For many years, I wrote a wine blog called The Armchair Sommelier. I went to wine school. I earned a Diploma in Wine & Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London. I tasted a lot of wine, wrote a lot of words, and genuinely loved it.

Then Covid happened. I got it early, lost my sense of smell and taste for months, and when everything came back online, wine just didn’t taste the same. I was super bummed about this for longer than I’d like to admit. But somewhere in the fog of that, I discovered (or rediscovered) cocktails. And then my husband and I retired early. And then we got on a bunch of planes.

Not full-time travel – but as much as we can afford, and as much as our mutual good health allows. Because there will come a day, hopefully a long time from now, when we won’t be able to do this. We’re not waiting for that day.

Travel has always been part of how we live. But as we traveled more seriously, I started taking more photographs and writing little travelogues on Facebook. Mostly for my mom – she loved reading about our adventures and misadventures. She passed away in 2024. I still feel her absence in ways I can’t always articulate. But I know she’d want me to keep writing, and keep pressing the shutter button on my camera. So I do.

This is The Flask Half Full.

It’s a travel blog, yes – but with a specific point of view. I’m a retired sommelier with a camera and an inconvenient need to understand the history of everywhere I go. I will not buy the mass-produced souvenir. I will find the local grocery store, study the drinks shelf for twenty minutes, and send my husband off to climb something while I do it. I have opinions about communist architecture, underground toilets, and why Balkan wine deserves far more attention than it gets.

This isn’t Europe packaged neatly for postcards. It’s the herd tour I escaped from. It’s a city that still looks like the war that happened to it. It’s the cherry brandy that tasted incredible in that church courtyard in Osijek – and was completely undrinkable when I got it home.

It’s travel with a twist.

I hope you’ll stick around.

Cheers,

DipWSET · Certified Sommelier · Photographer · Based in the DC area · You can find my wine writing archive at The Armchair Sommelier, and my photography portfolio at Kirsten Georgi Photography.