finally posted pictures...
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=19002533&k=R6F4Y3S442TBZGMDRFXY
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
the last supper...
we spent our last full day in sonoma in healdsburg, a super cute little town. i forced kevin to get a massage (he survived) and we took the back roads through the countryside to town. it was gorgeous, and we even managed to not get run over as we explored a one-lane historic bridge on the way.
we had a wine and food pairing at seghesio in the afternoon. we weren't sure what to expect, but definitely found ourselves pleasantly surprised. the tasting was just the two of us--the chef came in to explain the dishes (literally small samples of seghesio family recipes), and our host, andy, explained the wines. all very delish.
back downstairs in the tasting room (yes, we joined the club again), we were greeted by a super cute little old guy running around. this was none other than ed seghesio, the 3rd generation version of the seghesio family winery founders. we all know i have a soft spot in my heart for old men, and this guy was adorable. i just wanted to hug him. we spent about 30 min chatting...he tried getting me a bottle of red that he thought i'd love (given my proclivity for petite syrah), but they didn't have any in the reserve library (curses). unfortunately, i didn't get a picture with ed, but i loved him nonetheless.
basically ed "works" on friday afternoons....by work, i mean work the tasting room and talk to all the ladies. not a bad gig. our host andy didn't have such a bad gig either. he took it upon himself to fill his glass whenever he filled ours...
kevin and i are excited about this club because we will get wines that we can't find on the east coast. although we can get the seghesio zin with some regularity and the occasional barbera at total wine, we've never even heard of most of the wines we tasted there. our favorite was the omaggio. we shipped a bottle of that home with our nickel & nickel lightning strike.
we tried hitting the rochioli and gary farrell vineyards on the way back to the hotel, but sonoma wineries apparently close by 4. we ended up on the back patio of the farmhouse inn finishing our oregon pinot from the night before. since that 1/2 glass lasted about a nanosecond, we enjoyed the cheese plate and champagne that we missed on our first night (the late dinner at auberge with the texans).
dinner was back in healdsburg at cyrus and it was insane. all week, people had been told us how much we would love cyrus because it is such an experience. shay & keith ate there when they came to sonoma, and people up and down the valleys raved about it.
we started with champagne and caviar, bc if you're going to go out, do it with a bang, right? we liked it better without any of the creme fraiche or latkes. i can't remember the name off the top of my head (they printed us a menu, but it's not here), but the hook was the caviar was pristine bc it wasn't downstream from any industry. we bought it. it was good. we also don't know a thing about caviar.
we knew this was going to be an expensive dinner. it was a tasting, and we were doing wine pairings. it was eight courses. i admit the menu was slightly confusing with all of the various options for the tastings...you could choose a number of courses, a number of tastings for any variation of those courses, etc.
thinking we were old pros at this by now, i ordered (i take responsibility since kevin hit the men's room at this time) and told the waiter we wanted the tasting menu with the wine. he said you have several options. not wanting my head to explode, i vaguely point at something called the grand cru tasting (thinking this included both food and wine). apparently not. but we'll get to that.
dinner was fabulous, the wines were out of this world. again, i have a copy of the menu (because when you spend the equivalent of a 3rd world country's gdp on dinner for 2 people, they create and print a menu for you), but it's at the lake and i'm in dc right now. suffice it to say, everything was fabulous.
we learned that we still don't like cold fois gras. there are 3 options for fois gras - seared (hot and delish), terrine (cold and ick), and tourchon (cold and double ick). auberge gave us just the tourchon version; cyrus did a duo of fois gras (a la top chef) - one was tourchon and one was seared (thankfully). another highlight was the waygu beef - kobe beef on crack. you don't get much of it bc it's so expensive, but what you do get melts in your mouth.
the cheese course was also fabulous. kevin and i have decided that we're going to start doing cheese courses at strawberry lane (our favorite restaurant is our lakehouse, for those who don't know). i'm thinking there are stellar cheese shops in dc, i just need to find them (which shouldn't be too difficult since i'm still unemployed).
as if eight courses weren't enough, they then wheeled around the sweet cart....take home boxes of brownies and various sweets and chocolates for all. we obligingly took them and gave them to jen the next day for riley and griffin. i assume they went straight to the trash as to avoid the inevitable sugar high/crash, but we did our part...
then the bill came. OOF. so the grand cru wine wasn't inclusive of dinner. we spent nearly double what we intended. OOF. after throwing up in my mouth a little, we paid and headed back home, thankful that we were flying out the next day :)
all in all, i think the meal was worth it. if i had it to do over again, i would have done the "normal" wine pairing as intended and i don't think we would've been the wiser. so for all of our mental preparation for an expensive meal, we were still shocked. alas.
so we've now exhausted any eating out budget for the next 23 months....but damn if we didn't get a good life experience out of it.
will post back at some point soon about our lessons learned from the trip.
Friday, March 7, 2008
It's My Turn
I begrudgingly take on this duty, firmly believing that the internet is full of enough vacuous thought that I don't need to add to it. But alas, the wife wants me to join the journal, so I'm in. If you take a moment to notice, I type with what I believe is proper punctuation and capitalization. I realize that this is uncool and I'm fine with it.
I have been on the road for a couple of weeks now. Boston was a lot of fun. The course was for all the partners promoted to my level this year - about 120 of us. Not bad given that firm is now 170,000 people. Not to dwell on work, but there was an interesting experience in there. I was pulled onstage (not randomly I hear) to participate in an interview. I was asked tough questions by Jon Sopel (think Dan Rather for the BBC) who has interviewed many world leaders. He clearly had me outgunned, but commented favorably on my responses. Kinda cool. I'm going to ask the people who lead the conference for the video. I'll share if I can track it down.
On the fun side, Boston Bob and I had a chance to catch up. There was a higher probability of me NOT making my flight. Kelly was correct to worry. My other best friend, Billy Moore, couldn't make it in town from Springfield, MA, and had he made it, I may not have left for a couple of days. One interesting note is that I'm suggestive when it comes to accents. By the end of the night in Southie, I was "packing my cah" with the best of them. There were a lot of comments going back and forth, most of which can't be written here. Needless to say the night ended with, Bob, you f-ing Mick, good to see yah. To which, he said, Nagel, you f-ing Kraut, good to see yah. He dumped me in a cab, and I somehow woke up in my hotel room.
On a quick side note, I busted a tooth in Boston. Bob pointed me to Tufts Dental School, and I quickly learned that their emergency room is for homeless people. They provide exactly two services 1) Pain killer; or, 2) extraction. Riiiiiight. I left and went to Cali where my brother hooked me up with a laid back dentist. He came in on Saturday just to see me and said that a few beers with Kris, my brother, would be sufficient for payment. He literally opened his practice on the way to the Stanford/Washington game. Like that happens on the East Coast.
So, one of my duties is to catch everyone up on the latest happenings.
Let's begin with dinner last night. We've been a bit geographically challenged this week - staying in Sonoma and dining/wining in Napa. Not a huge problem, but a pain. Last night, our commute to dinner was 11 stairs. Aaaah. We perused the menu, and to our relief, no tasting menu. We enjoy the variety, but it was high time for us to choose our dinner on our own. Coincidentally, we chose the exact same meal - creme of white asparagus with olive oil soup and the "rabbit rabbit rabbit" entree. I chose a nice Pinot Noir from Williamette Valley Oregon - Domaine Serene. Kelly keeps saying that choosing a wine from Oregon while in Cali is some sort of sacrilege. However, I don't get the sense that the Californians are insecure about it.
The soup was terrific and a nice surprise. I immediately wrote off the match to wine b/c what wine honestly goes with asparagus? It worked though. Good deal. The rabbit 3x referred to the three presentations - rack, sauteed, and confit. So sauteed with bacon - good. Confit - delish. Rack - huh? Has anyone honestly tried to eat a rack of rabbit? Think toothpicks in a strip of meat. Not really the best. Super meal with a super wine.
We followed the main courses with a cheese plate. Kelly stuck with wine, but I moved to a 1991 tawny port. I don't recall which one, but it went very well with the cheeses. We had cow, sheep and goat. My favorites always start with the blue cheese - Fourme d'Ambert. For those of you who think I'm gay now, I've been working hard on getting in fighting shape and will be happy to spar a few rounds so that you're opinion isn't changed.
So. I was going to continue with today, but I'm feeling blogged out. I will only return if users demand an encore. Otherwise, I'm out like a fat chick in dodgeball. (I can't claim that one as original, that's Kelly's).
I have been on the road for a couple of weeks now. Boston was a lot of fun. The course was for all the partners promoted to my level this year - about 120 of us. Not bad given that firm is now 170,000 people. Not to dwell on work, but there was an interesting experience in there. I was pulled onstage (not randomly I hear) to participate in an interview. I was asked tough questions by Jon Sopel (think Dan Rather for the BBC) who has interviewed many world leaders. He clearly had me outgunned, but commented favorably on my responses. Kinda cool. I'm going to ask the people who lead the conference for the video. I'll share if I can track it down.
On the fun side, Boston Bob and I had a chance to catch up. There was a higher probability of me NOT making my flight. Kelly was correct to worry. My other best friend, Billy Moore, couldn't make it in town from Springfield, MA, and had he made it, I may not have left for a couple of days. One interesting note is that I'm suggestive when it comes to accents. By the end of the night in Southie, I was "packing my cah" with the best of them. There were a lot of comments going back and forth, most of which can't be written here. Needless to say the night ended with, Bob, you f-ing Mick, good to see yah. To which, he said, Nagel, you f-ing Kraut, good to see yah. He dumped me in a cab, and I somehow woke up in my hotel room.
On a quick side note, I busted a tooth in Boston. Bob pointed me to Tufts Dental School, and I quickly learned that their emergency room is for homeless people. They provide exactly two services 1) Pain killer; or, 2) extraction. Riiiiiight. I left and went to Cali where my brother hooked me up with a laid back dentist. He came in on Saturday just to see me and said that a few beers with Kris, my brother, would be sufficient for payment. He literally opened his practice on the way to the Stanford/Washington game. Like that happens on the East Coast.
So, one of my duties is to catch everyone up on the latest happenings.
Let's begin with dinner last night. We've been a bit geographically challenged this week - staying in Sonoma and dining/wining in Napa. Not a huge problem, but a pain. Last night, our commute to dinner was 11 stairs. Aaaah. We perused the menu, and to our relief, no tasting menu. We enjoy the variety, but it was high time for us to choose our dinner on our own. Coincidentally, we chose the exact same meal - creme of white asparagus with olive oil soup and the "rabbit rabbit rabbit" entree. I chose a nice Pinot Noir from Williamette Valley Oregon - Domaine Serene. Kelly keeps saying that choosing a wine from Oregon while in Cali is some sort of sacrilege. However, I don't get the sense that the Californians are insecure about it.
The soup was terrific and a nice surprise. I immediately wrote off the match to wine b/c what wine honestly goes with asparagus? It worked though. Good deal. The rabbit 3x referred to the three presentations - rack, sauteed, and confit. So sauteed with bacon - good. Confit - delish. Rack - huh? Has anyone honestly tried to eat a rack of rabbit? Think toothpicks in a strip of meat. Not really the best. Super meal with a super wine.
We followed the main courses with a cheese plate. Kelly stuck with wine, but I moved to a 1991 tawny port. I don't recall which one, but it went very well with the cheeses. We had cow, sheep and goat. My favorites always start with the blue cheese - Fourme d'Ambert. For those of you who think I'm gay now, I've been working hard on getting in fighting shape and will be happy to spar a few rounds so that you're opinion isn't changed.
So. I was going to continue with today, but I'm feeling blogged out. I will only return if users demand an encore. Otherwise, I'm out like a fat chick in dodgeball. (I can't claim that one as original, that's Kelly's).
Thursday, March 6, 2008
slow thursday
not much to report today...we're staying at the farmhouse inn in the russian river valley for the rest of the week. we arrived late last night and have a killer room. there's a fireplace, flat screen tv, and a huge bathroom. the bathroom has a slate counter top (black, but other than color, identical to my green slate at the lake), a steam shower and a slate soaking tub -- all very chic.
we were the only ones here last night/this morning. breakfast was fresh fruit (i'm so jealous that cali has super ripe strawberries right now) and farmhouse scrambled eggs with salmon (delish) and homemade lemon-rosemary bread with strawberry preserves. so good.
we're sort of wined out for the time being, so we're just taking it easy (plus it's gray outside) today. i've also completely lost my voice and have been coughing up a lung, so being close to the steam shower is a good idea. tonight's dinner is here at the inn and tomorrow we're scheduled for massages. we might also hit some shopping and a winery or two before our dinner at cyrus in healdsburg. i promise to have pithier comments tomorrow....and maybe even get kevin drunk enough to blog himself.
we were the only ones here last night/this morning. breakfast was fresh fruit (i'm so jealous that cali has super ripe strawberries right now) and farmhouse scrambled eggs with salmon (delish) and homemade lemon-rosemary bread with strawberry preserves. so good.
we're sort of wined out for the time being, so we're just taking it easy (plus it's gray outside) today. i've also completely lost my voice and have been coughing up a lung, so being close to the steam shower is a good idea. tonight's dinner is here at the inn and tomorrow we're scheduled for massages. we might also hit some shopping and a winery or two before our dinner at cyrus in healdsburg. i promise to have pithier comments tomorrow....and maybe even get kevin drunk enough to blog himself.
wednesday...denial, double nickel and texas
we were scheduled for caymus at 11:30 on wednesday morning; however, due to several ill-timed 18 wheelers and a missing street sign, we didn't get there until about 11:40, at which point we were promptly denied access to the super secret tasting room. we had been warned about being late, to be sure....but the gate keeper took his role a bit seriously for my taste.
he offered to reschedule and kept saying, "i'm terribly sorry, but..." kevin had already headed back to the car, and my smart ass mouth wasn't warmed up, so i didn't come up with a witty comeback until we were already in the car....if i had been a little sharper, i would have replied, "somehow i don't think you are." but curses, i was too late. caymus took our 50 bucks and we didn't get any wine.
we shopped a little while in st. helena to pass the time, where we sampled olive oil and chocolate truffles, and perused a few art galleries. we headed for nickel & nickel early so that we wouldn't suffer any more rejection...that place was locked up tighter than the pentagon. we had to get buzzed into the gate, which was a new one for us in napa. we were escorted into a salon (their word, not mine) filled with french antiques and we sipped chardonnay as we awaited everyone on our tour.
one couple was late, but still allowed entry--the woman was hammered (this was 1:30 in the afternoon), and we learned they had come from caymus. rat bastards....i told kevin later i was actually glad we weren't there with them - she had one of those voices where her decibel level exactly grates my ears like a dog with one of those whistles. i don't think i could have survived 2 wineries in a row with her. she kinda cracked us up though - was wearing gym sneaks and some sort of denim skirt business with a bunch of layered sweaters. it appeared to be a lime green mock turtleneck with a black cardigan buttoned up over it. i couldn't figure out if she got dressed in the dark or wasted...it was bizarre. her husband seemed nice, but he spent a lot of time guiding her around and apologizing on her behalf. they were from tennessee (sorry mom/dad, harold/cheryl).
the nickels just started their winery in the late 1990s. they produce single-varietal (one kind of grape), single-vineyard (grapes only from one vineyard) wines, and as far as they know, they are the only winery to do so on that scale (about 30k cases per year).
the wine lab and offices are housed in a restored new england farmhouse for which they paid $200k. here's what i didn't get - the barn was from new hampshire or vermont or something and was scheduled to be burned down (a literal barn-burning). the nickels paid the owners $200k for it. then they paid some other exorbitant sum to have the thing dismantled and shipped across the country to napa. then they realized the exterior timbers were unusable, so they paid for reclaimed timbers from some other barns, painted them, added windows doors and a turret and renovated the interior. they raised the hay lofts 3 feet to make the space usable and added a second floor for offices and a wine lab on the first floor. there were in fact some original timbers inside that smelled like hay (our pithy tour guide informed us that after 200 years, you just can't get that smell out). so here's my question - what exactly did they pay the $200k for? hay-scented timbers? help me out...that doesn't seem like such a great investment. maybe it's just me.
their caves were cool - vaulted ceilings and yummy smelling barrels. we learned that napa valley is the world's largest consumer of dixie cups bc wineries use them to cap off barrels. fun fact for ya...
our tasting was back at the house in the dining room. we tried 4 cabernets, and a "secret" wine. a few years ago, someone fell asleep at the switch and accidentally mixed two varietals in the vats - 85% of the premier cab ($150+/ bottle) and 15% of a syrah. oops. the guy in charge that day submitted his resignation when he told the nickels about the mistake. they didn't accept it, plus didn't fire him. the resulting wine was named "lightning strike" since supposedly it never happens twice in the same place. it was awesome, so we bought some. i think they should blend more often - the result was quite good. oh yeah, and we joined the club. after a series of questions, kevin settled on the unadvertised cabs only club.
we tried oakville grocery, part deux after our visit to nickel and nickel. we picked up a few cheeses, bread, stuffed peppers, and plastic cups and sat outside at the picnic table to finish our turley leftover from our greystone dinner. we liked our second oakville grocery experience much better.
dinner was at auberge du soliel. we arrived early so we could change clothes and have a drink on the deck to watch the sunset. auberge is gorgeous--set up on a hill that overlooks the valley. it's also a resort, so i think we might try to stay there for a night next time we're in town. the view was truly spectacular, so i'm glad we arrived early.
we had an early dinner reservation (open table has a hard time deciphering time zones when you make reservations from the east coast for restaurants in the west), but no matter since we ended up closing down the restaurant again.
we opted for the tasting menu with wine pairings for dinner, and the food was exquisite. we sat outside (underneath a heat lamp for me) and enjoyed a 6 course meal. my favorite course was the harachi sashimi, and my favorite wine was the paradigm cab that was paired with the ny strip steak and tempura mushroom with broccoli rabe and eggplant.
our least favorite course was surprisingly the fois gras. it was cold (ick) and served with a sweet tangerine something and a mysterious white powdery substance. we hazarded a number of guesses on the white stuff (use your imagination) and settled on something like powdered sugar. it was paired with a syrupy eastern european desert wine....all in all, i didn't dislike it, we just would have preferred greens of some sort before the quail and beef.
about the time our last course arrived, we made friends with a couple from ft. worth who were seated next to us. we basically talked back and forth for several more hours (as they went through the same tasting menu), and ended up back at the patio where the boys smoked cigars. oof. regardless, we had fun with our new friends from texas.
he offered to reschedule and kept saying, "i'm terribly sorry, but..." kevin had already headed back to the car, and my smart ass mouth wasn't warmed up, so i didn't come up with a witty comeback until we were already in the car....if i had been a little sharper, i would have replied, "somehow i don't think you are." but curses, i was too late. caymus took our 50 bucks and we didn't get any wine.
we shopped a little while in st. helena to pass the time, where we sampled olive oil and chocolate truffles, and perused a few art galleries. we headed for nickel & nickel early so that we wouldn't suffer any more rejection...that place was locked up tighter than the pentagon. we had to get buzzed into the gate, which was a new one for us in napa. we were escorted into a salon (their word, not mine) filled with french antiques and we sipped chardonnay as we awaited everyone on our tour.
one couple was late, but still allowed entry--the woman was hammered (this was 1:30 in the afternoon), and we learned they had come from caymus. rat bastards....i told kevin later i was actually glad we weren't there with them - she had one of those voices where her decibel level exactly grates my ears like a dog with one of those whistles. i don't think i could have survived 2 wineries in a row with her. she kinda cracked us up though - was wearing gym sneaks and some sort of denim skirt business with a bunch of layered sweaters. it appeared to be a lime green mock turtleneck with a black cardigan buttoned up over it. i couldn't figure out if she got dressed in the dark or wasted...it was bizarre. her husband seemed nice, but he spent a lot of time guiding her around and apologizing on her behalf. they were from tennessee (sorry mom/dad, harold/cheryl).
the nickels just started their winery in the late 1990s. they produce single-varietal (one kind of grape), single-vineyard (grapes only from one vineyard) wines, and as far as they know, they are the only winery to do so on that scale (about 30k cases per year).
the wine lab and offices are housed in a restored new england farmhouse for which they paid $200k. here's what i didn't get - the barn was from new hampshire or vermont or something and was scheduled to be burned down (a literal barn-burning). the nickels paid the owners $200k for it. then they paid some other exorbitant sum to have the thing dismantled and shipped across the country to napa. then they realized the exterior timbers were unusable, so they paid for reclaimed timbers from some other barns, painted them, added windows doors and a turret and renovated the interior. they raised the hay lofts 3 feet to make the space usable and added a second floor for offices and a wine lab on the first floor. there were in fact some original timbers inside that smelled like hay (our pithy tour guide informed us that after 200 years, you just can't get that smell out). so here's my question - what exactly did they pay the $200k for? hay-scented timbers? help me out...that doesn't seem like such a great investment. maybe it's just me.
their caves were cool - vaulted ceilings and yummy smelling barrels. we learned that napa valley is the world's largest consumer of dixie cups bc wineries use them to cap off barrels. fun fact for ya...
our tasting was back at the house in the dining room. we tried 4 cabernets, and a "secret" wine. a few years ago, someone fell asleep at the switch and accidentally mixed two varietals in the vats - 85% of the premier cab ($150+/ bottle) and 15% of a syrah. oops. the guy in charge that day submitted his resignation when he told the nickels about the mistake. they didn't accept it, plus didn't fire him. the resulting wine was named "lightning strike" since supposedly it never happens twice in the same place. it was awesome, so we bought some. i think they should blend more often - the result was quite good. oh yeah, and we joined the club. after a series of questions, kevin settled on the unadvertised cabs only club.
we tried oakville grocery, part deux after our visit to nickel and nickel. we picked up a few cheeses, bread, stuffed peppers, and plastic cups and sat outside at the picnic table to finish our turley leftover from our greystone dinner. we liked our second oakville grocery experience much better.
dinner was at auberge du soliel. we arrived early so we could change clothes and have a drink on the deck to watch the sunset. auberge is gorgeous--set up on a hill that overlooks the valley. it's also a resort, so i think we might try to stay there for a night next time we're in town. the view was truly spectacular, so i'm glad we arrived early.
we had an early dinner reservation (open table has a hard time deciphering time zones when you make reservations from the east coast for restaurants in the west), but no matter since we ended up closing down the restaurant again.
we opted for the tasting menu with wine pairings for dinner, and the food was exquisite. we sat outside (underneath a heat lamp for me) and enjoyed a 6 course meal. my favorite course was the harachi sashimi, and my favorite wine was the paradigm cab that was paired with the ny strip steak and tempura mushroom with broccoli rabe and eggplant.
our least favorite course was surprisingly the fois gras. it was cold (ick) and served with a sweet tangerine something and a mysterious white powdery substance. we hazarded a number of guesses on the white stuff (use your imagination) and settled on something like powdered sugar. it was paired with a syrupy eastern european desert wine....all in all, i didn't dislike it, we just would have preferred greens of some sort before the quail and beef.
about the time our last course arrived, we made friends with a couple from ft. worth who were seated next to us. we basically talked back and forth for several more hours (as they went through the same tasting menu), and ended up back at the patio where the boys smoked cigars. oof. regardless, we had fun with our new friends from texas.
tuesday catch up...winery vs. wine cellars and tanisha
tuesday morning took us to the top of howell mountain to ladera (the wine we drank on christmas eve). the setting was breathtaking and we were the only 2 people on the tour. we circled the outside of the 19th century winery, which was built into a hill and surrounded on 3 sides by the mountain. she then cut straight to the chase and took us to the cave for the tasting. joined another club (our wine fridges are going be to overflowing) and headed back down the mountain.
lunch was mediocre again...hurley's. took too long and wasn't great. don't do it.
we spent the first part of the afternoon at stag's leap wine cellars. back in the day, we joined this wine club because i was obsessed with the petite syrah. we got to the tasting room for our tasting (thank goodness it was free - otherwise we would have spent $110 on the library and estate wines) and kevin made a comment about no petite syrah.
enter epiphany 1 - stags leap wine cellars doesn't make petite syrah anymore....their neighbor, the stags leap winery, does. oops. i felt like such a poseur. from what we could tell, they actually made the petite syrah when we joined...oh well. apparently there's very little petite syrah in the valley and slwc couldn't guarantee the quantity or quality, plus they had already outsourced most of the production anyway. turns out we actually like the slwc wines better. consider yourselves enlightened.
our crappy rental car was without a functioning tail light. we had suspected this on the drive up (with the crazy hyper blinker noise whenever we tried to turn right), and confirmed it when a biker dude pulled up to us at a stop sign to let us know. that was slightly crazy (and no lee, kevin has yet to beat up any hippies or biker dudes). the last thing we needed was an excuse to be pulled over in wine country...
the closest avis was a mere 12 miles away in vallejo...what they failed to mention was the 12 miles would be in bumper to bumper traffic at the blazing average speed of 7.3 mph. we finally made it down there and realized tanisha's avis was in an area that rivaled our neighborhood in sw dc when we moved there 3 years ago (i.e. not so gentrified). tanisha asked if we wanted to refill the tank. thankfully, kevin was too far away to strangle her....as calmly as i could muster, i informed her that we weren't going to pay for that since avis (tanisha's or otherwise) should have provided us with a fully functional automobile. i think she decided it wasn't worth the fight and took us to our new ride, a hyundai sonata with xm that smells like stale cigarette smoke.
did i mention vallejo is south of napa and our hotel was northeast of napa near the russian river valley? an hour and a half later, we made it back to the hotel. oof.
we had dinner back over in napa at the wine spectator greystone restaurant at the culinary institute of america. it was awesome....easily top 10 meals ever. i started with a flight of sparkling wines and kevin had a martini with his new fave gin and vermouth -- something about 209, but i'll have to get back to you with the details. we did a sampler for appetizers and all of them were fabulous, very top chef. entrees were also good, and kevin ended with a cheese plate and a flight of ports and sherries, which he loved. i tried the molten chocolate cake and the waiter brought me a port (which i typically don't like) which went amazingly well with the chocolate.
we, of course, shut down the restaurant, but had a great time. greystone had fabulous people watching. i had a couple that was literally making out in the corner....we ended up in the ladies' at the same time and i had a hard time keeping a straight face. she was one of those "bless her heart" kinda chicks. sort of sad and past her prime, wearing some sort of sundress that was completely out of place (i realize it is california, but it's pretty cold).
on the other hand, kevin had a perfect view of a couple who came in after us, ordered a single bottle of rose wine, drank part of it and hustled out after their entrees. kevin couldn't fathom why you would go to the trouble of getting reservations at this place, come in, and not savor the experience. i, however, got a little queasy at the rose. one of my more memorable wine experiences was the eve of spring break freshman year. shay and i dined at one of lex vegas' finer eating establishments--the only one that accepted a student id from freshmen who wanted to drink. several carafes of rose wine (seriously what were we thinking) and some beef and broccoli later, we stumbled back to the dorms as i smoked my first and last cigarettes of my life. suffice it to say i didn't feel so hot that night or the next day as we drove 7 hours to the ATL. oof again.
that's all i've got for tuesday...is anyone reading this? give us some comment love...kevin keeps asking if we have comments and i've got nothing for him.
lunch was mediocre again...hurley's. took too long and wasn't great. don't do it.
we spent the first part of the afternoon at stag's leap wine cellars. back in the day, we joined this wine club because i was obsessed with the petite syrah. we got to the tasting room for our tasting (thank goodness it was free - otherwise we would have spent $110 on the library and estate wines) and kevin made a comment about no petite syrah.
enter epiphany 1 - stags leap wine cellars doesn't make petite syrah anymore....their neighbor, the stags leap winery, does. oops. i felt like such a poseur. from what we could tell, they actually made the petite syrah when we joined...oh well. apparently there's very little petite syrah in the valley and slwc couldn't guarantee the quantity or quality, plus they had already outsourced most of the production anyway. turns out we actually like the slwc wines better. consider yourselves enlightened.
our crappy rental car was without a functioning tail light. we had suspected this on the drive up (with the crazy hyper blinker noise whenever we tried to turn right), and confirmed it when a biker dude pulled up to us at a stop sign to let us know. that was slightly crazy (and no lee, kevin has yet to beat up any hippies or biker dudes). the last thing we needed was an excuse to be pulled over in wine country...
the closest avis was a mere 12 miles away in vallejo...what they failed to mention was the 12 miles would be in bumper to bumper traffic at the blazing average speed of 7.3 mph. we finally made it down there and realized tanisha's avis was in an area that rivaled our neighborhood in sw dc when we moved there 3 years ago (i.e. not so gentrified). tanisha asked if we wanted to refill the tank. thankfully, kevin was too far away to strangle her....as calmly as i could muster, i informed her that we weren't going to pay for that since avis (tanisha's or otherwise) should have provided us with a fully functional automobile. i think she decided it wasn't worth the fight and took us to our new ride, a hyundai sonata with xm that smells like stale cigarette smoke.
did i mention vallejo is south of napa and our hotel was northeast of napa near the russian river valley? an hour and a half later, we made it back to the hotel. oof.
we had dinner back over in napa at the wine spectator greystone restaurant at the culinary institute of america. it was awesome....easily top 10 meals ever. i started with a flight of sparkling wines and kevin had a martini with his new fave gin and vermouth -- something about 209, but i'll have to get back to you with the details. we did a sampler for appetizers and all of them were fabulous, very top chef. entrees were also good, and kevin ended with a cheese plate and a flight of ports and sherries, which he loved. i tried the molten chocolate cake and the waiter brought me a port (which i typically don't like) which went amazingly well with the chocolate.
we, of course, shut down the restaurant, but had a great time. greystone had fabulous people watching. i had a couple that was literally making out in the corner....we ended up in the ladies' at the same time and i had a hard time keeping a straight face. she was one of those "bless her heart" kinda chicks. sort of sad and past her prime, wearing some sort of sundress that was completely out of place (i realize it is california, but it's pretty cold).
on the other hand, kevin had a perfect view of a couple who came in after us, ordered a single bottle of rose wine, drank part of it and hustled out after their entrees. kevin couldn't fathom why you would go to the trouble of getting reservations at this place, come in, and not savor the experience. i, however, got a little queasy at the rose. one of my more memorable wine experiences was the eve of spring break freshman year. shay and i dined at one of lex vegas' finer eating establishments--the only one that accepted a student id from freshmen who wanted to drink. several carafes of rose wine (seriously what were we thinking) and some beef and broccoli later, we stumbled back to the dorms as i smoked my first and last cigarettes of my life. suffice it to say i didn't feel so hot that night or the next day as we drove 7 hours to the ATL. oof again.
that's all i've got for tuesday...is anyone reading this? give us some comment love...kevin keeps asking if we have comments and i've got nothing for him.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
fainting goats and bubbly
northern california has some serious temperature swings. yesterday started in the low 40s and ended up in the mid 70s. we managed to get in a run in the morning before we left for wine country and the hills around kris & jen's house nearly killed me. this morning, my calves are thanking me as i hobble around...
driving into napa was interesting as we saw winery after winery after winery, many of which we recognized, some of which we didn't. it got me very excited for the coming week.
we stopped at the oakville grocery for lunch since it's a landmark in gourmet grocery land, but i don't think either of us are dying to go back. kevin wanted a blt w/ avocado, which sounds really good (and easy to recreate), but they were out of bacon (one of the deadly sins as far as kevbo is concerned). he kept muttering about their lack of pork product.... i got a mozz tomato and basil sandwich, which wasn't bad (considering the time of year), but it's just not tomato season. and i'm really not a fan of super-crusty bread since it cuts up the roof of my mouth. too much information, i know. anyway, the place was also packed. and it was monday, so i can only imagine the mayhem during a weekend. as our nephew griffin would say, "i understand, no thank you." oakville grocery, check.
we were a little early for our tour of the caves at schramsberg, so we detoured up at calistoga to check out old faithful, the california geyser. for the bargain price of $14 (including a $2 AAA discount), we were granted admission. all i can say is what a waste of money. the geyser erupted every 5 minutes or so with a maximum height of 20 feet. it's been many years since our family trip to yellowstone, but wikipedia assures me that those eruptions were well over 100 feet. kevin was extreme
ly disappointed that we had come to the "fake" old faithful, so we'
ll have to go see the real one at some point. the entire tourist trap would have been much better if the fainting goats we saw actually fainted. it was sort of a side show attraction--apparently these goats get frightened and fall over as a defense mechanism. we tried our best to scare them, but no luck.
schramsberg was very cool, as promised. there are over 2m bottles of sparkling wine stored in the caves and it was truly amazing to see. i'll add pictures once i get home and get the camera cord, but there's one expanse of cave where it's just bottles as far as the eye can see. they're stacked on on top of the other, and there are 40 rows deep--absolutely astonishing. they are one of the few wineries who riddle the bottles by hand. granted, they only hand-riddle the reserve bottles, but there is one dude--ramon the riddler.
riddling is basically rotating the bottles in a rack over a series of days and weeks, increa
sing the angle of the bottle so that the line of yeast collects at the bottom and neck of the bottle and can be removed. you have to rotate the bottles very quickly so that the yeast doesn't get all mixed up with the good wine. ramon is the man--he can riddle 8000 bottles an hour if he puts his mind to it. kevin & i couldn't see the demonstration, so ramon gave us a private lesson, which was very cool. he's a cute little guy and very proud of what he does. he's somewhat of a rockstar among the staff. once the riddling process is complete, the yeast somehow gets flash-frozen (i didn't follow all of this), and pulled out of the neck in a frozen block that shoots out at 70 mph and takes a tablespoon and a half of good bubbly with it.
we tasted 4 of their wines in a candlelit cave. i've now decided that i must eat by candlelight in a wine cave. i don't think it will be on this trip, but i've added it to my list. there were about 12 of us on the tour and the guide fancied himself a comedian and kept telling us inappropriate stories about his sex life (or lack thereof). there was a couple from the ATL there, married 25 years and in their mid 50s--i thought the woman was going to have a stroke. she kept trying to laugh nervously, but i knew she was about to freak out. it was highly entertaining to watch. luckily, he kept feeding us wine -- 2 reserve bottles that go for about $90 each, a rose, and their mass-produced sparkling. i, of course, liked the reserve bottles the best.
schramsberg also produces j. davies cab. from what we gathered, hardly any of it is made, but kevin and i are convinced we've had it before. since we likely didn't get it at the mclean total wine, it must have been through a wine club or at a restaurant. we never quite got to the bottom of it, but since i joined the wine club ($100/quarter for about $150 worth of wine), we will have another bottle come october. another highlight - i got a hat that has a frog drinking a bottle of champagne on it. it will be fabulous for the boat.
dinner was at john ash in sonoma. sonoma and napa people have this inherent rivalry going, which is also entertaining. we tried something new for dinner-- ordering 2 half bottles of wine to go with the wide variety of food we ordered. our favorite dishes were at the beginning.
the amuse bouche (pre-hors d'œuvre 1-bite dish compliments of the chef) was a creamy parsnip soup, which was absolutely delish. appetizers were oysters with a trio of sauces (hogwash, pomegranate granite, and cocktail sauce) and a duck confit with homemade tagliatelle pasta. the hogwash sauce was our favorite -- made with tequila, shallots, and some other things. the duck melted in our mouths. on the wine, we cheated a little bit and had krug, a french champagne, but also ordered a pinot noir from papapietro perry, a sonoma winery we're supposed to see on thursday.
this morning, i'm going to run through a trail in the vineyard adjacent to our hotel while kevin checks out the fitness patio (literally a shack by the spa with sliding glass doors and a few errant pieces of equipment and weights). we're heading to ladera at noon (we have had their wine as part of our wine club. we opened one on xmas eve and loved it) and stags leap (my favorite) today. dinner will be at the greystone restuarant at the cia (culinary institute of america) tonight. i'm hoping it's like top chef...
driving into napa was interesting as we saw winery after winery after winery, many of which we recognized, some of which we didn't. it got me very excited for the coming week.
we stopped at the oakville grocery for lunch since it's a landmark in gourmet grocery land, but i don't think either of us are dying to go back. kevin wanted a blt w/ avocado, which sounds really good (and easy to recreate), but they were out of bacon (one of the deadly sins as far as kevbo is concerned). he kept muttering about their lack of pork product.... i got a mozz tomato and basil sandwich, which wasn't bad (considering the time of year), but it's just not tomato season. and i'm really not a fan of super-crusty bread since it cuts up the roof of my mouth. too much information, i know. anyway, the place was also packed. and it was monday, so i can only imagine the mayhem during a weekend. as our nephew griffin would say, "i understand, no thank you." oakville grocery, check.
we were a little early for our tour of the caves at schramsberg, so we detoured up at calistoga to check out old faithful, the california geyser. for the bargain price of $14 (including a $2 AAA discount), we were granted admission. all i can say is what a waste of money. the geyser erupted every 5 minutes or so with a maximum height of 20 feet. it's been many years since our family trip to yellowstone, but wikipedia assures me that those eruptions were well over 100 feet. kevin was extreme
ly disappointed that we had come to the "fake" old faithful, so we'
ll have to go see the real one at some point. the entire tourist trap would have been much better if the fainting goats we saw actually fainted. it was sort of a side show attraction--apparently these goats get frightened and fall over as a defense mechanism. we tried our best to scare them, but no luck.schramsberg was very cool, as promised. there are over 2m bottles of sparkling wine stored in the caves and it was truly amazing to see. i'll add pictures once i get home and get the camera cord, but there's one expanse of cave where it's just bottles as far as the eye can see. they're stacked on on top of the other, and there are 40 rows deep--absolutely astonishing. they are one of the few wineries who riddle the bottles by hand. granted, they only hand-riddle the reserve bottles, but there is one dude--ramon the riddler.
riddling is basically rotating the bottles in a rack over a series of days and weeks, increa
sing the angle of the bottle so that the line of yeast collects at the bottom and neck of the bottle and can be removed. you have to rotate the bottles very quickly so that the yeast doesn't get all mixed up with the good wine. ramon is the man--he can riddle 8000 bottles an hour if he puts his mind to it. kevin & i couldn't see the demonstration, so ramon gave us a private lesson, which was very cool. he's a cute little guy and very proud of what he does. he's somewhat of a rockstar among the staff. once the riddling process is complete, the yeast somehow gets flash-frozen (i didn't follow all of this), and pulled out of the neck in a frozen block that shoots out at 70 mph and takes a tablespoon and a half of good bubbly with it.we tasted 4 of their wines in a candlelit cave. i've now decided that i must eat by candlelight in a wine cave. i don't think it will be on this trip, but i've added it to my list. there were about 12 of us on the tour and the guide fancied himself a comedian and kept telling us inappropriate stories about his sex life (or lack thereof). there was a couple from the ATL there, married 25 years and in their mid 50s--i thought the woman was going to have a stroke. she kept trying to laugh nervously, but i knew she was about to freak out. it was highly entertaining to watch. luckily, he kept feeding us wine -- 2 reserve bottles that go for about $90 each, a rose, and their mass-produced sparkling. i, of course, liked the reserve bottles the best.
schramsberg also produces j. davies cab. from what we gathered, hardly any of it is made, but kevin and i are convinced we've had it before. since we likely didn't get it at the mclean total wine, it must have been through a wine club or at a restaurant. we never quite got to the bottom of it, but since i joined the wine club ($100/quarter for about $150 worth of wine), we will have another bottle come october. another highlight - i got a hat that has a frog drinking a bottle of champagne on it. it will be fabulous for the boat.
dinner was at john ash in sonoma. sonoma and napa people have this inherent rivalry going, which is also entertaining. we tried something new for dinner-- ordering 2 half bottles of wine to go with the wide variety of food we ordered. our favorite dishes were at the beginning.
the amuse bouche (pre-hors d'œuvre 1-bite dish compliments of the chef) was a creamy parsnip soup, which was absolutely delish. appetizers were oysters with a trio of sauces (hogwash, pomegranate granite, and cocktail sauce) and a duck confit with homemade tagliatelle pasta. the hogwash sauce was our favorite -- made with tequila, shallots, and some other things. the duck melted in our mouths. on the wine, we cheated a little bit and had krug, a french champagne, but also ordered a pinot noir from papapietro perry, a sonoma winery we're supposed to see on thursday.
this morning, i'm going to run through a trail in the vineyard adjacent to our hotel while kevin checks out the fitness patio (literally a shack by the spa with sliding glass doors and a few errant pieces of equipment and weights). we're heading to ladera at noon (we have had their wine as part of our wine club. we opened one on xmas eve and loved it) and stags leap (my favorite) today. dinner will be at the greystone restuarant at the cia (culinary institute of america) tonight. i'm hoping it's like top chef...
Sunday, March 2, 2008
city of cats
we made it to cali pretty much without incident. kevin managed not to lose his cool with any of our fellow travelers even after 17 hours of (hungover) traveling. kris greeted us and we managed to stay up too late and drink them out of red wine. the 2004 picchetti cab was our absolute favorite, and although we didn't make it to the winery this trip, we definitely will next time.
saturday morning took jen and riley to san fran for a synchronized swimming meet (i'm not making this up). i had no idea this was a competitive sport outside of the olympics, and i certainly never expected my 11 year old niece to be part of the action. hilariously, jen had to shellac her hair with knox gelatin to keep it in place for the festivities. i promised riley i would not post the picture of the aftermath, but suffice it to say it was highly amusing.
griffin had a basketball tournament for the competitive league he's in, and they just kept winning. interesting tidbit--these games of his are 5 periods instead of the more conventional 4 quarters. who knew...he's a fabulous defensive player--which from what i know about the rest of the nagels, he comes by honestly. although they didn't win (in his words), the "san jose state championship," it was exciting to watch. griffin is #5 - this is right before he scored...
btw, los gatos (aka city of cats) is pretty much full of dogs. more specifically, people in their workout gear walking their dogs around town. we stopped in the apple store on santa cruz blvd, and i think there were at least as many dogs as people in there. kevin is convinced none of these people actually work out, they just dress the part and traipse about town with their dogs. we haven't seen any mountain lions as yet (presumably how the city got its name), but we also haven't been too far up the hills. maybe we'll make that a priority on our next visit.
kids love the sharper image - i spent the morning with griffin there, and then riley and i made a trip in the afternoon. i have the most hilarious picture of her making a funny face on the massage chair.
kris, jen, kevin & i had dinner at dio deka, a fabulous place in los gatos that specializes in "hellenic" cuisine (their descriptor, not mine). after we were finally seated, the waiter informed us that our appetizers would be on the house since we had been so patiently waiting long after our reservation time. they brought us several delicious dishes, but i have to admit that my favorite dish was the saganaki. the menu says, "pan-fried kefalograviera cheese finished with metaxa brandy and lemon emulsion," i say "fried feta." amazing.
normally, i hate it when the waiter hovers as you take your first bite of food, but it worked out in this case since our lamb was way overcooked. he disappeared with our plates and when he came back, he brought the manager to comp all of our food. unfortunately, we took the opportunity to order another (not cheap) bottle of wine to celebrate our good fortune and promptly squandered any comps we had....oh well.
we took today to rest our livers before heading off tomorrow for the wine valleys. we are due at schramsberg in the afternoon for cave tours and a tasting. dinner will be at john ash, and we are staying at the vintner's inn.
saturday morning took jen and riley to san fran for a synchronized swimming meet (i'm not making this up). i had no idea this was a competitive sport outside of the olympics, and i certainly never expected my 11 year old niece to be part of the action. hilariously, jen had to shellac her hair with knox gelatin to keep it in place for the festivities. i promised riley i would not post the picture of the aftermath, but suffice it to say it was highly amusing.
griffin had a basketball tournament for the competitive league he's in, and they just kept winning. interesting tidbit--these games of his are 5 periods instead of the more conventional 4 quarters. who knew...he's a fabulous defensive player--which from what i know about the rest of the nagels, he comes by honestly. although they didn't win (in his words), the "san jose state championship," it was exciting to watch. griffin is #5 - this is right before he scored...btw, los gatos (aka city of cats) is pretty much full of dogs. more specifically, people in their workout gear walking their dogs around town. we stopped in the apple store on santa cruz blvd, and i think there were at least as many dogs as people in there. kevin is convinced none of these people actually work out, they just dress the part and traipse about town with their dogs. we haven't seen any mountain lions as yet (presumably how the city got its name), but we also haven't been too far up the hills. maybe we'll make that a priority on our next visit.
kids love the sharper image - i spent the morning with griffin there, and then riley and i made a trip in the afternoon. i have the most hilarious picture of her making a funny face on the massage chair.
kris, jen, kevin & i had dinner at dio deka, a fabulous place in los gatos that specializes in "hellenic" cuisine (their descriptor, not mine). after we were finally seated, the waiter informed us that our appetizers would be on the house since we had been so patiently waiting long after our reservation time. they brought us several delicious dishes, but i have to admit that my favorite dish was the saganaki. the menu says, "pan-fried kefalograviera cheese finished with metaxa brandy and lemon emulsion," i say "fried feta." amazing.
normally, i hate it when the waiter hovers as you take your first bite of food, but it worked out in this case since our lamb was way overcooked. he disappeared with our plates and when he came back, he brought the manager to comp all of our food. unfortunately, we took the opportunity to order another (not cheap) bottle of wine to celebrate our good fortune and promptly squandered any comps we had....oh well.
we took today to rest our livers before heading off tomorrow for the wine valleys. we are due at schramsberg in the afternoon for cave tours and a tasting. dinner will be at john ash, and we are staying at the vintner's inn.
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