A Charming Little Wine

Sometimes it's a little something special that makes an ordinary evening extraordinary. That certainly happened the other night.

It had been a hard day.  I picked up some take-out Chinese and came home and got into my "give up" clothes.  You know them, sweats or something comfortable when you're not expecting anyone to arrive. 

While setting up the Christmas lights, I threw out my back so it was still a little tender.  I wasn't looking for something in particular when I went to the wine cabinet.  I pulled out a bottle of the Pine Ridge Charmstone 2008 vintage.

Charmstone is a Bordeaux blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.  Charmstones, which gets its name from the native cultures of California and the American southwest, are thought to have mystical powers.

I'm pretty sure that this wine does have mystical powers.  I wouldn't have thought that a wine that leans heavily on the Cabernet Sauvignon would work so well with the cashew chicken but it worked perfectly.
I wanted to find out what made this blend so mystical.  It's a limited edition blend available to wine club members only. I did a little searching on the internet and found that it comes from wines in some of Napa's very best appellations like Rutherford, Oakville and the Stags Leap district.

You can tell the high concentration of Cabernet Sauvignon right from the first pour. It's deep garnet color signals something special. While I'm not so good at picking out the various flavors, I did experience the sweet red cherry and hint of cinnamon spice.

A great place to visit when you're in Napa!

All the while I was enjoying the wine and a quiet evening, the phone rang.  No it wasn't an annoying telemarketer.  It was my first entry into the Mark Loux Alzheimer's book.  It was my cousin calling to see where we were and why we weren't at her house.

Then it all came back to me.  I had made plans for the night.  Deeply embarrassed, I apologized profusely.  After hanging up, I poured another glass of the Charmstone and amazingly forgot the whole thing.

I'm Thankful for My Friends -- Old and New

Last Thanksgiving was a bit crazy.  Not only was I getting ready to celebrate my 50th birthday (and my twin brother's) we found out on the Monday of Thanksgiving our Thanksgiving Day restaurant reservations had fallen through.

That meant that I ended up hosting two pretty big celebrations in three days.  I won't go into details here (you can read about it in my post The Unexpected Party. This Thanksgiving was a lot more low key.

This Thanksgiving I spent celebrating with family. There were just five of us.  Ok seven if you count the little dog and the 20 lb turkey! Pretty small considering the crowd that was there for last Thanksgiving but it was no less rewarding.

It was nice because it gave me an opportunity to reflect on a year of friends both old and new.  This past August (as you can note from my series on my trip to Sonoma, I had the real privilege to meet and work alongside three BBQ masters, Chris Lilly (from Big Bob Gibson's BBQ), Dr. BBQ (a mainstay on the professional BBQ circuit) and Pete Seghesio.

Not only did I learn a lot about the BBQ, I really had a chance to get to know more folks in the wine business.  Here's what I'm discovering -- I really like these folks.  The Seghesio team are incredible people.  From Pete and Cathy to Dave Meserli, Brandye Alexander, Dana Macaulay, Tony in the tasting room and so many others.

I'm really honored to call them friends not just acquaintances.

This fall I had the unexpected opportunity to not only meet some new friends but visit the great folks at Seghesio's sister vineyard in San Luis Obispo, Chamisal Vineyards.  You can read about the visit in my post A Special Day at Chamisal Vineyards. They're part of the reason for my reflections on my friends.  Our Thanksgiving meal featured the Chamisal's Morrito Pinot Noir.

This incredible wine was the perfect pairing for our turkey dinner.  Because of Michael's gracious tour, I can still see the view to the ocean from this little morro.  The particular terroir of this particular part of the vineyard is distinct.

It's more volcanic type rock than other parts of the vineyard and the hill is steeper.  This produced a wine that begins with a hint of strawberries and then ends with full on cranberry and the Chamisal spice. But more than the perfect pairing, it reminded me again of that special day with my new friends Michael, Alyssa and Andrea (who came in special even though she was recovering from an early fall cold).

So as we enter the holiday season, I just want to say thanks to my old friends and my new friends.  So to all those mentioned and to Bill Frick (Frick Winery), Nicole and Katey Bacigalupi (John Tyler Wines), Brooke at Chamisal and Nancy Santiago and Chistine Kyle from Pine Ridge Winery, a Giant Thank YOU.

You have made this a special year. Not only do you all make fabulous wines but you're some of the best people I know.

When the Unexpected Hits in Wine Country

After a wonderful day yesterday, I was hoping to even improve upon it. It's day 2 of our little excursion to wine country and nothing is going as planned.  My brother and his wife were supposed to arrive in San Francisco around 10:30 in the morning and I was going to head and pick them up while Roxanne was finishing a little work.

Alas.  The best laid plans . . .

Apparently United Airlines doesn't have a contract with its pilots. Surprisingly just before the flight the pilot called in sick. I'm sure he couldn't get out of bed but with airline travel as it is, there isn't an empty seat to be found on most flights.  Imagine trying to accommodate a whole plane on subsequent flights.

At this point it looked like instead of a day tasting wines in Sonoma, he was drinking in O'Hare airport.  Not exactly the same.  On the other hand, stuck in the hotel finishing work was our lot.

But the day was not lost. Not in the least.

I'm an avid Starbucks drinker. I'm a Gold Card holder and love the app for Android on my phone. It might not always be the best but it's consistent. That's why when I'm traveling I like to try the local shops before falling back on Starbucks.

So while the work was taking place I thought I'd try a local coffee shop and pick up something perhaps better than in the breakfast room at the Dry Creek Inn.  (Which isn't bad at all.)

I hopped in the car and headed to a local coffee shop called Flying Goat Coffee in Healdsburg.  If I weren't sure it was Wednesday, I'd be convinced it was Monday because after ordering the coffee I reached into my back pocket to discover . . .

I left my wallet back in the hotel room.  Grumble. Snarl. Drat.  A drive back across town to the hotel and then back to the Flying Goat to get my coffee.  They were extremely gracious as if out-of-towners do this all the time.

If I was in the South I'm pretty sure I'd be hearing "Well, bless your little heart!"

So after picking up my coffee and heading back to check on Roxanne, I found we had a little time before heading out for the day so I stopped by Seghesio Family Vineyards to talk to Tony about the food allergies we had to work around for the Family Tables on Friday.  It sounded like a great menu.

So just before noon we wound our way from Sonoma to Napa and headed down to Seghesio sister winery, Pine Ridge down in the Stag's Leap District of Napa.  Once on the Napa side of the mountain, the traffic picked up considerably.

That's probably why I like Sonoma so much.  I spend enough time n traffic in the Chicagoland area that I don't really like to do so when I'm on vacation.  That being said, it's hard to complain about being stuck in the beauty of Napa County.

The Stag's Leap AVA is best known for their Cabernet's but Pine Ridge has some vineyards in different parts of Napa County.  They have a beautiful tasting room with a patio tasting area they were setting up for a party that evening.

They were tasting some really great wines -- nothing unusual here. While it wasn't on the menu, they did serve one of my favorite wines, the Black Diamond Port style wine. One of my favorite after dinner drinks.  After ordering some wine (and joining their wine club), we were headed down to San Francisco to pick up my brother and sister-in-law at the airport.

But not before checking out the demonstration plot alongside the winery.  They had different grapes as well as different ways in which to trellis the vines. It helped explain how the different vines were laid out in the fields.

Then it was on to San Francisco.  The first stop was to the can't miss California staple: In-N-Out Burger. What's fun about In-N-Out Burger is that they have a not-so-secret secret menu.  So while Roxanne ordered a single, I ordered the double, double Animal Style.

You may be wondering what Animal style is all about.  It includes onions grilled in meat juices with extra Thousand Island spread, mustard grilled patties, and extra pickles.  Delicious.

Stop number two on our trip to the airport was an out-of-the-way ice cream shop that's known for its unusual offerings.  It's called Humphry-Slocombe.  The Secret Breakfast is bourbon and corn flake flavored ice cream.

I settled in on the chocolate, smoked sea salt ice cream while Roxanne had the Peach-Habanero sorbet. Yes. I said Habanero in a sorbet.

This very sweet and yet spicy treat is something not to be missed.  A bit of a hole-in-the-wall in the Mission district of San Francisco, every flavor we tasted was fabulous.  Now it was off to the airport and a bit of a wait in the SFO Cell Phone Lot. 

A great choice with the cioppino!

By the time they got in, they had spent the entire day flying and were both tired and hungry. So instead of heading back right away to wine country and to check into their hotel, we made a stop down on Fisherman's Wharf. Last year when we were in town, we found a great place for some Cioppino.  I couldn't remember the name but I do remember that Mario Batali liked their Cioppino.

I remembered where it was so we took off on a walk there. Having left the heat of the Midwest, they weren't ready for the cool evenings of San Francisco -- especially around the water. But once we got there, the food was well worth it.

I'm sure you're wondering the name of the restaurant by now.  It's actually pretty easy to remember . . . Cioppino's.  The cioppino has to be good if it's the name of the restaurant.

And it was!

Now a 90 minute trip back to Sonoma and we were done with Day 2. After a bad start, the day ended really well. Perhaps tomorrow morning will start a little better.