Asado!

One sunny weekend, there was a lunch party with Asado and Argentinian wine.

Asado is Argentinian, or South American style barbecue.
Meats (usually beef and sausages) were cooked for long time, and very tender and juicy!

It was a hot day, and we started with a glass of refreshing Chardonnay.

Catena Alta Chardonnay 2014
Tropical fruit and allspice. Fresh cedar of oak gave good balance.

Catena Agrelo Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Cherry and herbs like liquorice and peppermint.

Catena Paraje Altamira Malbec 2014
Fresh fruit. Tannin was higher side but fine.

Nicolas Catena Zapata 2010
75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec
Black cherry and herbs. Tannin was well interated.
Decent wine. I liked it.

Enemigo Malbec 2012
How can I put it... straightforward wine.
Very good with barbecue.

Gran Enemigo Blend 2010
73% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec
Fruit and savoryness.
Strong structure of wine withstand the strong flavored food.

Gran Enemigo Gualtallary 2011
This is made with 85% Cabernet Franc and 15% Malbec.
Pronounced aromas of flowers and red fruits. Well balanced.

Good food, good wine and good pairing.
It was the best way to celebrate the last beautiful sunny weekend before the long rainy season begins.

Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello

Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello in Santa Cruz Mountains.

Their wines are made with Bordeaux varieties with the focus on expressing soil, climate and varietal characteristics.
Ideal single vineyards were searched to make wine which reflects its terroir.

Vineyards are located at the top of the hill, at 2000 feet elevation.

There usually is gorgeous view but not this day. There were fires nearby.

Ridge wines are not certified as organic; however, they use sulfur to ensure proper long term ageing but everything else about their wine making is pretty much organic.
Vines are grown organically. Horse manure is used as a fertilizer and pests are controlled in organic way.

I didn't get to see these gopher hunters 

Pest control manager Monty

Their wines are made with grapes only from their own vineyards or reliable vine growers with long term contract.

Lytton Spring 2015
74% Zinfandel,16% Petite Sirah, 8% Carignane, 2% Mourvedre.
Lytton Spring is a vineyard in Sonoma.
Ripe red and black fruit, dried fruit, herb, sweet spice and coffee.
Powdery tannin.

Ponzo 2015
97% Zinfandel, 3% Petite Sirah.
Red and blue fruit, raisin.
Good food wine.

Pagani Ranch 2015
83% Zinfandel, 10% Alicante Bouschet, 7% Petite Sirah
Ripe fruit and green peas.
Medium tannin and well balanced.

Lytton Estate Petite Sirah 2015
Aromas of flower, berries and blue fruit.
High and fine tannin. Decent wine.

Monte Bello 2014
75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot.
Tropical fruit and spice, like rum. Coffee and mineral.
High, powdery tannin.
How can I put it... very well-mannered wine.

Monte Bello 1995
69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc.
Farmyard and tea. Aged more than 20 years but there were still freshness.
Soft tannin, well integrated. Complex wine with depth.

Their wines are great, whatever the occasion is, but enjoying them being surrounded by the terroir that are expressed in the wine made me appreciate them even more.

Blackberry Jam

The season of black berry is over.
I picked them everyday during summer and kept them in freezer.
The fruits I picked everyday were only four or five, but when I weighed all the fruits, it was almost 3 pounds!

This was enough to make jam.

I never made blackberry jam so didn't know the best way to remove seeds.
There were recipes for blackberry jam but there wasn't a universal agreement on how to remove seeds, so I decided to cook first, then remove seeds when fruit became softer.

I don't like it too sweet, so used sugar half of the weight of fruits.
Leave the fruits and sugar for a while until fruits start to release the juice.

Cook with low heat a little bit, and strained to remove seeds.
It was a tedious process, but JC just came home and took over the duty. Thanks! You are the best!

After removing seeds, keep cooking until the liquid becomes sticky.
Pour into the sanitized bottles, and cover.

I didn't add any extra pectin. I think blackberries (or their seeds) contain a lot of pectin. 

I'm already using this for breakfast bread.
Not too sweet, easy to spread.
I thought about making jam without removing seeds, but now I'm glad I did (or he did). 

Treasury Wine Tasting

Treasury Wine Tasting. This is a tasting of  iconic wines.
It was held at Top of the Mark at Mark Hopkins Hotel.

view from Top of the Mark!

Wines were mostly red but there were some white and sparkling wines.

Etude Chardonnay had good refreshing acidity and fruitiness.
Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay 2015 was good, just a little too oaky to me.

Etude Fiddlestix Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Rita  Hills 2014
Ripe, very intense red fruit. Coffee and vanilla.

Beaulieu Vineyard Tapestry Red Wine Napa Valley 2014
Fresh red fruit. Fine tannin.

Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages Sonoma County 2014
Fresh raspberry, cranberry and chocolate.

Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014
Cherry, raspberry, incense and coffee. Powdery tannin.

Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014
Black fruit. Structure is strong but not aggressive.

Provenance Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2015
Coffee and vanilla. Texture was rich.

Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 had aromas of flowers.
Penfolds Bin389 Cabernet Shiraz 2015 was perfumey with high and soft tannin.
Penfolds RWT Shiraz 2015 had strong structure.
Bin 407 was my favorite.

Penfolds Grange 2012
Shiraz made with grapes from multi-vineyards.
This was the most popular wine of the day.
People were taking selfies with the bottle!
The bottle was just opened and it tasted still closed.
The harsh tannin was overwhelming so we decided to hold on to the glass and wait for a while.

After one hour, we tasted again.
It was much softer.
Red fruit, medicinal, herb, incense, vanilla and meatiness.
This type of big wine is not necessarily my favorite, but even I could tell this was a good wine, and would be great if I could have waited longer.

Stags' Leap Winery The Leap Napa Valley 2014
Coffee and ripe fruit. Very good wine, especially with food.

Stags' Leap Winery Ne Cede Malis Petite Sirah Napa Valley 2014
Blueberry and cinnamon.

Sadly, some of the wineries whose wine I tasted this day suffered damage caused by the big fires around Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino happening right now.
Hope those will be contained soon.

Chateau Haut-Segottes

JC brought back home a half bottle of Chateau Haut-Segottes Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2014

Chateau Haut-Segottes is a family owned winery from Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux.
Their 9 hectares vineyards are located within the lieux-dits (named sites) of Fortin, Chauvin and Plateau de Corbin.
Majority of the grape planted is Merlot, then Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Abundance of flower and red and black fruit.
Sweet and elegant aromas.
High but fine tannin. Smooth texture.

This can be, of course, good food wine, but I enjoyed just by itself a LOT!
Maybe not a typical Bordeaux wine, but very good wine, especially for it's price!

Tasting with Piedmont Guy

Mr. Weston Hoard, a.k.a. Piedmont Guy, imports Northern Italian wine.
Years ago he moved to Italy to be with his Italian girlfriend, and worked at winery there.
The relationship with the girlfriend didn't last forever, but his love for Italian wine is still vividly alive.

Giordano Nebbiolo Spumante Brut Nature 2014
This was my first time to try sparkling Nebbiolo.
Bruised apple, pink cherry and vanilla.
Bubbles were almost aggressive.


Angelo Negro  Serra Lupini Arneis Roero 2016
Serra Lupini is a single vineyard.
White flower like crocus, pear, grape and fresh green peas.
Acid was mild.

Poggio Caespes Timorasso Colle Tortonesi 2015
Once almost extinct, Timorasso is a thick-skinned white grape variety which is native to Piedmont.
This aromatic variety is also used for the production of Grappa.

Gardenia, honeysuckle, candied citrus and apple.
Soft mouth feel.
Beautiful wine.

Giordano Rosso Langhe 2015
90 % Nebbiolo and 10 % Arneis.
Plum, coffee and charred wood.
A little to oaky to me.

Giordano Cavanna Barbaresco 2013
Cavanna is a single vineyard with westerly aspect on a steep hill.
Rose, tart plum and coffee.
Strong structure.

Giordano Asili Barbaresco 2013
Tart cherry, decayed rose, mushroom and coffee.
Strong structure and soft texture.

Giordano Montestefano Barbaresco 2013
Cherry, dried and candied herb, fresh mint and coffee jelly.
High but fine tannin.

All the wines were good, especially the last two Barbaresco.
Asili was more serious, and Montestefano was fun to drink.

Plum Vinegar marinated Ginger

Season of fresh ginger.
I found a small but beautiful fresh ginger at farmers market, and I just finished making umeboshi, so decided to make pickled ginger with plum vinegar.

Plum vinegar is by-product of Umeboshi making.
It's salty and sour liquid come out from salt marinated plums.

First, clean and peel the ginger. Sprinkle salt and leave over night.
Next day, wipe off salt and water, cut into slices, and marinate in plum vinegar.
Wait for several days, and it's ready.

Salty and sour flavor with spiciness of ginger.

JC loved it and ate just by itself, but this can be used, for example, as garnish on Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake).

They are in the center!

Shichida Junmai Ginjo

Shichida Muroka Nama Junmai Ginjo.
Ginjo sake from Saga prefecture, Japan.

Muroka means sake is unfiltered.
Nama means sake is unpasteurised.
Junmai means there are no distilled alcohol added.
Ginjo means polishing ratio of rice is 60% or less.

Pronounced aromas of melon, watermelon, peach and bubble gum.
Ginjo aromas and subtle umami flavors.
Acid was higher and body was medium +.
Overall impression was very lively!

We paired this sake with Chirashi sushi.
Unfortunately,  the pairing wasn't as good as we hoped.

I guess sake had too much flavor to have with raw fish.
Thinking that stronger flavor would do better with this sake, we tried it with chocolate (simply because it was there), half as learning experience and half as thrill.
The pairing actually wasn't that bad.
 
Next day, we had this sake with vinegar marinated food. The pairing was much better.

Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs in Oakland.
This "Hot Dogs for Grownups" place opened this summer.
We tried their hot dogs at their soft opening and really liked it, so came back to try other hot dogs.

The location is near Jack London Square.
The patio is facing big street but not noisy, and the warm afternoon sun and ocean breeze make this area quite comfortable.
Inside the building has more calm atmosphere. The high ceiling gave spacious feel and TV plays baseball games but no too loud: you can enjoy the game, or easily ignore.

I had Bruschetta Dog, healthy hot dog with tomatoes and cheese, and home made Sangria.
JC had Corn Dog and RIBEAUVILLÉ Brut Sparkling wine.

He had the corn dog with hot sauce and said the sauce was really good.

Thinking that they did good with spicy food, he ordered Chicken Wings.
The wings had slight spiciness, which was good flavor accent that even I could enjoy (I can't take spiciness).
We felt an urge to have vegetables, so ordered Buffalo Brussels Sprouts. This dish had subtle hint of spiciness too.

Wine we had was GOULEYANT Rosé. Great rose wine from Cahors, France. 100% Malbec.

Food was good and we were really full...
We needed to take a walk before heading back home.