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 […]
2007 Santa Ema Amplus Cabernet Sauvignon – This Chilean wine is a dark ruby color with hints of violet around the edges. It has a earthy dark fruit nose. The flavor is a light amount of green pepper, big dark fruit and bitter chocolate. There is a medium length finish. Overall quite a nice flavorful wine. It was aged for […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Our Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was a different format this week. Instead of having a wine theme and critiquing each wine we had wine and appetizers. The idea was to see how each wine paired with the three different appetizers. Gail’s friend Marianne is a is the owner of Marianne’s Pantry, a private chef and specialty […]
We had a nice Labor Day weekend. Nancy’s mom came to visit so we invited a couple of friends over for a BBQ. I grilled some flank steak and Nancy made some chimichurri sauce for it. She also made corn pudding and a salad with our home grown tomatoes. Everybody enjoyed the meal very much. To accompany our meal we […]
As we mentioned in part one of our Scottsdale vacation we went to the FnB restaurant to try some wines where the grapes were grown and vinified in Arizona. It is a nice little restaurant with the kitchen in the middle. If you sit at the bar you can watch the chef Charleen Badman do her magic. They were pretty […]
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 […]
Our friend Dave came over for our usual Monday night dinner. I grilled some pork chops on the BBQ with a little mesquite wood. We also had a salad made from avocado, red onion slivers, english cucumber and home grown cherry tomatoes with a lime vinaigrette. The other side dish was a mixture of Israeli couscous, orzo,baby garbanzo beans, red […]
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.