South brings us Country Vintner and tastes of all things good Down under

If you haven;t been to South Food +Wine on Townsend near 4th in San Francisco,you simply must go! Their food, wine program and service is awesome and never, never gives me anything to snark about---and people you know i would! Today was no exception. Country Vintner put together a super line up of Australian and New Zealand wines. Serious yummy! Accompanied by Luscious Lush Thea, who as a true wine professional imposes order on the headlong careening that passes for wine tasting in my book, I felt I benefited from an orderly approach. We started with the whites and proceeded in an orderly (well, it ends ups sounding orderly on paper anyway) Here are my standouts:

Lawson's Dry Hills 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Lovely citrine color with blasts of tropical fruit including top notes of passionfruit along with balanced acidity

Longview Vineyard 2006 Shiraz "Yakko" 12 months in French Oak give this ruby beauty its fruity yet balanced character of all things good about Shiraz

Loose End 2005 GSM This stellar blend from the Barossa Valley produced a striking combo: floral fruitiness from the Grenache, muscle from the Shiraz and a dark blackberry finish like an over the top train on an Academy awards gown from my personal hero, Mourvedre brought everything to bear on this luscious wine. At $16.99- literally a bargain at twice the price! It's not that we had to dance to get more wine from wine maker Rob Dawson, its that the delightful GSM and Shiraz made us want to shake our groove things! These wines rocked!

2005 Picardy Chardonnay - Heat of southernnmost Pemberrton made a custardy rich Chardo

2004 Picardy Shiraz Made in the Rhone style, this light peppery Shiraz went down easily

Vinaceous - EVERYTHING !!!

Divine light - Verdelho

Raconteur - Cabernet

Red Right Hand - Blend

Snake Charmer - Shiraz

Mesmerizing labels like vintage circus posters, the only thing freakish about these wines is how tasty they all were!

2007 West Cape Howe Chardonnay "Unwooded" Delightful grapefruit finish with exotic citrus like whispers in a back room. Nick Stacy charmed us as much as his wine did!

I hope the Country Vintner Winemaker tour comes around again and again!

Donkey, Goat, Eno, & Broc

Weekends in the East Bay. Yay! Perfect temperature, dry with plentiful parking, wine and snacks! Whoo hoo! So first stop with barely enough time to snarf up breakfast and complete chores. I drove past the famous Wine.com (when are they doing their sale again?) ignored the pull of the Fourth Street merchandising to show up at the Donkey and Goat/Department C tasting. Located in sunny Berkeley, we had the best time, tasting a plethora of good wine, grooving to some good music and eating some seriously tasty snacks, including Humboldt Fog, St. Andres, and Point Reyes Blue (and that was just the cheese) There were also very tasty asian spice infused pulled pork sandwiches as well as smoked ham. First stop on the tasting route, at the suggestion of Luscious Lush Thea, was the Department C offering. Starting with a beautiful '07 Sins of Addition Vin Gris, this Central Coast Pinot Noir contributed to a robust structured white. Refreshing. Department C was also pouring 2 other Pinots, a lovely '07 Sant lucia Highlands Old Vine Pinot Noir which was delicious with a textbook pinot lusciousness of red stone fruit and complex tastes along with an '07 Santa Cruz Pinot Noir that was redolent with the taste of smoked meat---perfect to match with the aromatic herbaceous sopressata they were serving up. Donkey and Goat, home of some of my favorite roses, did not disappoint with their other wines,. Except for the delightful Tamarindo Rousanne, which was a stand out at tasting, but alas is not commercially available. Still, there was lots to please with the 2006 Fenaughty Viognier Shiraz blend---mostly Shiraz with 3% co-fermented Viognier which lent the robsut red a florally complex something special to the nose. Standout for me was their 2006 Three Thirteen A delicious Eldorado GSM with a sweet nose, but exceptionally food friendly in practice. As well, we checked in the 2006 The Recluse. Made in the french style, also included mostly Syrah with about 3%co femented Viognier, which lightens the richness of the wine and provides a lively floral quality to its aromas. Very good! We were also able to drive the short distance to Broc Cellars, where Eno and Broc were pouring more deliciousness than time allowed. I remember a stellar rose poured by Broc. Everyone everywhere should stock up on this as wine lovers or those with indifferent palates will appreciate it's dry yet fruity flavors and aromas, lovely color and standout label! Also of note: Eno Syrah. Though we all ate an indecent amount of the custom grilled pizzas, after they started flashing the lights we realized we still had tiome to hot foot it to Lost Canyon before last pour,. How glad am I that we did! I tried some standout Pinots including 2006 Russian River Valley Pinto Noir, Widdoes Vineyard after a full day of wine tasting, this still stood out as a flavorful, balanced and complex Pinot with a rush of red stone fruit and lovely flavors. You have to go! http://www.lostcanyonwinery.com/about_tasting_room.htm By the time we got the tour and finshed the tasting program here, we were all, if you can believe it, hungry again and looking for wine! So we caravanned it to the Franklin Street Wine Bar. Because I have been disappointed by them several time s in the past, I called first. With so much gfoing on in the sunny Bay Area, we had this place pretty much to ourselves. Most of us ordered the "White Collar Pinot" Flight, which included 2006 Brewer Clifton "Cargasachii Vineyeard" from the Santa Rita Hills. Delicious with lots of red fruit and a little spice, this wine was food friendly. Also a French offering , less successful snuck in from 2006 Le Pimentiers Pinot Noir Spare and minerally, this tasted disappointing especially with my Le Demon du Midi cheese and bresaola with arugula salad and cornichon. The White Corn chowder was especially delightful! with its cross hatches of creme fraiche and delightful hints o f pepper, it went well with 2006 Sierra Madre Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley. We ordered 2 desserts for 5 people and so got down "Lord of the Flies" style on a yummy espresso creme brulee and nectarine frangipane. What an awesome day!

Wine + Chocolate = good!

Maybe it's not as obvious a combination as wine and cheese, but the appeal of wine and chocolate was more than enough to draw me in. Plus, I had long been curious about Crushpad http://www.crushpadwine.com/, which is an amazing facility located in Dogpatch. Basically, it is a DIY boutique for all things wine making whether you are a hobbyist or looking to create your own label, they take the garagiste philosophy and provide all the bells and whistles to come out of the process with an extremely drinkable result. It definitely called to Anni and me! But this evening was all about chocolate. Due to unforeseen circumstances (week from hell, muscle spasm in back and resultant vicodin/generic relaxant cocktail), I was a teensy bit late, but still found my people. Brian H., Tom J., Kristy and Anni were hard at work collecting chocolate. I grabbed a glass of rose and got started. We were all assigned a sheet of chocolatiers and instructed to collect samples from each.

Amano Artisan - Dark, flavorful. They made it simple to grab nice chocolate meant to go with wine.

Coco Delice - Edited selection of beautiful handmade chocolate. I particularly enjoyed cognac trruffle and salty caramel

Jade Chocolates - Standout for me was Salty Caramel bon bo

Newtree Chocolate - Many exotic flavors matched to mood:Cherry, Cassis, stood out and paired well

Saratoga Chocolates - a Busby Berkley musical of delights! Shapes! Colors! Flavors! Beautiful decorated chocolates: Pomegranate, Black and Tan, Raspberry, Salty Caramel, Garden Hearts, etc...

Schoggi - Shiny rich dark chocolate also truffle

Tcho- Matched well with wine My favorite had floral notes of Ylang Ylang

The Tea Room - Many exotic treats including Mata, salty caramel bar, Earl Grey

The premise of the evening was to select some chocolate, taste and then taste with a selection of wines to see which the group felt was the best match for chocolate. Not sure how scientific it was, but definitely fun. The first wine poured from barrel samples was an Alder Springs Merlot. The wine had a jammy nose that was so full of blackberry goodness it could carry a Smucker's label. While the color was lovely and the wine drank well (for a Merlot), it was a little thin. But I did find three parings in the Coco Delice, Tcho and Tea Room. Next came a delicious Zinfandel. I drifted of on a cloud of bliss matching chocolate after chocolate to this delicious Grist Zinfandel, with its beautiful nose of fruit and spice. It had an almost continental complexity, but its feet firmly in California fruit forward tastiness. I waited, saving most of my chocolate for my expected favorite pairing, the Cabernet, which was a Vineyard X Cab Sauv from Beckstoffer. I'm not sure if my palate was fatigued, I had crossed the line from tipsy to sloshed or I was approaching sugar overload,, but I missed the tannic grip I would have loved. The wine tasted spritzy with a Kool-Aid-y presence and no finish to speak of. We felt this was a wine that would be ready to drink soon and didn't seem to have lasting power. I liked it with the simplicity of th edark, rich Amano, as well as the exotic tea flavors of the Tea Room. But I was not pleased by the combinations of the truffles and bon bon types, although to be fair, those would be very tough to pair. However, on their own, they went down exceptionally easily! I think the non-scientific straw poll of the crowded room was the Cabernet. What were those people thinking???To be fair to the Cab, Tom had held back a little of the Zin and later after so much chocolaty goodness, it did not taste as delightful as initially. When the Crushpad folks flashed the lights, we took the hint and staggered off to the Dogpatch Saloon for some dog watching, local consorting and a glass of Guinness to top off the evening of chocolaty goodness!