Late Night Bling, or I *Heart* SF

(Above: I started my Friday with a michelada at Nopalito, which is Tecate mixed with tomato, chili de arbol, salt and lime. Yeah, it’s good.)

This post is going up late because I’ve been sick all week. For the record, summer colds suck. And no, I don’t use Zicam.

After gorging ourselves senseless with the Third Degree at Nopalito, we headed over to the Independent to catch Datarock, a fun, dancy band from Norway. The show was great and Datarock had the house dancing wildly for much of the set. The boys in the band got their groove on too, wearing their trademark red track suits (noticeably more blinged out than two years ago when the crew looked like they’d just come from Target).

Here’s a video for what’s probably Datarock’s most well-known song, “Fa Fa Fa”:

Still feeling jazzed after the show, we completed the circle by heading to Nopalito’s big sister, Nopa, where we thought we’d take advantage of the rockin’ cocktail program. Because a fancy rye drink is just what I need at 12.30 in the morning…

Scanning the wine list however led me to Gaston Chiquet’s 1998 Spécial Club Brut. Doing the math for two rounds of cocktails for three people suggested that the Chiquet was a splurge within reach. But really, I don’t care how good a cocktail is: When there’s good Champagne, there’s not much else. And this was pretty epic stuff, with vibrant fruit that felt savory and rich supported by profound mineral depth. Got better with air too. Drink this whenever you get the chance.

As Peter Liem notes on ChampagneGuide.net, the Chiquets have around 40 percent chardonnay, 40 percent meunier and 20 percent pinot noir planted in the Grande Vallée de la Marne, mostly in the villages of Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Dizy and Hautvillers. Interestingly, the family uses no wood in their cellar, and a program using concrete and glass-lined tanks has been in place since the 1950s.

The Spécial Club (shown above) is bottled as part of the Club Trésors de Champagne, a group of independent grower-producers who have organized under a set of guidelines, including a distinctive bottle, to produce what is effectively a prestige cuvée for each member. At Gaston Chiquet, the Special Club bottling typically includes 70 percent chardonnay and 30 percent pinot noir. To learn more about grower-producers like Gaston Chiquet, or most any producer of interest in Champagne, I highly recommend a subscription to ChampagneGuide.net.

Another Datarock song, “Computer Camp Love”:

It’s Good to be Home

Spent this past Saturday — a gloriously sunny afternoon — in Dolores Park enjoying a picnic and a bottle of 1990 Savennières-Roche aux Moines from Domaine aux Moines while playing cards and getting the first sunburn of the year. Lovely wine, although feeling a little soft and worn at the edges, so drink up.

It’s good to be home.

Above: Picnic treats found at Bi-Rite Market on 18th St., the perfect place to stock up for a long afternoon in a surprisingly uncrowded Dolores Park. (Wine came from my stash.)

If you don’t know this most San Francisco of parks, check out this humorous profile.

Below: Aside from a lively people scene, Dolores Park is notable for the incredible view.

Holy Hummus, or, I *Heart* Jerusalem

A quick update and some pics.

Greetings from the Holy Land! Spent the last few days wandering all over the old city section of Jerusalem. Stunning place, really, although so very puzzling. The religious energy is intense, and culturally it’s at once open and guarded. But it’s a thrilling place. We’ve also managed to balance out the trip a little and head over into the occupied territories, specifically Ramallah and Bethlehem, where tourist dollars are much needed. Both fascinating places. Again, though, another layer to complicated land with its contradictions and challenges.

Some highlights:

Walking near the Western Wall, with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

Hummus and Ful (fava beans slow-cooked in a copper pot) at Lina’s in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. The hummus, easily some of the best I’ve eaten, had a silky texture texture and rich, deep flavors while the ful was invigorating and bright.

Required summer reading, if you like both Jane Austen *and* zombies…

Building Community

Above: The new tools of the trade?

One of my favorite aspects about the wine, specialty cocktail and food business is that it builds communities, from casual tasting groups to communal neighborhood gardens. And this is one reason tools like blogging, twitter, Chowhound and (gasp) even Yelp are so well-suited to the food and wine world, or at least to the people who get excited about those worlds. These are the tools that easily bring people together to form new (and hopefully lasting) communities.

A great recent example of creating a food or booze-centric community is San Francisco Cocktail Week, which just wrapped up the other night. I didn’t participate much this year because of deadline pressures, but the event was a success and I’ve heard from many people that this year’s was the best yet. I bring up SF Cocktail Week because in my opinion one of the main reasons San Francisco’s cocktail scene has evolved the way it has is because of the strong community ties among bartenders in this town. As local booze scribe Camper English puts it in his excellent essay, SF Cocktails: A Recent History, published on the SF Cocktail Week website:

What helps San Francisco bartenders stay current and at the top of their game is the fact that most of the top bartenders are members of the United States Bartenders’ Guild, visit each others’ venues, share information, value education, and collaborate on projects. We may see a flavor trend (yuzu, smoke) show up in a variety of bars, as we also see techniques (shrubs, fat washing) used across various types of ingredients. Good ideas don’t last long at a single venue in San Francisco- they spread rather quickly.

Recently I was invited to be on a podcast produced by Richie Nakano, aka linecook415. Richie and his friend and fellow cook Corey Nead (and their friend Amy) record an informative, fun and sometimes raucous podcast mostly about food, always about life in food, and sometimes about crocs. The three are all cooks at Nopa, one of San Francisco’s most popular and successful restaurants. I like the podcast – and Richie’s blog – because it’s not only a glimpse into the food community, it’s an invitation to join in the discussion.

I met Richie through blogging but the idea of doing this podcast came about via conversations on twitter between ourselves and Kevin Kelley of the Natural Process Alliance. And before Kevin or I could say ‘natural yeast’, we were sitting in Richie’s kitchen in front of a microphone talking wine, organics, natural wine and the aforementioned crocs. We covered other topics too, but you can listen for those yourselves. It’s a fairly long (and somewhat rambling) recording, so sit back and pour yourself something nice before digging in.

Above: Action shots!

Click here to listen or download the podcast.

Ramp fever, or some recent blog posts of note

Since we on the West Coast don’t really have ramps, I’ve satisfied my spring ramp fever reading my friend Jonathan Meyer’s delightful food blog, i8ny. After reading his post about making ramp butter, I might just have to smuggle a frozen stick back with me the next time I’m in New York.

And then David McDuff, one of Philly’s resident wine gurus, has a post and recipe up to make pickled ramps. Yum. David has also been consulting with me over buying a new bicycle to replace the one I had stolen recently from my garage. We both agree that it is, in fact, easier to buy Barolo or Burgundy than it is to get a new bike.

*Starting at the end of this week I’ll be traveling to Israel for a friend’s wedding and then New York for Wine & Spirits, so it will be quiet around here. You can always check in with me on twitter.

The New Ancient Anfora

I found myself in Sonoma County last week where I finally got to see one of the so-called ‘egg fermenters’ firsthand. Cast from concrete and inspired by the clay anfora vessels used in ancient winemaking practices (and most famously these days by Josko Gravner), the purpose of the egg is to maintain a steady temperature during fermentation. Concrete is also slightly permeable, so unlike, say, stainless steel, it allows for subtle interaction with oxygen. They also just look cool.

The fermenters below were made by Nomblot, a company located not far from Beaune. For readers of French, here are some tech specs. It seems the folks at Nomblot employ the golden ratio to design their egg. Nifty!

I kind of expected Robin Williams to pop out of the top in an orange jumpsuit. Didn’t happen.

Distractions

Should be writing. Actually, writing’s going fine but need a soundtrack. Violà, an HD video recording of Radiohead playing last year in Japan.

Mmm.

Pizza on Wheels

All this talk about new style street food carts and taco trucks modified into gourmet street food destinations has me hungry. Also, I’m thinking of these totally bad-ass variations on the mobile wood-burning pizza oven I saw last weekend in Paso Robles.

Check it:

This first pizza trailer is owned by Full of Life Flatbread, and they make delicious pizzas wherever they tow this thing. The colorful tiles are a nice touch.

These next shots are of Rob Hunter’s totally awesome combo pizza oven trailer and kitchen (with taco truck style serving windows, natch). Rob and his wife Jill owned a fantastic restaurant called Pangaea in the Pacific Coast hamlet of Gualala for a few years (pics from a somewhat recent visit). They’ve since closed the restaurant but have continued to cook out of this mobile kitchen. As you can see, it’s a great set up.

Below: Partygoers cram into to the kitchen doorway line-up for a just-fired pie.

SF Street Food Meets Terroir

Or, Terroir, welcome to SF street food.

(Above: An empty taco truck lacking signage is parked in front of Chez Spencer)

Via Inside Scoop, one of the bestest, greatest things ever in the San Francisco Chronicle: Looks like plans are in the works for a Chez Spencer taco truck, erm, make that a frog truck, to park itself across the street from Terroir. Which makes sense; after all, two of Terroir’s owners used to work there.

Within a week or two, look for the Spencer on the Go truck across the street from Terroir Natural Wine Merchant & Bar (1116 Folsom St., at Langton) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, when visitors can take their plates of skate braised with capers ($8) and frog’s legs with curry ($9) inside the wine bar and order a glass. Katgely aims to keep all prices less than $12 and rotate the menu often.

(Go here for the whole thing)

Exciting news, and just in time for summer too. Sigh, there go my dreams of fitting into my vintage swimsuit…

*Note: If you don’t know Terroir, check out this article I wrote last year for the Chronicle.

(Thanks to Rob for the tip)

VinItaly 2009: Some Impressions

There’s a new post up at Wine & Spirits with some of my impressions from the recent wine fairs in Verona, including VinItaly and Vini Veri. It’s a q&a format although how I managed to squeeze in time to answer everything during a recent marathon tasting of Italian wine in New York is beyond me. Anyway, one of the things that struck me most during this past trip to Verona is that the region in early April is a lot like the Edinburgh during the Festival and Fringe, which I had a chance to experience during my university days at St. Andrews (just up the coast from Edinburgh).

The Festival was once a singular theater/opera event happening every year in August; over time a festival Fringe developed that has since become larger than the original Festival. The net result is a massive cultural happening — mostly theater but really every kind of performance, including music, film and even bagpipes — that takes over the entire city for two weeks at the end of summer.

Verona is now sort of a vinous equivalent, with the natural wine fairs Vini Veri (which was greatly expanded this year) and Vin Natur, as well as Summa, which happens about 90 minutes outside of town in Alto Adige. A busy time to be sure, but also an amazing opportunity to taste some incredible wine and talk directly with producers, making it well worth the effort to get there.

(Click here to read the post at Wine & Spirits.)

A Tale of Two Vineyards

(Above: Old-ass vines at Old Hill Ranch in Sonoma Valley)

Apologies for not posting regularly but these have been busy weeks. Thought I’d get a few posts up while in New York last week but all I could manage was the 140 characters on Twitter. So there’s that if you’re curious.

This post comes to mind after spending a weekend in Sonoma Valley in early April for the wedding of two dear friends. (If you’re looking for a wedding or conference retreat location in Sonoma Valley, with on-site accommodations, hot tub, pool and great food, definitely check out Westerbeke Ranch.)

Vitcultura Promiscua
The weekend started with a small reception at the historic Old Hill Ranch vineyard (Did I mention this was a wino wedding? It was). I say historic because sections of the vineyard — which is a field blend of over 15 different grape varieties — date from the 1880s. Will Bucklin, whose family has looked after the site since 1981, led a group of us around Old Hill, which he farms organically and claims that the site’s been farmed that way in practice, if not name, since it was first planted in the 19th century.  There he is below pointing out the healthy soils at the dry-farmed vineyard.

Vitcultura Sterilis

(Pardon the Latin, and my usuage is probably incorrect – a little help, Dr J? Tried to make a play off the ‘promiscua’ above.)

A ghastly vision from the next day stands in contrast to the living soils at Old Hill. Hiking with a friend in in the high foothills of Sonoma Mountain, we came across a massive vineyard. Not an unfamiliar sight in Sonoma Valley, and at first glance this made perfect sense: Good elevation, a gentle slope and southern exposure. Then we noticed the dirt.

The vines were naked still, not yet covered in the thick canopy that would render the open area lush with green vineyard romance in the coming months. Of course in April, the heart of spring, vineyards – if not vines – are green, filled with all manner of cover crops and life — at least those sites farmed with respect. Here, all looked dead, a desert, with dried dust ready to blow with the afternoon wind.

We considered that the rows had been recently tilled (which had happened at Old Hill, as shown in the photo above) but the ground looked too hard, and anyway we discovered a section later that had been tilled only there was hardly any green to speak of mixed in with the dirt. Also, it had been raining steadily at this point in the year, and vigorous cover crops marked the vine rows elsewhere in the valley. But not here. I’d be surprised if anything could grow here, but apparently it does — with plenty of chemical help.

Sorry there’s no photo; we were hiking at a fast clip, and I didn’t have my camera.