It starts before 5 in the morning, the anal compulsion to blog about my wine adventures…but it really started 14 years ago, when I began poking fun of all things Santa Clarita in a local newspaper.  Who knew that movers, shakers, and those of us in-betweeners, enjoyed a little wine now and then?  (You can scroll down to this week’s SCV Wine Calendar to see what there is to enjoy, in-between reading this column.)

I’ve been writing, can you believe this, before I started drinking.  Anyway, I wrote under the column header Eve of Destruction (while poking fun) and Another Face of Eve (when doing good) before I settled on using Eve’s Wine 101 for the last 5 years.

While doing my thing writing I met a lot of local people running non-profits, politicians for hire, business owners…you get the drift.  When the newspaper asked me to write about my wine interests I found that most of the people I had met, well, seemed to have a decent sized interest in wine as well.  And what’s more, they wanted to perch themselves on my glass, follow my wine adventures, and, basically, get thoroughly loose through me.

So this is what I do every day to satisfy your every whim.

Yes, I’m up at 5am, because I walk my LA City Fire Chief to his car, with his coffee and Wall Street Journal, every morning…or at least the ones where he is on shift.  Then, in rapid succession comes: the morning run complete with sprints, the coffee, the reading and returning of e-mails, adding events to the SCV Wine Calendar, checking in on Facebook, Twitter, the West Ranch Beacon, reading my friend’s blogs, transcribe notes from events or interviews, prepare bottle reviews, collect the notes that I jotted down in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and decide – in the light of day – if they could be blog posts.

I do work part time, the hours my teenage cherub is in school, but I will leave that job up to your imagination.  My employer is a wonderful person that ignores my outside wine passion…and allows me just enough hours, and salary, to escape cooking and cleaning my own house.

Then back at home after the end of the school day, I transfer non-profit, and for-profit, press releases into blog posts, put up their art with a link to their sites on my blog, return more e-mails, put up photos, guest posts and links that readers send me, take time to write to and work with my two wonderful contributors: Michael Perlis and Rusty Sly that also give a lot of time to the Wine 101 blog.  Then sift through the dozens of invites I receive every month to see which I can attend and write more about.

Finally I write my big blog story for this site.  Then I prepare my weekly Dear Wine Friend newsletter that tells locals what’s on the two blogs (mine and this one) and highlight one or two non-profit events SWW (Served With Wine).  I have found that there is always at least one non-profit, and sometimes more, planning weekly tasting events. 

I try to go to as many non-profit events or events benefiting charity that I can.  And by endorsing that event in my weekly newsletter, other people that may be on the fence, might go as well. 

And then, on some evenings and weekends,  I head out to local, and non-local, wine tastings or wine education classes.  I take a Pepcid AC if it’s a fairly large tasting so I can be feeling tip top the next day when I start again at, you guessed it, 5am. 

It’s all for you…

SCV Wine Calendar this week:

Friday August 21: The Ann Drexler Trio starts at Valencia Wine Company (VWC) at 8:30PM, Live Music with Blue Sky at All Corked Up (ACU) 7:30-10:30, Happy Hour at Wine 661 from 4-7pm, Courtyard by Marriott Santa Clarita (CM) $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm, The Social Happy Hour 4-6pm.

Saturday August 22: FRENCH FOOD AND WINE PAIRING VWC 4-6pm, 18th Annual Hot August Nights with food, wine & ale, benefits SCV Senior Ctr., reserve Jill Bonday: 661-259-9444 x112, jbondy@scvsc.org 6-10pm at Mann Biomedical Park, Live Music with Artwork Jamal & The Acid Blues ACU 7:30-10:30, $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm.

Sunday August 23: Buy one glass of wine and receive the next for half price all day VWC, Lee’s Stimulus Package: buy one glass of wine and get the second for 5 cents Lee’s Wine Bistro Sundays and Mondays only, $10 Mimosas Wine 661 from 12-5pm and unlimited Champagne at Salt Creek Grille Sunday Jazz Brunch.

Monday August 24: Lee’s Stimulus Package: buy one glass of wine and get the second for 5 cents Lee’s Wine Bistro Sundays and Mondays only, Half Price bottle night on any wine under $100 at Salt Creek Grille, buy one glass of wine and receive the next for half price all day VWC, $3.50 flights at Vino 100, $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm, Ladies Night at Wine 661 from 2-11pm and Happy Hour at 4-7pm.

Tuesday, August 25: Complimentary meat and cheese appetizer with the purchase of a glass of wine VWC 5-8pm, Happy Hour The Social 4-6pm, Half Off Top 10 Cocktails Salt Creek Grille 5-9pm, 40% off all bottles of wine at Wolf Creek, $1 tasting flight when you purchase a bottle at Vino 100 4-7pm, $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm,  Happy Hour 1/2 price appetizers with two glasses of wine Vintner’s Cellar (VC) 4:30-6:30pm and Happy Hour at Wine 661 from 4-7pm.

Wednesday, August 26: 30% off all bottles of Whites and Sparkling on Wednesdays, Reds on Thursdays at Maru Sushi on Towne Center Drive, Wine experts pouring & Piano Bar every Wednesday at Bella Cucina Venetian on the Old Road 7-9pm, Bike Night with Drink & bar-b-que specials, live band and raffle at Route 66 Classic Grill, Wine-down Wednesday at Salt Creek Grille where wines are discounted by the glass, $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm, Happy Hour 1/2 price appetizers with two glasses of wine VC 4:30-6:30pm and Happy Hour at Wine 661 from 4-7pm.

Thursday August 27: Half Off Grey Goose Cocktails Salt Creek Grille 5-9pm, 30% off all bottles of Whites and Sparkling on Wednesdays, Reds on Thursdays at Maru Sushi on Towne Center Drive, Bristol Farm’s new weekly wine and food tasting 6-8pm, free cigar w/wine VWC, Cavi Cucino no corkage, The Social Happy Hour 4-6pm, $1.00 Drink Specials and free Sangria every night but Sunday CM 5-7pm, 1/2 price appetizers with two glasses of wine VC 4:30-6:30pm and Happy Hour at Wine 661 from 4-7pm.

Your special event with wine not listed?  Easy to correct: ebushman@earthlink.net

Eve Bushman- commentary

Eve Bushman is a local writer that specializes in writing about wine. You can find great articles by Eve on her blog at http://www.evewine101.blogspot.com or email her at ebushman@earthlink.net. Her commentaries represent her own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization she may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon. She is also now on Facebook!