I just love looking at these pictures…..

Best Napa Valley Wineries to Visit

The best Napa Valley wineries to visit feature a tasting room in a cave, artisanal cheese pairings, on-site sommeliers and more.

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Love!

Latino Winemakers Rise in California, Through the Ranks

SONOMA, Calif. — It is harvest season in wine country, the time of year when the scent of crushed grapes infuses the air and flatbed trucks heavy with fruit cargo come lurching down narrow back roads.

For the winemaker Everardo Robledo — who grew up working in the fields alongside his father, Reynaldo, on weekends and after school — the harvest has a particular emotional resonance: a measure of how far the family has come since his Mexican immigrant grandfather drifted from one migrant labor camp to another and his father toiled in the vineyards for $1.10 an hour.

Mr. Robledo, 30, and his family are part of a tiny but growing fraternity of Mexican-American winemakers, many of them farmworkers’ children who now pursue wine business degrees or study viticulture and oenology at the University of California, Davis. “It’s what we have been doing all our lives,” the younger Mr. Robledo said of picking, pruning, trellising, planting and “suckering,” or removing unwanted shoots from vines. “The land is in our DNA.”

For tourists here and in other wine-producing regions, the harvest is an opportunity to swirl, sniff and sip wine, stomp grapes and revel in dinners by master chefs. In Sonoma, visitors can experience an annual “grape camp” whose Web site advertises “three blissful days” picking grapes.

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These Food & Wine Daily recipes look AMAZING!!!!

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Anchovy Vinaigrette

Healthy & Delicious: This warm, garlicky anchovy dressing here is fantastic with an assortment of juicy, peak-season tomatoes. To finish the dish, Amelia O’Reilly and Nico Monday top it with tangy pickled shallots and an oozy, soft-boiled egg.

Recipe!

Some of these are already open…have you tried any yet?

LA’s 21 Most Anticipated Fall and Winter Openings

Summer is coming to an end and that means restaurants which have been built out and worked on throughout the warm weather are finally looking to debut during the busy fall and holiday months. There’s some pretty incredible places in store, such as Josef Centeno’s Orsa & Winston, Superba Food & Bread in Venice by Paul Hibler, as well as Walter Manzke’s Republique, replacing the iconic La Brea Bakery and Campanile building. Below, a list of the most important openings in Los Angeles for Fall and Winter.

I’m seriously thinking of checking this place out this afternoon.  Anyone else want to come?  :)

South Hospitality: Abbot Kinney Pizza from a Mozza Vet

You’re in Venice. The LA one.

Thinking about Venice. The Italian one.

And how there’s a lot of pizza there, but none from a Mozza vet…

(And incidentally, the Florida Venice never crossed your mind.)

Meet South End, an intimate wine bar with pizza from the man who was recently running the kitchen at Pizzeria Mozza, now soft-open on Abbot Kinney.

The keyword above was “Mozza.” Which means next time you feel like getting close to someone who appreciates the significance of said keyword, you’ll squeeze into this dark little box of wood slats. It’s got a giant mural of some girl’s face, and that’s about it, decor-wise.

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South End
2805 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
424-228-4736
official website

I love these emails I get from Williams-Sonoma!!!

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I’m headed to wine country in a couple weeks so now I HAVE to post everything I see about northern California wine!  :)

Chef Ari Weiswasser’s Guide To California Wine Country

GLEN ELLEN STAR - SONOMA, CA

The road to California wasn’t a straight line for Pennsylvania native chef Ari Weiswasser, but the wealth of experience he gathered along the way is evident in the food he cooks. Before realizing a decade-long dream to open his own place, he worked in New York at esteemed restaurants like Daniel, Picholine, and Corton. In Philadelphia, he worked at Striped Bass and Le Bec-Fin. He also had a long stint at The French Laundry. 

Weiswasser’s restaurant, Glen Ellen Star, is a casual bistro with an emphasis on the location and the seasons. He loves living in Sonoma and being a part of the wine country, where his in-laws own Benziger Family Winery.

Chef Ari Weiswasser shares his 6 Things…Wine Country with his favorite places to eat, drink and food shop.  READ MORE

I don’t write about wine much mostly because it’s challenging for me to express things about wine.  I’m more the I-like-it-or-I-don’t-like-it type.  But I thought this post from Snooth was interesting about weather around the world and how it affects grapes and wine production.

Vintage Watch V

Hail has been the big story in France this year, just last weekI reported on the devastating impact of storms that tore throughout the Cotes de Beaune and since then there have been significant and damaging hailstorms in both Bordeaux and Champagne, and let us not forget the damage done in the Loire Valley in June.

While the power of the storm caused damage in Bordeaux’s Left Bank, hail did not fail until the storm passed over the Giround estuary with three communes on the Left bank, Arveyres, Vayres, and Génissac suffering the greatest impact from the storms, which continued to move to the southeast before petering out in the St. Emilion region where hail damage was said to be apparent but not as significant as damage from winds and heavy rains.  READ MORE

Fascinating little story in the NYTimes today about a boatload of wine that the owners’ can’t get their hands on after Hurricane Sandy.

More Than a Flooded Cellar.  A Vintage Mystery.

Via New York Times By: Charles V. Bagli

WineCare marketed itself as a high-security cellar that stores, catalogs and cares for 27,000 cases of wine in the basement of a Manhattan warehouse, charging substantial fees to safeguard collections worth tens of millions of dollars.

But there was one problem: the cellar was just 100 yards from the Hudson River. And when Hurricane Sandy struck, the water came rushing in.  READ MORE

Third Annual Project Zin 

The Hotel Healdsburg is by far my favorite place to sleep in Napa/Sonoma and on August 17th, you can drink some of the most sought after Zinfandels paired with food from Chef Charlie Palmer in their annual Project Zin event.    I’ll have to check my schedule but I may just have to pop up there for this!

All proceeds benefit the Down Syndrome Association North Bay.

I can’t believe this but we’re actually almost SOLD OUT for this dinner!  How AMAZING is that!  

The Eat+Drink Supper Club

A Curated Experience with Chef Jocelyn Guest

I’ve never been to a whole pig roast and I’m guessing you haven’t either.  Now you have the chance to see it up close and personal and taste some of Napa’s premiere, small-batch wines paired with each course of all the pork you can eat.

Saturday, June 8th
7:00p Cocktails & 8:00p Dinner: $100

Chef Jocelyn Guest is an up and comer in the meat world with a position over at Lindy & Grundy - the all-organic, nose-to-tail butcher on Fairfax.  If you haven’t visited yet, it’s a must see.  Soon Jocelyn will have her own multi-night Supper Club with communal dining.  Now’s your chance to experience her cooking BEFORE she becomes a hot shot!  

I have 24 seats available for this June 8th dinner.  $100 per person includes EVERYTHING (all beverages are complimentary), all you have to do is bring your hungry, thirsty self. 

Menu
Starters
Deviled Eggs with Bacon Fat Mayo and Sriracha
Smoked Ham Hock & Jalapeno Cornbread Hush Puppies
Chicken & Waffle Bites

Main
Whole Roasted Hog
Micro-Greens Salad with Almonds, Apple, Dill
and Green Goddess Dressing
Blistered Asparagus
Biscuits

Dessert
Banana Cream Pudding Cake with Seasonal Fruit
  

Wine Pairings

Exclusively from Olabisi and Winemaker Ted Osborne

2010 Chardonnay Carneros - Ceja Vineyard

2010 Chardonnay Napa - Chappell Vineyard

2008 Chardonnay Mendocino - Double Top Secret

2007/2008 Petite Syrah - King Vineyard

2007/2008 Syrah - King Vineyard

Bespoke Post for Eat+Drink

I am in love with Bespoke Post.  I have exacting taste so you know it’s that good.  And now we have hooked up a special deal for all you Eat+Drink-ers!  

What do they do?  Bespoke Post puts together themed boxes with sweet products from cool brands. If you don’t like a box, you can skip it free of charge.  

The cost? $45 a month and the value of the box is $70-$130.

What’s in it? A few of the boxes I have received are in the shots above. Coffee, charcuterie, salt…many boxes revolve around some type of food, wine or spirit. In December I received the MOST amazing, custom made for Bespoke Post wine decanter I’ve ever seen. I use it as often as possible and amaze everyone. 

Why you have to have it? I have had more conversation starters because of these boxes than you can imagine. I actually opened one box in the middle of a dinner party just to show everyone how awesome it was. It’s worth the $ in spades.

Why you are so lucky.  I received last month’s box - ‘Cue - and went nuts.  It’s all about BBQ and grilling.  The spices just make you want to breathe them in all day.  Bespoke Post has sent me ANOTHER ‘Cue box to give away to a lucky Eat+Drink Supper Clubber at next month’s dinner.  That June 8th dinner with Chef Jocelyn Guest is all about grilling and meat - we’re going to roast an entire pig!

What do you need to do?  If you can’t wait until June 8th to see if you will win a free box, you can sign-up for your own subscription now and get 15% off your first box.  Just use the Promo Code EATDRINK when you sign up on their website.  That’s it, that’s all you have to do to have some of the coolest products I’ve seen!

eatplusdrink:

Williams-Sonoma is starting a Wine Club

They’re giving away a $75 gift card for joining.  If you’re a bit of a novice in the wine arena, it’s probably a good way to taste a number of different wines every other month or so.  Sounds like it could be a good deal and worth checking out!  If I wasn’t already in 4 wine clubs, I might do this one.