Put a little Love in your Heart

Ah Valentine's Day. Either a day of romance, pleasure and love or Epic Fail for couples...

So let's see where did I leave off in my feeble attempt to bring you up-to-date, Gentle Reader.  Oh yes, we were drinking tasting wines with Jan & Bruce.

Upon parting ways, we headed back to downtown to my "Winter Home" aka Second Press. Why do I call it my "winter home"? Well, it is winter right now. No really, it is, check the calendar. Plus I help out during the Pop-up Wine Tasting events. It's a dirty, winey job and somebody has to do it... like you'd have to pry my glass out of my cold dead hands.

So back to Red Heart Day. Our reservations were at 7 pm and the professional drinker trooper that I am, I resolved to do both the romance and love thing with the pleasure of working the Pop-up. So Cupid Day? Utter success.

The winery for the weekend was WCP Cellars and Babies, let me tell you about his Tempranillo. Will Persall is WCP and I must confess that I'm glad I'm a little (a lot) behind in blogging so I could say this: That tempranillo haunts me, it was that good.

From 5 pm to 7 pm, I poured good stuff. I mean really good stuff. His Garnacha was also stellar and his Port style dessert wine, The Night Owl, was delicious. People were drinking with the Duchess, laughing with Will and generally buying wine by the bottle to have with their Valentine Day Feast (I know I did).

Once 7 pm came along, romance and Sir Dread Knight were king... for at least one hour-ish. I unwrapped my present and he unwrapped his. I only have a picture of mine but he got even with me for all the watches I've been giving him by getting me two watches. One he'd given me earlier in the week and then this one:

Snow courtesy of Google Photos thingee which is been a blast to play with, but I digress (a lot and often).

We had this for starters, but I forgot to snap the picture before I ated it. Sorry. It was sublime.

But I did remember to take a picture for the next course with a shot of that luscious tempranillo:

There is a girl who walks through every restaurant and bar with a basket of roses. Sir Knight bought the obligatory bunch of roses but was smart enough to go with Orange so it wouldn't be total cliche. They did smell lovely. There should have been a dessert picture but I got distracted when Eric, the GM and Sommelier stole my Tiara. Oh yes, I forgot to mention I wore my Tiara.

After dinner, I went back to work for Will once I'd gotten my Tiara back. We left about 11ish and romantical adventures ensued.

Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat

We interrupt the catching up adventure tales to share a romantical story of a windmill house and the Dread Knight. We wandered over to Morro Bay as Sir Knight has been unhappily quibbling over having been left out of the Coastal adventure. (It's not like he was down in Los Angeles or anything like THAT!)

So we drove by the windmill house. Then again and again. I blame his obsession with Miniature Golf. I really do.

We're at the Libertine Pub for lunch and then we'll drop by Stax for a cocktail.

Dinner is Monday Night Supper at Artisan where the wines featured are Tablas Creek and Lone Madrone. Neill Collins makes great wine.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled catching up tales.

On The Road Again... with Bruce and Jan - Friday February 14th, Daytime

Ah Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate love and who doesn't love Wine?

Eggs & Bacon, that's how my day started with the Dread Knight cooking for us and have Death Wish coffee in our Le Creuset french press. I also got my Valentine's present and gave the Dread Knight his. I gave him another fabulous Android watch and he gave me two of them. I think he was getting even or something.

I didn't take a picture of the other one, but it's all pink and has a Swarovski crystal spinner. Sweet!

We were meeting Bruce and Jan to taste some wines around 1ish so we ran over to La Cosecha to have some food. I ordered the Ceviche del Dia which was outstanding. Just absolutely delicious and hit the spot perfectly.

We then met up with Bruce & Jan at Robert Hall Winery where we enjoyed a new release from the Winery.  We loved it, it had great body and a gorgeous complexity. It was bold without being brash and lovely finish that made it a worthwhile purchase.

We then headed over to Bianchi Winery. Bruce and Jan definitely wanted more of the great wines they'd had for dinner. They fell in love with the Zin (I don't blame them, it's stellar). We enjoyed the beautiful pond where sipped our wines as we took in the silence of the vineyard.

From there we parted ways as we had unique Valentine's evening plans.

But that's another story...

The Adventure continues - Hanging out with Jan and Bruce

This adventure started with a text:

"We're at Estrella. Come have lunch with us."

So I went.

Jan & Bruce had already ordered the special, grilled mahi mahi tacos with a side salad. I quickly ordered the same thing. I'm supposed to be eating healthier, according to my trainer, and I try to incorporate that into most of my meals. I do love it when a restaurant makes that easy... and superbly delicious. I wish now that I'd taken a photo of my plate, mostly to torture y'all.

We finished eating and before food coma could ensnare us, we walked around the corner to one of my favorite little Wineries, Chatteau Lettau. Their Tannat won a double gold at San Francisco and is one of my favorites to just drink. I know scandalous, since I'm usually all about the food and wine together for my pleasure, but I do like just drinking this ruby beauty.

So we go and have a little bit of delectable goodness.

Then THIS happened:

While there we got to meet a Publisher of a small press who just printed this book.

George Takai wrote the introduction (which is beautiful) and this book is a must for many reasons. History being one of them.

So Let me catch you up: Bianchi Winemaker Dinner - February 12, 2014

It all started with Wine, but then again doesn't everything wonderful start with Wine?

Part and parcel of the wine charmed lifestyle we lead here in Paso Robles are the Winemaker dinners. Let me tell you that it is one of the best reasons for living here. Great wines need brilliant winemakers and I have had the pleasure of attending entertaining dinners where the food is unctuous, the wine is rich and the Winemaker and Chef are hilarious. Sometimes, however, there are a few missteps between the Chef, the food and the wines. 

This tale is not about one of those missteps, but the former where wine and food pair up beautifully and the Winemaker and Chef are funny, clever and a joy to be around.

This evening was the Bianchi Winemaker Dinner and Tom Lane is a winemaker extraordinaire. He's crafted some amazing wines from estate grapes and one of my personal favorites of his is the Rofosco.

Arriving at Second Press around 6ish, I had a short wait before my friends, Jan & Bruce arrived. They had come into town to test out their new, spiffy RV and well, enjoy wines while they were at it.

My date for the evening Angi, arrived shortly thereafter and we fell into the festivities as good guests should. Where was the Dread Knight? He was away on his own adventure.

It started with bubbles, like all great evenings should. Bianchi Winery has created its own California Champagne, a delicious Brut style Methode Champenoise sparkling wine. We sipped, we chatted, we giggled (well not Bruce, he chuckled).

Then it was time to enjoy everything the evening would provide.

STARTER

PAN FRIED HALOUMI AND FIG SALAD

baby kale mix, peanut garlic chutney powder and fig vinaigrette

2012 SAUVIGNON BLANC

This was such a huge hit. Pan frying the Haloumi (a Middle Eastern Cheese) brought out so many layers in the cheese which resonated with the Sauvignon Blanc. I have to say the addition of figs as a salad and vinaigrette was brilliant as it softened the green notes in the wine creating blissful sips. The peanut garlic chutney powder brought such savory complements to the wine that not a word was heard while diners devoured the starter.

ENTREE

APPLE GLAZED DUCK

prosciutto wrapped, celery root puree,

grilled chanterelles and roasted apple sauce

2010 Merlot

The Duchess & her Date

The Duchess does love duck and Chef Ryan did not disappoint. The roasted applesauce and the prosciutto wrapped duck added savory and luscious fullness to the bold, berry fruit filled Merlot. I am a huge fan of celery root and this puree was pure gold. Delicious.

Then the winemaker surprised us with a barrel sample shiner of the Rofosco. Tom, with his enchanting sense of absurdity, had the men sing in Tenor "Rofoooosco" while the women were to sing softly, "ChardonAY" as sopranos. Jan, in her element, sang it beautifully and we enjoyed rounds of operatic iight-hearted foolishness.

L-R: Tom Lane, Eric Connolly, Bruce & Jan

DESSERT

POMEGRANATE CHOCOLATE DESSERT

vanilla chiffon cake, dark and white chocolate mousse, 

pomegranate molasses and pomegranate mirror

2009 PETITE SIRAH

This was another revelation of Chef Ryan's palette. I am not a big fan of desserts paired with wine. Often this is the big blunder that ends a meal, not with a bang but with battery acid flavors on the palate. His desserts are restrained and work to mirror and contrast with the flavor profiles in the wines. This was no exception and not only "worked" it was a sublimely extraordinary pairing.

So much has happened and I will endeavor to catch you up as quickly as possible. 

So many tales of wines, food, friends and life...

Costally Yours

Yesterday was a grand day. I considered blogging as we went along, but I thought that might be a little disjointed. Like the day had originally started out... completely out of sorts.

I needed a get-away day. No sooner had I realized that then a Facebook post came up from my friend, Angi Wildt. Like most people in Paso, she does many things. Primarily, she loves to represent artists through her company Expressions Avenue, She also pours for a small winery, Locatelli. So when she posted, I fired off a message.

I picked her up at 10 am and the adventure began.

We stopped here first:

We watched surfers in the swells and seagulls swooping in for food. The breeze licked at our faces and helped blow off the doldrums as we stood on the old Cayucos Pier. Mostly a beach town, Cayucos' main street has several access points to the beach. Surf shops tout lessons and boards while locals look on from the waterfront cafes. We decided to continue down Highway 1 and see where serendipity took us.

We drove a few miles south to Morro Bay and wound our way through various neighborhoods, peeking at the beach side houses. One turn lead us to this:

The Morro Rock.

We were enchanted with the idea of traversing the coastal line of Morro Bay. So we did. We saw adorable little cottages and then this:

Yes, a real windmill on the house. So flippin' adorable. That lead us to the Morro Bay version of "marina". Check this out:

The Parade of Boats

How we get from boat to shore!

We watched a boat named "Scampi" begin it's descent down the launch and marveled at the deftness of the driver. We later saw "Scampi" traipsing around the estuary. 








The gulls just getting together and hanging out with a Pelican or three.












We were starving by then as it was nearly noon and decided we needed to be Libertines. So we went

Such a cute place and with good food on our minds, we happily
feasted on sweet potato chips, a stout burger (OMG) and 
some fish tacos.

Look how charming this place is and Kiddies, they play vinyl all day. Yeah, honest to goodness, vinyl.







And we enjoyed our beers with the vinyl spinning

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

We also met this little fellow who came in to give us some Morro Bay love:

Feeling relaxed, fat and happy, we headed back to Paso Robles. On our way to the Coast, I'd asked Angi if she'd ever been to Epoch Wines. She hadn't so we went. Angi took this great shot:

From this beautiful place

While I had a moment with Corky:

Then we had a wonderful tasting and bought a bottle for more good times, later. Driving back to Angi's around 4 p.m., we made plans to meet up at my place with another friend and figure out the evening plans from there. I stopped into Second Press. A little NY Steak Chili and some cornbread, hit the spot.

Our plans started with Locatelli 2004 Cab Sauv, moved to the Double Gold Chateau Lettau Tannat (Holy Moly Batman, I love that Tannat).

We ended the evening at Pine Street Saloon, warbling our bottoms off to Marilyn's Karaoke. This is how we do Tuesday in Paso.

Sitting with the E-man

So out for a late lunch and hanging with Eric at a local eatery.   Foodie Heaven here. Paso is starting to be the place for food that raises the bar.

Oh, food's here.

Toodles, Darlings