by Christina Waters | Nov 27, 2007 | Home, Travel, Wine |
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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by Christina Waters | Nov 14, 2007 | Home, Wine |
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…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 31, 2007 | Home, Wine |
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 Рas fine a semillon as this legendary house has made, and full of the perfume of lilacs and jalape̱o. $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.
by Christina Waters | Oct 31, 2007 | Home, Wine |
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.
by Christina Waters | Oct 23, 2007 | Home, Wine |
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.
by Christina Waters | Oct 10, 2007 | Home, Wine |
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…)
