Santa Nino, the wine saint of Georgia

Santa Nino and her “living cross”

written by Michael Oudyn

I first heard the story of Santa Nino, the charming Georgian wine saint, over a nice glass of Georgian wine at a wine-tourism convention in Umbria .  Back in Barcelona my Georgian friend Nata Samushia enthusiastically confirmed the basic story and filled in a few details.

The consensus hagiography goes something like this.  Santa Nino was from Cappadoccia, in Turkey.  While in a religious trance the Virgin Mary  gave her a double mission: convert Georgia to Christianity and introduce the Georgians to wine.  She also gave her a cross made out of grapevines.  Once out of the trance the future santa secured the cross  with a lock of her own hair, forming “a living cross” of grapevine and human hair.  Once in Georgia she converted the Queen to Christianity.  But King Mirian III refused to give up his paganism and was on the point of persecuting the Christians until he was struck with blindness and “lost in  darkness ” while on a hunting trip.  He prayed to “Nino’s God” and “the light returned.”  He

Sideways: ten years old and still aging well

written by Michael Oudyn

2014 is the 10^th anniversary of the release of Sideways, undisputed most influential wine movie ever.  Credited with singlehandedly changing American wine-drinking habits, causing “pinot noir to fly off the shelves while merlot sales plummeted,” Sideways was largely filmed on location in Santa Barbara County, around Buellton.  It seems altogether fitting then that the American Wine Bloggers will hold their 2014 convention in Buellton, Santa Barbara County.  What better time to visit Buellton and revisit “the best wine film ever made?”