Tuscan Sun Chat

I am back from California, wishing I was still there but full of great memories and waiting on a shipment of fantastic wine to help us extend our vacation. I have more photos on my laptop and posts brewing in my head about Sonoma and Napa than I can even put into words right now, so hopefully you won’t mind seeing lots of vineyard shots over the coming weeks. It was heaven.

We really squeezed out every last second of our trip; when our friend Chef Robin White, a friend of Under the Tuscan Sun’s Frances Mayes, invited us to participate live in a tweet-up celebrating Mayes’ new book The Tuscan Sun Cookbook, we had to zip over to Napa Valley one last time to participate, even if it meant a little bit of anxiety on my part about getting to the airport on time. Turns out our flight was delayed five hours anyway, so I am glad we didn’t spend any more time in the airport than we had to.

Robin is the queen of virtual dinners, hosting all sorts of fun events that bring people together from all over to feast on food and wine and share the experience via Twitter. She wowed us with a Venge Wine Dinner at her home, and we have had fun participating in her Soup Week events.

The live portion of this tweet-up was hosted by Signorello Vineyards on the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley. Despite the soaking rain, the drive was beautiful, lush, green, and scenic.

The tweet-up was attended virtually by people from all over the world using the hashtag #TuscanSunChat. I was lucky enough to be with Robin, one of the hosts, and a bunch of wine country locals.

Signorello’s chef kept a constant stream of hot pizzas coming to the table that they had set up for us. He was cooking up the pizzas from The Tuscan Sun Cookbook  outside in the rain, and they were delicious. This one had chili oil and agave nectar on it, giving it a kick of spice and a hint of sweet. With the chewy crust and flavorful toppings, it was pretty spectacular.

We also had this margarita pizza. Everything on it was so fresh. The pizza made excellent fuel for all of our tweets!

And of course there was wine. Signorello poured their Seta, a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, which was crisp, acidic, and full of lemony flavor, a bright contrast to the grey day outside.

We followed that with Signorello’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

My husband has attended a few tweet-ups with me, mostly in California, and I think he finds them a little funny. Most of the guests were communicating via Twitter more than we were talking. I , like many people, am a huge fan of Under the Tuscan Sun, so I found it a lot of fun to be tweeting with Frances Mayes and her husband. I am looking forward to picking up a copy of the book to bring a little bit of Tuscany to Boston!