Author: Peter

PullThatCork Thanksgiving

We usually host Thanksgiving at our house but one of my sisters wanted to host it this year so we all went to her place in Soquel. This allowed some of our other relatives who don’t usually make it to attend since it wasn’t so far to drive. However, it made it impossible for Nancy’s mom to go because it […]

2010 Napa Bus Trip (part 2)

We started our tasting at Turnbull Wine Cellars in the Reserve tasting room. In addition to rows of wine barrels, there is a photo exhibit which features more than 70 photos, mostly black and white, taken between 1903 and 2000. To see a small sampling go to their website and look in the News and Events section.

2010 Napa Bus Trip (part 1)

Yesterday George and Gail from Fine wines of Stockton had their annual bus trip to Napa. We have been going on the bus trips for years, and they are always a lot of fun. This year we we went to Mason Cellars, Turnbull Wine Cellars and Paraduxx Napa Valley. Mason doesn’t have a tasting room at the winery so we […]

Tempranillo for Thanksgiving?

A well known former winemaker had told George that Tempranillo is a good wine to pair with Thanksgiving dinner. George was skeptical so he decided the Thursday tasting would be Tempranillo with turkey. Gail was only able to get white meat in time for the tasting so he asked us to use our imaginations to think how it might pair […]

Saturday Night Dinner and Wine

We have been pretty busy this week so I’m going to write an abbreviated version of our Saturday night dinner. We had some interesting wines that I primarily want to mention. We started out with 2008 New Harbor Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (Marlborough) and a 2005 Domaine Chantermerle Chablis. The New Harbor is a crisp high acid white with […]

Friday Night Wine Tasting

We had a very busy wine tasting weekend. It’s hard to figure out where to start. We started at our usual Thursday night tasting with Grenache, then on Friday we were invited to a wine tasting by some friends and Saturday we had them and another couple over for dinner. We tasted a lot of wine!

Dinner with Acacia

We had our weekly dinner with Dave on Tuesday this week. Nancy made spaetzle with some sausage on the side. She also roasted some beets and cooked the greens. I don’t care for the beets but I will eat the greens while both Nancy and Dave like the beets, too. To accompany the meal I chose an 2006 Acacia Pinot […]

2005 Sodaro Private Reserve Estate Blend

The 2005 Sodaro Private Reserve is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, 20%Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec. The color was a dark garnet. There was ripe dark fruit, green pepper and a little vanilla in the nose. The flavor had dark ripe fruit with a burst of cedar. There was a light round body with smooth tannins […]

White Burgundy

White Burgundy was the theme for this Thursday night’s tasting. We had a pretty good turnout this week, about 15 people showed up. White Burgundy is interesting because it is the Chardonnay grape but in an entirely different style than we are used to in this country. So many American Chardonnays go through a malolactic fermentation and then are so […]

Birthday Wines

Saturday night we celebrated my birthday with some great wine. Nancy’s mom and a couple of our friends came over for dinner. We decided to make pulled pork for dinner. We bought a pork shoulder roast, mixed-up a dry rub and “rubbed” the roast Friday night. It sat in the refrigerator all night with the rub on it, and then […]