Recent Posts

The Last Monday Food and Wine Dinner for 2010

For our final Monday night dinner of the year, Nancy made some pork chops baked on a bed of cabbage and apples. We went to the Farmer’s Market on Sunday and choose what was in season (cabbage, apples, onions and red potatoes). Nancy sauteed chopped onions, garlic, apples and shredded cabbage, then baked the pork chops on top of the […]

Christmas Festivities and Wine

We started off the Christmas weekend by visiting Nancy’s mom in Modesto on Christmas eve. We did not have any wine there but we still had a very nice time visiting. We had a crab salad Nancy made for lunch and then a pumpkin pie for dessert she had also made. Later that evening when we were home, we made […]

Monday Night Mencia

We recently bought a new French cookbook, “Around My French Table” by Dorie Greenspan and have been trying various recipes so decided we would use it for our Monday night dinner with Dave. Nancy used two recipes from it, chicken, apples and cream a la normande and herb speckled spaetzle. Both were excellent and went well together. Dave brought over […]

2002 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon

This Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon has a very dark garnet color after aging in our cellar for a few years. The nose was light with dark fruit and a hint of vegetal. The flavor was dark fruit, leather and a hint of vanilla with moderate tannins and acidity. The wine had a medium body and a moderate length finish. We also […]

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 […]

2009 MontGras Reserva Carmenere

The 2009 Montgras Reserva Carmenere is from Chile’s Colchagua Valley. It has a dark ruby color and the nose is smoky, with dark fruit and vanilla. The flavors were dark fruit with a slight hint of vegetal and light vanilla. Lots of tannins with good acid and a long finish that Nancy found slightly bitter due to the tannins. There […]

Cabernet Sauvignon with Baked Chicken

Nancy baked some chicken coated in spiced bread crumbs for our Monday night dinner. She also made mashed cauliflower (much better than it sounds) and green beans with slivered almonds. If you haven’t tried mashed cauliflower, you should. Just steam it, add butter and mash with a potato masher. The flavor is great and the texture is interesting. Looks like […]

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 […]

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.