Recent Posts

Pinot and Pork Chops

We had an interesting wine this Monday with Dave. First, dinner! Nancy cut up a bunch of vegetables, carrots, onions, garlic (whole cloves), red potatoes and brussels sprouts. She put them in a casserole dish and splashed some olive oil and salt and pepper on top and put in the oven at 350 degrees. I had been to the market […]

Exciting Wine Trip Coming Up

Today Nancy and I took a trip to the Napa Valley. We had a great time, tasted wine at Provenance Vineyards, lunch at the Rutherford Grill and then tried a new winery we had never heard of or been to before. On the way home we went down the Silverado Trail and chose a winery at random. It was the […]

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 […]

2004 Gran Feudo Crianza

The 2004 Gran Feudo Crianza is from the region of Navarra in Spain and contains 70% Tempranillo, 25% Garnacha and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine has a nice medium garnet color. The nose had nice medium dark fruit with cedar. There was a light body with medium dark fruit, cedar and a hint of vanilla. There was a good balance […]

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 […]

Charbono With a Pork Roast

Great food and wine this Monday night. Nancy cooked a pork roast on a bed of vegetables and potatoes and made some applesauce from apples she bought at the farmers market. The 2 ½ pound roast was seasoned with salt, pepper and marjoram and roasted in the oven for about an hour and a quarter. Surrounding the roast were onions, […]

2006 Campo Viejo Crianza Rioja

What is a Crianza anyway? I think I’ll start another section where I’ll put definitions as I go along. While I generally know what Crianza means I’ll list the exact definition so I’ll remember better and others will learn more easily.

Wines of Chile

This Thursday we tasted wines from Chile at Fine Wines of Stockton. Several of the wines were from the Santa Ema winery in the Maipo Valley. They have vineyards in the Maipo, Cachapoal, Casablanca and Leyda Valleys. There was also one red from the Colchagua Valley made by Montes winery. Originally the wine distributor was going to present the wines […]

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 […]