Ken Brown

Starting as Zaca Mesa Winery's first winemaker in 1977, Ken Brown went on in 1984 and spent his following 20 years as founder and winemaker of Byron Vineyard and Winery. After this great achievement he launched the Ken Brown label in 2003. I am enjoying his 2004 Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir tonight. This is not my first bottle of this wine and certainly not the last. I think it is a good value at only $22.98 at http://www.wine-searcher.com/.
It has plum and cherry on the nose with dark raspberry and cherry on the palate. The nice rounded tannins ends in a lingering finish. Although a little "plain" this is a good, approachable and enjoyable Pinot that will not break your bank.

Thanksgiving at it's best

Another Thanksgiving has past. Still full when waking up this morning I reflect on the meal and wine served. My mother in law had put together yet another wonderful traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The munchies served during the afternoon while mingling with family and friends, and putting the finishing touches to dinner, was shrimp with a homemade cocktail sauce (the best I've had), deviled eggs with a touch of refreshing, spicy horseradish and a great little green onion-cheese spread with crackers. The men had a couple of beers with this while watching the football, while I just had to taste the wine that was to be served with dinner. The wine in question was Carr Vineyards and Winery 2004 Turner Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir. Carr has produced wine since 1999 but this is their first vintage from this particular vineyard, only 129 cases produced. It had ripe, red berries on the nose promising a wonderful fruity wine. It pulled through as expected on the palate as a medium bodied, very straight forward fruity Pinot with red fruit and berries, and a good level of tannins providing a medium lenght finish. It did lack a little in complexity with not quite enough spice, but being the first vintage I see great potential in this wine. It was a really great red to pair up with all the different foods on the buffet and everybody seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. For the few around the table that preferred a glass of white with dinner, the 2004 Cambria Estate Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard was served. I did not get a chance to taste this but it got great reviews from the guests having white (and having tasted Cambria wines at several earlier occasion I suspect I would agree with them if having tasted this wine).

Coming back to the food. This year my mother in law had opted for a oven baked turkey (last year we had a deep fried) which turned out succulent and juicy with great flavor. We had all the traditional side dishes, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, stuffing, gravy made from the drippings, cranberry jam, fruit salad and homemade rolls with honey and butter. For dessert (of course I had to try them all even though I was stuffed...) we had cherry pie, apple pie and my favorite for the evening, a pumpkin, banana mousse pie. I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie but I will always have a little slice because it is traditional Thanksgiving food and kind of belongs on the table. This years pie however I could not get enough of. Light and airy with a not to heavy pumpkin taste and banana shining through on the palate this was the perfect ending to the meal. A guest and dear friend of the family brought this treat, and when asked if she would share the recipe, I was told that it is from one of Barefoot Contessa's cook books. So now I know what to go shopping for...
Rolling out of the door later last night, no matter how stuffed we were, we were already looking forward to next years Thanksgiving and another fantastic feast enjoyed with family and friends.

Another Central Coast Pinot Noir

It's only 7 pm and we just finish the bottle of Pinot from Laetitia (see below). We still have room for another glass of wine and decide to pull a less expensive Pinot from the wine fridge. Byron Santa Maria Valley 2004 Pinot Noir ($25 at http://www.byronwines.com/) has a beautiful ruby color with a hint of purple in the glass. This is a more "easy", less earthy, and more straight forward Pinot compared to the Laetitia, with bright fruit on the nose, and the same clean fruit of red plum and cherry on the palate. Nice tannins gives it a good length finish. I really like this one for the price and will make sure to stock up on it.

A wine to enjoy in front of the fireplace

We just left for Lake Tahoe today to spend Thanksgiving up here with family. I am right now sitting in front of the fireplace catching up on everything on my computer after today's traveling. It took me a frustrating 1 hour to get it to pick up the wireless connection here. Well, now I am connected and so much happier...
Me and my husband are having a nice little bottle of Laetitia Single Vineyard Les Galets Pinot Noir 2002 from Arroyo Grande Valley. It is a really nice big, full wine with dark berries, cherry and a hint of earth on the palate. The cherry is lingering with chunky tannins for a long finish. The winds howling outside our window, this was a perfect wine for warming up in front of the fireplace, paired with a lentil and beef stew.
$60 at http://www.laetitiawine.com/ (Rated 90 by Robert Parker and 92 by Wine Enthusiast)

Beaujolais Nouveau

Everybody else has been writing about Beaujolais Nouveau, so I thought I just might as well do it to.
For those of you who are not familiar with this wine, here is the quick rundown. Beaujolais Nouveau is grown in Burgundy and every year at 1 minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November this wine is released. And not a minute before that. This wine is at that point a very young wine that was only harvested weeks earlier, therefore "Nouveau" ("new" in French). Unlike other red wine this is best served slightly chilled (around 50 degrees). It is a great wine for somebody who is trying to make the transition from white to red. The reason being that this red contains no tannins, because the must is pressed only after three days. Making this a very light and fruity red.
To celebrate the release last week with the rest of the world, I picked up a bottle from BevMo.
Out of their selection I chose the Beaujolais Nouveau Bouchard Aine & Fils 2006, a 100% Gaway ($8.99 at BevMo). Light red/purple in the glass with lovely ripe raspberry and strawberry on the nose. Tart cherry and red berries on the palate, with a medium length finish. I drink these wine very seldom and in small quantities so it is a little hard to have an opinion. I did enjoy it and would simply like to describe it as a festive, fresh wine with a quality above the median Beaujolais Nouveau.

French chocolate at its best

I have tried quite a few chocolates through the years, and I just discovered my new star. Michel Cluizel is called "The Gold Smith of Chocolate". He started making chocolate in 1947 in southern Normandy, at that point being on of the few to process his own cocoa beans, and now runs the company with his four children. He has a wide range of chocolates and bonbons, but I always prefer to "judge" a chocolate maker by his pure chocolate bars.
I got their "1er Cru Collection" containing five single origin chocolates from around the world. This was a great way to discover and compare the different single origins tastes and characteristics.
The five origins are:
-Concepcion: 66% cocoa from Venezuela. Melting smooth with a hint of vanilla caramel.
-Los Ancones: 67% cocoa from Saint Domingue. Dark and luscious with a hint of dried currant.
-Tumarina: 70% from Sao Tome. Has a lingering finish of green olives.
-Mangaro: 65% from Madagascar. Hard to put a finger on but I would say tropical fruit.
-Maralumi: 64% from Papua, New Guinea. This is their chocolate with the most character. Spicy chipotle with a hint of tobacco leaves at the finish.
This box is the perfect pick for a chocolate tasting with good friends (4.9 oz for $19.50)
I highly recommend this chocolate and I am myself looking forward to receiving my order of the Caramel Mushrooms (their best seller). They also have various designs of chocolate lollipops for different occasions. Plus so much more... http://www.michelcluizel.com/

Wine Spectator Great Wine Values, Part III

Out of the five bottles I picked up from the list in October's issue of Wine Spectator, it was the Australian Shiraz turn this evening (see Part II from yesterday for the other wines).
Dark ruby red in the glass, the Pirramimma 2003 McLaren Vale shows spicy berries, oak and a hint of sweet vanilla on the nose. On the palate you taste spicy, fat, dark fruit covering your tongue , but before you know it the strong tannins take over to end up in a long finish. This wine was rated 92 by Wine Spectator and I found it at BevMo for $21.99. This is unfortunately not a 92 for me... I do like big, fruity wine but this was just a little bit to much for me. It also had a slight unpleasant "off taste" that I can not put my finger on. But please do not get turned of by me. Give it a chance and let me know what your thoughts are...

Wine Spectator Great Wine Values, Part II

Tonight I have tasted and reviewed two more wines from the list of Wine Spectator's Great Wine Values in October's issue. See Part I with the first two wines reviewed at 11/15/06.
I started of with the 2005 Chateau Ste. Michelle-Dr. Loosen Riesling Colombia Valley, Eroica. It is the seventh vintage of this wine and they are getting better and better with narrowing it down and finding their style. It received 90 points from Wine Spectator and 92 from Wine Enthusiast. Sweet, white floral on the nose lead you to believe that it might be to sweet, but once in your mouth it is lively and crisp with ripe apple notes and transforms quickly to a sweeter peachy tone with a long finish. Very tasty! $19.99 at BevMo.
I had planned to taste an Australian Shiraz after this but upon opening the bottle I discovered that it had bled through the cork. I am not afraid to return these bottles as it might have affected the wine, and so I will.
Instead I moved on to the 2004 Bodega Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza from Argentina. Nicola Catena, an Italian immigrant, planted the first vines in 1902. The third generation is now running the winery, striving to put Argentina on the map as one of the premium wine producing countries. And they are on their way. The nose reveals red cherry and berries, and black berries and dark fruit on the palate with a long finish. Wine Spectator rewarded this beauty with 90 points and I agree. $19.99 at BevMo.

Tomorrow: the Australian Shiraz...

A costly affair (calories that is...)

Being obsessed with wine can mean a lot of extra calories. And on top of that they are so called empty ones...(empty sound good to me, like their less naughty, but I've been told it is quite the opposite). How many calories per glass though? Well, it depends on the wine. Most of the calories comes from the alcohol, so the higher the alcohol level the more calories. Sugar also plays a roll. Sweeter wines contains more calories than dry. In a 5 0z glass of table wine there is around 125 kcal. The US Department of Agriculture has a great little calculator for different foods and beverages. Just search for "wine" and all of the most common varieties will show up. Check it out at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search and see how guilty you need to feel after that amazing bottle of Seasmoke Southing Pinot Noir... I really do not feel guilty at all when a bottle is that yummy, but... Oops a little bit of track. I guess what you can do to fix the damage is check it out and work out accordingly? As for the Seasmoke, I will go there another day...

The Gourmet Wine Cellar event

What an event! We had a wonderful night last night at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Gourmet Magazine had their Wine Cellar event featuring local top restaurants, wine and wineries, cocktails, Wine Lab, demonstrations and great speakers. There was a lot of tasting, talking to wine and food professionals and more tasting. The event only lasted for 3 hours and I think another hour would have been great with so much to do and see.
We started of with champagne tasting at Moet & Chandon. They had four champagnes to taste and this was a great start to the evening. Next to them The Dining Room at Ritz Carlton served a wonderful Nantucket Bay Scallop with Sunchoke Puree, paired with Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Blancs. So a lot of sparkling wine to start with.
Further down Bloomingdale's served a Sachimi Style Bay Scallop with Micro Greens and a Spicy Sauce, and an out-of-this-world Wild Mushroom Soup with Truffle Oil. This was my favorite dish during the night, and trust me everything at the event was delicious!
"Wines of Spain" poured a wide variety of wines and I tried a handful of them. Not usually a drinker of Spanish wines this was a great opportunity for me to try different varieties and styles.
Across from that Sara Moulton did a cooking demonstration. We caught the end of it and got her cook book that she signed.
The restaurant Scott Howard served up another fantastic soup next door, a Carrot Soup with Chervil Sabayon Truffle Oil and they did a cocktail pairing with this, Finlandia Spicy. The soup had a wonderful intense carrot flavor with beautiful creamy texture. A great fall soup. I did not try the cocktail. There was more wine to be had...
Next we attended the tasting lead by Michael Green, Goumet's Wine and Spirit Consultant. Named "Varietals from the Islands: Sardinia and Sicily" Tony Parise VP for Winebow, Inc. co-hosted with four wines. He started of with Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna 2005, a wine made from 100% Vermentino. Straw yellow in the glass, intense on the nose but more delicate on the palate. Moving on to Tasca d'Almerita Regaleali Bianco 2005, made out of three Sicilian native varieties, Inzolia, Cataratto and Grecanico, this had apple on the nose and some tropical fruit on the palate. Red was up next with the Argiolas Perdera 2004 from Sardinia with 90% Monica, 5% Carignano and 5% Bovale Sardo. A very good, rustic wine with red fruit and berries. Last tasting was the Tasca d'Almerita Regaleali Nero d'Avola 2004 with a little fuller body than the previous wine. Dark berries and cherry with a long finish. This was a very exciting tasting with a lot of new grapes I had not heard of or tasted before. I will definitely start to look for and buy some wines from these two Mediterranean islands.


After that the Wine Lab started, with Stephane Lacroix (Director of wine at The Ritz-Carlton) and Rajat Parr (Wine Director at the Michael Mina Group) as speakers. This was a sit down tasting featuring four wines as well. Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial started the tasting. Very nice Champagne with ripe strawberries on the nose. I just love Rose Champagnes! Next was Gallo Family Vineyards Pinot Gris, Sonoma Reserve, 2005. A very fresh and clean wine with apple on the palate. Would pair great with delicate seafood like scallop or lobster. After that they repeated the red wines from Sardinia and ended with the Chateau Ste. Michelle Cold Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. This was a cool climate style Cab. with nice acidity, rich dark fruit and good complexity to it. Great tasting with a lot of thoughts and comments from the speakers. Hungry for more food we headed out to that section again and had a Maple Thyme-Cured Duck Breast Canape with Chive Cream cheese from Maple Leaf Farms. They offered a beer pairing with this. But again, no beer for me, still more wine that had to be tasted. On to Town Hall that served a Herb Biscuit with Shrimp Etoufee. Wonderful fluffy biscuit with tender shrimp.
A 16 paired a Lamb Polpettini with Tomato Ragu and Pecorino, bursting with flavor, pairing it with the Gloria Ferrer Jose S. Ferrer 2002 Pinot Noir. A great pairing. The wine really stood up to the very flavorful lamb.
Now it was time for dessert. Americano served up Mini Chocolate Cupcakes and Homemade Gelato in Mini Sugar Cones with Toppings and paired this with a very interesting wine from Italy. The Ca dei Mandorli Brachetto d'Acqui 2005 is a ruby red sparkling wine with sweet berries and raspberry on the nose. Looking at the wine in your glass you expect a super sweet wine and is pleasantly surprised with a not to sweet, crisp wine with ripe raspberries and strawberries on the palate. Rated 90 by Wine and Spirit, you have to try this sparkling wine for only $13.99 at http://www.wine-searcher.com/. It will surprise you.
The Gloria Ferrer station poured three wines, I tried their 2003 Carneros Merlot which I had not tried before. It had currant on the nose and dark fruit and cherry on the palate with a nice long finish.
At this point I was getting really full but decided to head over to Bix that served Crab Rolls in Brioche served with Chance Creek 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. Do I need to spell out that it was delicious? The crisp, full Sauvignon Blanc with tropical fruit and tiny hint of grass complemented the lobster very nicely.
At this point I almost cried realizing there was little time left and no room left in my stomach and so many more restaurants to taste from. But I just could not do it. I had had enough rich, amazing food, and I would have to survive without tasting everything that was offered. It had been a wonderful night with so many great opportunity to educate ourselves further in the world of food, wine and pairings. Happy and content we left the event and decided to come back next year again.

Tonight's Adventure

Oh, exciting day... I am soon to leave rainy Sacramento for the, hopefully not so rainy, Bayarea. Tonight is The Gourmet Wine Cellar event at the Ferry building in San Francisco. It's a big tasting event featuring wine, cocktails and food from top restaurants in the Bayarea. I expect great things!
Stay tuned. Tomorrow I will let you know all about it, who was there, what did they poor and how tasty was that food... Cheers!

Wine Spectator Great Wine Values

Last issue if Wine Spectator had a big report on 100 wine for under $25 that scored 88-94 points. I decided to check out the local "Beverages and More" to see if I could find any of the top scoring wines there. Said and done, I headed of with my W.S. magazine in hand. After about 30 minutes of looking through the shelves (politely declining all offers of help from the staff) I came up with 5 bottles. Tonight I tasted two of them (can't do all 5 during one night considering it is a work day tomorrow...) And following are my thoughts on them.
Let's start with the 2004 Antinori, Chianti Classico Peppoli. It get 90 points from Wine Spectator and is one of five Sangiovese to get that score (the highest score given to a Sangiovese in this report). I got red currant and earthy notes on the palate. W.S. says powerful. Powerful to begin with sure, but a little flat and week after the mid palate (at least more so than I expected). They recommend to put this bottle down until 2007 and I agree, and I suspect it will come to it's right with age and earn that 90 point score. I payed $23.99 at BevMo but you can find it online at http://www.winex.com/ for $18.99.
The next bottle made me more excited. Elk Cove 2005 Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Oregon has succulent floral and pear on the nose. It is light and delicate on the palate with slight sweetness and a full, creamy finish. Well worth its 90 points from Wine Spectator. Checking it out online it also gets 91 from Wine Enthusiast and 92 from Wine and Spirit. This is a wine I will buy again. BevMo $12.99.
Keep your eyes open for the remaining three wine reviews. We're talking Argentina, Australia and Washington...

Kidnapped to discover a local star

Last Monday I got "kidnapped" by a friend taking me up to a local winery, Mt Vernon Winery, that I had not visited before. Getting up there we discovered that the tasting room was not open that day. Pulling out of the parking lot a man came up to us asking if he could help us. Turns out he is one of the owners, Jim Taylor. His son Ryan was working in the vineyards and immediately came in to open up and pour us some wine. The two of them are the team of winemakers that opened the winery in 1996. In 2002 they opened the doors to the tasting room at the estate, the first one in Placer County since the advent of Prohibition and the collapse of grape growing and wine making in Placer County.
Ryan poured a myriad of delicious wines and after tasting I bought several varieties to bring home, and tonight I opened one of their chardonnays and a barbera.
The 2004 Sierra Foothills Chardonnay, Breast Cancer Research ($18) has pineapple and ripe pear on the nose with medium body, light oak and a creamy finish. Tasty!
The 2003 Sierra Foothills Barbera (only 320 cases produced) has a vibrant dark red/purple color in the glass. You will find sweet berries and black tea on the nose. On the palate discover cherry, spices, nice acidity and medium/large tannins. A great value for a great wine.
The difference with this wine is that it not only tastes good but it feels good to drink as well. The reason?
Dr. Bodai, CEO of CureBreastCancer Inc. and a Kaiser Permanente surgeon, after several years of work to get approval from the Congress and the US Postal Service, asked the Taylor family to put a label looking like the Breast Cancer postage stamp on their bottles. He asked for a 5% donation but the family felt so strongly about the cause they offered 12.5% of the sales price of each bottle. And that is their contribution since 2005.
So drink up. Order more. Feel good. It is all for a good cause.
www.mtvernonwinery.com

Wine Talk

At one point or another in our pursuit of wine we bump into a wine-related word or two (I've had more than a handful through the years...) that we do not understand, or if we're lucky enough to understand, have no idea how to pronounce. This is when the blessed internet can give us a helping hand.
Remember, there is no "right" way to pronounce a name. It is usually a matter of opinion or regional preference. But the following websites can help you along. They feature explanations for terms and phonetic names, and some of them will even pronounce it for you. Check out www.wineloverspage.com/lexicon/ or http://www.tastersguildny.com/ (in the "All About Wine" section). http://www.bbr.com/ (search for "pronounciation") is a guide for how to pronounce Red Bordeaux.
Check it out and become more wine savvy today.

Gourmet chocolate for the thin wallet

It started in a cocoa field in Indonesia. Timothy Moley was doing volunteer work there for USAID, and chewing on cocoa beans in the fields he pick up a fascination for chocolate. Home again he decided to make his own chocolate. He wanted high quality and affordability for the consumer, and put himself to work. For the past ten year he has been producing chocolate out of Boulder, Colorado. He named his two lines of chocolates Chocolove and Chocolatour. In the spirit of Chocolove the wrapper is designed to look like a love letter, and inside the wrapper hides a classic love poem. The Chocolatour is single origin chocolates.
I pick up 3 bars out of the Chocolove series at the local Wholefoods to see if he managed to meet his goals.
The 55% Raspberries in Dark Chocolate is delicious. Instead of infusing the chocolate with raspberry flavor he has mixed in crisp bits of raspberry in the chocolate. It results in a great smooth chocolate with bursts of raspberry flavor. Love it!
The 55% Dark Chocolate is a semisweet bar made with 100% African cocoa. It is melting smooth and has a the right amount of sweetness.
The 70% Dark Chocolate if African cocoa with a touch of Caribbean cocoa. A more bittersweet chocolate with great balance and toasty flavor.
At the price of $2.99/bar and great tasting chocolate that definitely fits under the category "gourmet chocolate", it's evident he met his goals.
Find it at Ralphs, Target or Wholefoods.

Spring Mountain Tasting

Last week my local wine store had a great wine tasting. Featuring 10 wineries from the Spring Mountain District in Napa Valley this was a great opportunity to taste and compare how different wineries in the same appellation showed their uniqueness through their wines. I did not have a bad wine during the whole night but want to mention a couple of standouts.
A new winery to me was the Peacock Family Vineyard. Apart from the label being gorgeous, the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon was full of wonderful dark fruit and berries with a nice amount of tannins($65). Very much drinkable right now. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon was even more dense in the fruit and berries, hiding the tannins, and requires a taste for that expression of Cabernet.
Barnett Vineyards poured their well known Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon which was delicious as usual (the 2003 vintage for $65). Two varieties that I have not tasted from them before was chardonnay and pinot noir. Their 2005 "Sangiacomo Vineyard" Carneros chardonnay ($29) was really nice and fresh. Great balance between not to sweet tropical fruit, a hint of oak and light cream. Perfect late summer wine.
I am a big pinot noir fan, and knowing pinot is not Barnett's priority I did not expect what swirled down my throat after my first sip of this wine. The 2005 "Tina Maria Vineyard" Russian River Valley ($37) was a clear surprise. Despite it's youth, very approachable with full, lush, red berries with nice structure and tannins to carry it up. I will get some of this for my cellar...
Fantesca Estate was another winery with some great wines, among them their 2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($60). Their winemaker is Kirk and Nils Venge who owns Saddleback Cellars, which I am a fan of, making it extra exciting to taste the these wines. The frosted diamond patterned bottle makes this a great exciting wine to give as a gift.
Some other great wine I had came from Frias Family Vineyard, Cain and Robert Keenan Winery. All in all a fantastic tasting. What a night...

Flagship Pinot

The Pisoni Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands, Pinot Noir from Siduri is their flagship Pinot, and rightfully so. The 2004 is full bodied with dark, lush fruit and smooth, silky tannins. One of the best Pinot Noirs I have had from them. Robert Parker gives it a respectable 94 and the Wine Spectator rating is 91. This is a really great Pinot and I truly enjoyed it with a good friend, on its own, over small talk, although it would be a great companion to a meal as well. Get a bottle of your own at www.siduri.com for $55 or for a hint less ($53.99) at www.wine-searcher.com.

Chocolate Truffles

Harry and David has a great little box of truffles.
I just discovered that the other day when my dear neighbor and friend brought me a box, knowing I am a chocoholic. Digging into the box it showed an extremely creamy and smooth truffle, rich in taste with the right amount of sweetness. Coffee, Milk and Dark chocolate were all very good. The Raspberry Truffle however had an artificial raspberry taste.
Still make a great little gift for someone you want to spoil. Find it at Harry and David stores for $25.95 for 1 lb, or order it online at www.harryanddavid.com.

Crisp and cool

Getting stuck on chardonnay this summer I decided to have another white wine with dinner the other night and decided to try a Sauvignon Blanc. A lot of times I find that Sauvignon Blancs are a little bit to sweet for my palate but the Grgich Hills Fume Blanc promised Dry Sauvignon Blanc so I thought, why not? And it kept it's promise. A great crisp, medium bodied wine with light rhubarb and floral on the nose. Nice acidity and grapefruit on the palate with a long finish. This is one of the best Sauvignon Blancs I have had and truly enjoyed it.

Grgich Hill Fume Blanc 2005
Napa Valley
Dry Sauvignon Blanc

Buy it direct from the winery at www.grgich.com for $25 or find it for a bargain at www.wine-searcher.com from $10.95