July 31st, 2008 by meli
Thanks to everyone that came out and joined us on Tuesday for our second mixology contest. We hope you enjoyed the wonderful U’Luvka Vodka inspired cocktails brought to us by Colin Appiah of Discovery Channel’s “Cocktail Kings.”
If you haven’t reviewed a drink and would like to from the event, please visit http://e.urtini.com/.
A big thanks to Gina Milano and the great staff at Le Club for making this an event to remember, regardless of how much we drank. Also, a big thanks to our fearless bartenders who concocted some fantastic new U’Luvka Vodka cocktails.
The winning cocktail was Joel Baker’s “Cougar Trap” that you can find at Bourbon & Branch.
Support your local bartenders by stopping by and ordering a drink from them. Here are the cocktails we had and where you can find them:
Joe Parilli’s “Lato U’Luvka” — Bacar
Jackie Gordon’s “Asian Ginger Lemonade” — The Redwood Room
Joel Baker’s “Cougar Trap” — Bourbon & Branch
Cassidy Wollenberg’s “French Maid” — Le Club
If you’re interested in stocking your home bar with U’Luvka Vodka, here are the fine local San Francisco establishments that carry it:
John Walker
Le Club
The Redwood Room
Aqua
Another congratulations to Steven for winning a bottle of U’Luvka Vodka for the most creative review of the night for the “Cougar Trap”:
“old yet firm - well put together - but Mother wouldn’t approve”
The next mixology contest will be sometime in the last two weeks of August. Stay tuned…
July 18th, 2008 by linda
With many friends who have a love for great food and wine, we have casually discussed forming a wine/dinner club as a topic of conversation when getting together with friends who share similar interests. At a recent gathering, several couples, along with my husband, Dan and myself, happily made the commitment to form a wine/dinner group. What a sacrifice right? Making time to enjoy good food and wine while certainly in excellent company.
So Wednesday night was the inaugural get together with our friends. Since many of us are Nirvino devotees, we aptly named our group, Nirvano Gran Crew” (catchy huh?). For our first “outing”, each couple brought an appetizer and a favorite bottle of wine. I think one aspect of my love of wine stems (no pun intended) from great memories with friends enjoying wine either at home or while on vacation. We chose a Merryvale Las Amigas Merlot ’03 to bring with us. Merryvale wines, particularly Beckstoffer Vineyards are some of our favorites.
As we all arrived last night, excitement was in the air! Most importantly it was great seeing friends you don’t see on a daily or even (unfortunately) a weekly basis. Our hosts for the evening, Andy and Cathy, set a great table for us. We gathered and enjoyed some great food: various cheese, mango quesadillas, stuffed mushrooms and an awesome ahi tuna appetizer. Our wines for last night ranged from Prosecco to a Shane Syrah ’06 (I must say this was my favorite wine of the night – full bodied with essence of black cherry) and everything in between. The wonderful thing about the food and wine is that it in many ways it is a great connection to the couple who thoughtfully prepared and selected the food and wine we enjoyed.
The buzz at the table (again no pun…) was contagious. It is great to sit back at a gathering like last night and listen to the conversation and laughter with good friends. We did get down to business and set up our basic structure for our first round of dinners. We set dates to get together once a month at a house (otherwise you know what happens…), the hosts will set the menu and any needed assistance from our group. I think this is a great idea in that it will allow each couple’s style and expertise to shine through on their night!
Our evening ended with an eye toward August and our next installment of the Nirvano Gran Crew Supper Club. I hope our beginnings spur you to call some friends and set up your own group. See you next month for the August chapter of the Nirvino Gran Crew adventure in food and wine!
June 4th, 2008 by phil
Last Friday at Frisee Restaurant, I cracked open a bottle of 2004 Swanson Oakville Merlot with Courtney Cochran of Hip Tastes.
After an hour of freezing windy tennis, I was ready for some rib sticking action. Frisee has plenty of great options on the menu for sustainable meat lovers. A grass fed filet, a rack of lamb, chutney stuffed pork loin, and a huge filet burger with Point Reyes blue cheese but I ordered the 8oz Buffalo Steak Frites, medium rare. Under the steak, the fries are painted with gravy, and deliciously addictive. Buffalo is a great match for this merlot, the wine acting like a beautiful sauce for the lean red meat.
After years of declining sales, in 2007 merlot had a 6% uptick in sales. Will the Sideways effect take it’s place in the wine history books? With gems like the Swanson Merlot pushing the premium juice envelope, it’s easy to envision a strong regrowth in sales.
My Tasting notes:
The 2004 Swanson Oakville Merlot is silky smooth and lusciously full of spiced chocolate Christmas cake, black cherries, coffee liquor, and black currant. It’s not a huge wine, it’s actually slightly austere at first with a long meandering finish. Quite a personality.
I picked up my bottle from Mark Bright who is selling these gems at cost ( $22) over at Local Kitchen and Wine Shop. A stellar deal on a great wine. Mark has put every wine in the shop on discount, so if you’re looking for a good deal on your next bottle of vino, you know where to look!
May 22nd, 2008 by phil
Only in South Africa would you see this kind of innovative wine pricing strategy. Pieter Walser, owner/winemaker of BlankBottle has released a white blend called “Moment of Silence,” and sent out 20 cases of the wine to customers and asked them to evaluate the wine and pay what they thought it was worth. While the value got up to 90R or $11.75, the average price was around 50R or $6.50. Pieter is now selling “Moment of Silence” for 40R so that the wine delivers the goods. What do you think, is this purely a marketing gimmick or a genuine way to create fair pricing for a new wine?
Here’s a quote from one customer that speaks volumes, “With all that, we decided that if we buy the wine on the market in a retail shop, we will pay R65 a bottle. However (and I hope you don’t feel cheated here), since your motto is to over deliver on quality and want to keep prices affordable, buying from the winemaker direct, we settled on R55.”
I would love to see that happen with some of the California cult cab and pinot producers! Cheers to Pieter and BlankBottle.
Tags: , south africa, wine, Wine Industry
May 8th, 2008 by phil
Last night, Nirvino kicked off May with another Monthly wine tasting event, The Heavy Pour. With 17 wines on tap, the juice flowed with reckless abandon.
In the far corner, folks flocked and you might have overheard more than once “I heart Hartwell!” as Christian and Jona poured their liquid gold. What a gift to have the 06 Sauvignon Blanc and the 04 Reserve Cab.
John Wilkinson, wine grower, wine maker and overall wine empresario was manning the vino pulpit with three magnificent red blends. Preach it brother John, we’re loving it. Next to John, it was hard to miss the charming miss Jamie and miss Michelle pouring Mondavi’s brand new food friendly Solaire Chardonnay and Cab, paired up with some great cheeses. For all the lazy youtube fans like me, check out this short video on Solaire.
Across the room, window to his back, Sewell enthusiastically poured deep with a heavy hand not one, not two, not three but four of his Hatcher wines. What a great Barbera! Holding down the middle of the room were Scotti “The Fisher Man” from Fisher Vineyards pouring an excellent Cab and Chard and Robert from Four Vines who had more than myself saying I’m feeling like a Heretic.
Finally, it was GastronomicDiva, with the big May win for most wine reviews! A 750 of 1999 Dom Perignon. See, writing witty and insightful wine reviews does pay off.
So thanks to Wine Bar and Store for hosting the Nirvino wine hooligans. A special “we can’t thank you enough” thanks to all the incredible wine makers and representatives for pouring heavy and staying late. Thanks to Sarah, Bill and Justin for helping everyone get signed in and excited to drink. And finally thanks to all the loyal Nirvino members for coming out and doing what you do so well, drinking and socializing. Below, you’ll find some pretty pics of yourself courtesy of Bennet Sell-Kline.
May your glass always be Half Full,
Phil, Meli and Christian
Event Photos:
chef Vincenzo Esposito: I will try it Great thanks!!!! also great wines I was born in Viterbo and that is Wine ...
Camie: This would be an awesome practice to see adopted for California wines. I really dont ...
Sarah: Cool pics! Last night was so much fun!
Sam: Local venue hit the spot! The people were nice and Frias was quite nice. Manolo (Frias ...
Courtney Cochran: Yo Phil - Congrats & will you please add my blog to your blogroll? Nirvino's up on ...