by Christina Waters | Aug 28, 2007 | Home |
Side by Side: New Work by Jenny and Geoff Morten — opening September 7, at the Santa Cruz County Bank, 325 Soquel Avenue.
The Mortens, Jenny – she’s the porcelain sculptor – and Geoff – he’s the painter, came to California from their native England just a few years ago. But they haven’t simply been sitting around swilling Chardonnay. The absurdly gifted couple have created enough memorable artworks to fill quite few shows in the past two years.
Having said that, the current work about to unfold in three locations across Santa Cruz county, takes even the Morten’s most experienced collectors into new aesthetic terrain.
While Geoff’s oil-on-panel paintings explore multiple reflective imagery — hands, faces, patterns rife with time trips at the edge of memory – Jenny’s new work in thrown, fired, and sculpted wall pieces explores the strata of California, the land and its mineral infrastructure. (Detail below from her Ripple Wall series.)
Come see for yourself. Side by Side – an exhibition of new works by Geoff and Jenny Morten is on display at the Santa Cruz County Banks in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Watsonville, from September 7 through November 9, 2007. The display at 325 Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz is colorful, haunting and very smart.
by Christina Waters | Aug 28, 2007 | Home, Wine |
Here’s what you’re looking at. A wine label written in Chinese. That’s interesting all by itself. But what’s even more interesting is that this is the back label on a bottle of River Run Vintners 2005 Carignane.
Blond, bearded and eternally boyish winemaker J.P.Pawloski knows how to do that voodoo with fine local grapes. And because he wasn’t born yesterday, metaphorically speaking, he knows an opportunity when he sees it. China is nothing if not a marketing opportunity. So the River Run wine wizard, who also moonlights making customized wines for wealthy clients who have grapes, but not necessarily winemaking skills, anyway Pawloski currently buys up substantial lots of otherwise undedicated central coast wines. Then he applies his blending touch, and voila! terrific wines emerge. The River Run label goes on the front – and the Chinese language label goes on the back — and the wines go to J.P.’s Beijing broker who sells them like mad. Awesome.
For us here at home, there’s much good news from River Run. Even though the
entire 2005 vintage of RR’s stunning carignane went to China, this year’s vintage is staying here. Get ready to buy, buy, buy! As you read this J.P. and every other winemaker in California is out in the vineyards, checking sugar, rallying the crews, poised to pounce on the grapes the minute they approach the correct Brix. Then the vendage starts. Over to the next vineyard – checking sugars, picking like crazy, crushing – and then on to the next ripening varietal. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 28, 2007 | Home |
UCSC Farm & Garden’s Annual Fall Plant Sale — next weekend! — offers gardeners a major selection of organically raised vegetable seedlings, perennials, and California natives. Sponsored by the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, the sale takes place on Friday and Saturday, September 7 and 8. The sale will be open from noon to 6 p.m. on Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, in the Barn Theater parking lot at the intersection of Bay and High Streets in Santa Cruz. (My orchid, Cassandra, posed for this quickie image.)
“Fall is a great time to plant fast-growing greens and other vegetable crops for late fall and winter harvest,” says UCSC Garden manager Christof Bernau. This year’s offerings include spinach, kale, lettuce and salad mixes, chard, collards, kale, and leaks, along with broccoli, and cabbage. Annual flowers available this year include sweet peas, larkspur, bachelor buttons, nigella, statice, stock and mignotte, which can be planted in the fall for late winter and spring blooms.The Farm & Garden’s plant sale is one of the largest all-organic events of its kind in the Monterey Bay Area. All of the flower and vegetable starts were propagated using organic methods. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides were used in growing the plants from seed. None of the hardwood cuttings were given artificial growth hormones. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 23, 2007 | Home, Wine |
The Santa Cruz Mountains Commercial Wine Competition for 2007 awarded its medals once again — thanks to the hard work of 50 judges sampling a field of 171 wines from 34 of our premium wineries. This definitely comes under the “hard work, but somebody’s gotta do it” heading. And once again, I didn’t mind helping out by sampling some truly fine red wines.
Along with wine buyers, restaurateurs, sommeliers and other experts, I spent the better part of last Monday in the spacious main dining room of Ma Maison restaurant, working through a four-hour tasting managed by John and Karen Hibble of the SCMWA & Aptos Chamber. And as usual I learned a lot from the assembled experts, including the highly knowledgeable Aaron Brandt from Bittersweet Bistro, former Wine Club buyer Anita Sjoberg, CAVA wine bar’s Cliff Livingston and Theo’s owner Roger Romano.
For the record, this is hard work. Sniffing, tasting, spitting – over and
over again, through at least five flights of six wines each. Helped along with lots of bread and long breaks after every flight, somehow we managed to get through it with palates intact. The photo at right gives you an idea of the sea of glasses confronting us at any given moment. I was judging red wines and that means a temporary case of purple teeth and gums.
The field this year was packed with more terrific wines than I can remember at this annual competition, and most memorable were the outstanding red wines, notably the zinfandels cabs and the mixed blends. Ma Maison chef/owner Lionel LeMorvan provided terrific appetizers (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 23, 2007 | Home |
One of the joys of wine judging each year at the Santa Cruz Mountains competition, is getting to meet some of area’s top restaurant owners and managers. But this year offered something special — Michel and Muriel Loubiére, natives of France, who have just completed negotiations for their own restaurant — Au Midi. After nine months in our area, the couple has acquired the space of the former Al Boccalino, in Aptos, (behind the Aptos Cinema). Muriel, the chef, and is quite passionate about developing a menu that will not be filled with fussy, heavy old-fashioned French clichés. Au Midi, which the Loubiéres expect to open in late September, will showcase the sunny, fresh, intense flavors of the South of France, which means more olive oil, less butter – more seasonal produce and a leaning toward seafoods.
The preview menus included mussels, scallops, duck magret, pistou, quiches, brandade and pissaladiere, as well as sumptuous salads and tarts all involving local specialty produce. This is exciting news and I wish all bon chance to Muriel and Michel!
