shook my head. “It’s not.”  

“So, why were you asking about Sonoma if neither of us are from there?”

“It’s on your shirt,” I replied, gesturing at her chest.

She glanced down at herself and giggled. “Oh. That. Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? I thought it was funny. Also, it pissed off my uncle, so…”

“So, that’s a good thing?”

“Uh…yes! Obviously.” 

Except, of course, that since I had no idea who her uncle was, it had not been obvious. Nor did I care.

“He takes himself way too seriously,” she explained. But then she frowned and added, “Except, as it turns out, it also pissed off my cousins. And that was sucky. I definitely didn’t mean for that to happen. But it’s too late now. I’m committed, so...I can’t just back down.” She sighed and tipped the bottle to her mouth, dropping her head back, losing her balance as she did, and stumbling just a little. 

“Hey! Um…why don’t you come out of the water before you fall?” I suggested, feeling a little worried as I suddenly remembered that a girl had drowned a few years ago, not that far from here, at a similar party.

Her eyes met mine. “Why don’t you come in the water,” she challenged. “We can fall together.”

Que Será, Syrah

Pour Decisions: Book Three

​

https://books2read.com/Que-Sera-Syrah

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

 

Allegra

 

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

​

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

 

Clay

 

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

​

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

​

Releasing May 27, 2025 

Romance Writers Weekly ~ Inspiration ~ #LoveChatWrite

This week, on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop, we're asked, "Name something that inspires your writing--real life, other books, a setting, dialogue you overhear, etc."

Ooh, another easy question! Actually, any of those can and have served as a source of inspiration. But, as I mentioned last week, (and as you can see below) I have a new book coming out soon! Que Será, Syrah is the third book in a multi-author series I have been working on with fellow authors Kate Davies and Kelly Jamieson. 

The whole series was inspired by a trip Kelly and I took to Napa, many years ago. Although, of course, I also lived just south of Napa for almost twenty years so the setting for this series was--and is--very important to me. It's probably the place that feels most like home. 

In fact, the SF/East Bay/North Bay area provided a lot of the details for the Oberon series, as well. The Pour Decisions series is set in a fictional small town in Napa Valley, so there's a blend of actual reality and stuff we made up. But I've tried to make it as true to life as possible. 

Interestingly, my Atlas Beach, NJ location (the setting for the Games We Play stories) was based as much on a trip I took to Mendacino as it was by the time I spent on the Jersey Shore as a kid/teen/young adult. 

Now, hop on over to Leslie Hachtel's page to find out what inspires her. And don't forget to check out her book, A Dance in Time.

Lady Grace imagines escaping her cruel husband and miserable life. A portal into the past offers her so much more, including meeting the man of her dreams. But his life is at risk. Can she save him? Can he rescue her?

https://amzn.to/3eKBAqx

Que Será, Syrah

Pour Decisions: Book Three

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

 

Allegra

 

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

​

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

 

Clay

 

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

​

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

​

Releasing May 27, 2025

https://books2read.com/Que-Sera-Syrah

Musical Monday: Red Wine Supernova (Chapell Roan)

 

So, the book I'm working on atm has NO magic in it. But it does have wine. And this song definitely fits the vibe of the book. I mean...the characters are M/F rather than F/F, but the playful, rebellious, sexy feel of the video definitely reminds me of this book. Plus, it's on the playlist, so...

Wine Wednesday: The Vineyard at Florence: Trebbiano 2023 ("Rapture")

 So...interestingly, in my upcoming release, Que Será, Syrah, my main character bemoans the fact that winemakers don't typically indulge in creating cutesy names for their wine. In my defense, she's from Napa, where they definitely DO NOT do that. Or at least, they didn't when I lived there. Here in Texas, on the other hand, they absolutely do. 

Case in point: The Vineyards at Florence where the wines have names like Rapture, Temptation, Serenity,  Journey, and Muse.

Yeah, turns out I'm not as much of a fan of the cutesy but ultimately meaningless names as I thought I'd be. The wine, however, is delicious. 

Rapture is made from Trebbiano grapes AKA Ugni Blanc, AKA Blanc de Cadillac--which is yet another cutesy name, I guess. I didn't know much about Trebbiano up until now, but apparently it's used to make Cognac and balsamic, as well as wine. 

And having actually tasted the wine now, I can totally see that. It's also (apparently) a natural antiseptic? Not sure how that works, but okay.

Anyway, the wine: this is an off-dry, light to medium bodied wine. The color is a warm, medium gold. There are notes of honeysuckle, honeydew and kiwi on the nose. The flavor is reminiscent of blood orange and grapefruit with hints of dried apricot and a creamy mouthfeel--almost a buttery caramel. The finish lingers and floral notes are back, but more pronounced, maybe rose or lavender? 

This is one of those wines that my husband, who does not drink wine, actually loves. So, of course, it's no longer available. But we keep hoping. 

For more wine talk, check out the Pour Decisions trilogy, coming soon!

https://books2read.com/rl/PourDecisions

Romance Writers Weekly ~ What I'm Working On Now ~ #LoveChatWrite

This week, on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop, we're asked, "What are you working on now? Share a glimpse of your current WIP."

Well, as you can see below, I have a new book coming out soon! Que Será, Syrah is the third book in a multi-author series I have been working on with fellow authors Kate Davies and Kelly Jamieson. Their books are already finished. Mine...not so much. 

In my defense, since I'm a plotter and they're pantsers, I had to wait until they were pretty sure where their stories were leaving off before I could write mine. And then life got in the way, and I totally lost my mojo, and there were deadlines and...you know what? Never mind. Suffice it to say, I'm still working on it. 

It's a damn cute story, however, and I can't wait for you all to meet Allegra and Clay. But, right now? I'm gonna get back to work... 

In the meantime, hop on over to Brenda Margriet's page to find out what she's working on. And don't forget to check out her book, Suspect Attraction.

A silver-haired charmer with a shameful secret. A broken-hearted matchmaker with a guilty burden. And a bewildering disappearance that could wrench them apart.

Regina Blynde knows Seth Updike is trouble the minute he strides into Blynde Dating Agency. That’s trouble with a capital T—tantalizing, tasty, and tempting. 

Resolved never to risk loving someone only to lose them again, Ginnie keeps things strictly professional and matches him with a wealthy widow.

Who promptly goes missing.

Ginnie’s search for the truth makes it impossible to avoid Seth. And when he sets out to woo her, she finds him too hard to resist. 

But as the evidence mounts up and mysterious circumstances multiply, Ginnie must face a shocking fact—she’s falling in love with the prime suspect.

READ THE FIRST THREE CHAPTER HERE!

https://www.brendamargriet.com/suspectattractionexcerpt.html

POUR DECISIONS

A New, Multi-Author Series Coming Soon!

Meet the Martinelli sisters: Rosa, Bianca and Allegra. These partners in wine have just inherited a once-storied winery in the heart of Napa Valley. They’re living the dream, right?

 

Not so fast! Because, as it turns out, not everybody is happy for them. And that includes their Uncle Geno who’d assumed the property would come to him.

 

There are hoops to jump through, barrels to get over, and a mountain of regulations they'll have to scale. But the sisters are crushing it—and we don’t just mean the grapes. They’re making wine, falling in love, and working together to restore their inheritance to its former glory, one pour decision at a time.

https://www.pgforte.com/pour-decisions

Musical Monday: Fisherman's Blues (Young Dubliners)

 So, I have two reasons for posting this song today. One is, it's Saint Patrick's Day, so of course I have to post a song from one of my favorite Irish bands. The second reason is a little more somber. I'd like to honor the memory of my cousin Fred, who was captain of a fishing boat for quite a few years. 

He died a few weeks ago and during our last conversation he told me his plans for after he died. He'd had a friend build him a model of some actual boat--I don't recall what kind--with space for his ashes and one can of beer.  The idea was that he'd sent off on his way, and journey wherever the winds took him. There's a plaque on this boat, apparently, which extends an invitation to anyone who finds the boat to enjoy the beer, replace it with another can, and send the boat back on its way. 

I understand there's also contact information so his son can keep track of where his dad has gotten to--I gather he's going to be keeping a log, and maybe keeping us all posted? I don't know, we're kind of scattered, so maybe not. 

Apparently, from what I've heard, the family at large is somewhat divided on this idea. Some like it, some hate it, some think it's crazy. I think it's cool AF, myself. It's more work than I'd want to put into my plans for the afterlife, but super cool all the same. 

So, good luck on this next phase of your adventure, Fred. May fair winds and following seas be with you. Go dté tú slán!