Christina Waters

The Garden, a 2009 Academy Award nominee for best documentary feature, will be shown Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. Proceeds will benefit the California Food and Justice Coalition.

The Garden documents the rise of a lush 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles from the ashes of the 1992 riots. It grew to become the largest of its kind in the United States only to be threatened with destruction when the property was sold under questionable circumstances.

The ensuing controversy attracted worldwide attention, including such notable politicians and celebrities as More…

I love the new label that maverick winemaker Jeff Emery is trying out for his crisp 2009 Quinta Cruz Verdelho. Actually, the duct tape here isn’t so much a cloaking device as it is expedient.

The labels haven’t yet been attached to this latest installment of Emery’s highly drinkable white varietal. Fast-moving on the palate, graced with a slight spritz, this Italian grape is quite distinctive, offering a quick floral nose before settling into citrus, wintergreen and a tropical fruit center.

The finish is woody, haunted by a hit of bubblegum. Terrific stuff.

Stop by the Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard tasting room and give it a whirl. $22 a bottle is a bargain for a wine that is immediate, polymorphous and exotic.

Meatloaf. Ready to heat and eat. Delicious and yes, I’ll say it: just like mama used to make.

I picked some up yesterday, along with a half freshly-baked loaf of traditional Irish soda bread.

And for a side dish, a substantial square of feather-light, fresh corn frittata. Dinner for roughly $11 - plus extra for lunch the next day.

Chase the last gloomy nights of winter with a Sacred Hearth.

1 part Cynar

1 part Campari

2 parts gin

a squeeze of lemon

no ice

If you haven’t tried Cynar — a high-octane distillation of artichoke — you haven’t lived.

From the small Glen Haven estate of Hunter Hill comes this new pinot noir release by winemaker Vann Slatter. And it’s a big bold creation powered by dry-farmed grapes grown high above Soquel.

Hence the intensity of this 13.5 % alcohol wine.

The 2007 Estate Pinot Noir can do anything a syrah can do — it loves lamb. But it also shows its complexity alongside salmon and pasta.

This spicy pinot starts out cleanly with plenty of black cherry and finishes with a long, slow meditation on licorice and sassafras. Along the way we noticed a rhythmic unveiling of fruit and tannins (yes, just like the dance of the seven veils). Two hours after opening, the unmistakable earth flavors of rootbeer chimed in with the licorice.

Wine worth thinking about as you taste. We found it for $24.95 at Shoppers.

That would be the Chalone Vineyard Chardonnay 2008 from Monterey County decorating the bargain rack at Shoppers Corner.

I can’t believe this wine doesn’t cost twice the price!
We liked this smartly-constructed, lightly-oaked wine for its balanced 13.5% alcohol and its lovely blend of peaches, melons and hazelnuts. Rounded with a crisp, if brief, finish, it is a wonderful wine. But more than that, it is a very, very inexpensive, well-made California chardonnay for under $10.

It will run you a mere $9.99.

Especially nice with steelhead and braised bitter greens.

May Day: Joseph Schultz is set on opening his new India Joze on May 1. Stay tuned….

Oyster bar Mondays coming any minute now to Soif.  Stay tuned closely.

No more Black China retail/cafe - instead there’s now Caffe Tazzina, with an all-new, not entirely vegetarian menu. Continue to stay tuned. …

Is Tacos Morenos under new management? Get back to me on that one. Thanks.

(”New” is definitely the word du jour, no?)

We all knew that mountain climbers were a different breed. We just didn’t know how different. Now we do, thanks to North Face, which opens next week at The Nick.

Never before have adventure junkies gotten so close to the testosterone-drenched thrills of alpine climbing. And the Eiger, so beautiful, breathtaking. The film is a jaw-dropping recreation of a tragic assault on the Eiger’s north face. So help me I can’t understand how they got this footage. Even if most of it was somehow staged for the camera, it is still rife with the sorts of punishing handholds, rappels and traverses that jumpstart the adrenaline of extreme climbers and masochists.

At this point I have to stop. One of the most startling things about this scenery-driven film was my physical response to it. More…

Wine. Grüner Veltliner. Dry aromatic white wine that is almost unbearably easy to drink. Furthermore, this one — from Biohof Pratsch — is available in a super-size, liter bottle for only $12.99 @ New Leaf.

The most widely-planted grape of Austria, GV famously goes with everything, including Brussels sprouts. We climbed down into the glass full of salted nectarines, straw and jasmine - at first sip. Then this creation of organic grapes morphed into pink grapefruit and a bouquet of quartrz. Ultra clean finish.
What’s not to like?

You can also sample this wine by the glass at Oswald, corner of Soquel and Front streets in downtown Santa Cruz.

Nothing compares with being in the midst of a live performance.

The UCSC Concert Choir, conducted by Nathaniel Berman, will perform two musical masterworks by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Friday and Saturday March 12 & 13, @ 8pm.

Friday, March 12, the choir performs Dona Nobis Pacem and Five Mystical Songs at the First Congregational Church, 900 High Street, in Santa Cruz, and again the following evening at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in San Mateo.

British modernist composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (shown here in his composing prime) and American poet Walt Whitman shared a sensitivity to the dark allure of warfare. Both saw the full range of battlefield suffering. Neither forgot what they saw.

Vaughan Williams’ masterpiece Dona Nobis Pacem sets Whitman’s More…