It's Hahhhhhht!

92 degrees and sunny today - no, not only in Redwood City or the east bay. But in foggy San Francisco. I love it. This may be too hot for some of the softies in this city, but for me and many others who braved hot and humid southern, mid-Atlantic, or New York summers, it's just another summer day. Aren't seasons wonderful?

On tap for the rest of the day: Rias Baixas tasting, beer drinking somewhere outside, and a day of maxin' and relaxin'. Please don't hate....

Daily intake: A food and wine blogger's 24 hour consumption

Here's a rare inside look at what someone (i.e., me) who sells wine and writes fairly often about food and wine eats and drinks in a day. Having met many people who work with wine and/or food on a daily basis, I can tell you that many of us are not ideal poster children for eating healthy, nourishing food. Retail and restaurant work, the latter in particular, is not always conducive to healthy living; this might be the understatement of the year on this site.

Anyway, I will start from dinner on Tuesday May 13 and follow my eating/drinking through tonight's dinner. Why start from dinner? It is by far my favorite meal, the one that I have the most time to enjoy, and what some may say takes place at far too late an hour, usually between 10 and 11pm. Allow me to give you an idea of how far my late dining ways have regressed. As a child we usually ate dinner around 7:30-8pm, sometimes as late as 9pm. The average sit-down to dinner time became progressively later. When I visit Spain in a few weeks- where the late dining time is well documented - I will more than likely be eating at the same time or even earlier than I do here.

Tuesday May 13
Dinner - Mizuna salad with tuscan olive oil and lemon dressing, three homemade personal focaccia rolls, toasted with tuscan olive oil and grated parmeggiano. One glass of La Gitana Manzanilla. A half-bottle of 1989 Bollig-Lehnert Piesporter Goldtrofchen Riesling Spatlese. A few tall glasses of water.

Wednesday May 14
Breakfast - a few pieces of 84% cacao chocolate and two handfuls of almonds. About 20 oz. of water.
Lunch - an al pastor super taco from Chavez market (super means topped with crema, guac, salsa and grated cheese). As an aside, a co-worker notes,"That doesn't look too healthy."
Roughly 16 oz. water (drunk throughout the afternoon).
Late afternoon pick me up - 8 oz. of GT Dave Mango Kombucha.
Beer-thirty - One and a half cans of budweiser while watching softball
Pre-dinner snack - several bites of mochi and a cup of green tea.
More Manzanilla - 1/2 a 500ml bottle of La Gitana Manzanilla (drunk mainly before, but also during dinner)
Dinner - Mizuna salad with 2 fried eggs in Styrian pumkin seed oil vinaigrette, 1/2 a baguette of homemade poppy/sesame/fennel seed bread dipped in tuscan olive oil. A few glasses of water.

Overall, it was a mixed performance. But I've seen far, far, worse.

Happy (and hopefully, healthy) eating and drinking, everyone.

1985 Renee Collard Cuvee Reserve Millesime - Meunier at its best?

One of my co-workers, who buys champagne and sherry for the store, likes to say that in champagne, top-notch Pinot Meunier can make better Pinot than Pinot Noir itself. From my limited experience with his wines, and by repuation, Renee Collard proves this to be true. His oak aged, non-malo champagnes are deeply flavored and vinous, earthy and complex. They are typically composed mainly of Meunier with a bit of Chardonnay.

I enjoyed the 1985 Collard a few weeks ago after crashing my bike on Valencia St., while making an ill advised move from the torn up bike lane to higher pavement one lane over. My intent was to head out to Terroir and share the bottle, but oh well, a flat tire and crooked headset discouraged me from venturing any further. When I arrived home, I decided to crack open the Collard anyway; I was set on drinking that champagne and a minor bike crash was not going to stop me. No siree bobby. The champagne showed intense golden hues and aromas (you know how some aged chardonnay and champagne have that golden aspect to appearance, aroma, and flavor). There was a wonderful truffle note that emerged after time and was especially apparent the next day - I drank a glass with an omelette and salad. On the palate the champagne was very vinous, as is the rep for Renee Collard. Cidery, spicy, and chock-full of juicy black cherries. It was good but not mind blowing on day 1. On day 2 more flavors revealed themselves, especially a strong walnut husk aspect to the finish. So it looks like I might have enjoyed this bottle more in another five years. I'll have to accomodate my British taste in Champagne and buy another one to put it away for a while.

Comparative Italian whites with a long maceration on the skins tasting

WINE GEEK ALERT! GEEK LEVEL: 8

Last night a few wine industry friends (Josh, buyer at Bi-Rite Market, and Chris, logistics guy for Kermit Lynch in Beaune, France) my girlfriend and I enjoyed a bottle of 2002 Radikon Oslavje and 2006 Paolo Bea Santa Chiara Bianco at Terroir. The first wine is Stanko Radikon's blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc, done in a very traditional style, i.e. a slightly warm (or at least not a very cool) fermentation followed by a long period of skin contact and ageing in slavonian oak barrels, a total of 3 years ageing before bottling. And the second is Umbrian Paolo Bea's newest vintage of a field blend consisting of Malvasia, Chardonnay, Grechetto, and many other grapes which I forget. It is also elaborated with a long period of skin contact with the juice. In between the conversation, which was predictably full of wine talk, both wine stuff and wine business stuff (vendors we like/dislike, the stevedore's strike on the French ports, etc) it was interesting to compare these two wines, especially as we worked our way through each bottle over time.

My initial reactions were favorable towards the Bea, less so towards the Oslavje. I loved the fact that Bea is moving towards a more substantive, traditional style of white wine. His wine combined peachy, fleshy, floral qualities with a touch of orange blossom honey and real grip on the back end - this is a white wine with tannins. As for the Radikon 'Oslavje,' I found it to be a bit more rancio than I expected. His '02 Ribolla is such a brilliant wine, a perfect interplay of fresh and oxidative flavors, exuberant acidity and spice, fruit and minerality. The Oslavje just didn't sing as much for me - at first. Then as it opened up, the acidity really shined. The wine brightened, and the finish was full of a delicious hazlenut character. To me there is something vaguely vin santo-like about the oslavje: aromas of older bound books in someone's study, or perhaps a worn in-leather couch, slightly rancio flavors combined with pungent acidity. I eventually grew to prefer it over the Bea, which tasted fine but seemed simple by contrast. Of course, there is a four year difference here as well. But I don't see the Bea wine aging as gracefully for as long as the Radikon. It was a fun comparative tasting though, for sure.

Italian wines at the House of David D.

A few nights ago, several co-workers and I, alongside Cecilia and Heather, tasted a cool range of Italian whites and three piemontese reds from 1990s.

Though there was a definite TCA issue with the reds (2 of 3 bottles were suspected to be corked) it was not so bad as to not get a sense of what the wines were about.

Here were the reds:

1999 Bruno Rocca 'Rabajolo' Langhe Rosso

Big, woody, smoked hickory and dark berry fruit aromas lead to a heavy palate that lightened somewhat after a bit of breathing. Still a bit more robust, and not as layered, as I was expecting. Nebbiolo, barbera, cab.

1997 Rivetti Bricco de Neveis Barbaresco

While this seemed to be mildly corked, it did not seem as obvious as the barolo below. But Guido would say that the reverse is true. Either way, this is a much more evolved wine than the '96 Colonello barolo. Spicy, savory, and in need of a piece of roasted lamb.

1996 Bussia Soprana Barolo 'Vigna Colonello'

An immediate whiff of wet, musky cardboard corkiness was apparent. However, on the palate there was bright red fruit, some vibrancy, delicacy, and an iron minerality, with just a hint of cork taint manifesting itself on the mid-palate and in a clipped finish. This was still young but beginning to ever so slowly inch towards maturity. I'd love to someday try a bottle that is not corked.

And the whites:

2006 Marco Porello Arneis

Not the best bottle of this wine - it usually crackles and pops with more clearly defined appley fruit and brighter acidity. On many other occasions I have enjoyed this wine, however.

2006 Lis Neris Fiore di Campo IGT

Aged in neutral oak barrels, this shows classic tocai palate weight and nutty savor. There is some fruit that is tough to describe, and good persistence. We all noticed the fact that it is a bit hot on the finish. Apparently this is a 3 bicchieri wine. Not to discredit the wine or Gambero Rosso, but come on now people...I've noticed that tocai has the tendency to achieve fairly high (in this case 14%) levels of alcohol.

2004 Garlider Veltliner Alto Adige (Sudtiroler)

Nearly my favorite wine of the night, this Italian rendition of the Austrian grape is full of juicy pear fruit. The fruit is of a dripping, ripe character, but still held in check with acdity and some typical gruner veltliner white pepper flavors. There are woodsy floral notes as well, which, coupled with the broad, rich, intense flavors, bring to mind a white burgundy just beginning to show a bit of development. Terrific wine.

2001 Benanti 'Pietramarina' Bianco Superiora Etna D.O.C.

100% carricante from the volcanic soil around Mt. Etna. I have had some very good white wines from Sicily, one of them also from Mt. Etna, but to quote my man Clay Davis, "Sheeeeeeeeit!" This was incredible. The acidity, minerality and overall 'wow' factor are at least one step up from the veltliner. This wine had intense gardenia and coriander notes on the nose, with some stone fruit as well. On the palate, more stone fruit, specifically a perfectly ripe nectarine, with great minerality as I mentioned earlier, and intense lime flavors on the finish. Acidity grabs hold of the sides of your tongue and clings there. This gem is delicious now and built to last. For how much longer I can't exactly say, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was even better in 5 years, and still terrific in 10. Maybe I'm grossly underestimating the lifespan of this wine, though.

Thanks to Guido, David D and Mike D for making this such a fun evening.

Billy Ocean!!!

The 80's station at work played this jam earlier in the week. Fun song! So I had to seek it out on youtube and share the fruits of my search with you. Danny Devito, Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner make quite the backing trio for Billy O. As for Mr. Ocean I think Tperez78's youtube comments do the singer justice:

"his's one of my favorites black singer!him and lionel richie.,for me the two best singer of 80's.,all billy ocean songs are awesome., all of them are beautifull.oh yes they are!"

Culinary misadventures pt. 14: Fake pimientos de padron and haphazard panzanella

Some experiments in the kitchen do not yield favorable results, as my experience tonight attests. Here are two preparations I attempted tonight. Both were failures. The first is a recipe that I recommend you do not try at home, and the second is probably worth trying as long as you have some proper guidance.

In an effort to whet my appetite for Galicia, Spain, I fried up some jalapeno peppers in olive oil, patted them dry, added coarse sea salt and pretended that they were the famous pimientos de padron. Thing is, while those peppers are mild 95% of the time, jalapenos are moderately hot 100% of the time. I ate four peppers and could shortly feel my stomach lining taking sharp pains for the team. After a glass of water and some kombucha I felt much better.

I won't go into details about my misguided (perhaps I should say, 'unguided') attempt at panzanella (tuscan bread salad). It was terrible, though I am perhaps a bit wiser for the failed experiment. A hint: you will probably need more vinaigrette than you think to adequately soak your stale bread.

Cooking can be a humbling experience.