melkor

ZuZu does lunch and dinner.

So just to be clear, if you grow table grapes and sell them to people at the farmers market you are a farmer. If you grow grapes and sell them to someone who makes them into wine, you might be a farmer. If you grow grapes and make them into wine yourself you are catigorically not a farmer.

If a plot of land used to grow christmas trees is considered a 'tree farm' then it would be absolutely absurd not to consider a vineyard a farm.

Lunch at the slanted door is more or less the same as dinner there, might as well do lunch. Incanto and Delfina are both rustic Italian, both excellent with interesting wine lists. Zuni is a quintessential SF restaurant, simple dishes made with great ingredients. Haute cuisine in SF itself doesn't compare to what is available in NYC. I'd stick to places that are more ingredient focused in the city itself.

Gary Danko is good compared to a lot of other options in SF (not Frisco!), but if you are from NYC then you'll likely find the food somewhat lacking and the wine list absurdly priced. Lunch at the Slanted Door isn't a bad idea - it's hardly authentic Vietnamese food, but what they serve is delicious. I'd suggest Incanto, Delfina, or Zuni for dinner.

Apparently all we have in the cupboard is white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, sweet white wine vinegar (home made from leftover dessert wines), rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, home made red wine vinegar, cooking balsamic, 20 year old balsamic, and some sherry vinegar.

45 minutes to 1.5 hours is more like it on travel time. 20 minutes gets you to Glen Ellen or Kenwood. ← You just need a faster car But you are correct - Forestville is 40 miles away so without traffic and paying some sort of attention to the speed limit 45 minutes would be more like it.

And a great wine list full of interesting things from around the world at reasonable prices!

The Farmhouse inn 20 minutes north of Sonoma is excellent as is Santi in Geyserville (there's also a great Taco Truck in Geyserville). I've never really been wowed by anything in the square itself, the Girl and the Fig being my favorite place in Sonoma itself.

Being $1300 makes it a rip off? How? I doubt there will be much left laying around the Chateau waiting to be sold. And any way, what does "most peoples budget have to do with Petrus? A rolls Royce is "out of most peoples budget" too so what! ← Value is rarely a part of the equation at the top end of any pricing spectrum. A Rolls Royce is a perfect example of that - no one buys a Rolls Royce because it’s a good value or because they enjoy the driving experience they have when they are behind the wheel. A Mercedes S55 is just as comfortable, handles better, has better brakes, accelerates faster, and is significantly more reliable all with a lower price tag. That doesn't mean people won't buy the cars RR is producing. It also doesn’t mean the Mercedes is a good value. People buy these cars because they command attention - they are a sign of wealth, power, and influence and people buy them as status symbols. The same could be said of Porsches and Ferraris, but in the case of high-end sports cars, to many people the driving experience is absolutely worth the price of admission when compared to other cars, other people buy them for the same reasons listed above. The same is true in the wine world, if you bring a bottle of Petrus to a tasting you get the same reaction as you do driving a Rolls Royce across town. The price of wines like Petrus is based on what the market will pay. Cristal Champagne is more expensive than Salon and Krug yet of the three it would be my last pick in terms of quality. 2002 DRC Romanee Conti is currently selling for twice the price of Petrus, does that mean the best Pinot is twice as good as the best Merlot? My point never was that Petrus is a rip off, more that what a fair price for a bottle of wine is a subjective matter and it isn’t difficult to find people who will argue that anything costing more than some arbitrary sum is a rip off. Personally, I’d sooner part with $1,300 and go home with a bottle of Petrus before I spent $7 on a bottle of Moueix Bordeaux Merlot.

Christian Moueix just might have something to say about that. ← It isn't hard to argue that his wines at both ends of the spectrum could be considered ripoffs - $1,300/bottle for 2003 Petrus futures is a bit much for most peoples budget and $7 for "Christian Moueix Bordeaux Merlot" isn't exactly terrific juice, even at $7/bottle.

We've got two of the Riedel 'O' glasses that we were given at a winery when we stopped there to pick up our order. I can't say that I love them, and I think I've only used them once since bringing them home. That said, they are easy to swirl without covering the glass in fingerprints, the method is just somewhat counterintuitive - you need to hold the glass from above, in the only way you can really hold a glass that doesn’t allow you to drink from it then swirling is easier than in a glass with a stem and they stay reasonably clean.

Ino is good, as is Kiss. Both hold 15-20 people depending on how the tables are setup. There are more cooked dishes available at Kiss and more raw options at Ino. I've enjoyed my meals at both places.

If you aren't in a hurry and you have something fun to drive, by all means take the PCH. There is very little to see and do along I-5 but you'll be stuck in the car for half as long. We drove down to Cambria/Paso a few weekends ago on the PCH, aside from getting stuck behind a string of slow drivers it was a fun drive. Your cousin wasn't lying, most years late Sept would be the start of harvest - this spring has been unusually wet and we just had a quick hail storm today so things are going a bit slower this year.

If you’re lucky you'll miss harvest while your out here. The beautiful mountain roads all back up with trucks driving 20mph. The winery staff has far more to do during crush than the rest of the year so they will likely be less available. During crush a lot of the tours change to avoid places where the tourists are at risk of being flattened by a truck/forklift/etc. The tour at Opus is worth doing if you can arrange it - if you are a regular customer at local wine shop, they should be able to arrange it for you through their distributor, it'd be worth a call on your own also. Quintessa as Carolyn pointed out above is also a nice facility, though their tasting I believe costs $50/person. Caymus is at the other end of the spectrum, offering a free tasting but no tour, if you luck out you'll be there during one of the two or three weeks each year that they pour their Special Select Cab as part of the tasting. Pride is a great place to visit and also an excellent spot for a picnic; get some supplies at Dean and Deluca before you head up the mountain. Phelps has a very enjoyable tasting out on their patio with an assortment of interesting wines and a great view. Shafer would also be worth checking out, great Cabs and nice people. For all these places you'll need to call to arrange a reservation. As far as restaurants go - Martini House, Terra, Bouchon, Don Giovanni, Bistro Jeanty are all similarly priced ($50-$100/person with wine) and quite good, Martini House being my favorite of the bunch. A bit cheaper ($25-$50 w/wine) would be ZuZu, Cook, Bounty Hunter, and Market - Cook has similar food to Delfina in SF without the trendy atmosphere, Bounty Hunter is just good simple food and a very reasonably priced wine list, and ZuZu is a trendy tapas place with a fairly static menu but that is only a problem if you are local and want to eat there frequently. Taylor's is also a great spot for lunch. If you are planning to drive from Napa to San Diego, unless you have a couple of days to spend driving, take I-5 instead of the PCH. If you’ve got the time then the PCH has great views and an endless supply of small towns to visit along the way. Cambria is a good place to crash for the night half way down to LA. You should be able to get there in time for lunch, from there you can make the 20min trip to San Louis Obispo/Paso Robles for more wineries and dinner before you head back for the night.

I've been to Phelps several times. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, their tasting is more interesting than most in the area as they produce a wide variety of interesting wines - several Rhone blends, the usual California Cab/Chard/Merlot, a couple of dessert wines that even are reasonably age worthy, and their Insignia is one of the best large production Bordeaux style blends made in CA. If the two-hour drive is worth it? That depends what else you planned to do that day. There are plenty of good restaurants in the area, and a visit to a couple of other wineries would make it well worth the trip.

As far as I know, all the Owen Roe wines are made with fruit from Oregon/Washington. Good wines and reasonably priced too.

Australian wine accounts for 5% of my cellar and 6% of my wine consumption. Thanks to cellartracker it's easy to find all sorts of info about my cellar. Here are the Australian wines currently in my cellar: 2002 d'Arenberg The Laughing Magpie (Australia, South Australia, McLaren Vale) 2001 Cascabel Grenache Et Al (Australia, South Australia, McLaren Vale) 2001 Fox Creek Shiraz Reserve (Australia, South Australia, McLaren Vale) 2001 Howard Park Shiraz Scotsdale (Australia, Western Australia) 1998 Penfolds Bin 389 (Australia, South Australia) 1997 Penfolds Shiraz RWT (Australia, South Australia) 1996 Penfolds Bin 389 (Australia, South Australia) 1996 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707 (Australia, South Australia) 1995 Penfolds Shiraz Grange (Australia, South Australia)

Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies This recipe is based on Elizabeth_11's recipe which can be found elsewhere in the recipe archive. This will make about 18 cookies. 1 c chocolate chips 3/4 c butter, melted 1-1/4 c brown sugar 1/4 c sugar 1 T vanilla extract 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 c almond flour 1 c matzoh cake meal 1 tsp salt Preheat an oven to 375*F. With a stiff whisk, mix together the melted butter and the two sugars, add the vanilla and egg & yolk and whisk until smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, cake meal, and salt then pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix with the whisk. You need to work a fair bit of air into the dough since there is no leavening and they will come out like rocks otherwise. Add the chocolate chips and stir. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and scoop the dough out about a quarter cup per cookie. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the top of each cookie looks dry and the edges start to brown. Keywords: Easy, Snack, Kosher, Cookie, Passover ( RG1224 )

Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies This recipe is based on Elizabeth_11's recipe which can be found elsewhere in the recipe archive. This will make about 18 cookies. 1 c chocolate chips 3/4 c butter, melted 1-1/4 c brown sugar 1/4 c sugar 1 T vanilla extract 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 c almond flour 1 c matzoh cake meal 1 tsp salt Preheat an oven to 375*F. With a stiff whisk, mix together the melted butter and the two sugars, add the vanilla and egg & yolk and whisk until smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, cake meal, and salt then pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix with the whisk. You need to work a fair bit of air into the dough since there is no leavening and they will come out like rocks otherwise. Add the chocolate chips and stir. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and scoop the dough out about a quarter cup per cookie. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the top of each cookie looks dry and the edges start to brown. Keywords: Easy, Snack, Kosher, Cookie, Passover ( RG1224 )

Uh. I've been drinking Zind-Humbrecht's wines for well over a decade now, and my impression (though I don't usually check the alcohol content) is that they are pretty mild stuff. That's also my experience with other Alsatians as well, which makes sense, given the climate. Now, if you've climbed aboard recently, the last couple of vintages have been freakish, because of very hot summers. You'll find the same across much of Europe - including the Mosel, if you can believe it. The Zind-Humbrecht wines in my cellar range in alcohol content from 11.5% for some of the SGNs to this wine which is better described by Parker than by me: There is a huge difference from vintage to vintage with their wines, the 2000 VTs in the cellar are 13.5%.

Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace makes a number of wines with more than 14%, white wines at that... Some of it has a place on my shelf - the Zind-Humbrecht's certainly do, along with a bunch of Turleys, but it's been a while since I bought any California cabs and the only California chards I've picked up in the past several years have been Montelena and Joseph Swan both of which are atypical for California chardonnay. My palate I don't think qualifies as either East or West coast - I hope that doesn't mean I have a fly over state palate...

I don't get it. I've been to Cesar, I'd go back from time to time if I lived 5 minutes away - I honestly can't imagine driving an hour+ to eat there. Some of the dishes are quite good, the rest simply decent. There's nothing wrong with Cesar, but there is also nothing terribly compelling about it either. Bocadillos in SF is far better, as is ZuZu in Napa, A Cote in Oakland as well. Manresa also serves a tapas menu, they are located a much shorter drive from Santa Cruz and the food is significantly better than Cesar.

There is most definately a difference in taste. Different brands use different amounts of sugar, and some are more concentrated than others.

Zardetto makes a decent sparkler for all of $7 or so a bottle, you can get a number of Spanish reds for around the same price - Las Rocas is a good pick. For a white, you should be able to find an Albarino or Verdejo in the same price bracket.