Continuing in the vein of my first regional wine and food review of the Napa Valley, I will now travel south down the Central Valley to another loved wine region, Carmel Valley [WL]. Carmel Valley sits due Southeast from the beautiful and famous hamlet, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and is overlapped by the Monterey County and Central Coast appellations.

Beth and I adore the little seaside town and its accompanying wine region and have made numerous trips over the years with our little Pug Sebastian, always finishing each day with applause at sunset on the its white sand beach. This whole region is well-known as one of the most dog-friendly vacation spots in the US, as well as for its incredible beauty, both natural and man-made.
My list of recommendations span both Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Carmel Valley. I have included links to each individual website, as well as the accompanying information we have on WineLog [WL]. Enjoy!

I made it back over to Artisan Wine Lounge and Café last Saturday with a big group of friends in tow. We were attending the latest event that Lena Chu had lined up at her superb destination venue in downtown Walnut Creek, CA.

The event was a showcase of two artists, Katey Shockey, the artist currently showing at the lounge and Sones Cellars, a family boutique winery from Santa Cruz. Katey has had her work featured in the lounge since Beth and I first visited the relatively new wine spot, which I wrote about here. Since that first visit, Beth, myself and our friends have grown quite attached to the lounge and have been regularly visiting the wine joint. It’s conveniently located near BART, as well as one of the stops on the CC Free Ride bus that runs it way through the downtown shopping districts, starting at Walnut Creek BART.

Beth and I had a free Wednesday evening the other week so we decided to head over to one of the newer local wine destinations in the East Bay, Artisan Wine Lounge and Cafe. The lounge sits just off the much busier Locust St in downtown Walnut Creek. The map says Stave Wine Lounge and Cafe, because the business partners that own Artisan, Lena Chu and Kevin Ng, also own Stave, situated in Napa.

Lena chooses wines from small and cult California wine producers, as well as those that remind her of her years living in Spain. This is also shown in the great small plates menu that they offer. Beth and I weren’t that hungry the night we were there, so we just chose a couple “Small Bites” to nibble on, the Marinated Olives and the Artisan Cheese Plate. We really liked the Manchego cheese, which went quite well with just about every wine we tried that night. The stronger blue cheese that was offered was also outstanding, but we had to leave it towards the end when we had some tastes of the dessert wine.

I got quite the (early) 30th birthday weekend over Thanksgiving weekend, whew! My family and Beth, especially, truly went out of their way to make my 3rd decade start off with a wonderful wine-soaked bang.

We had a very special start to the weekend with Thanksgiving night at my sister’s condo in Napa, where she provided a cozy and well-appreciated dinner aided by my mom and Beth.

The next day my family and I went tasting around the Napa Valley, starting at Cartlidge & Browne, one of the best value producers in the world of wine. My family first learned about C&B when they owned Ehlers Estate in St. Helena. I grew up going to many a tasty picnic at that winery. They’ve since sold off that label and winery and are now are based in their large warehouse in American Canyon. We tasted a few wines there, where I liked their Sauv Blanc and Stratford label Cab’s. Please use the links below to read my reviews log notes for the wines I mention in this post!

Originally published at my personal MySpace Blog

My wife, Beth, and I have made many different wine trips around NorCal and we’ve built up a string of places that we really enjoy. As various friends and co-workers learned this over the past few years, I’ve started writing some rather extensive emails of recommendations for places we like in different regions.

So far, I’ve made a Napa Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea/Carmel Valley (my favorite AVA), Sonoma Valley, Russian River/Alexander/Dry Creek Valleys and a small one for Amador County (where I actually haven’t spent much time). I thought that these would be great to post here and keep kinda updated.

In honor of the home team, I’m going to post about Napa first. I have included links to each individual website, as well as the accompanying information we have on WineLog [WL]. Enjoy!

Peaks of Otter Winery is a fine maker of fruit wines, which was representing at the Virginia Wine Festival. Our buddy Mike (to the right of Kim there in the photo) told us that the Peaks of Otter stand was a can’t-miss at the VWF. But even if Mike (who had been to the festival the year before) hadn’t tipped us off, I think we would have recognized the big crowd of happy winos that was constantly formed around the P of O stand.

You see Danny John (if I remember correctly) was a very entertaining guy and also very good at running a tasting. He could take a group of 6 people through the entire P of O catalogue in about 3 minutes… all the way from the uncanny blueberry muffin wine to the explosive Kiss the Devil wine (made from 30 different varieties of peppers).

After a major house cleaning day, Jason and I decided to put our feet up and enjoy a great bottle of White Bordeaux. We paired it with a dinner of fresh tropical fruits, sliced meat, goat cheese, crackers, macadamia nuts, pecans, smoked almonds…mmmmm. So, I had to ask myself, if there anything better?

They just opened up a Legal Sea Foods near us in King of Prussia, PA. I first went to LSF in New Jersey with my friend Chris. The food there is very good. It’s a bit more expensive than a Friday’s or Maggianos, but worth it I think in terms of quality and atmosphere… and wine. (Though Friday’s and Maggianos are both good for their respective purposes.)

One of LSF’s “core values” is to provide a high-quality, affordable wine list. And they do that. Their selection is pretty good, with a number of wines I recognize to be good values. I keep wanting to get the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon off their menu so I can try it again. It also seems that they are charging just a 50% markup or so, much less than the industry standard of 100-200%.

The past two times at LSF…

Valentine’s Day is approaching and there are many ways people express themselves and celebrate the holiday. Some choose a nice romantic dinner; others opt for flowers and cards, but how about some decadent chocolates and wine? Some will argue that chocolate and wine are not good mates, but Dezel thinks much differently; after all, my palate has never lied to me.

When paired correctly, chocolate and wine can be a match made in heaven. Continue reading for some suggestions on selecting the right wine and chocolate combinations.

Top Chef is over, and Ilan is the winner. I was rooting for Marcel ’til the end, but a few key mistakes (and possibly his demeanor in the kitchen) cost him the final cook-off and the overall competition.

I’m watching Marcel and Ilan chat it up on Bravo’s IPTV effort Watch What Happens, but I wanted to share this gem from Tom Colicchio’s blog