Last week my cookbook club as a group went for lunch at Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco. It’s one of several new restaurants opened by celeb chef Tyler Florence in the Bay Area in the past year. We had to wait a long time to even get a reservation, but perseverance pays off.
Chance encounter with K Viognier
I love chance encounters, especially the kind that leads you to something else. That’s the case for me, from a recent dinner at Kin Shop in New York City. The restaurant’s top toque is indeed a Top Chef: Harold Dieterle, the winner from the show’s first season. The menu features Thai-inspired dishes, so the wine list offers choices that pair nicely with the food. The bottle that caught my attention was the K Vintners Viognier. I recognized the name, and that the winemaker was Food & Wine magazine’s Winemaker of the Year in 2009.
Good Viognier is hard to find, and I wasn’t completely sure about one from Washington State. But the wine was wonderful. Honeyed and floral, with stone fruits and minerality. I added it to my list of favorite wines. I also love the label, graphic and bold and distressed. Could that be a reflection of the winemaker himself?
Is Cupcake the next Yellow Tail?
A report about a list called Top 30 Momentum Table Wine Brands caught my attention yesterday. Wines & Vines ran the story on the Symphony IRI Group study, which ranks the wines with the most increase in sales in 2010 that consumers buy in places such as grocery and drug stores.
Cupcake Vineyards, a relatively new wine brand, rose to the top of the 2010 chart. It’s owned by The Wine Group and boasts a winery in California’s Monterey County. You’ve probably seen it in your grocery store’s wine aisle. Expect to see more of it.
DRINK – Penfolds goes (RED)
Uncork change. That’s the goal of the new collaboration between Penfolds and (RED). It’s the first time (RED) has partnered with a wine brand in the global effort to eradicate AIDS worldwide. When I think of (RED), Gap comes to mind. So why not wine?
I interviewed Penfolds Chief Marketing Officer Francesca Schuler, who says, “it’s exciting to be in a partnership that has global impact and saves lives.” She approached (RED) about Penfolds joining the roster of brands in the fight against AIDS. Schuler worked for Gap and is familiar with that (RED) campaign.
SHOP DRINK – A shoe-in for wine – my favorite holiday gift
Happy new year! Like me, I’m sure you are recovering from the holiday 2010 season, and trying to get back into the swing of things. This post is a bit overdue, but I just had to share my most favorite holiday gift. It is from my brother, and he wanted to be on the phone when I opened it. Voila, the coolest shoe ever. It’s a shoe wine bottle holder – a total wine fashionista must! Gotta love the leopard print and the rhinestone embellishment. I can’t believe I’ve never seen this; my brother gets major kudos for finding it!
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.…
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.
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…