As winter rolls into town and you pull out your comfort food cookbook, boy do we have a wine for you! Those really hearty stews, cassoulets, and roasts can handle a big wine. The Remhoogte Estate Wine 2003 from South Africa is a blend of Merlot (59%), Cabernet Sauvignon (31%) and a little Pinotage thrown in for the earthy long finish. Open this bottle while you’re throwing the stew together and let it open up. Don’t forget to pour a glass to keep you company while you cook!

The Commuting Student Association at the University of Mary Washington is meeting on Monday, January 26th at 4pm ( location to be announced later). The purpose of the association is to promote dialogue between the university and the town residents. T…

Okay, the new year rush is over and now I have time to sit at the computer and tell you about what’s new in the beer world, or at least kybecca’s beer world. I’ve got some returning beer and some new beer to tell you about.

First, the returns. Dogfish Head has released their once-per-year Fort in 750ml bottles. Fort is the world’s strongest fruit beer. It’s brewed with loads of raspberries. It’s not like some other fruit beers, such as some lambics, that blend the fruit juice after fermentation. The raspberries go in during the brewing process so the beer is not as sweet as other fruit beers. The abv is a massive 18%, making it almost port-like. This beer can be cellared and will age well for up to 20 years, but if you don’t feel like waiting that long it tastes good now.

Next to return is the St. Victorious Doppelbock from Victory Brewing Company in Pennsylvania. This beer was made Pennsylvania only last year much to the disappointment of many customers. Now it’s back, and better yet they, and by extension we, lowered the price!

On to the new. We have a very interesting new beer from France from a Brasserie Mont Blanc. The beer is called Verte, which means green, and is appropriate because the beer is in fact green. This is because it is brewed with Genepi, a family of herbs some of which are related to wormwood, also found in Absinthe. This one is for the adventurous only.

Last is a beer I tried to get before but the distribution did not reach our area. This is the Full Nelson Pale Ale from the Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton, Virginia. I think we’ll be seeing more from this brewery in the future as Virginia made beer becomes more popular.

On New Years Day at 5pm, Capital Ale House will be tapping two very special, limited edition kegs from Dogfish Head Brewery!Dogfish Head World Wide Stout – 18.8% ABV for $10.50. Dogfish Head Fort Delaware – 18% ABV for $10.50. (The world’s strongest fr…

This isn’t supposed to necessarily be a blog about technology, but it doesn’t hurt to go there if the information may be helpful to others. If the title of this post doesn’t capture your attention, then there is no reason to read any further.There, I s…

You may have noticed that our posts have been infrequent this month. Sorry! The busy holiday season is getting to us. In the New Year we’ll increase the frequency of the posts. Now onto my point.

It’s the time of year to drink bubbly wine again. If you’re looking for a Champagne to toast the new year, you could do what many other Americans do and buy a big name brand, like Moet or Dom Perignon (also made by Moet). But if you want more bang for your buck, the rule with Champagne is the more obscure the better. Here’s why.

Champagne houses like Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot are huge operations that churn out millions of bottles. To get their worldwide distribution they deal with brokers, who deal with importers, who deal with distributors, who may deal with yet more distributors, who finally deal with the retailer, who sells it to you. That means the wine has passed through several hands each marking up the price as they go. Plus, how good can a Champagne be when produced in this huge quantity? The best deals with Champagne are from what is known as Grower’s Champagne. These are small Champagne houses that tend the vineyards and make the wine (big Champagne houses buy their grapes from elsewhere). Because the production is smaller they can pay more attention to each bottle and make some really interesting sparkling wine, which is really the style that made Champagne what it is. Plus, these wineries usually deal directly with the importer who usually distributes it as well, so instead of several parties each marking up the price on the wine as it goes, Grower Champagne goes from the winery to the importer to the retailer, ie us. Therefore you get more for what you pay.

It’s for this reason that we specialize in Grower Champagne. We could probably sell more by carrying the big brands, but quality is more important. Our favorites are Veuve Fourny, who make several different kinds that we carry, Benoit Lahaye (a Grand Cru Champagne), and Roland Champion, who makes a 2000 vintage Grand Cru (the highest classification) Champagne for $70. A Grand Cru Vintage Champagne for $70. Forget about spending $130 + on Dom Perignon when you can get world class Champagne for practically half the price.

Devout Christian Abel Ndayihaya spent last Christmas in a small tent with his wife and five sons in a refugee camp in Tanzania, where he had been living as a Burundian refugee for 35 years. Ten months ago, the family immigrated to America and moved to …

Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis hugs his mom in the stands after the Redskins 10-3 victory over NFC East rival Philadelphia on Dec., 21, 2008, at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

Here we are, late in the 12 days of Christmas, with those names still on our shopping list — loved ones who are the most difficult people for whom to shop. Every year we repeat our better intentions — next year, I’m doing this in July! Next year, my husband/wife/sibling will make this decision! And then you find yourself in the department store on Christmas Eve paying too much for the sweater that she will never wear, the gift that lives on in family legend as the ugliest gift ever given.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Stop by kybecca and pick up a bottle of wine. Follow the time-tested magic, one for the giftee, two for the gifter, three just in case you’ve forgotten someone. You can still worry if that makes you feel more comfortable — zinfandel or cabernet? California or French? You can still spend too much, if that’s how you show your love. But you could also bargain shop, completing your list in record time and providing yourself with a glass of wine to help you unwind from your one-stop holiday shopping.

‘Tis the season to be jolly . . .

As a kid, I always loved watching the Charles M. Schulz Peanuts characters celebrate holidays. The shows were always entertaining with Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. It was also a special treat to be able to view a cartoon on p…