The Best Wine & Food Tour Ever: The Beginning

by Frank Mangio
Three months before, the idea of a journey to the ultimate wine country, some Sonoma and mostly Napa Valley, came into the planning stage.

It was gong to be harvest time, a difficult time at best to get the attention of wine makers and managers of wineries, but critical to what I wanted:  access to the truth about this year’s harvest and what we could expect from 2015. The millions of bottles from the over 500 wineries, will start coming  to  market  next year.

In mid September I flew to the lovely little “Snoopy” airport, the Charles Schulz, just above Santa Rosa , an hour twenty flight from San Diego . A rental without wait quickly got me to the pristine village of Sonoma. After a Pinot Noir tasting at the cottage of Walt Wines in the Plaza that I’ll bring up in another issue, my destination in Sonoma was  the critically acclaimed  wine/food center of excellence, Carneros Bistro.

Executive Chef Joshua Murray, at the
Carneros Bistro with columnist Frank Mangio

This beautifully designed restaurant is centrally located in the Lodge at Sonoma , with hotel, restaurant, wine bar, spa and shops.  It offers many wine choices with reasonable pricing, collected by Sommelier  Joshua Betts who enjoys finding little-known but excellent wines like the Riesling from S.A.Prumm, in the Mosel area of Germany.  Equally lovely was the presentation of a bottle of Almus, a single vineyard cabernet from the Napa Valley Pritchard Hill district. It was a 2008 that had significant seasoning to soften tannins and add complexity.

Carneros Bistro is gem of a dining room.  It has a vast open kitchen and it was a delight to watch Executive Chef Joshua Murray mastermind the many meals being created with his team to present to an upbeat room.  I ordered from the menu, but Murray kept bringing us his personal specialty samplers, some of which I had not been familiar with.  After some reservation on my part, he explained the personal ingredients he had infused with such dishes as:  Wood Grilled Octopus, Sonoma Foie Gras and BBQ Pork Belly.  All were firsts for me and after sampling, I felt good making the great leap forward to exotic dining. Menu items favored were:  Farmers Market Salad with luscious figs, Wood grilled Ora King Salmon from Australia and Grilled Niman Ranch Steak with roasted fingerling potatoes, broccolini, cauliflower puree and cabernet syrup. Chef Joshua came from another favorite resort of mine, the Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert and insists on a farm to table style of menu.

The Renaissance Lodge at Sonoma Resort  & Spa is a member of the Marriott Group. To discover more, go to Marriott.com/sfols.

On to Napa Valley
On day two, all I could hear about was the wildfire that toasted a town in Lake County just north of the Napa Valley line and was taking out everything in front of it. Traffic was stopped at Calistoga, Napa Valley ’s northernmost town.

Bill Miller, Director of Wine Sales at Hill Family Estate in Napa Valley ,
expresses the Hill philosophy that ” if you want to dream in color, drink wine.”

I arrived after a 45 minute drive from Sonoma, across the Carneros district and up to Yountville, arriving at Hill Family Estate where I met the expressive Bill Miller, who guided me through the family garden that services fresh ingredients to most of the restaurants in the area.  Earlier in Hill’s history the family provided similar service for many wineries in Napa Valley.  They grew grapes from over a thousand acres, and sold them to some of the most prestigious wineries. Now, only the best are reserved for Hill Family Estate.  Look them up at hillfamilyestate.com.

On Wednesday, day three, the rains came and subdued the renegade fire; another miracle from the place of miracles, Napa Valley .

Part 2 of the Best Wine & Food Tour Ever will be seen in next week’s column.

Wine Bytes
Vittorio’s in Carmel Valley has a Tuscany Tour of wine and food Thurs. Oct. 29th starting at 6pm.  $49.50 ea.  RSVP at 858-538-5884.

Il Fornaio Coronado presents a Mondavi Wine Dinner Thurs. Oct. 29th at 6pm.  $65. per guest.  Reservations at 619-437-4911.

Justine Vineyards and Winery from Paso Robles will host a four course dinner with their wine Fri. Oct. 30th at 7:30pm in the underground wine cave at Pala Casino Spa & Resort.  $68. pp. Call 1-877-946-7252. Ask to “book the wine dinner on Oct. 30.”

A French Wine Outpost in California ’s Napa Valley Country

by Frank Mangio
I pay attention to an e mail from Jim Barrasso, the energetic  owner of Firefly Grill and Wine Bar in Encinitas.  Barrasso has a keen sense of wine bargains and occasionally will share this good fortune with his  customers.  One day recently he flashed “I have been offered a great buy on a limited number of six packs of one of the most iconic and collectable wines from Napa Valley, the 2007 Dominus Estate.”

Dominus is owned by the legendary right bank Bordeaux winery, Chateau Petrus, and its Dominus 2007 scored 98 points from critic Robert Parker. Barrasso was offering a 30% discount. I was there in a flash. Parker proclaimed “the 2007 Dominus, the quintessential model of haute couture, is pure elegance exhibiting a seamless integration of of wood, tannin, alcohol and acidity, a complex bouquet of black current and plum fruit plus a notion of licorice. The 2007 should drink well for 25 to 30 years.”

In 1982, while President of the leading French Bordeaux Right Bank House of Jean-Pierre Moueix, that included the world-renowned Chateau Petrus, Christian Moueix (pronounced MOE-EX) saw the future in Napa Valley and purchased the Napanook Vineyard in Yountville. He adapted his French technical approach to California conditions with dry farming, as both an ecological measure and a means to produce grapes of the finest quality. He later acquired the Schmidt Ranch in Oakville in 2008.

In a recent statement summing up his mission for Dominus wines, Moueix said “we combine centuries-old traditions of grape growing and wine making, with innovative practices to transform the highest quality grapes into fine wines with a great potential for aging.”

The 2007  Dominus Estate  ($150.) is a blend of  94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cab Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot.  This is easily the top vintage  in memory with complexity and a delicious texture which can only get better as the years go by, if you can wait any longer than 7 years. The current vintage is 2011. ( $139.)

Annual production is up to 12,000 cases which includes both Dominus and Napanook wines.  2011 was a very difficult year for Napa Valley with huge rainfall at harvest time, persistent fog and meager yields.  Vineyards had to be strict in their selection of grapes. When buying 2011, be site specific like Dominus and you will do fine. With 2012, as we have reported several times, the wines all over the state will be spectacular. See more at dominusestate.com.

Firefly Parties with Baker &Olive/Powell Mountain

Firefly’s trio of MC’s included:  Sean Fisher of Baker & Olive, Jim Barrossa of Firefly
and Bill Powell of Powell Mt. Cellars .

 A full house brought a party atmosphere to Jim Barrossa’s latest event as his Firefly Encinitas lit it up with Baker & Olive and Powell Mt. of Paso Robles.  Bill Powell of  Powell Mt. poured Viognier, a “ Summit ” blend, Cabernet and “Pinnacles” blend with the collaboration of Firefly’s creative cuisine, led by a Grilled Oyster Escabeche and a drum-roll main course of Espresso Balsamic Marinated Beef Rib Eye.  The herb de provence infused extra virgin olive oil fried crique potatoes was a satisfying Baker and Olive artistic stroke.

Check out more special events to come at www.fireflygrillandwinebar.com.

Wine Bytes
Meritage Wine Market in Encinitas is presenting an Oyster Festival Sat. Apr. 26 from 2 to 5pm.  $50. pp with Amitie Wines from Burgundy France .  This is an “all you can eat” Oystefest!  With raw bar and Rockefeller on the grill.  RSVP at 760-479-2500.

Northern Italian Wine Seminar and Tasting at Island Prime on Harbor Island San Diego, Sat. Apr. 26 from Noon to 2pm. Cost is $40.  Details at 619-236-1299.

Wine Dinner with Batasiolo Wines at Solare in Pt. Loma, Tues. Apr. 29 from 6:45 to 9:30pm.  Great Barolos, Barbarescos and many more with a gourmet 5 course Italian dinner.  $75. ea.  RSVP at 619-270-9670.

It’s a NIGHT AT THE MISSION, San Luis Rey in Oceanside for a Grand Tasting Affair, Sat. May 10.  Doors open at 5, VIP event at 4:30pm.  Wine, beer, food tasting, silent auction and food showcase.  Wines include:  premium names from the Jackson Family of Sonoma , Hartford Family Wines and Freemark Abbey. Cost is $40. in advance, $50. at the door, 21 years and older. All proceeds to the Old Mission Montessori School .  Details and tickets at 760-576-4161.