So Doc and I ventured out in Soquel hills for dinner on the farm. Delicious! My favorite for the evening was a tomato bisque soup with a Brie panini. So tasty. My other favorite was the dessert…….roasted stone fruit with a honey glazed vanilla ice cream. All of the food was locally sourced and made from scratch. Wine was from local wineries. Not the best wine but decent. Odanata and Armedia.
Defiantly a must try for a dinner night out. Beautiful setting on the farm with amazing food!
Three years ago I participated in my first Santa Clara Valley Wine Passport Weekend. We visited a few wineries, one being Sarah’s Vineyard. The young ladies pouring that day must have been tired of the numerous participants trampling through their tasting room staying only long enough to finish their tasting. When my little group approached the counter, we were greeted with snarls and exasperation. Not a good way to start off. I admit we arrived 30 minutes before closing. They were only pouring three wines so I believed we had plenty of time for the tasting. The crowd was thinning out and only my group remained at the counter. We waited. We waited patiently. We were finally approached by a young lady that requested to see our passports. She stamped them and poured our first tasting. I”m not sure if it was my first impression of the tasting room or the wine but I was not a fan of wine. I have not been back since. Fast forward to the present.
A friend invited me to go to Solis with her to pick up her club shipment. I’m not one to pass up an opportunity to taste Solis wines. While standing at the tasting counter, another wine enthusiast told us he had just come from Sarah’s Vineyard and he really liked their wines. I was surprised to hear that. I just assumed everyone had the same experience I did. After listening to him talk about their Rhone blends I was intrigued. So off we went. But not without apprehension.
I opened the door to the tasting room and the first thing I heard was, “Hi guys, come on in.” We followed the voice and that was when we met Megan. A big smile and as sweet as can be. She introduced the wines to us and asked us where we wanted to start. Megan is a Sommelier and very knowledgable about their wines and wines in general. I really enjoyed their wines and we had some great conversation with Megan. So here is to second chances. I am now a Sarah’s Vineyard wine club member.
Cheers…
It was a magnificent weekend in the Monterey Bay area, high 70’s to low 80’s, no fog, no clouds. We do not get a lot of those. Troya suggested we take advantage and have a picnic lunch so after a quick stop at Deluxe Foods to stock up on some Irish cheddar and a little slice of triple cream Brie, boar meat sausage, rosemary garlic sourdough, some almonds and fresh strawberry’s we headed up to Windy Oaks winery. Having been there before, we were familiar with their long list of amazing Pinot Noir’s, a little pricy but worth it on special occasions like this (see our prior post on Windy Oaks). We had not explored the property last time we were here but were told they had a great little picnic spot. We choose a bottle of Diane’s Block and headed out on the trail. After a moderate 5 minute hike to the top of a Knoll they have several tables set up between grape fields and under several oak tree’s giving the perfect amount of shade. The view down into the valley is spectacular. Great food, great wine, great location, the only thing missing was Brax and Hill (suckers had to work).
Troya and I met my parents at Mezzaluna for lunch in Half Moom Bay this weekend. Instead of exchanging holiday gifts this year we both decided to take eachother out to a restaurant of the others choice. My mom had been hearing about a couple of places in Half Moon Bay for a while and wanted to check one of them out. After a little research we choose Mezzaluna based on their long standing reputation. Set in the northern part of Half moon Bay by the harbor, the location is great. It was a very busy weekend day but parking was still easy. I had never been to that specific part of Half Moon Bay and the surrounding establishments definitely will be reason alone to come back. Set in one of the older buildings in the area, the inside in not what you usually expect from an older Italian establishment. It is very bright and clean with lots of windows. In the main dining area about half of the tables are located next to a window. The menu is very classic Italian. We reviewed the wine list on-line and were intrigued by some of the selections of Italian wines, but decided to play it safe and bring some of our own. We settled on a 2010 Pinot Grigio from Taft Street Winery in the Russian river. Usually not a big Pinot Grigio fan, but when we tasted this one it was quite different. Not as dry and tart as a typical Pinot Grigio, still with the clean floral flavors, it was pretty unique and we thought a perfect lunch wine with Italian food. We were not disappointed as the wine paired well with all of our food selections.
We started with Carpaccio di Salmone, smoked salmon with peppercorns lemon and dill and Charcuterie, the cheese plate as well as the Anipasto Italiano with grilled and marinated vegetables. All were good, with some interesting selections on the Anipasto plate, but the only thing that really stood out for me was the Carpaccio de Salmone. Very well balanced flavors of the smoked salmon and spices, and not fishy at all. Given it was my first time here and it was a classic Italian place, although they had a several intriguing selections on the menu I stuck with my “go to” in these situations and chose the Linguine with Clams. This is the dish that I use as a litmus test for new Italian restaurants. I was very happy! The pasta was fresh and perfectly cooked. The clams were abundant with perfect flavor, and the sauce was just as I like it. Troya had the Carbonara, angel hair pasta with fresh eggs and pancetta. She was very pleased but has had better. I thought it was very good. This dish can be tricky to get right and can be too heavy and greasy if the ingredients are not in the right proportion. My parents shared the special of the day, black pasta with squid ink sautéed with scallops. Both Troya and I almost got this as it sounded wonderful, but in the end we glad we did not as the pasta was a little firm and the scallops a little rubbery and fishy. It the end it was a very good lunch pared with a good wine and great company. I would definitely go back, I am interested in trying their pizza, but it is not a place that I would list as a destination.
On our way home we stopped at Highway 1 brewery, a new place a little north of Davenport. It was a great little brewery in the middle of nowhere. We tasted the beers they had on tap that day. All were full of flavor and hearty, but a little strong on the hops and a bit rustic for me.