Mastroberardino Radici Riserva

Mastroberardino Radici Riserva Taurasi DOCG 2006

Wine of Aglianico from Campania, Italy.
Campania has dry, hot summer and an abundance of sunshine which ensure the full ripeness of grapes, and cooling effect from the ocean and the Apennine Mountains to retain grapes acidity.

Mastroberardino is an estate in Campania which was in quite poor shape after WW2, but Antonio Mastroberardino, father of the current president, and his brother rebuilt the winery and now it is one of the most notable wineries in the southern Italy. 
What they rebuilt was not just their winery: they also reestablished indigenous grapes from the verge of extinction, and Aglianico is one of them.

This wine had violet, fresh and ripe cherry, herb and tobacco.
After more than 10 years of ageing, tannin was very soft, almost mellow.

Having this wine with wild boar terrine was a great pairing.

KJS Tasting

There was Kimberly Jones Selections Tasting in San Francisco at Fort Mason.
It was at a beautiful location overlooking San Francisco Bay, and their selection of wine was just as beautiful.

There were so many good wines, especially Napa wines.

Ad Vivum from Napa Valley.
The winemaker of this winery is the founding winemaker of Dominus.
Fresh and ripe black fruit, cassis and mint. Good structure.
Heavy weight yet very likable!

Arkenstone from Howell Mountain.
Howell Mountain is AVA in Napa Valley. Vineyards there are on west facing hill side.
Cabernet Sauvignon had delicate, soft tannin. There were black fruit, sweet spice and coffee.
Beautiful wine.

Auteur is from Sonoma.
Their Chardonnay doesn't undergo malolactic fermentation(MLF), which is a process to convert harsh malic acid to softer lactic acid. Without MLF, the wine had the fresh fruit yet acid was still soft. Maybe because they harvest grapes at maximum ripeness.

Frias Family Vineyard is from Napa Valley.
Refreshing Sauvignon Blanc with grapefruit and honeysuckle, and Cabernet Sauvignon with ripe red and black fruit, spice and fine ripe tannin.

Boheme from Sonoma Coast.
Pinot Noir had cherry and herb complemented with subtle oak.
Zinfandel had flavor of strawberry jam, but there was freshness and not too jammy.

Ovid from Napa Valley.
It had rich black fruit, vanilla and coffee.
Nice soft velvety tannin. One of my favorite.

Relic has vineyards in Napa Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Fruit, spice and ripe, soft tannin.

The Grade Cellars from Napa Valley.
Ripe strawberry and freshness of citrus.
Very rich yet smooth. Gorgeous wine. I liked a lot.

Realm is from Napa Valley.
This wine is allocated.
2015 The Bard had candied and ripe fruit, and strong yet soft tannin.

Chateau Pierreux from Beaujolais.
They make their wines like Bourgogune, i.e., they don't do carbonic maceration.
2015 Brouilly had fresh pink cherry and decent structure.

Cazals is from Champagne.
Fresh wine with delicate bubbles. Very good Champagne to end the tasting.

All of them were great wines and these are only a part of the selection. After tasting this much Napa Cab, I usually have headache but somehow not this day.
Very good tasting.

White umeboshi

This is my seventh year since I started to make Umeboshi.
I haven't created major disaster yet, and I believe that the main reason for this is choosing good plums.

It was June and plum season. This year, I was really strict and selected big, clean, healthy plums so I found only this much.

I cleaned plums and marinated with 18% of salt. I was a little worried if I could get enough vinegar from this amount of plums, but just after two days, plums were submerged under vinegar.

Choosing only healthy, meaty plums payed off!

Red shiso leaves are usually used as red coloring but this year, I omitted (simply because I wanted to do something different).

Wait until September for sunny dry days, and dried them under the sun for three days.

Nice looking Umeboshi, in my opinion.
It's ready to eat, but wait one more year and the saltiness is softened and there is more flavor.

Urakasumi, Karakuchi

Urakasumi Honjozo Karakuchi

The aromas and flavors of melon, watermelon and caramel.
It was off-dry and the acid gives refreshing feel.
The alcohol felt a little too sharp, but it was softened when I had this sake with food.

The otsumami was Bell pepper Miso.
This recipe is from a book "Sosyoku no Susume Natsu."

Chop bell pepper and green shiso leaves.
Remove seeds from chili pepper.
Cook sesame oil and chili pepper, then add miso and mirin.
Add bell pepper, cook, and add shiso before finis cooking.

Delicious to eat with rice!

Ippudo in Berkeley

Ramen restaurant chain Ippudo opened Berkeley branch this summer, so we went to check it out.
Ippudo is a popular Ramen restaurant. There are always long lines.
Although I love food, I don't like to wait for long to eat, so I did thorough research and figured out the time when we were least likely to find long lines.

We got there on Tuesday just before three o'clock afternoon.
There was no line! I was right!

JC ordered Karaka Spicy. Tonkotsu broth with hot spices.

I ordered Shiromaru Classic, the original Tonkotsu broth.

The soup was rich but not heavy, and had good flavor.
JC liked his spicy ramen, but said that he could enjoy flavor of the soup better with Shiromaru.

They had small but good sake selection.
We had Daishichi Kimoto Honjozo.
Very good food sake with freshness and umami.

The restaurant was clean and service was smooth.
Some people say that this Ippudo isn't as good as Ippudo in NY or Japan.

I can't say because this was my first Ippudo visit ever, and I'm quite satisfied with my experience.

We will definitely come back.

Domaine de la Charmoise

Domaine de la Charmoise is a producer from Loire Valley, France.
Wine maker Henry Marionnet's family has owned this winery since 19th century and their wines are made with minimum intervention.
They are also known to make wine from rare white grape, Romorantin.

There was a tasting of these wines.

Sauvignon Blanc 2015
Fresh grapefruit, bruised pear, bell pepper, honeysuckle and caramel.
Sharp acid.

Vinifera Chenin Blanc 2014
Aromas of marigold, dandelion and fresh orange.
High acid.

Romorantin 2012
It's said the origin of this grape in this region was that Romorantin was first introduced to Loire Valley and planted widely by King's order in 16th century, but this is just one of the theory.
Today, this grape is planted almost exclusively in Cour-Chenerny AC, where this is the only permitted grape.

Ripe peach, dried peach, prune and olive. There was savoriness.

Premiere Vendange Gamay 2016
Scent of cherry.
Wine had stronger structure for Gamay

Vinifera Gamay 2012
Cherry and raspberry. There was some black pepper.
Gamay from Loire are not necessarily known for quality, but this was good wine.

I can't say that overall impression was strong, but it was an interesting tasting.

Martini with fresh garnish

Season of harvest for cheery tomato.
There are more than we can eat and I can't eat them everyday, but the most of our neighbours grow cherry tomatoes and I can't give away, so I usually make tomato sauce.

However, they are so fresh and I want to enjoy the freshness too.
To answer to my request, JC made a cocktail using the fresh tomato.

Martini with Cherry tomato.
Not just garnish, there is another "vegetable" in this cocktail.
There is Celery Bitters in it.
I thought he was joking when he said this would have a taste of celery, but it really tasted celery!
It was a fun drink with a little twist.