Becomming a Grandmother Pt. 2

O.K. so I’m pretty new at this.  All these years when my friends were having kids and I thought I was in “training” to become a grandmother, it’s nothing compared to the real thing!  The love I have for this 10 1/2 pound little baby is amazing!  I think about her all the time, wondering what new thing she is discovering or doing this day.  I’ve been able to see her about every other weekend.  It’s incredible how much they develop and change in such a short time.  Her personality is starting to show, she is smiling and cooing and starting to discover her hands and feet.  I just have to show you a picture so you can compare Elliana from her first day in this world to the picture on her 7 week visit.  Hope you enjoy as much as I do.  I’ll keep you posted!

  
                   Elliana Birth Day                                                   Elliana 7 Weeks Old

Pinot Days – 2010 San Francisco

Last Sunday Larry and I went to Pinot Days 2010.  It was held at Fort Mason in San Francisco.  This was the 6th annual event here and it looks like there will be one this November in Chicago and another one in Southern California in January 2011.  This event is put on by Bay Area Wine Project.

There were over 200 wineries, about 14 food purveyors and over 20 exhibitors represented on this given Sunday at Pinot Days.  About 95% of the wineries were from California and 80% of that was from Northern California.  Russian River, Sonoma County, Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, Carneros, Napa Valley, Monterey, Monterey County and Buellton, Santa Barbara County, are the most prominent Pinot Noir producers in California.  

Larry and I love a good Pinot Noir.  The Pinot grape is a beautiful, versatile, complex grape nuanced like a little baby grape.  Its also cranky, difficult to grow and thin-skinned, making it prone to all sorts of perils in the vineyard.  A good Pinot has a medium body, very fruit forward, a little bit of pucker power and goes great with food.  Check out my website at ViciVino.com for some recipe ideas.  Besides a good Cabernet, Pinot Noir is the next best wine to pair with food.  It’s light enough to go with fish, yet it’s bold enough to go with tri-tip.  I love it with any Asian Food.  Pinot Noir is not made to be laid down for a long period of time; at the most, five years.  But in reality the Pinot that you buy should be drunk within two years of the year you bought it in, not the year of the vintage.  Each winery decides on how long they are going to leave the wine in the barrel vs. the bottle.  Some leave it in the bottle as long as they leave it in the barrel.  Its tricky how to handle this grape once it’s picked and how you do that will greatly show up in the final outcome.  This grape likes to be pampered, so a lot of wineries have a gravity flow system so that the juices hardly have any stress during the wine making process.  .

Of the wineries that we stopped at and sampled, here is a selection of the ones that stood out to me and was worth mentioning.  Now don’t forget we all have different taste buds and preferences when it come to wine and food.  

Alma Rosa Winery – Buellton
Blink Wines – Benicia
C. Donatiello Winery – Healdsburg
Cartograph – Healdsburg ***
Chronicle Wines – Sonoma
Cru – Madera ***
Dutton Goldfield – Sebastopol ***
Gary Farrell – Healdsburg ***
Hagafen Cellars – Napa
Hirsch Vineyard – Cazadero ***
Inception Wines – Buellton
Joseph Swan Vineyards – Forestville
Kanzler Vineyards – Sebastopol
Kastania Vineyards – Petaluma
Kendric Vineyards – San Anselmo
Lynmar Estate – Sebastopol ***
MacMurray Ranch – Healdsburg
McIntyre Vineyards – Soledad
Pillow Rd Vineyards – Angwin
Rusack Vineyards – Solvang ***
Testarossa Winery – Los Gatos
Thomas George Estate – Healdsburg ***
Windy Oaks Estate – Corralitos ***

*** Lori’s top wineries from this day

Most of these wineries were serving their ’08 vintage, however, a lot of them are not yet released.  Some were still pouring their ’07 (which is one of my favorite years for Pinot Noir) and a very few were pouring anything older.  

We also enjoyed the food purveyors that were showing their products.  Most were different cheese companies, olive oils and some chocolate companies too ☺.

If you get the opportunity to go to this event either in Chicago in November, Southern California in January or Northern California next summer I strongly suggest it.  It’s a really nice way to sample the grape, and really taste the difference in the Terroir.


Happiness is: Becoming a Grandmother

Happiness is:  Becoming a Grandmother

Elliana Nita= Lots of dark hair, puffy big cheeks, beautiful full lips, long fingernails and everything else perfect.  That is my brand new granddaughter.  My first grandchild and a girl to boot!  Raising two fantastic sons, always wishing I could have had that girl… I finally got my wish.

The call came at 4:55 a.m. on April 29th.  The original plan was that Brandon and Kim would call us as they were on their way to the birthing center.  And then call us after she was born.  But as things turned out, by the time they realized that they were in real labor things progressed too fast and less than 6 hours from the beginning to the end Elliana was born.

                                                     
                                                                            Elliana Nita 6 Days Young

Once we got the call and
got most of the details we cried with joy.  We got our day in order so
we could drive up to see our new angel.  Brandon and Kim came home to
their house about 6 hours after Elliana was born.  We gave them a
little bit of space to get settled and maybe have a nap before us
getting there.

We arrived and found Elliana in the arms of her grandfather Lou (Kim’s dad) so we just starred at her for the longest time.  The kids were exhausted but on an adrenaline rush.  They visited with us and Kim and the baby disappeared every so often when she went to nurse her.  Everything was so new.  Finally the changing table was used, the beautiful bassinet that Grandpa Lou made was being used and our arms for holding her were being used.

It was a beautiful day with the Elliana Nita, her parents and her two sets of grandparents enjoying the miracle of life.

River Road, Wine Barrel Weekend

A few weekends ago we went on the Wine Road Barrel Tasting weekend in Sonoma County.  We had a map and a list of the participating wineries.  The weekend prior, Larry and I went onto the ViciVino.com website to check out the wineries listed in the Russian River area.  Then we went through the ones that we hadn’t been to and made a list of the wineries we wanted to visit.  We ended up having a great 3 days of driving along the winding vineyard roads, dining on some of the best cuisine in the Sonoma County and drinking world class wines.

Friday we left home around 10:00 a.m. and arrived in Geyserville about 11:45.  It was pouring rain the whole way up there.  But we got in to Diavola Pizzeria and Sulumeria Restaurant in time to be seated right away, before the crowds came.  Friends of ours who were on a mission to find the best pizza in the Bay Area had told us about Diavola.  We decided not to drink any wine with lunch, as we knew that we were going to be drinking all afternoon.  Larry and I shared both items.  First as a starter we ordered their heirloom bean and faro soup with chard, prosciutto and rosemary; absolutely delicious and perfect for a rainy day.  Then we shared their Salsiccia pizza, which had housemade sausage, red torpedo onions and pecorino cheese.  The crust was light and crunchy and there wasn’t an over-abundance of cheese on the pizza.  You could actually taste each individual ingredients.  Before we left the restaurant we stopped and purchased their homemade olive mixture to bring to the kids’ house to go toward the appetizers before dinner. (We were put in charge of this course.)

After lunch we decided to go to the Dry Creek Valley to taste wines.  This was decided mostly because the views would be prettier in the Alexander Valley region, as they are up in the hills, and Saturday was supposed to be a beautiful day. We started the day at Fritz Winery.  Their winery is built underground and they have a cave below the winery to store a lot of their barrels.  Here we sampled ’09 Estate Reserve Zinfandel and their ’08 Estate Reserve Cabernet.  They also poured for us their ’07 single vineyard Saralee Pinot Noir, their ’06 Syrah and their ’08 Sauvignon Blanc.  They had really nice views and we need to go back on a non-rainy day.  Then we went on to Forchini. 

                                              

                                                                                Art amongst the vineyards

They were pouring an ’09 Pinot Noir, ’08 Tuscan Red Blend, ’08 Old Vine Zinfandel, ’09 Bordeaux Blend and an ’09 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The tasting room seemed nice; the people pouring in the barrel room seemed a bit burned out.  We then went to Papapietro Perry.  They are located in a nice spot where you can park and go to at least 3-4 other wineries and an olive company.  They poured the ’09 Nunes – Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, ’09 Elsbree Vineyard Pinot Noir and the ’09 Elsbree Vineyard Zinfandel out of the barrel.  We also tried their ’07 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and their ’07 Peters Pinot Noir.  They offer very good wines, and are very nice people.  We then went to Rued Vineyards and Winery.  Here they poured us a slew of wines.  They didn’t have their barrels there; they had poured the wine from the barrels into wine bottles.  It didn’t feel the same as tasting right from the barrel.  We sampled an ’07 Pinot Blanc, ’07 Sauvignon Blanc, an ’07 Chardonnay, ’06 Zinfandel, ’07 Zinfandel, ’08 Zinfandel and an ’07 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The people were nice enough and poured us plenty but I didn’t get the best feeling about their atmosphere.  We then continued to drive south on West Side Road heading to Santa Rosa.  We stopped at the Dry Creek Store, the cutest little store/deli/coffee shop.  There we got cheeses, Spanish almonds and crackers to complete our obligation for appetizers for the night.  Next we went to an old favorite, Hop Kiln Winery. 

                                Hopkiln Winery

Such a beautiful setting with a very old building that was turned into a winery in the 70’s.  Here we sampled a ’09 Chardonnay and a ’09 Pinot Noir both from Alexander Valley.  We took a walk through their gardens and sat at one of their picnic benches for awhile admiring the vineyards.  Next A left on River Road and a right onto Olivet Road found us at De Loach Vineyards.  Here we got to meet their winery puppy, Pooka.  She was very cute and friendly, though still learning some of her manners.  We tasted an ‘08 Ritchie Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, ’07 Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay, ’07 Golden Coast Chardonnay, ’07 Boedreaux Vineyard Pinot Noir,  ’07 Green Valley Pinot Noir, ’06 van der Kamp Pinot Noir, ’07 Riebli Valley Zinfandel and their Tawney Port.  Overall we enjoyed their wines and our experience there.  It was at the end of the day and they still had smiles on their faces.  

After all of these wineries we were exhausted.  We made it to Brandon and Kim’s house around 5:30.  Brandon was stuffing a whole chicken with limes and we turned on the Cal vs. UCLA basketball game.  Some of you might remember that Larry is a Cal alumni.  Kim got home with salad ingredients and we all sat together and snacked and got caught up on things.  I got to rub my grandbaby in Kim’s tummy.  She is getting way big now.  She is in her 33rd week.  After we dried out a couple of hours Brandon then opened a bottle of wine to go with dinner.  Cal won the game on Friday, but it was close.  After dinner Kim and I knitted and the boys rested while we watched Robin Hood, Men in Tights.  It’s such a classic Mel Brooks movie; so funny, glad we got to see it again.

Saturday we woke up a little bit slowly to the smell of bacon cooking.  Brandon and Kim were already making breakfast, as Brandon had to go to Dutton Goldfield to pour for Barrel Weekend.  We had a delicious egg scramble with onion, peppers and cheese, the bacon and toast.  Brandon left and Larry and I got ready and left the house around 11:30.  We got in the car and realized that it was going to be a beautiful day; the sky was blue without a cloud in the sky.  We drove straight to the Chalk Hill Region within the Russian River Valley.  We first went to Chalk Hill Winery.  There we barrel sampled their ’08 Sauvignon Blanc, and their ’08 Chardonnay.  They were also pouring their ’06 Chardonnay from the bottle to compare the two vintages.  This is a large facility with many, many acres of beautiful vines.  We need to go back another time and try more of their wines.  Just up the hill from Chalk Hill Winery was Chateau Felice.  We had met Samantha (Sam), the director of sales and marketing and the daughter of the owners, at the Hog in the Fog event last summer.  Here we sampled a ’08 Cabernet Franc, ’08 Syrah and a ’09 Zinfandel.  We really loved the Zinfandel.  We tasted at their new tasting room, which is outside under a covered arbor.  Very nice people and a good vibe.  From there we went to Sausal Winery, which is in the Alexander Valley.  They were the only winery that offers complementary wine tasting that we visited that day.  Most have you pay between $5-10 and you get that back if you buy wine.  Here we sampled an ’08 Private Reserve Zinfandel, and an ’08 Century Vines Zinfandel in the barrels plus an ’06 Family Zinfandel and a ’06 Private Reserve Zinfandel.  They also were the only winery we went to that had cats as the meet and greeters.  Next was Hanna Winery and Vineyard, Alexander Valley tasting room.  The facility here is beautifully situated amongst the hills and vineyards.  We could see most of the Alexander Valley from here.  Here we sampled their ’08 Sauvignon Blanc and their ’06 Bismark Mountain Zinfandel.  When we finished sampling we decided to get out our sandwiches that we had purchased at Raley’s and have ourselves a little picnic enjoying the beautiful views.  It was so nice. 

                            

                                         Views of the Alexander Valley from Hanna Winery

Afterwards we went to Hawkes Vineyards and Winery.  Here the winemaker and his two sons were each pouring out of a barrel.  They offered a ’08 Red Winery Cabernet, a ’08 Stone Cabernet and a ’08 Pyramid Cabernet.  We went into the tasting room and sampled their Chardonnay and their ’05 Alexander Valley Cabernet, ’05 Pyramid Vineyard Cabernet and the ’05 Stone Vineyard Cabernet.  The wife/mother was pouring the wines.  This was only the second family run winery we went to.  We then decided to go to Clos du Bois since we hadn’t been in a number of years.  This is a very large facility with beautiful grounds for picnicking and letting the kids run off some steam.  We went into the barrel room and sampled their ’09 Chardonnay and their ’09 Pinot Noir.  Both were very nice.  We then went into the tasting room and sampled some more wines and looked around at their very lovely gift shop.  They offered samples of a number of mustards and sauces.  Right next door was Trione.  We had heard about them but have never tried their wines.  Here we sampled their ’08 Syrah from the barrel and their ’08 Sauvignon Blanc from the bottle.  They had a very nice winery with an outdoor covered deck with overstuffed chairs to take a load off.  We sat there for a few minutes and enjoyed looking at their outdoor Viking kitchen.  We spent a little bit too much time here and when we got to Frances Ford Coppola Winery they were closed!  We parked, walked down the hill to the winery where there were a lot of people sitting outside enjoying their wines.  When we got to the tasting room the lady there informed us that the barrel tasting was over.  It goes from 11-4 and it was four o’clock.  This was fine, we understood, but there tasting room says that it is open until 5:00 and she wouldn’t let us in, not even to take a look at it, so I can’t say anything about the winery except that that lady pissed me off!  We then went back to Brandon and Kim’s house and watched the second half of the Cal vs. Washington game.  Cal lost.  Too bad.  Kim left to drive to Berkeley to meet up with some friends for dinner.  We took the opportunity and took Brandon out for a nice Parent/Child dinner.  We went to Bistro 29 in Santa Rosa.  We had met the chef Brian Anderson from there at the P.S. I Love You event last month.  We were impressed with his choice of food and execution.  Brandon brought a bottle of ’07 Dutton Goldfield Freestone Vineyard Pinot Noir.  Brandon and Larry agreed to order a Michel Barat – Petite Chablis, Le Pradu, from France as our starter wine.  They opened the pinot and poured us a glass but we enjoyed the Chablis first.  Brandon and Larry shared a dish of Monterey Bay Sardines, grilled with olive oil and served with fresh greens.  And the three of us shared a Buckwheat Crepe filled with Basque-sautéed shrimp, roasted tomato, roasted peppers, cave Gruyere and saffron butter.  You can imagine how good that was.  We had sent our business cards plus a glass of the Pinot Noir to Chef Brian in the back.  He came out and talked with us at the table for a couple minutes as the evening went along.  Very nice guy.  For the main entrée Brandon and I ordered the same dish, which was Ribeye Steak with potatoes and vegetables.  Larry ordered their brick roasted “spring” chicken with tarragon jus and truffle pommes frites.  His dish was served with asparagus and the fries were in a glass lined with paper.  Larry was nice enough to share the fries with us.  They were so good.  Larry loved his chicken dish and we loved our beef!  For dessert we shared a sampler plate with 3 desserts on it.  One was a thin crispy cookie sandwich filled with a lemon mascarpone cream, a mini brown sugar crème brulee and profiteroles.  We spent 2 ½ hours enjoying this dining experience.  Great food, conversation and wine.  We got back to the house and basically went to bed.  

The next morning I woke up to bacon smell again!  This time it was Kim cooking the bacon.  Brandon made over-easy eggs and we had toast.  We packed up.  Brandon went off to the winery for his 14th day in a row!  We left and went first to Harvest Moon Winery.  There they were pouring a ’09 Zinfandel and a ’08 Cabernet.  We were looking for Randy Pitts, owner extraordinaire.  He was busy running all around so we just sampled what they were pouring, a Zinfandel and a Cabernet Sauvignon.  We bought a bottle of his sparkling Gewürztraminer for Brandon who wants it for the celebration of his new baby.  Next we drove to Copain Winery, which recently received a great write up in the SF Chronicle.   They are in the middle of no man’s land.  You have to follow a map and be good at reading it in order to find it.  But we are sure glad that we did.  They have beautiful views and good wines.  We sampled from their barrel a Syrah and a Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley.  We took some pictures and then headed to Dutton Goldfield, which is in the process of opening their new tasting room.  They had their back warehouse open.  This will eventually become their wine making facility/cellar/storage area.  They were pouring from five different barrels.  They had a ’09 McDougall Vineyard Pinot Noir, a ’09 Fox Den Vineyard Pinot Noir, a ’09 Freestone Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir, a ’09 Devil’s Gulch Vineyard Pinot Noir, and a ’08 Cherry Ridge Vineyard Syrah.  It was so great to try the same year of Pinot Noir but from different vineyards.  They are all very different and very delicious.  Winemaker B was there pouring.  It was fun watching him “work”.  After we were there a little bit he gave us a personal tour of the new facilities.  It is going to be very nice when it is done.  The nice thing for Dutton Goldfield is that everyone has his or her office now at one location.  This will makes it a lot easier for communication, sampling and blending the wines etc.  We then went to the table where they were pouring all their bottles of wine.  The table was very crowded and since we were familiar with the wines we only sampled a couple of our favorites.


    Winemaker B (right) talking with happy customers.

After this nice visit we got on the road and headed back to Dublin.  It was a beautiful drive home.  We were pretty happy with our weekend as we went to 3 distinct wine regions, Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley; we went to a couple new restaurants and even had a picnic lunch, not to mention the delicious breakfasts we had with Brandon and Kim.  This time with them is most likely the last time we will see them at their house without any children! ☺

P.S. I Love You – Dark and Delicious

On February 19th we went to another great event in the San Francisco Bay Area.  It was put on by the local P.S. I Love You, the Petite Sirah Advocacy Organization.  The event was called Dark and Delicious.  It was held on Alameda at Rock Wall Winery which is on an old Naval Base, so the facility was huge with very high ceilings.  The barrels that were stacked against the walls looked very small compared to the size of the room.


                    Dark and Delicious Event at Rock Wall Winery

There were about 300-400 people all willing and ready to eat and drink.  The event cost $70 per person.  There were over 40 wineries, and about 30 different restaurants and caterers.  The wineries and food companies were interspersed together.  Unlike the Make-A-Wish foundation fundraiser we went to a couple weekends ago, where the wineries poured whatever they wanted, here they just poured Petite Sirah.  

I need to apologize.  I lost my piece of paper that I took all my notes of the evening.  So, I’m going off of my memory with some help from Larry.

Some of the Petite Sirah stood out more than others such as Cecchetti Wine Company Line 39, Tres Sabores, Twisted Oak, Concannon, Heringer Estates, Michael-David, and Ursa Vineyards to name a few.  The cool thing about the Petite Sirah is that it grows in many different regions.  Such as Lake County, Sierra Foothills, Lodi, Livermore, Paso Robles to name a few.

            

                                         Swirling the Petite Sirah                                                                                       Serving Up Some Food

The food was overall very good.  There was a lot of meat, but that makes sense when you are trying to pair with Petite Sirah.  There were about 4-5 different versions of pulled pork sliders, one that stood out was where the pork was served with coleslaw and a lime aioli, there were a number of different meatballs too but the one with bacon in the meatball and served on a crostini with caramelized onion was great as was the wild boar meatballs.  There was deep fried curried cauliflower that was really good but didn’t stand up to the wine so well.  Our favorite of the evening was a slow braised pork shoulder served on top of a homemade savory bread pudding with a Petite Sirah plum sauce.  There also was pork served on a light Lavosh cracker with a cilantro pesto, foie gras, paella and homemade beef jerky.  There was plenty of chocolate there too.  There were brownies, chocolate with bacon bits in it, chocolate truffles filled with Petite Sirah cream, bacon strips with chocolate drizzled on top, (was that a dessert or was that an appetizer?  Whatever, it was good!) there was some seriously intense fudge, I had their peanut butter caramel chocolate, Larry had their dark chocolate.  We left that booth with big smiles on our faces. 

   

                                  Fantastic Fudge from Z-Cioccolato                                                          The Best Pork Dish Of The Night – Bistro 29

We bumped into a few blogger friends Thea Dwelle from Luscious Lushes and Alana Gentry from A Girl with a Glass.

We want to thank the P.S. I Love You for treating Larry and I to this event.  We loved everything about it and would highly recommend it to everyone who likes a good bold wine.

Wine and Wishes – Make a Wish Fondation Event

Last Saturday Larry and I went to a special gourmet food and wine tasting fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Foundation.  We bid for this event at a silent auction last summer and won two tickets to this tasting event. We feel pretty pleased that we got this bid for the price that we did.  We privately donate to Make-A-Wish every year but had never been to a function of theirs.  We put on our nice clothes and went to Treasure Island (the island in the middle of the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco.  The views of San Francisco from there were amazing! 

                                                         
                                                                                          View of San Francisco From Treasure Island

For this tasting there were about 35 wineries and 35 restaurants.  We walked into a very large warehouse building of which the atmosphere was set up very dark.  There were muted spotlights from the ceiling that made each vendor stand out.  There must have been about 500 people there.  The vendors were flanked around the room.  There was a great assortment of wine and food of which most were new to us, although we had heard of most of the restaurants and about half of the wineries.  There was music in the background and the place was decorated with black shining flooring and monkeys flying in a circle in the air in the middle of the room.  Below the monkeys were the silent auction items.  They had some very nice wines, getaways, restaurant and winetasting for the auction.

        
                                 Flying Monkey Decorations                                                         Lori all dolled up for the Make-A–Wish Tasting

We got there very close to the beginning around 5:00 and stayed until it ended around 7:30.  We ran into our buddies Thea and Liza.  We haven’t seen them since last summer!  We will see each other again next week at the P.S. I Love You – Dark and Delicious event in Alameda on February 19th.

Some of the wineries and wines that stood out to me were Ladera Vineyards Pinot Noir, Whitehall Lane Winery Cabernet, McPhail Winery ’07 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley, Cakebread Cellars Zinfandel, Patz & Hall Pinot Noir, Verge Wine Cellars Syrah, Chateau Montelena ’06 Cabernet, and Chappellet ’07 Cuvee.  Some of the restaurants and delicacies that stood out as well were Citizen Cake – chocolate pudding cake with a lemon marmalade, The Moss Room with a snapper ceviche, Namu with a Kim Chee ravioli, the CCA with pork vindaloo sliders, Aqua Restaurant with Ahi tuna tartar with Moroccan spices and a lemon confit, Farallon with New Brunswick oysters on the half shell, Millennium Restaurant with truffled pecan mushroom pate on a crostini topped with a fig red wine syrup on top, The Girl and the Fig with prosciutto and gruyere crostini with fig jam, and Kara’s Cupcakes who served their carrot cake, chocolate mousse and lemon cupcakes.  

GATX, Hartmann Studios, Sybase, Weil Gotshal, KRON 4, and Opentable.com sponsored this event.

The nice thing about this event was that there was enough food and wine to match up the tastes properly.  Everyone who attended seemed to have a great time.  The crew did a great job keeping the tabletops clear and the trays empty.  I hope they received some great donations.  This is a great cause and it’s all for the kids.  To donate to Make – A – Wish, click here.

Superbowl Racked!

Yes, I said Superbowl Racked!  Not Rocked (even though it did), I said Racked.  I know what you are thinking!  It was Superbowl weekend, and in any football game there are cheerleaders.  And we know what part of the cheerleaders the cameramen look at – and show to the audience!  Their Racks!  Of course!  But that isn’t what I’m talking about so get you mind out of the gutter!  Really! 

I’m talking about racking wine, specifically Winemaker B’s wine!  If you read my blog in September about going up to Sonoma and picking and crushing grapes at Dave Kram’s place, this is that wine.  We got to sample from Winemaker B’s garage his Viognier, Zinfandel/Petite Sira blend, Cabernet Sauvignon and his Syrah.  Everything tasted so good.  The Viognier is just about ready and was perfect.  He has about 2-3 oak barrels a few glass multi-gallon containers and a couple metal containers full of wine.  Before the Superbowl game commenced Larry helped Brandon with the racking of the wines.  They had to top off the wines in the barrels, and move the wine from the one jug to the other leaving everything that dropped to the bottom out.  Winemaker B has every thing very organized in his garage.  The winemaking takes up about 1/3 of his garage.  He was still able to set up his ping-pong table for fun before and after the game.

       

     Larry & Winemaker B setting up to rack                             Larry & Winemaker B racking                               Winemaker B topping the barrel


We had some good food at the party.  I brought two different types of hummus that I had made.  One was my traditional cayenne pepper hummus and the other was artichoke/feta cheese hummus.  We also brought some fresh flatbread (garlic and cheesy jalapeno) made at our local Afghani store Sahara.  Both were so good.  Kim made a delicious butternut curry squash soup and Brandon made B.L.T. sandwiches using gourmet sun-dried tomato bacon.  Everything was very good.  We enjoyed the game.  No matter whom you were routing for, it was a good game.  Larry and I happen to be routing for the underdogs, the Saints, and they won!  That was the first time that the New Orleans Saints were even in the Superbowl.  Cheers!

Cancun Rocked and Rolled in 2010

Larry and I went to Cancun over New Year’s week.  This trip had been planned for about a year.  We gifted each of our son’s a plane ticket to Cancun and invited them to stay in our two-bedroom time-share.  All they had to do was to purchase a ticket for their gals, Brandon his wife Kim and Jacob his girlfriend Brittany.  

Larry and I last went to Cancun in 1995 to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary with our friends Ken and Sally who were doing the same.  In 2001 we went to Playa del Carmen with the company that I was working with as a benefit toward all the good sales from the previous year.

I love the Caribbean ocean.  I have only been to Cancun and its surrounding areas, to Belize and to the Dominican Republic in the very Eastern part of the Caribbean.  I love the sand, the coral, the color and warmth of the ocean, the snorkeling the people their cultures, the food and the drinks.

Our kids and their women had never been to Cancun.  We all arrived there on Saturday December 26th.  We stayed at the Casa Maya Hotel which if Cancun is layed out like the number “7” then we were in the middle of the top of the seven.  The hotel row goes down the right side of the leg of the seven and the lagoon is on the left side of the leg of the seven.  At the Casa Maya we didn’t have all-inclusive (which I really don’t like) but as it turned out the restaurant and food staff were great and we ate many meals there.  We ate our first and last dinners there both with an option to have a buffet or eat from the menu.  We ate another night there when they had a Welcome Night and we were treated to not only 3 drinks plus dinner but also great a great dancing performance all for less than $20/pp. 

                          
                                                           Our view of Cancun from our condo

At the Casa Maya they had beautiful beaches that were actually on the Gulf of Mexico as opposed to the hotel row that is on the Caribbean.  The nice thing about being on the Gulf vs. the Caribbean is that the ocean is shallower, milder and perfect for wading and swimming.  It’s a great place for kids to enjoy.  The Casa Maya also had a palapa facility for lunch and dinner if weather permitted and a smaller palapa bar with stools on the sand as well as tables by the pool.  The resort had all sorts of events going on daily from beach volleyball, darts, and pool basketball to ceramics and water aerobics.  Besides the main pool they had an adult-only pool, which is where the gym, spa and hammocks were.  One of the features that I loved were the servers who came walking around the beach.  A couple times I ordered their medium margarita.  It came in a ½ yard bright orange plastic glass with the longest straw ever!  This was very refreshing.  They also had lit tennis courts that Brandon and Jacob took advantage of a couple times.  We were no more than a 5-minute walk to the bus stop, which would take us into downtown Cancun, or to the hotel row with all the discos and restaurants. 

   
                          Drinking with the family                                                      Kim and Brandon at the beach

One day we took an excursion to Isla Mujeres.  The Mother Island.  Our tour consisted of a full day of sailing on a catamaran, drinking rum, tequila and cervazas on the sail boat.  We stopped at a National Park to snorkel with our captain as our local guide, we docked at Isla Mujeres and had time in town on the island to shop and get a feel of the locals.  Then off we went to a private beach south on the island to eat lunch and relax.  We sailed both ways and had perfect weather.  We did all of this for the price of $39.00 per person!  Such a deal!

                                                
                                          Jacob, Brittany (forward), Kim and Brandon sailing to Isla Mujeres

Another day we rented a caravan and drove it south to Tulum where there are Mayan ruins.  We spent about 2 hours getting there, and then walked all around for a while.  The ruins were over 3,000 years old and are still in pretty good shape.  Especially considering they are right along the cliffs of the Caribbean.  After Tulum we drove to Akumal which is a very small beach community known for its diving.  We had a delicious lunch there then had a couple hours of beach time before it got dark.  Those of us who snorkeled enjoyed seeing sea turtles (my first time!), stingrays, and a few other assorted fish.  From there we continued to drive north with another stop in Playa Del Carmen.  There we had a fantastic Mayan dinner to celebrate Kim’s belated birthday.  We walked all around the shops up and down the main street.  It was extremely crowded!  From there we drove back to our condo.  A long day but we all had a great time.

                                                  
                                                                            Larry and Lori at the beaches of Tulum

 
A couple nights after enjoying the beach all day at our resort we took the bus out for dinner.  One night we went into the downtown area.  We went on a Sunday and found it very interesting.  All the families were out in town walking around.  We ended up at a square in a park where they have a number of concession stands of food, drinks and goods for sale.  The little children were on these electric vehicles, like bumper cars, but made out of plastic.  All different sizes and shapes.  A lot of them had room so there were two kids per car.  Flanked around this very large park area, (no grass) were some restaurants.  We ended up at an Italian restaurant.  We really enjoyed what we ate.  We didn’t have wine, mostly because before we even left home we realized where we were going, and knew that their alcoholic specialties were going to be tequila, rum and cervezas.  So, that is what we stuck to.  The other night we ventured out and we took the bus in the opposite direction and went to the hotel row area and met up with cousins Eric and Delores who had just flowed to Cancun for 4 nights from Los Angeles.  We all experienced Senior Frogs together.  And I mean experienced it.  The wait staff is all crazy in a very fun way.  We sat outside so we could hear ourselves talk a bit better.  We had a magician come to our table for a while, did some good tricks, we had funny labels pinned on us, mine was 75% blonde for example.  Our servers were full of surprises and fun.  The food was edible, but the drinks were better.  If you got too drunk they have a sober slide where you end up in the lagoon.  After dinner we walked around the mall and shops and discos.  It was just starting to get busy at 10:00 at night.

                         
                      Drinking at Senior Frogs                                                           Drinking at Playa del Carmen

On New Years Eve we went out to dinner to a Brazilian Steak House.  This type of cuisine is getting more and more popular especially in the larger cities.  We got there around 6:30, got seated and then were taken to the salad buffet, which has a large number of different types of salads for you to choose from.  You could get full just from this but when you are ready for the meat to start coming to your table you turn over your coaster to the red side and the real dinner begins.  The different servers come over to you with a huge hunk of meat on a large skewer and they tell you what the meat is.  If you want some, then they slice a nice thin slice for you and put it on your plate.  So, we received Rib Eye, Flank Steak, Pork Loin, Turkey wrapped with bacon, New York Steak, Top Sirloin, to name a few.  Unless you turn your coaster over they keep on coming over.  After a while we asked if they had of their obscure meats.  So pretty soon they brought over lamb, ostrich and crocodile.  Everything was delicious.  I especially liked the ostrich, the crocodile was tasty, but it reminded me too much of chicken with a gamey flavor.  In the middle of the table they served us some French fries, Caesar salad, fried bananas and fried cheese for us all to share.  The meal was pretty pricy, about $40/pp without drinks.  If you go, go real hungry in order to get your monies worth.  The good thing eating here on New Years Eve was that the food lasted all night long in our tummies.

Speaking of New Year’s Eve this was to be the highlight of our trip.  Jacob and Brittany had gone out on Monday night to check out what our options were for N.Y.E.  They came back with what appeared to be a great option for $80.00 all you can drink and dance at The City disco club.  This was in our price range so we all bought tickets for the Thursday night spectacular.  Now, remember we were very full from all the protein we had at the Brazilian restaurant and were well rested up for a great evening.  We started out by going to the outdoor bar.  Larry and I started with Margaritas on the rocks.  That is where we ended up too.  There was the shot of tequila at midnight but besides that we stayed on course.  We all stayed pretty close together at the beginning then before we knew it Jacob and Brittany were downstairs on the dance floor bumping and grinding.  We staying up stairs to do our own bumping and grinding.  They had a couple acts before the New Year, one was a fire juggler.  The other was a couple doing different gymnastics similar to Cirque de Soleil.  Then the music went on and we did a quick 20-second countdown to the New Year.  It was pretty puny.  The balloons didn’t drop for a number of minutes.  Anyways, time flew; we were dancing and drinking and drinking and dancing.  Before we knew it Brittany was tapping on my shoulder showing me her new ring that Jacob had just proposed to her with.  Yes they got engaged!  Evidently they found a little corner in the club, and went into their own little world.  Jacob got on his knee and proposed.  He had the ring, a special necklace from their first date and all sorts of goodies.  All of us except Brittany knew that this was suppose to happen sometime on New Year’s Eve.  We actually knew about this all week long!  Which made for a long week, even longer for Jacob.  Brittany was totally shocked and very pleasantly surprised.  He did this at 2:00 local time, which was 12:00 back at home.  We then danced for another hour, went walking on the beach and celebrated some more then we left the two lovebirds and went back to the condo.  We got back around 4:00 and got to sleep around 5:00.  

                                       
                                                                   Jacob and Brittany get engaged!

On new years day we all got up around 11:00.  We moved around slowly, made some eggs for breakfast and got ready to go down to the beach.  It was a pretty windy day so it didn’t warm up so well.  It was annoying trying to read in the wind and so we stayed down only for a couple hours.  We came back upstairs and took a nap.  Around 7:00 we all converged together and went downstairs for our last diner together.  This was a celebratory dinner for Jacob and Brittany’s engagement.  The dinner theme was Caribbean.  Their buffet was pretty good with fish, beef and pork dishes.  I was very interested in their salad bar.  I took two helping of that.  Everyone enjoyed the dinner.  We went back to the room and just hung out.  Brandon and Kim packed, as they were first to leave the next morning.  

We each brought different games to play while we were there like, dominoes, cards, farkel, Uno, trivia questions and cribbage.  We played Uno the first night while we were waiting for time to pass by for Brandon and Kim to arrive.  Jacob and Brittany played some cribbage.  We all took a couple hours one night and played Oh Hell.  

This trip was perfect, we had alone time, we had time with each couple and we had time as a whole family unit.  We all got along great, shared all sorts of stories and have new stories to tell.  I hope we can do this sort of trip every 5 years.   

One afternoon = Five wineries in Livermore Valley

Last Saturday I had to go into work for a few hours.  I had Larry drive me so afterwards he could pick me up and we could go wine tasting in the Livermore Valley.  I work in Livermore and we really wanted to visit a few wineries that we have heard about but not visited yet.  So Larry picked me up and off we went into the city of Livermore.  The city, which is large in size but small in reality.  You will find the downtown area with cute stores and good restaurants on First Street.  There are about four to five blocks with all the activity, which makes it easy to take a leisurely stroll and check out the goings on.

The first winery we went to was Ryhan Winery.  I had been there before but Larry had never been and it was close to the two wineries that Larry wanted to visit.  Ryhan winery was very nice; they had a very nice staff and some foods to pair with their different wines.  They offered pepper jack cheese, mozzeralla cheese, homemade chili chicken, olives marinated in different herbs and spices, and some chocolates.  Being a foodie I won’t go into details of what I would have done differently, but they made a great effort.  I liked their raspberry sparkling wine.  Larry and I both had their Syrah, which was pretty good; they also have a Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gricio and many others.  This was strictly a tasting room.  Their tasting fee is $5.00 but if you buy wine they don’t charge you.  Their hours are Friday 12-5, Sat/Sun 11:30-5:00 or by appointment.

Right next door to Ryhan Winery in the same attached building was Cuda Ridge Wines.  Larry Dino the winemaker and owner was there pouring the wines.  This was the winery, cellar and tasting room all in one spot.  Larry’s specialty is making Bordeaux style wines.  Cabernet Franc is one of their specialties.  We also tried a Sauvignon Blanc, a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Zinfandel that is on a different label.  All of their wines are made from grapes they get in the Livermore Valley.  They opened their winery in 2007 and their tasting room this past fall ’09.  They produce 1100 cases at the present moment.  They will also be offering a Semillon and a Malbec.  The surroundings were very comfortable and Larry and his wife Margie were very hospitable.

Our next stop was about 2 miles away.  These next two wineries are next to each other in a business park that fronts onto the main street.   The first winery we walked into was Occasio Winery.  They have a nice comfortable set up with a front room with the tasting counter, then behind that is a boardroom that can be used for a crowd up to 10 persons.  In that room they offer cheese and or lunch if you’re so inclined for your purpose.  Courtney was the person behind the counter pouring for us.  She was very nice and very knowledgeable.  We found out that the winery similar to Cuda Ridge had its first vintage in ’07 and opened their tasting room in the fall of ’09.  The owner and winemaker is John Kinney.  They currently are producing 500 cases of wine but very quickly will be up to 1,200 by the end of the year.  We got a small tour of the facilities.  They have a very nice sized laboratory.  Then the back area where the winery/cellar is was just the perfect size, room for growth yet small.  Back in the tasting room we tried a Pinot Gris ’08, a Sauvignon Blanc ’08*, a Rose of Zinfandel ’09* and a Zinfandel ’08*.  The future will be bringing a Petite Syrah, Fume Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a red blend of some sort.  We really enjoyed the wines and bought 3 bottles*.  Their wine club membership is different where they give you 20% off all wine purchased.  Their tasting fee is $5.00 but that is taken off if you purchase wine.  Their hours are Friday 12-5, Sat/Sun 11:30 – 4:30 or by appointment.

Right next door was Nottingham Winery and Satyrs’ Pond Winery.  The winemaker/owner Jeff Cranor, makes the wines for both labels.  Justin and Chris helped us with our wine tasting experience.  Similar to Occasio the feel when you walk in was very comfortable.  Their tasting area was a bit more cramped.  But they also have room for you to wander around and look at the different artwork on the walls.  The owner’s brother Pat Cranor is a thriving artist in San Diego and he has quite a number of pieces for sale there.  Chris took us for a tour of the back, which is very large for their size winery.  They like to have enough room for their special events that they host.  We sampled the Viognier from Nottingham Cellars, which was floral but not overwhelming, as it can be.  Then we tried the Satyrs’ Pond Winery Lux Alba white blend, which is a Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc blend.  Then in a decanter we sampled Satyrs’ ’06 Cabernet Sauvignon.  I really liked this.  Then in the next decanter we sampled Nottingham ’07 Cabernet Sauvignon.  Both were very good, smooth but the Satyrs’ had more potential I thought to lay down for a few years.  At the end Chris opened up the Nottingham Ralphi’s Red Blend, which is Merlot from Napa and Cabernet from Livermore.  At first this wine fell flat on the tongue.  But after a bit of swirling and waiting patiently for it to open it did so in a big way.  We had to buy one of those.  They charge a $5.00 tasting fee, which gets reimbursed if you purchase any wine.

After all of this, and I was done, Larry said do you want to go visit Linda and Earl at Cedar Mountain?  I said sure as it was only 2 minutes away.  So we went to see our old buddies.  Unfortunately they were busy but we got to sample their Sauvignon Blanc side by side with their Sauvignon Blanc Reserve.  Quite a difference – I liked the reserve better.  Then I tried their Chardonnay of which I have always felt that they make one of the best in the Livermore Valley.  We both had to sample their Tortuga Royale.  This is a port made by co-fermenting Blanches Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon grapes with Scharffen Berger 70% cacao powder and fortified with fine Eau De Vie Brandy.  You can only imagine how amazing this was.  There was just enough of the chocolate aroma and flavor with the grape flavor of the Cabernet and the brandy for the alcohol and smoothness.  I could have continued drinking this all afternoon!  However, we had grocery shopping to do etc.  Next time I’m there I’m going to buy one of those for my liquor cabinet.  For $25.00 it’s a fantastic gift for any wine lover!

So this concludes another wine tasting experience in Livermore Valley.  There are over 50 wineries there now and more popping up.  It’s a great place to go and sample wines without feeling any pressure.  I feel very fortunate that I live 20 minutes away!

Paso Robles Wines in San Diego Grand Tasting Tour

Good news, if you love wines from Paso Robles and live in Southern California.  The Paso Robles Wine Country, one of the nation’s premier wine producing regions, hits the road for its 2010 National Grand Tasting Tour with the first stop scheduled for February 22-25, 2010 in San Diego. Wine producers from the nationally acclaimed wine region will showcase their wines in a number of tasting events, including winemaker dinners, wine retailer tasting, a trade tasting and two consumer tasting events. This expanded marketing approach gives wine enthusiasts more opportunities to take in a Paso Robles Wine Country experience.

“It’s been two years since our Grand Tasting Tour visited San Diego,” said Stacie Jacob, executive director of the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance. “This is an exciting city with an amazing epicurean movement that is a perfect pairing for the style of wines produced in Paso Robles; we are thrilled to kick of our 2010 Tour in San Diego.”

The 2010 Grand Tasting Tour is the region’s 6th annual tour dedicated to bringing the Paso Robles Wine Country experience into top cities across the nation. San Diego was chosen as the only stop in Southern California with only three total Grand Tasting Tour events scheduled for the year. More than 40 winemakers will converge on San Diego with a variety of winemaker dinners and wine retailer tastings at many marquee restaurants and retail locations. Complementing these smaller events, two walk-around style consumer tastings will take place, each focusing on different audiences, including a late night tasting geared to attract the millennial generation.

The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance will also hold a seminar and tasting exclusive to the wine trade of San Diego. The many wine brands of Paso Robles utilize this outreach to expose wine buyers and influencers within the region to their brands. The complete schedule of events, venues and ticket prices for the Grand Tasting Tour – San Diego will be available by early January.  Click here for more information.

Wine Retailer Tastings – Monday, February 22 – Thursday, February 25, 2010
Winemaker Dinners – Tuesday, February 23 – Thursday, February 25, 2010
Trade Tasting – Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Consumer Tastings – Wednesday, February 24 – Thursday, February 25, 2010

If you live in Northern California don’t fret, the second leg of the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance 2010 Grand Tasting Tour includes a visit to Northern California the week of April 19, 2010.  Cities include – Sacramento, San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.

The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance represents wineries, growers and businesses in Paso Robles Wine Country. Centrally located between San Francisco and Los Angeles, along California’s Central Coast, Paso Robles Wine Country is California’s fastest growing wine region. It encompasses more than 26,000 vineyard acres and more than 180 wineries.  For more information, please click here.