9.18.15 - Introducing my newest venture - THEWINEVIXEN.COM

For many, many years, every Friday on Murderati, I gave a wine recommendation at the bottom of my blog post. Wine of the Week, it was called, and I had a great time finding new wines, seeking out excellent vintages and vineyards, learning all I could about the wine industry. When I stopped my weekly blog, I also stopped the official wine recommendations. I’ve missed it. I love good wine, and love to find great wine buys.

I have always wanted to find a way to resurrect the Wine of the Week. But I wasn’t blogging regularly, and life got in the way, as it so often does. Other than the occasional declaration of Facebook, I've been largely wine silent for far too long.

In 2012, I was on a tour in Dahlonega, Georgia, and went into a wine shop after dinner. I saw the cutest wine plaque—Tip the Wine Vixen, it said. 

The Wine Vixen. Now that had a ring to it. 

An aside. When I was growing up, CB radios were a big thing. We were out in the country, in the woods, and you needed a reliable form of communication. So my dad would take us out on the roads and let us talk to the truckers on the CB so we could learn how to call for help if we needed it. BJ and the Bandit, and all that. I know, I know. 

The deal with the CB was, you had to have a handle. I floated between Baby Yellowjacket (my dad, the Yellowjacket, is a Georgia Tech Rambling Wreck) and Little Vixen (my mom was the Vixen, because she was a total fox.) 

So I come to the title of The Wine Vixen honestly—a love of wine, and a former play on my CB handle.

Back to Dahlonega. I tried to buy the plaque but was refused. So I ran home (actually, back to the hotel), snapped up the URL, then sat on it for several years until the right moment, which is now. 

In THE END GAME, you will find an oblique reference to thewinevixen.com. It was meant to be an inside joke, but the closer we got to release day, the more I realized it could be a great break through the 4th wall, a fun nod to all my loves.

My right hand, Assistant Amy, loved the idea. And since she’s such an amazing Amy, she set up the site—which is lovely, by the way—and when I saw how gorgeous it was, I knew the time had come to resurrect the wine of the week.

So welcome, friends, to The Wine Vixen. Stop by, bookmark us, and follow along with our recommendations on Twitter and Facebook. I’m red, Amy is white, and we’ll split the rosés between us. There will be a mix of old and new wines, some travelogues, recipes and pairings, and some sillies, just for fun. 

Cheers—or, as my family puts it, Ching Ching!