This is going to be THE fashion event of the year. At 8 am ET on Saturday, November 20, fast fashion retailer H&M opens the doors to hoards of fashionistas who will snap up every single piece of the Lanvin for H&M collection. If you are lucky enough to live near one of H&M’s flagship stores (NYC, San Francisco) you can wait in line for your chance to grab no more than two of the same item. I’m bummed that I will not have that chance, to buy a couple pieces of Lanvin for the masses. I predict the stores will be cleaned out within hours. OK I could drive up to SF early tomorrow morning and stake out a place in line. But it’s cold, and it might rain, and I’d have to leave home about 5 or 6 am to get a good spot in line. Even then…
EAT DRINK – Sweet wine for Thanksgiving…seriously!
Thanksgiving is a time for tradition. The traditional turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and yams with that marshmallow topping. A safe, time-honored wine, Pinot Noir. Yawn. This year I’m gonna shake things up a bit. I’ll be pouring a sweet wine for the main event and not just for dessert. I’m inspired by Aline Baly, a champion of drinking what most of us consider to be dessert wines, from the beginning to the end of the meal. Aline’s family is the proprietor of Chateau Coutet in Barsac, a sub-district of the Sauternes region in the southern part of Bordeaux. Chateau Couter is a Premier Cru Classe Sauturnes. That’s all they make. Last time Aline was in the San Francisco Bay Area, she invited me to join her for lunch at Wood Tavern in Oakland (one of my fav restaurants). To demonstrate how versatile her Sauternes wines are, we ordered straight…
SHOP DRINK – The tasting room comes to you
wine tasting kits The winery tasting room. Let’s face it. Often crowded, it’s not always the ideal spot to taste wine. But if you want to try a range of said winery’s offerings, the tasting room has been the place to go. Until now. You can have the tasting room come to you. TastingRoom has created wine tasting kits with four or six little bottles, each holding 50 ml (that’s 1.7 oz). This is the size of most small perfume bottles, and I say that because these kits remind me of perfume samples. You can get fragrance samples sent to you, and can try and buy perfume without ever leaving home. A terrific online fragrance store is Luckyscent. You can order a sample vial of any perfume on their website. Once you get it and try it and like it, you can order a bottle. If not, you’re out about…
DRINK – Wine tasting in the Crystal Cellar
This may be the winery tasting room opening of the year. Raymond Vineyards, in Napa Valley, has partnered with the legendary French crystal maker Baccarat, to create a one-of-a-kind tasting room, the Crystal Cellar. It’s pretty awesome. Granted, I was at the soiree to celebrate opening the Crystal Cellar. The atmosphere was like a sophisticated night club. Mirrors everywhere – on the tasting bar and display cases. A stunning crystal chandelier, the focal point of the cellar. A mannequin hanging from a trapeze. Lots of colorful mood lighting. Display cases with Baccarat wine decanters, glasses, and other decorative objects. I have seen the cellar during the daytime, when it’s much more subdued, but equally brilliant. The pairing of a winery and crystal manufacturer is nothing new, but this is the first collaboration for Baccarat with a winery. The inspiration comes from Jean-Charles Boisset, who is head of Boisset Family Estates.…
SHOP – The Agony of Defeat, Project Runway-style
His pain is palpable, his dream crushed. On Thursday’s finale part 1 of Project Runway, Michael C’s elimination for a spot to go to New York Fashion Week is the most gut-wrenching of any over the past 8 seasons of the show. Whether or not you thought he should have been chosen doesn’t matter. I think we all cried a little bit with him. But man, that was tough to watch. Remember the open to ABC Wide World of Sports, where the ski jumper dramatically crashes off the ramp and into the crowd. Well now we have a replacement – Michael’s total breakdown on the runway and in the backroom. Seems many viewers thought Gretchen should have been auf’ed and I agree. WTF. Her collection isn’t just granola, it’s downright dowdy. Whatever. We all know Mondo will win, or will PR/Lifetime just screw with our minds on that too? What…
DRINK – Why Is This Bottle of Bubbly Upside Down in Water?
Wine & Spirits magazine throws one heck of a party. The annual “Top 100 Wines” soiree was on Wednesday night in San Francisco. You do not want to miss it. Quite simply, where else are you going to taste a 1988 Veuve Cliquot Champagne, Shafer’s Hillside Select or see a bottle of bubbly opened and disgorged under water.
That’s right. Not just opening the bottle. Disgorging it too (expelling the yeast sediment), all under water, right before you drink it.
SHOP – Tim Gunn calls it like he sees it
Who doesn’t love Tim Gunn? At the end of last week’s Project Runway, he rocked our world by putting Gretchen in her place (finally!) and admonished her team, Luxe, for letting her run all over them. Wow. I had to rewind my DVR over and over to watch. It was a rare insight into what he’s seeing behind the scenes. Bravo Tim! Then he kicks it up a notch in his new book, Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making It Work. Tim dishes on his observations in the fashion world, and has the nerve to call out Vogue’s Anna Wintour on her diva-like behavior. Oh no, Tim may be banished to fashion wilderness! Tim, we’ll follow you anywhere. I can’t wait to see Project Runway tonight, to see what the fallout of his scolding Team Luxe will be. At least he’s making PR interesting, something it certainly needed.…
DRINK – Fragrant summer whites – my favs
With labor day fast approaching, it’s hard to believe summer is almost over. If you live in northern California, you might think summer started only last week. As today it’s already over 97 degrees in my backyard, I’m already thinking about what wine to pop the cork on this evening. I want something fragrant, something luscious. That can mean only one thing – aromatic white wines. Viognier, Riesling and other varieties come to mind. Definitely not Chardonnay and probably not Sauvignon Blanc. These are my top choices: Viognier – I love the Rhone wines, and it’s for the heady perfumed wines that Viognier, and other Rhone varietals have. I have two choices for Viognier, Cold Heaven, made by Morgan Clendenen, with Santa Barbara fruit, and Skipstone Viognier, Makena’s Vineyard with Alexander Valley fruit. Each has its own lovely flavors that linger on your tongue, like a delicious nectar. Makes me…
DRINK – Urban wine
Since wine can be made anywhere these days, it’s no big surprise that Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda, CA (also known as the East Bay) are home to many urban wine brands, both established and start ups. So what if there are no vineyards in the city (that I’m aware of). At this past weekend’s Urban Wine Experience in Oakland, the local wines were showing rather well, paired with bites from local restaurants. The public event was held by the East Bay Vintner’s Alliance. I found a lot to like, and some really good values. There were many good Rhone varietal bottlings, and that made me happy, since j’adore Rhone wines. I might just need to do a little East Bay Rhone wine tour. These are the standouts: One of my last sips of the day was at Stage Left Cellars. It’s a fairly new player in the urban wine scene.…
DRINK – An audacious wine, Petite Sirah
According to Dictionary.com, audacious means extremely bold or daring, recklessly brave or fearless. I think that’s a great way to describe Petite Sirah. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s beautiful, and yes, adacious. The PS grape does well in many growing regions in California: Mendocino County, Lodi, Paso Robles and of course, Livermore Valley. Each region produces a slightly different style. Some have more bright cherry fruit, others more complexity and tannins. PS I Love You is the name for an annual gathering of Petite Sirah winemakers, growers and groupies. Don’t know Petite Sirah? No, it’s not a smaller variety of the Syrah grape; it’s its own varietal. Often used in blended red wines. But, more and more wineries are making this single variety. In 1975 there were roughly 20 producers. By 2009 that number has grown to 700+. A big question at the Petite Sirah symposium, how mainstream can Petite…