Author: Nancy (CSW)

Thursday Night Riesling

The wine tasting this week at Fine Wines of Stockton was presented by Brad Alderson, winemaker and wine consultant. Brad was the founding winemaker for the Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery. He has a particular affinity for and broad knowledge of German Rieslings. He has spent a lot of time in the German wine growing areas and has many friends in […]

Napa Valley Wine Trip

We decided on a whim to take a drive to Napa last Sunday. The weather forecast was for overcast, showery weather, so no working in the yard. The weather became drizzly as we passed Rio Vista. The smell of the first rain was earthy and wonderful. By the time we got to Napa it was raining very hard. The grape […]

Piedmont Wines Tonight

Craig gave us an education on wines from the Piedmont region of Italy for this Thursday night’s tasting. Piedmont is in the northern part of Italy surrounded by mountains. The most well known grapes in Piedmont are Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barbera. The most famous (and expensive) wines from this region are Barolo and Barbaresco. We tried five different wines from […]

Our first Cahors

Pete made dinner for Dave and I this Monday night. He prepared a chickpea ragout recipe from Jacque Pepin’s book Fast Food My Way. He added sweet Italian sausage to the recipe which included sauteed onion, scallions, garlic and tomatoes from our garden. I also made garlic bread to accompany the ragout. By the way, it made great leftovers for […]

Thursday night in Tuscany

The theme for this Thursday night tasting was Italian wines from Tuscany. George wasn’t available so Alan stood in for him. Alan did some research on the area and educated us on the areas in Tuscany and the applicable regulations for the wines in those areas. We tasted four wines, actually five since we had a bonus wine before the […]

Pasta Dinner

Now that it is Fall, we’re finally getting our Summer weather. It has been a particularly mild Summer with very few days over 100 degrees. The past few days, however, have been very warm. Mornings have been damp and chilly, the birch trees are dropping their leaves. The backyard looks like Fall. Our Monday night dinner was Fall fare. Pete […]

It’s A Road Trip!

This Saturday Dave, Pete and I took a ride into San Francisco. Our primary destination was K&L Wines. They have an extensive selection of wine, organized by region. We entered via South America and didn’t leave until we got to France. We came home with a nice collection of wines, some of which we know and some that are K&L […]

Monday on Tuesday

This week we had our Monday night dinner with Dave on Tuesday. Pete BBQ’d pork tenderloins which were seasoned lightly with a rub we had used on ribs earlier this summer. I made peach salsa as I had been to the farmer’s market on Sunday. We had tomatoes from our garden and avocados and roasted red potatoes. A flavorful Summer […]

This weekend’s wine

2009 Provenance Sauvignon Blanc – This wine has a very light yellow color. Nose is very obvious, citrus and melon. Flavors of citrus, melon and floral back-notes. A good amount of acid gives this wine a clean finish of moderate length. None of the grassy flavors I find objectionable in some Sauvignon Blanc. There is a slight bitterness on the […]

Arizona Wines Part 1

We just returned from a vacation in Scottsdale, AZ. It may seem strange to go to Arizona in the summer but we like hot weather. This is also the “monsoon season” there so it is cooler with a good chance of rain and wind. Our flight to Phoenix was uneventful as usual. We arrived about lunch time, which is our […]