Christina Waters

Two recent visits to Soif put me in direct contact with flavor dazzle, starting with small plates of those addictive roasted Marcona almonds and crostini topped with tangy boquerones and aioli (shown left). An appetizer of fresh Dungeness crab salad joined by a mega-side portion of watercress added more Meyer lemon top notes. On another visit I shared a voluptuous side dish of Brussels sprouts (probably the first time “voluptuous” and “Brussels sprouts” have been used together in a sentence) with bacon. All wonderful. But best was the duck entree centerpiece of each of my two meals.

Duck is one of my passions and this particular version is everything you want a duck dish to be. Slices of rare, lean roast duck breast join succulent baby bok choy and plump whole shiitake mushrooms, all married by a velvety sauce of lemongrass and ginger. This is all magic, but even more so accompanied by an elegant 2005 Dufouleur Nuits-St.-Georges 1er Cru Pinot Noir from Burgundy ($6.75/taste). Sure the duck would also have been memorable partnered by a glass of the remarkable 2005 Leitz Riesling Spatlese, as suggested by le maison Soif honchos. But I’m pretty firmly committed to red wine with duck. Heaven.

Soif Wine Bar & Restaurant holds forth at 105 Walnut Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz - 831/423-2020.

John Locke - not the British Empiricist philosopher but the mischievous Santa Cruz wine wonk - is setting a brisk pace in Soif’s upper room with his Sunday evening wine classes. After taking Locke’s high-powered wine and cheese workshop last fall, I was more than ready to dive into the oenological demimonde.

Why not begin at the beginning, I figured, and signed myself up for all three of Locke’s Wine Basics workshops. Twice a month a dozen of us are put through our tasting paces by the maestro, who introduced us to the crisp flavors of northern France, Germany and Austria last time. We learned about soils, about mineral tones, about just how to-die-for a Sancerre can be (more…)

It was Capricorn Birthday night at the Ideal Restaurant, and I joined a small band of other January birthday boys and girls for the super dooper Prime Rib dinner — free to patrons with birthdays in that month. Do I need to tell you that the place was packed to the rafters with celebrants brandishing balloons and sparklers?

Amazing slabs of rare, rare, rare prime rib, served with mashed potatoes and sauteed veggies. I was impressed. But even MORE impressive was the flavor of a 1977 BV Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, opened by one of my party just for this occasion. Yes, that’s a 30-year-old wine, and it was still full of smooth spice, mouth-filling tones of cherries and varietal fruit and tons of tannin. Just kidding about the tannin, since the ability to age was due to using up most of the mighty cab’s tannic properties.

It was a seriously fine old wine and a tribute to the BV legend. Thanks Gary!

It’s not everyday I’m faced with a wine made in Texas. So when my New Year’s Eve hosts offered me a glass of McPherson Viognier, I struggled to suppress a smug smile. What I tasted wiped that grin right off my face. A Viognier from Lubbock! And a good one. Who knew?

Okay, it might not give the Montrachet people a restless night sleep, but this was a very interesting white wine. Fruit-forward, but something more interesting as well. It had a rugged almost evergreen bouquet, like (trust me on this) Metaxa splashed with retsina. But it pulled back before it had gone that far and opened into some pears and geraniums. Really quite enjoyable. And it turns out the McPherson people have been insisting on making wine in Texas for a long time. The winemaker - UCDavis-trained Kim McPherson (who also makes wine for Cap Rock Winery) - learned about Texas-sized grapes from his father, an early Lone Star pioneer in viticulture. Next time you’re in Texas - you should give it a try.

Bay Area chef Chris Kobayashi and his brothers have joined the new transformation of downtown Paso Robles into a food and wine destination. Their smart dining room - Artisan - offers a wine list of local all-stars and serious, accomplished local, organic foods to match.

Since our longtime favorite Paso Robles restaurant, Bistro Laurent, was closed on sunday, we made reservations for dinner at Artisan on our way to Thanksgiving in the Mojave.

From two sensational local wines - one a cab from Firestone, the other a “Cuvee des Artistes” blend from RN Estate - to a mini dessert of warm cookies, we were charmed right down to our trail runners.

The opening dish of seared yellow fin tartare, arranged in a fan of crimson seafood, arrived with a tangy fried green tomato and frisee salad. Killer. Jack’s entree of natural pork porterhouse was tender and juicy, sided with sweet potatoes and baby turnips. My Kobe beef cheeks came with stupendous buttermilk mashed potatoes, broccoli rabe, infant heirloom carrots and more of those thumbnail-sized white turnips. Even though the beef tasted more like gelatinous pot roast than anything else, the side dishes were better than great.

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Chef Sean Baker took on the robust wines of Ridge Vineyards last night and came up with a flawless walk through contemporary, field-fresh, hand-made cuisine. Six courses - including one surprise - and at least as many matching vintages from what many consider the apex of American winemaking.

Gabriella was packed with adventurous wine-lovers enjoying such flavor thrills as:

1) Devils Gulch rabbit confit plumed with fried dulse and surrounded by an outrageous “chutney” of pecan wood-smoked tomato pancetta vinaigrette. Unbelievable.

2) Next came a creation of Yukon gold gnocchi with unctuous beef cheek guazzetto (like a ragu of beef, tomato, wine, and porcinis) loaded with attitude and pecorino romano.

3) A rack of lamb, grilled with borage honey and rosemary, arrived with a velvety pool of sunchoke cippolini parmesan sauce and a not-for-wimps lamb’s tongue hash with rapini garlic oil. Joined by the stupendous 2004 Santa Cruz Mountain Cabernet, it took my palate to a whole new place. (more…)

Exploring local, Santa Cruz Mountains white wines is always a garden of forking paths. One sample leads to another and it’s easy to get lost in a malolactic maze.

To demystify, here are two terrific ideas in the category of substantial white wine — wine with enough distinction and identity to partner whatever your holiday table plans to hold.

The Ahlgren Semillon 2002 - as fine a semillon as this legendary house has made, and full of the perfume of lilacs and jalapeño. $16.99 at most enlightened wine and food shops.

Windy Oaks Estate Chardonnay 2005 One-Acre - lighter than California-style, but freighted with enough pear and caramel center to thrill the palate - this beautiful white wine shows off the intellectual and very light touch of winemaker Jim Schultze. Available from the winery or on-line, for $35.

Thinking locally is a delight for Santa Cruz wine lovers. Drinking locally. After all, we don’t live in Dayton. Here’s an example of what I mean - the bodacious, multi award-winning Hallcrest Pinot Noir 2004 Belle Farms. Showing elegance as well as the exuberance of new world Pacific Rim terroir, this gorgeous garnet-hued wine is laden with allspice and raspberry. At least to start with. It opens into a supple encounter with leather, lemon grass and black cherries before finishing up with pure plum. The structure holds nicely all the way through.

Winemaker John Schumacher loves discovering foods that heighten the varietal potential of his wines. And I have to thank him for this stupendous wine and food pairing — tamales (chicken with red sauce), hot salsa colorado and Hallcrest Belle Farms Pinot Noir.

A serious partnership — the earthy sweetness of the masa, the pungent bite of the red chiles and the berryish wine. Sounds like holiday party food to me.

From waaay down under — New Zealand — comes my new favorite, crisp inexpensive easy-sippin’ Sauvignon Blanc. Villa Maria 2006, “Private Bin,” is a fun companion for tapas and seafoods, or just for unwinding after a hard day at the keyboard. Full of citrus and granite, this baby opens up - not a whole lot, but enough - into a delicate olive grove finish. It offers a respectable, but restrained 13.5% alcohol.

The best part? The $7 price tag.

At Cost Plus World Market.

Go get some.

Andrea London is a woman whose business card bears the word “Cheesemonger.” Teamed up with oenologician John Locke for a mouth-watering series of wine and cheese workshops at Soif, London and her expert colleague are re-setting palates overnight.

After attending the French wine & cheese pairings (fromages shown left), I realized that I was incapable of stopping - so I joined the table again for an evening of Italian wines & cheeses. There is just so much that’s breathtakingly right about this kind of enjoyable hands-on learning experience that it’s hard to know where to begin.

Everybody loves wine and cheese, but most of us don’t do much about it except to nosh around and hope to get lucky. But Soif is changing all that - one special wine & cheese pairing at a time. First there was a California event (which I didn’t attend). Then there was a French one (which I did) and that evening was so laced with epiphanies, e.g. Sancerre can be miraculous paired with oddball chevres, that I happily plunked down $75 (a bargain, my friends) and returned to learn more.

The cheese are introduced from mildest to most pungent, (which usually involves lots of mold). Wines are intriguingly paired, sometimes to harmonize - as with a lovely Sangiovese and a pecorino from Basilicata - sometimes to contrast and punctuate, as with a delicate, pear-scented Ca’del Bosco bubbly from Lombardy which John chose to caress the mighty parmigiano Reggiano, truly a queen of cheeses.

Here’s a factoid from maestro Locke: champagne is the perfect libation to accompany any cheese. Who knew? (more…)