"Ali! Is! Back!"

...makes me laugh every time I even think about the sweet family who hosted me in Guadalajara one long summer while attending Baylor University. Each time I arrived to their home, the father would stand-up, walk to the door and greet me with open-arms while saying "Ali! Is! Back!".  It always made be smile and shake my head and say "well of course I am, I will always be back as long as your family will have me". 

Silly as it sounds, this welcome greeting has followed me through the years, now "TexaCali Ali" is who steadily appears in the doors and tasting rooms of wine accounts all over Texas, and I'm most always greeted with a smile and warm welcome. This small gesture is what keeps me keeping on these days. 

Thank you. You may not even know how much this means, but I'm out here fighting fo

r the families and passionate wine folks - the ones who own wineries, the people that sell the wine on the streets of Texas, the human beings that stand on a cold-concrete floors and perhaps have a chance every hour or so to actually tell a story to a customer about a special bottle and the families and independents who own all our great restaurants and retailers throughout the Lone Star State. I preach this often, so you know what I mean if you've been following this blog since 2005 or hopefully "get it" right away if you've just met me for the first time this year.

After hosting dozens of producers, winery owners and national sales folks like a maniac over the past 5 months... "Ali is Back" to doing a better job with the blog posts - I promise. This year has brought an extra layer of "extraordinary time-wasters" & "empty-calorie snacks" that have eaten up my creativity and desire to burn the midnight oil on here when it's well past my beauty-rest time. So tee up the bookmark again, I've got a lot on my mind and a few thousand Texans who love wine to share my thoughts and wine tips with. 

I'm gearing up for my first trip to Spain this weekend visiting producers from www.europeancellars.com portfolio. We'll visit wineries mostly along the East Coast of Spain from Barcelona to Madrid.   So stay tuned for some over-seas travel tales for sure, in the mean time - DRINK UP the wines and sake of TexaCali Wine Co.  - Cheers! Ali