Friends! I had a wonderful time hanging out in NYC, Somerville, and D.C. for WINE events during the first half of June. Between events, I got to watch my sister graduate from her master’s program, celebrate two weddings of very good friends, and see nearly everyone I love on the East Coast at least once. By the end, though, I was very homesick for the west, for the heat and big sky and the desert. I’m grateful to be home, where it is hot and windy and just perfect.
I’m coming to L.A this weekend, and Portland next week. I’d love to see you at one of these three events. Bring your friends! My parents will be at the Tabula Rasa one, if you want to meet the people behind me! Don’t forget, you can order the book here, or at your favorite independent bookstore.
June 23, 6-8 p.m.: Bar Bandini, Echo Park, L.A. -- just hanging and signing and drinking a wine flight curated to the book. To entice you, this is what’s on the menu (with quotes from the book):
Garcia Perez “Ancestral” Pet Nat 100 % Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
“In the summer, grapes grow rapidly, canopies of leaves transforming Castilla-La Mancha’s brown hillsides. The fall arrives in deep purples and pale yellows, the colors of mature grapes. The beauty of the vineyard is witnessing the cycle of seasons. To witness that simple fact of nature is to take part in the vine’s long history of cultivation. Tracing my hands across a gnarled trunk, I felt the pull of time.”
280 Project “L’Amalgame” Rosé Over 100+ hybrid grapes, San Francisco Bay AVA, California
For winemaker Chris Renfro “farming and winemaking are acts of justice. He wants to reclaim his family’s land, promote Black land ownership, and bring the joys of gastronomy into communities typically excluded from fine dining. Through his work, including an initiative called The Two Eighty Project, a winemaking apprenticeship program for people of color, he hopes to bring people underrepresented in agriculture into fields like winemaking.”
LULA “This Wine is Fire”
50% Carbonic Carignan // 50% Smoke Tainted Zinfandel Rosé, California
“Watching the inferno sky take shape, I realized harvest was underway in some parts of the state… When winemakers inevitably evacuate, they leave their grapes hanging on the vine to collect ash or burn; they abandon their juice in the cellar as it’s fermenting. If the wildfires don’t directly torch their vineyards, winemakers adapt.”
June 24, 2 p.m. - on: Tabula Rasa shop, NORTH HOLLYWOOD location. Come by for a reading and q+a at 2 p.m., stick around after for book signing and wine tasting!
June 29, 6- 8 p.m.: Bar Norman, Portland. Reading/q+a at 7 p.m, drinking and signing the rest of the time!
Here’s the graphic I made with my pitiful design skills.
& some photos from the East Coast journey!
me pouring at Domestique in DC. (my sister got offered a job, lol)
me chatting at Wild Child in Somerville.
Last thing -- the Virginia Quarterly Review just published a long reported essay I’ve been working on for two years. It’s about the psychotherapy EMDR. How does it work? Does it matter? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
That’s it from me -- thanks all for reading, and hope to see my West Coast pals soon!
Meg