Rebel Rose

Gruesome photos supplied by Tom Wark on his blog, "Fermentation."

Huh. Apparently the site's owner/manager has done a site update incorrectly, so the website is down for now. Let's try again later.

Does anyone have any suggestions for Los Angeles area mushroom purveyors? I don't make it down there as much now that our central coast distributor is handling sales, but my distributor and a tasting room employee are interested in finding good stores or markets where the more unusual mushrooms can be found, and they can stop by while in the LA area. A store would be better . . . any suggestions? We love mushrooms, but are getting tired of white buttons and portobellas. Man, those lobster claws are strong! I sliced and sauteed both mushrooms in olive oil and butter. Next time, I will only serve only one lightly sauteed slice with each plate. I couldn't wash the taste out of my mouth for two days!

Thanks! Not so obvious to us . . . I've passed the contact info from their website on to MIL.

Whew. I thought maybe a chunk of coastline had fallen off and it hadn't been covered by the news. So Zagat is only good for reading the Zagat outtakes?

Work? You let work interfere with eGullet time? (Just kidding!)

I have just learned from a friend and business associate that there is NO coverage of any of California's central coast communities. The following cities and towns do not have one single Zagat-rated restaurant: Arroyo Grande Los Osos Pismo Beach Cambria Cayucos Paso Robles Atascadero San Luis Obispo Grover Beach Baywood Morro Bay Oceano Santa Maria Nipomo Templeton Avila Beach This means that incredible restaurants like McPhee's, Ian's, Bistro Laurent, Gardens of Avila, Inn at Morro Bay, Windows on the Water, Rosa's, Buona Tavola, Hoppe's 901, Rodney's, and hosts of others are not included in any Zagat survey. ***************************************** Restaurants can be suggested to Zagat: To have an establishment considered for review, please send the restaurant's relevant information (name, address, press kit) to: Survey Research Zagat Survey 4 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10019 presskits@zagat.com or by writing to the SLO County Visitor's Bureau: Jonni Biaggini, Executive Director jonnib@SanLuisObispoCounty.com and asking to have your favorite restaurant(s) submitted to Zagat. ***************************************************** I have never relied on Zagat publications, so perhaps I am naive about how this works. Apparently restaurant information must be submitted to the company. I assumed that Zagat made an effort to cover major dining areas. Visitors to California often travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco on our scenic coastal Highway 1 and Highway 101. The beach towns have great restaurants and hotels. The larger question for me, then, is how reliable is a Zagat book that doesn't cover, at all, a very large chunk of tourism-intensive California?

John, carswell provided a summary of the article above in post #7. A link to the article is not available.

My MIL would like to know where to find these "lobster claw" mushrooms in the Santa Cruz/Aptos area. Does anyone have any recommendations? These are lobster claw mushrooms:

Of course I have more questions! Who is the winemaker? Is he new or launching a new brand? Is this a rising star we should know about? Are the bins half-tonners? That means about 50 cases of syrah being produced? And how did you happen to get involved in this adventure? What do you consider a "typical" CA syrah? Higher alcohol? Are you sure that's "typical" of all producers? Thanks for sharing.

Correct. I was just paraphrasing the author's point. We like the term "port" because it's an easy way of saying this-vintage's-dessert-wine-is-a-fortified-zinfandel. It's easier for our distributors, sales reps, and customers to recognize the wine. Some years we do a late harvest. Some years we do a syrah based dessert wine, or viognier, or even cabernet. It depends on Dan's artistic itch. We could come up with proprietary names, but then we would have to go through the whole rigamarole of explaining what a "Bruin" is, or an "Oso, " all to sell a wine that is produced in quantities of less than a hundred cases. I have decided I want to be the first winery to release a portesque!

Sleep well and deservedly. And then we want details, damn it! Regarding pruning . . . do you mean 'dropping fruit'? I'm guessing that you are referring to select pick, which means that optimal clusters are harvested, and the rest are 'pruned' off. (There are two reasons for knocking off the inferior fruit. One is to clean the bush so that it's clear as to which vines have been picked, and the second is to relieve the vine of the nutrient requirements of seed production, and defer the last few weeks of the season's vigor into storing nutrients in the roots.) Please tell us more about your earth-to-the-bottle experience!

Good night, Daniel. What a wonderful note, and thank you for sharing with us as you close your day. Are you familiar with a practice of dunking the cigar in brandy or grappa and then puffing on it? (Puffing end, of course, not the glowing end, as my mentors graciously pointed out. ) What is the purpose? Can it be performed with wine as well? Would it impress anyone if I demonstrated this technique?

Grog's Leap? A herd of stags? Dat's otay. It's Sunday morning. Which means . . . last night was Saturday night, right? On with the list: Castoro Cellars (Il Castoro, Italian for 'beaver') O'Reilly in Oregon features a wolfhound on the label. And let's not forget Cooper Creek's Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush

This review by Daniel Rogov:: Got me thinking about my first experiences with wine and cigars. As a non-smoker I would never have discovered an affinity between the two if it weren't for the coaching of Bruce Shomler, owner of Chequera Vineyard. Bruce invited me to sit on the steps of his beautifully restored circa 1910 farmhouse and enjoy a young Justin cabernet franc with a cigar. While I was experimenting with the fine art of keeping the damn thing lit , Bruce explained that Andre Tschelistchef had taught him to evaluate a young, tannic wine by sipping it first, then enjoying it with a fine cigar. So first we sipped the cab franc. Young, with harsh green tannins. Then we puffed on a cigar and returned to the cab franc. The tannins and nicotine in the cigar inured our palates to the tannins in the wine, and after lighting up, the cab franc was, by comparison, lush and fruity. Are there any experienced cigar aficionados here who can weigh in on this experience?

Roussanne is an interesting varietal, generally heavier and with an oilier mouthfeel than chardonnay, and with some of the expressive, exotic fruit of a viognier but not the viognier green edge finish. We had a roussanne with dinner last night--grilled prawn and scallop kabobs in Tequila-lime marinade, with a huge, translucent halibut filet and asparagus, also grilled. The halibut had a little lime, Tequila, and soy and herb marinade. Tiny baked new potatoes with herb butter, and a sour cream, mayo, cayenne dipping sauce for everything. Proud mama disclosure: all prepared by my 22-year-old son for his new grill-friend Sarah. She's a former employee, beautiful girl with a sweet voice and everybody loves her. I can't believe it! Oops, almost forgot. Dinner was seafood because the anchor of the evening was Colin's made-from-scratch super creamy not-too-sweet cheesecake, no sinking, no cracks, with a fresh, tart raspberry cream topping. Served with zinfandel portesque by candlelight. What was the question?

And the treaty has been signed. Cheap wines can keep classy names, from the Yakima (WA) Herald: cdh, I think you're right that the intent is to avoid placing undue burdens on producers who have been marketing their brand with these terms. The article linked to above, however, points out that it is the large plonk producers who benefit from the grandfather clause, meaning that plonk purchasers will never learn about the real origins of these terms. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Wild Horse Grey Wolf Coyote Creek Eagle Crest Screaming Eagle Eberle (German for little boar) Casa de Caballos

WHT, I believe this has already been addressed by others here but I thought I would also weigh in as a wine producer to correct this assumption simply because it is a common misconception. Alcohol is indeed determined by the sugar in the grapes at harvest. Sugar is measured in degrees Brix. Divide the degrees by 2 and add 2 and you will have a rough estimate of the final alchohol. (Our zin came in at 23.5 degrees: (23.5/2)+2=roughly 13.75 alc.) Huh. Spoilsport. Yes, the amount of yeast added does not affect the resulting alcohol (except of course that you need about a cup per ton to get it going. The yeasts reproduce, and fermentation depends more on the nutrients (sugar and B vitamins, primarily) available to the yeast, and temperature. They like a warm, nurturing environment. Chilled fermentors or a cold environment will slow the fermentation down. I'll be catching up on the subject of yeasts and fermentation in the wine blog soon . . . And, back to the possibility of global warming, here's one of the first articles to appear this harvest on the topic of glowarm in Oregon, in Bloomberg: Kramer's point is dead on. Warmer weather and higher alcohols are not desirable in a classic pinot noir. Other delicate-skinned grapes like sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, nebbiolo (some clones), and riesling also sunburn easily. But there are other factors at issue as well. The article linked to above also quotes Parker and Rovani, gives some statistics on global warming, and mentions the movie Sideways. Which leads me, sort of, to my next point, involving changing styles in wine, the Mondovino effect, and le palate Parkair. I recently purchased a bottle of Oregon pinot that I was really looking forward to trying because it is a small production and was consistently rated high by Wine Spectator. I was completely taken aback by the deep purple color, smoky nose, and heavy oak. It remotely resembled pinot noir with a healthy dose (probably the legally permissible 25%) of other varieties--I'm guessing cab and syrah. It was, shall we say, varietally incorrect. The alcohol was also fairly high, around 14%, but since syrah is generally a high-alc wine, the addition of syrah to the pinot may have influenced the alcohol level. All in all, farming and weather patterns go through hot/cold phases. This year it's global warming (again) and during the El Nino/La Nina vintages it was the encroaching ice age (again). The simple fact is, this year spring lasted longer, summer started later, and fall is being pushed back to Christmas. Next thing we know, the prognosticators will be telling us that the accumulation of leap year days has permanently screwed up our calendar and we need to make a 45-day adjustment or we'll be celebrating Christmas during harvest.

:: There are not enough emoticons to convey my reaction. :: Where did you find that bottle?

The Wine Enthusiast has an interesting article the on Priorat region. Does anyone have any experience with these wines?

A Thursday article in the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the fire was started in the warehouse library, destroying the most expensive wines in the building. Mass market wines, which were stacked toward the perimeter of the building, may have survived. (It isn't uncommon for special wines and customers who receive preferential courtesies to have their wines near the center of a wine warehouse, as that is generally the coolest part of the building.) Vintners still can't reach their stock: And even if the wine isn't heat damaged, it's reputation may be:

Nazi Racoons Overrun German Vineyards

An interesting and informative piece from the NY Times by Eric Asimov tackles the subject of vintage and varietal percentages in wine, and the U.S. labeling laws. For the most part the article is an easy-to-read discussion of labeling issues, but there are a few inaccuracies: California did not create the Meritage designation. The idea is to make blending and labeling practices more uniform for exportation purposes, so we have a level playing field against European wines. Also, the practice of blending back vintages is more often utilized in Europe to improve poor vintages with wine reserved from good vintages. No vintner in his right mind is going to dilute an excellent vintage with a crappy one just to have a little more wine. On second thought . . .

And the latest new offering in poptop closures--the ZORK! From what is clearly a press release: We're still ambivalent about the use of these new plastique closures. In some of the wines we've tried with polymer tops, the wines pick up a rubbery character, or as the WBM article quoted earlier, a "struck flint" character . . .