Scratch Your Travel Itch

Travel is one of the most energizing, invigorating things you can do with your life. Engaged in properly, you return from a trip refreshed, enlivened, and with new perspective on other cultures. Given an open mind, you can return with new perspective on yourself, recognizing how incredibly privileged most US residents are. For myself, most trips to Europe find me pledging to spend more time on family, friends, and the outdoors, and to cook more delicious meals.Travel-it’s a priority.

That being said, travel is also a luxury, requiring an outlay of time and/or money that is not always available. No matter how much we might want or even need a getaway, most of us can’t go rushing off to far-flung countries whenever we’d like. Or can we? Allow me to suggest scratching your travel itch through a glass or two of magnificent wine?

Wine and food have an uncanny ability to transport through time and space; although I can’t physically place you in Lisbon’s Jeronimo Monastery or Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, with a little faith and imagination, I CAN bring you to the Chianti hills or the steep slopes of the Douro Valley.

On Wednesday night, we’re hosting Daniel Grace, owner of Chianti Classico estate Il Molino di Grace. Taste his silky, dusky Chianti, powerful Riserva, and sublime Gran Selezione. Since he’s traveling with a marvelous chef, also sample some pizzette, arrancini, bruschetta, and risotto con funghi e tartufo. Then breathe in, close your eyes, and the Tuscan countryside is right there: winding road, tall cypress, wind wafting through sun-warmed herbs, vineyards, and olive groves.

Or visit us Friday night, and meet our friend Augusto Gabriel. Augusto will take you on a tour of Alentejo’s gently rolling hills, Dao’s steep granitic slopes, and the vertiginous terraces of the Douro-all without leaving Franklin. Taste crisp whites, pretty, floral reds, and bold wines-of-meditation, all substantially under-priced. Wonder how all this diversity can come from a country about the size of Pennsylvania. (Vow to drink more Portuguese wines.)

Travel through a glass with us this week. Itch, scratched.