Winter Wine Tasting

I went up to the wine country last Sunday for a day of wine tasting with some friends. Our destination was Healdsburg. It was Lou's and my second trip there in the last two months. We first went up there in October with my parents when they came out for a visit, and we had a nice day of tasting with them.

I made a tasting reservation for us at Unti Vineyards--one of the places we dropped in on with my parents. I thought it would be a good place to visit with friends.

This time around we were treated to an unexpected pleasure: Mick, the owner, conducted our tasting and chatted us up. He was great, and Lou and I really enjoyed talking to him. He talked about his wines and told us about his forthcoming fortified wine--he described it as the result of a wine-making screw up--and it's going to be a Banyuls-like wine (Joey and Brad brought us a Banyuls once, and it was fantastic with a peach melba I made). Considering how much I like his other wines, I can't wait to try it when he releases it in March.

We also talked about a wine that Lou and I have tried recently--Nerello Mascalese--and he gave us a couple of recommendations for some producers he likes: Benanti and Cottanera. I'm going to see if Josh at Bi-Rite can find them for us. Nerello Mascalese is a pinot noir-like wine that is grown on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. He said that the wine has been mostly ignored until recently when a few winemakers have applied modern wine-making technique to the grapes and have come out with some spectacular results. He described some of the wines as being even more sublime than the finest Burgundian wines.

We also spoke about restuarants, and he named a few of his favorites in and around Healdsburg and in San Francisco. In Healdsburg, he recommended The Farmhouse and said Dry Creek Kitchen has been more consistent lately, without saying whether it's been consistently good or bad. He also said that Dry Creek Kitchen is usually better when the chef, Charlie Palmer, is cooking. In San Francisco, he spoke highly of A-16 and SPQR (A-16's sister restaurant) as well as about Delfina. Actually, he said Delfina is his favorite restaurant in the city, especially when Craig is cooking a regionally focused menu.

From Unti, we headed over to the Dry Creek Kitchen for lunch. Honestly, it was a disappointment. The food, at least for me, was fine. I ordered a delicate gnocchi with a mushrooms and a smoked salmon eggs Benedict, but Lou rated his dishes as mediocre. The service was pretty bad, and for what we paid for the meal it was not worth it. I wish we had tried the Farmhouse instead.

Overall, however, it was a pleasant day with friends.