Wine tasting: An afternoon at Silver Mountain Vineyards

A few months ago, the JCC had a wine tasting featuring local Santa Cruz Mountain wineries. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, but, as I recall, there were no wine sales that day, only chocolates and other goodies. We did, however, sign up for some email lists — and one of those wineries, Silver Mountain Vineyards, had a tasting today. The weather was lovely, so after services and lunch, we left Jeff at home with his homework and headed into the hills.

We decided to skip the Chardonnay and the Rose of Pinot Noir, so the first wine we had was the 2004 Miller Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir. I’m not sure it was the ideal wine to start with — it was chewy, with lots of mouth feel and a very long finish. It went well with the Beemster XO Gouda they were serving, but by itself, it was rather overpowering.

The next wine on offer was the 2004 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. That was a different story — lots of fruit (plum, in particular), good by itself or with the munchies on hand, and very good with 52% cocoa dark chocolate slivers.

After that, we sampled two of their Bordeaux-style blends: Oscar’s Wild Red, which didn’t impress either of us very strongly, and the 2002 Alloy, which was pleasantly spicy, with a medium finish.

More cheese, crackers, and cashews were called for, and then it was time to hit the Zins. They had two available, both from the same vineyard in Lodi, the 2001, which was light and fruity, and the 2000, which was tarter and had some definite clove flavors.

More munchies followed, and then, despite our general disinterest in Chardonnay, we were persuaded to try the 2004 Chardonnay (I could hear John Cleese’s voice from Wine for the Confused suggesting it was not a good idea to tar all wines made from a particular grape with the same brush). I’m glad we did, because it was a very pleasant wine — slightly minerally, very soft, and nicely fruity.

We left with a mixed case (Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, the Alloy, both Zins, and four bottles of the 04 Chardonnay), and memberships in both their wine clubs. Fortunately, IBM’s alcohol policy has changed over the years, and I can have them ship the wine to work instead of having to drive up into the mountains to get it (the last mile, on Miller Cut-Off, was unnerving for someone who lives in the flatlands) — but if the release happens during good weather, there are worse ways to save a few bucks on shipping.

We probably shouldn’t visit too many more wineries for a while. But it sure is a nice way to spend a weekend afternoon!

Tweets from a trip to Tesla Vintners (Livermore)

The Northern California chapter of the Rensselaer Alumni Association sponsored a lunch and wine tasting at Tesla Vintners in Livermore. I tweeted mini-reviews via iPhone as I tasted:

started with “singing winemaker” Sherzando – nice and sweet, would be better with dessert than as the first sip of the day
Red Skye Sauvignon Blanc – nice, lots of body, long finish
Singing Winemaker Raspberry Sparkling – I could easily drink too much of this!

Then it was time for lunch. All I could eat was the pasta in Alfredo sauce and the bread, since everything else had pork, which was a shame, because there was a lovely garlic aroma that wasn’t in my food. But the wine and the tweets kept flowing:

Patty’s Passion goes well with pasta
Red Skye Chardonnay – good for a Chardonnay, unoaked, but not gonna make me a fan
Red Skye Zinfandel – smoky, would go nicely with beef. Long finish, nicely tannic.
Patty’s Passion is good without pasta, too – I think the trunk is going to be loaded on the way home. I’ll have to wait to be sure I’m not!
Singing Winemaker Framboise – good by itself, but even better with the chocolate tasting cup.
The “serving size” on the chocolate cups is 2 cups, but I’ll restrain myself

After the raffle (we didn’t win anything), we adjourned to the tasting room, the cash register, and home:

Con Amore port – tawny, 4 years barrel-aged, being released on the 19th…we shall return!
Home again, with a case of yummy wine (1 Raspberry Sparkling, 2 Sauvignon Blanc, 2 Sherzando, 2 Zinfandel, 4 Patty’s Passion, 1 Framboise)

Definitely a nice way to spend the day, and writing my notes via Twitter meant I didn’t have to worry about losing them! (Though I’m not sure they got posted in exactly the order I sent them, which is odd)

No Leopard for me!

I had it all figured out. We were going to meet some friends for dinner in downtown Los Gatos this evening at 7pm — that would give me enough time to pick up Leopard beforehand.

So we left home just before 6, expecting to be parked by 6:05. But the traffic on North Santa Cruz was horrible, and going over to University didn’t improve matters. Finally, I detoured to the secret parking lot between Santa Cruz and University on the north side of Hwy 9, several blocks from the restaurant, let alone the Apple Store.

But that was OK; I could easily carry the Leopard box around. For that matter, it’d be easy enough to carry a new Mac mini.

But first we had to get to the store. And even the sidewalks were rather crowded. With dogs. In costumes. And their owners. And people giving the dogs treats.

Yes, it was Howlin’ Halloween in Los Gatos.

We pressed on. And as we crossed Bachman, I noticed something else odd — the stores and restaurants were dark, including the place we had reservations. And they stayed dark all the way up Santa Cruz, past the Apple Store. Most of the stores were closed, but not the Apple Store — they had a long line of people waiting, and every few seconds, someone would leave the store with a bag and a smile.

Since part of my hidden agenda for the evening involved having Diane try out an iMac, I decided to skip the store (somehow, much of the system’s charm would be lost if it was powered down) and accompanied Diane and Jeff to Borders in Old Town, which was brightly lit.

I tried calling the restaurant, but they didn’t answer their phone. So I called our friends, and we decided to try somewhere else, Di Ciccio’s in San Jose. As we left the bookstore, I saw that the lights were on again on Santa Cruz — I called the restaurant we’d planned to eat at and cancelled our reservation. They said, “but the power is back on”, but it was too late.

I hadn’t been to Di Ciccio’s in more than 15 years — not for any particular reason, but then again, there was no good reason to go there, either. The ownership had changed in the last couple of years, and I’d definitely be more eager to go back now. The food was quite tasty, even if the portions were too large; I’d rather have had a bit less food and saved a couple of bucks. We had a Clos la Chance 2005 Pinot Noir, which was very enjoyable, and which was priced quite fairly ($32, versus $30 at the winery or $25 from K&L).

And then we came home. I thought about going back downtown and getting my copy of Leopard, but on further reflection, a walk with Diane seemed like a better idea. And that’s what we did.

(Of course, I haven’t given up completely on Leopard — I’m making a backup of my existing disk so I’ll be ready for the upgrade. Tomorrow. Or Sunday. As John Gruber points out, “no one ever got hurt by waiting a week or two to install a new OS.” But where’s the fun in that?)

A parting shot

My group at work has a tradition of going offsite once a month for lunch; we take turns picking a place, and the host has the awesome responsibility of dividing the check.

Today’s lunch was a little different, though.

It was sort of a retirement lunch for B; he was originally going to retire at the end of this month when his wife retired, but decided to postpone it until the end of October, and then to work a couple of days a week, mostly from home, as a contractor. But we had lunch today anyway, at Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant. This was my second experience with Ethiopian food, and was much more enjoyable than my first, many years ago; I’m still not a big fan of injera, but it’s really just a carrier anyway, and the rest of the food was quite tasty (I especially liked the chicken and lamb).

Today wasn’t really the day I would have chosen for a food experiment, though; Yom Kippur starts in a couple of hours, and I want to be properly fueled as preparation. So we’re off to one of our usual haunts, Su’s Mongolian Barbecue — and today, I’ll probably have seconds for a change.

Shana Tova!

Preserving vital information

One of the many ways I use this blog is as a dumping ground for information I might need again later. Sometimes, it’s helpful to other people; other times, it’s just for me.

So I was shocked to discover that I hadn’t blogged about the most important datum I acquired on my trip to Scotland back in July/August 2005: the name of the brand of sherbet lemons I’d been hunting for a decade.

The subject came up in conversation today with a friend who’s about to leave for two weeks in Scotland; since he lives in Massachusetts, it’s not really convenient for him to bring me a couple of pounds of candy, but it would be impossible without the name. I checked my blog, and couldn’t find it. Eventually, I dug it out of my Lotus Notes mail, but that was by sheer happenstance.

So I shall blog it here. I strongly recommend Tilley’s Sherbet Lemons, as found in Woolworth’s in Glasgow.

*whew*