My family just recently returned from a wonderful trip out to California Wine Country. We love to cook on vacation, so we wound up renting a house outside of Sebastopol, in the Russian River Valley. Beautiful country over there and incredibly serene. The Napa and Sonoma areas are near and dear to me. California wine was my first love. While over the years, my palate has shifted more old world, primarily to Nebbiolo, California wines still make up about 25-30% of my cellar, and I never get tired of visiting. In fact, we counted it up and figured this was our 12th visit out to either Napa or Sonoma. The gameplan was to balance family time with winery time, and as such, we were very low key with our winery visits.
Tuesday the 11th, we had a morning flight from JFK to SFO, getting into SFO just after 1pm. After the obligatory fuel up at In N Out (yes, for us NYers, it is still a treat), a pit stop was made at your friendly neighborhood butcher, Bryan Flannery. I’m sure many here know Bryan or have bought from him, but not only is his meat the best, but he is the best too. If you looked up the words “nice guy” in the dictionary, it might as well have his picture there. Bryan’s shop is right off the highway on the way up to Sonoma, so super convenient to pick up the weekly wares on the way up. As a reward for making the personal stop, I got just about the best steak you can imagine…
To be cooked later…goodies in hand, we headed up to the Sonoma. Had a nice pit-stop at the market in Sebastopol to further load up on groceries, and then headed to the house. Spent a leisurely afternoon and evening with the kids and got to cooking.
To welcome us to California, we popped a 2013 Schrader T6 - you know what you are getting here. Its big and sexy and voluptuous and just downright tasty. If that’s what you are in the mood for, this baby fits the bill.
Finished product on that Flannery NY Strip:
Well after a VERY EARLY wakeup thanks to our kids who were still on NY time, we got up Wednesday morning and headed to our first tasting appointment of the trip, with Jamie Kutch (and his wonderful wife Kristen).
What’s that picture? Believe it or not, its an old photo I dug up from my very first visit with Jamie, way back in 2007. Happy to say, 10 years later, Jamie has really found his rhythm, and is totally killing it! Jamie is located a few blocks away from the Sonoma square, and a visit here is also a nice way to spend some time in downtown Sonoma. We tasted through Jamie’s lineup of 2015s. I have to say that the highlight for me was actually the Chardonnay. I was pretty blown away by how crisp and delicious it was, with beautiful citrus notes. In fact, the next evening, I’d blind taste it to a Piedmontese friend, who would guess it was Chablis. The Pinot Noirs were all really enjoyable, clearly Jamie’s mold, going for a more delicate and balanced style, with my highlights being the Bohan and Falstaff.
Cheers!