A new program at the Yakima Valley Community College in south-central Washington is offering several new wine related degree programs. Winery Technology and Vineyard Technology are two associate's degrees being offered this fall for the first time. The idea is to cultivate local employees to work in the local wine industry.

Randy Tucker, owner and winemaker at Tucker Cellars in Sunnyside, helped to develop a curriculum for the programs. "THhe industry is growing so fast, we need more people," Tucker says, "and they need to be educated people."

Walla Walla and South Seattle community college also offer wine degrees. Washington State University also offers a four-year degree program.

To celebrate the new programs, a Great Grape Stomp Festival will be held on September 15th. Teams of three will compete there to see who can stomp the most juice out of a barrel of wine grapes.

Check out the Yakima Herald article for more information.

There are a couple of fun wine contests going on right now. I thought some of you might be interested in entering!

T-Shirt Contest

Sponsored by Tina Caputo of The Wine Broad's Board, the object is to submit a "winemaker written haiku or limerick poems posted about you-know-who" (i.e. Rober Parker) will receive t-shirts sporting the fun phrase "Robert Parker's Bitch". If you win, you also have to agree to send in a photo of yourself wearing the shirt.



The Duplin "Jewels of the Carolina Coast" Wine Label Art Contest

This contest is a little more professional :) Duplin wine is releasing a new wine in honor of the 1st annual Toast of the Wine Festival to be held in Wilmington, NC in May of 2008. The contest is to design a new label for this wine depicting your interpretation of the best of the Carolina Coast. One grand prize winner will be chosen, along with three finalists.

Check out the website for the official rules and deadlines.



Have fun entering, and good luck to you all!

Tre, possibly the most talented chef left on the show, left the competition this week. The contestants once again were put through Restaurant Wars, though this time they had a little help with their decor and wine selection. Stephen (the sommelier from season 1) returned to help out Dale's team with their wine selection. I personally felt that the scene where Dale told Stephen to tone it down a bit was one of the best things I've ever seen!

While I do think that Tre had the ability to win it all, I don't know what happened on this episode. He completely dropped the ball. Ted Allen isn't known for reacting that way to a dish for no reason. Tre couldn't control his kitchen, and obviously didn't taste the dishes being served. Obviously Tre hasn't watched enough of Hell's Kitchen.

Check out blogs, recipes and more on the Top Chef Website.

Yesterday I went to the Taste of Douglas County food festival in Castle Rock. And honestly, I was not impressed. I've been to a few of these events, and this was by far the worst I've seen.

I should have realized that it wasn't going to be up to my standards just based on the fact that it was held on the grounds of the Douglas County Fair, but despite my better judgement I decided to give it a try. So after a 40 minute drive on the highway, and then another 10 or 15 minutes driving around Castle Rock, I finally found the Events Center. The room it was in looked a bit more like a warehouse than an events center, with cement floors, folding tables, and children running all over. After dragging my fiancé along with me, he was not at all happy to see that. We tried a few restaurants like Miyama Japanese Steakhouse and LoDo's Bar and Grill, and the food wasn't bad but it wasn't fantastic either. Miyama's sushi was nothing to drive out of town for.

I probably would have tried more of the restaurants except for the fact that some of the lines stretched across the entire room. The food was not plated and ready to pick up, it was plated per person. While that may seem like a good idea, it's not efficient in any way. The few tables that had the food plated and ready were wonderful things like Little Caesar's Pizza and a Persian restaurant serving hummus spread on pita bread.

The available drinks in the room came from a table selling margaritas. Although the event was sponsored by Bubbles Liquor World, there wasn't any wine or beer to sample.

For an event that cost $20 at the door, plus whatever it cost you to drive there, it was not worth it in any way. I think the only thing I really liked was the condiment size serving of Coldstone Ice Cream I picked up on my way out.

This week was the finalé of Hell's Kitchen, one of my favorite shows on television. It came down to Bonnie and Rock (and another "battle of the sexes"), but Rock came out as the winner.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I agree with that decision. Rock did pretty well at pulling himself together at the end, but there were some really rough patches along the way where I'm not really sure how he stayed in the competition. I was overall most impressed by Bonnie. She started off seeming like a typical ditzy blonde, and turned out to be a truly excellent chef. Her palate was by far the best out of all the competitors this season.

When it came to the final dinner service, I'm not sure who came out on top. Both seemed to have a lot of problems. Bonnie couldn't get her team to fully stand behind her, and I think she went a little far with her new found "attitude". I didn't like the way she yelled at Jenn, especially considering Jenn was her biggest supporter. Rock on the other hand needed to take a firmer grasp of his team. Josh was screwing up left and right, and it took a while for Rock to get a hold of things.

If I was going to hire one of them, I still think I'd go with Bonnie.

Meanwhile, Top Chef is still going strong. Let me know who you think it going to be in the finalé.

This is just a fun video. Enjoy!

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/724199/open_a_bottle_of_wine_without_corkscrew/