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After a year stuck inside, life is starting to open up again. And it couldn't come at a better time. Spring, the season of rebirth, has arrived. And summer, with all its warmth and long days filled with never-ending sunshine, is right behind it. For wine lovers, adventurers, dreamers and others, there's no better time to get out and explore Idaho than now.

These stay-at-home date night ideas are so good, you may never leave the house again.

Holiday shopping can be stressful — especially for the ones who seem to have everything. But we know a secret: you can't go wrong with wine. For one thing, giving wine is easy. You don’t need to know the difference between a Beaujolais and a Grenache.

At the most basic level, it's just choosing between red and white (and sometimes pink). Secondly, there's an almost endless stream of wine-adjacent gift ideas (like food, totes, glasses and more) floating out there. All you have to do is find them.

If you had to sum up Split Rail Winery in a word, chances are "wacky" wouldn't be the first one to come to mind. But if you're Jed Glavin, Split Rail's owner and winemaker, it's exactly the word you'd use. In fact, it's a word he uses a lot when discussing wine, grapes, winemaking and life in general.

The canopy has been set. The vines have been pruned. The grapes have been watered (and dried out). Now, comes the moment of truth. It's Harvest, the most anticipated and exciting time of year for winemakers and wine tasters alike. After months of hanging on the vine, the grapes are brought inside and winemakers finally get to see, and taste, the fruits of their labor.

Her name was Irene.

She is the great grandmother and muse of Coco Umiker, co-owner, along with her husband, Karl, and head winemaker at Clearwater Canyon Cellars.

The new gold standard

COVID-19 has spoiled so many events in 2020, but it couldn’t stop the Idaho Wine Competition from proceeding on a hot and sunny day in the middle of August. That’s not to say its presence wasn’t felt. For the 11^th edition of the event hosted by Great Northwest Wine, the judges were respectfully spaced at least six feet apart from one another, per social distancing safety guidelines, at Koenig Vineyards in Caldwell, Idaho.

When we caught up to Gig Leadbetter, co-owner and lead cidermaker at Meriwether Cider Co, his entire clan had just returned from a week of camping, hiking, bicycling (you name it!) on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

It was a vacation worthy of the firefighter-cum-college professor-cum-cidermaker, whose company motto “To adventures big and small” is printed on every bottle and can.

These days, any number of online businesses specialize in sending subscription boxes of curated items direct to your door – including food, clothes, beauty supplies and more.

But did you know wine clubs were the OG subscription service?

You don’t have to speak French to enjoy wine from Pend d’Oreille Winery, but it does add a little je ne sais quoi (a certain something) to the whole affair.