The Gang's all here!

Hi, everyone!

I am signing on for Paul and Dorothy Craig.  We are founding members of the Freedom Wine Club and want to thank Kylie for setting up our blog.  Our club formed on the Freedom of the Seas and we are excited that our "love of wine" and wine discussions will continue!

Paul and I are professors at Middle Tennessee State University--which is located about 20 miles southeast of Nashville.  We live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the week and spend most weekends in our loft in downtown Nashville.

We began our "wine education" with an online class that we took several years ago during the winter semester.  The class consisted of in-depth lessons which required us to hook up with a local wine store to purchase and then taste the wines suggested by the instructor.  Although it might not sound like it was informative--it truly was!

From there, we joined a wine tasting group sponsored by a fellow professor who has his doctorate in viticulture.  We met on a regular basis for about a year.  We still occasionally meet, however, most of those tastings are tied to the professor's research.

We attend local wine tastings sponsored by restaurants, Salude! (cooking school at Whole Foods, Nashville), and local wine stores.  We also visit Arrington Vineyards on a regular basis.  One of the owners of AV is Kix Brooks.  Kix and other partners started the vineyard a few years ago and use a combination of California and locally grown grapes to make a variety of surprisingly great wines.

We look forward to our continued exploration of vino!

Paul & Dorothy Craig
Nashville TN
2011

P.S. We just heard from Bob yesterday.  Hopefully he will sign on soon!  Hope you are having a great weekend!