Author: Nancy (CSW)

Diageo Founders Club Black Tie Gala

Years ago we purchased Chalone Wine Group stock so that we could participate in their annual summer picnics. They were a fun affair in the vineyards of Chalone outside Soledad near the Pinnacles. A large tent was pitched, wines from all of the Chalone Wine Group were available to taste and an excellent lunch was served. They were always themed […]

Domestic Merlot With a Twist

This Thursday the wines for tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was advertised as domestic Merlot. However, George was up to his old tricks and slipped a Pomerol and a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend into the mix. We had a pretty small group this week which made for an informal atmosphere and a great exchange of opinion.

GSM Wines From Around the World

GSM wines were the subject of our Thursday night tasting this week. GSM stands for Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, the blend used in many southern Rhone wines. Our tasks for the evening were to choose our favorite wine and see if we could pick-out the predominant grape (G,S or M) in each wine. Alan presented the tasting and gave us […]

Food and Wine on Thursday Night

Our Thursday night wine tasting was a food and wine pairing. Gail invited Marianne McCarroll of Marianne’s Pantry to make three dishes to compare with the wines. We tasted two different wines with each of the three appetizers Marianne prepared. Our mission for the evening was to decide which wine paired better with each appetizer. Each wine was tasted blind, […]

Back In The Saddle Again!

Well, we are back to the Thursday night wine tastings at Fine Wines of Stockton. George and Gail have started us out with a complicated topic. This week the tasting was titled Italian Super Tuscan wines…what the heck?

First Monday of Food and Wine with Dave

We’ve started our regular Monday night food and wine routine for 2011 and we are off to a good start. I prepared hachis Parmentier from our new French cookbook. Hachis Parmentier is described by Dorie Greenspan in her cookbook “Around My French Table” as a really good French version of shepherd’s pie. You can look up the details in her […]

Happy Birthday to Dave!

We celebrated Dave’s birthday Monday night with wine and dinner. George and Gail joined us for the evening. We started the evening with “nibblins” that Gail brought. She prepared sausage stuffed mushrooms and also brought Brie and crackers. They paired these “horses ovaries”, as George put it, with a sparkler, which George made us think about critically, as he does […]

Final Thursday Night Wine Tasting of 2010

Generally, the final wine tasting for the year at Fine Wines of Stockton is the first week in December. We all take a Holiday break from the weekly tastings and taste on our own at various Holiday events! The final tasting was a collection of “New Arrivals”. We tasted two whites and four reds. George told us one of the […]

Diner avec Dave

So, does the title of this post give you a hint as to what kind of wine we had with dinner? It was Dave’s turn to bring the wine this week. He chose a recent K&L Wine Merchants purchase…a 1997 Chateau Destieux Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. Can I just say yum? This kind of editorial comment would be discouraged at our […]

Bordeaux Revisited

George thought it was time to revisit some of the Bordeaux we tasted between January and May of this year. We expected them to be the primarily from the 2006 vintage since that was mostly what we had tasted earlier this year. However, George has been known to throw in a twist or two just to see if we have […]