Farm to Table Dinner

With Optional Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Pairing

Friday, July 27- River Room 

Cocktails begin at 6:30        Dinner Promptly at 7:15

Tomato Three Ways-

Chilled Tri Color Soup, Petit Grape Tomato Salad, Mini Heirloom Tomato Tart

2009 Stag’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc

All Natural Cavendish Farms Quail-

Stuffed with Benton’s Bacon and Brioche, Peach Beurre Blanc

2008 Stag’s Leap Karia Chardonnay

 Duck and Fois Gras PB &J-

La Belle Farms Duck, Peanut Brittle Dust,

Beurre Rouge Tomato Jam on French Toast

2007 Stag’s Leap Artemis Cabernet

Mountain River Farms Hickory Grilled Elk Loin-

Sweet Corn Demi, Truffled Grilled Local Vegetables

2007 Stag’s Leap Fay and SLV Cabernet

Blackberry Five Ways-   

Blackberry Cobbler, Blackberry Ice Cream,

Blackberry Mousse,

Blackberry Gel lee Blackberry Lynchburg Lemonade

$55.00 per person for food, $40.00 per person for optional wine pairing.

Wine Club Members take 15% off food and wine.

 Dress is Business Casual

August Wine Club







 We have put together the Wine Club schedule for August and are excited about our events. On Thursday, August 9, we will have a Cakebread tasting in the Cellar, with the usual option to buy at our cost. By the way, our pricing does include sales tax and Tennessee State Liquor Tax, so unfortunaetly, 24.25% of your cost of a bottle of wine, is handed off to the state of Tennessee. The Cakebread tasting will run from 6:00 to 7:30 and will include their Sauv Blanc, Chard, Reserve Chard, Cabernet, Single Vineyard Dancing Bear Cabernet and possibly one more.



On Thursday, August 23 from 6:00-8:00, we will have an Italian tasting on the Terrace with live action food stations, live music and some great Italian wines that will be made available for purchase for your lockers. We wanted to have an extra nice appreciation event to recognize meeting our membership goals for the club. We do ask that you make reservations for this event, because there will be full food service. Dress casual

 



Cellar Blind Tasting Tomorrow

Just a quick reminder that we will have a blind tasting of several varietals tomorrow- Wednesday, from 6:00-7:30 in the Cellar. This should be a fun opportunity to test your taste buds, without the benefit of seeing labels. Don't worry; this tasting is for entertainment purposes only and you will not be graded.

Our Mondavi vertical tasting was fun, but unfortunately, not enough ratings cards were turned in to get a feel for which vintages were top. After speaking with the other pourers, I think '96, '99, '01 and '05 received the most acclaim. Interesting that '97 (one of Napa's finest vintages for Cabs)was on eof the least favorite. Cheers and see you tomorrow!!

Phone service down

Our phone and Internet has been down for two days. Sunday is going to be a nightmare. Spread the word

One Last Reminder

So, don't forget about the Mondavi Reserve Cab Vertical Tasting tonight. We will be tasting 1996-2001 and 2005. Due to limited amounts and an expected large turnout, we will only taste from 6:00-7:00. Kris is puting together a rating sheet so we can see how the various vintages stack up in your eyes. Remember, all of thses are 90 plus point wines, but they were rated years ago and aging may have catapulted some ahead of others, while in the bottle. Here is the link to the website, if you would like to see what the experts think (or thought) at the time. http://www.robertmondavi.com/

Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Tasting

Just a reminder that we have a very special Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Tasting on Thursday, July 12 from 6:00-7:00. The vintages that we will be tasting are 1996-2001 and 2005. We will offer a limited amount of a couple of these vintages for sale at cost. This will be the last opportunity to sample several of these vintages. We will be offering the 1998 and 2005 wines at cost as long as they last.

Our next event will take place on the following Wednesday, July 18 and will be a blind tasting with rating sheets. This will be a great opportunity to pull some various wines off the rack and see what we all think without the benefit of labeling. We will publish the results of the ratings in this blog and offer up limited quantities of these wines at cost.

In the works for August... Cakebread Tasting

Airport Wrap Up

Our last day in San
Francisco was
fairly uneventful with lots of
walking and general tourist stuff. Watched some music at Union Square, walked through Chinatown and hung out on the wharf. All a little disappointed that we
could not get an Alcatraz
tour. Apparently, you have to book weeks in advance. We are all ready to get back to Knoxville and the sweltering heat. I'll do
a formal wrap up when
I get off mobile. See you at the club!

Sixties Retro

Made a quick stop over at Haight Ashbury, the birthplace of the San Francisco music of the sixties. Don't think anything has changed here in the last fifty years.....at least four generations of hippies on the corners.

Sausalito

We had lunch at Angelinos in Sausalito before heading back over the Golden Gate bridge back into San Francisco. The traffic here is bumper to bumper. Lunch was very good with all of us opting for basic Southern Italian favorites.

Signorello pics

Signorello

Found a hidden gem in Stags Leap with Signorello. Picked up an older vintage chard that is over the top. All their wines are estate grown. Trying to get some juice our way. Not distributed.

Chimney Rock

Mmmm, delicious sampling of their limited production wines. Could have stayed and sampled all of their wines and almost did!!

Fois gras

The big news around here is the California statewide ban on Fois gras that begins July 1. Most restaurants have already sold out of their stock. Wonder how long before this trend heads east. Sorry,no pics.

Back to Napa

Drove back through Carneros to Napa. Had just enough time to hit up Clos du Val, before Darioush.

Bodega Bay on Sonoma Coast

Armstrong

Armstrong Woods in Sonoma County. Largest tree,325 feet and1400 Years old.

Fog in sonoma

At 6:30 in the morning, the fog has rolled in and covered the vineyards behind the house. The fog is critical in helping produce quality Chardonnay grapes and is why Napa sources that varietal from here.
Today, we are taking a tasting break in the morning to check out the Redwoods at Armstrong Woods, then a little time on the coast, before heading back to Napa for Darioush, Plumpjack, and maybe Silver Oak.

Today,we have headed back over the hills to Healdsburg. Sonoma is so much different than Napa...it is a totally more laid back mindset. We are staying at a farmhouse that is surrounded by vines. Dave Mathews was here a couple of months ago. Anyways, we were all over the place today, tasting Longboard and Thumbprint, as well as the traditional stuff. Would love to spend a couple of days here, but we are running out of time.

Sundown at Auberge du Soleil

After a tasting of boutique wines in Kenwood, we headed back over the mountain to dinner and barrel tasting at Franciscan.

Matanzas Creek winery in Santa Rosa preparing for the lavender festival. Look closely at the fountain and you see a hummingbird.

Next up, we headed over Spring Mountain, to Santa Rosa where we tasted at Matanzas Creek. We are seeing the difficulty of efficiently seeing the wineries that we want to visit. Time contraints caused us to miss Terra Valentine and Pride as we just did not have time to make it work. Going over Spring Mountain is a roller coaster. Garner's driving was on point.

Ok, so today we started at Mondavi where we saw the history and ups and downs of a dynamic winery. Even though it is well known that Mondavi produces great wines, there is still a stigma related to their volume tier production of lower end wines. We sampled all reserve wines from their 2010 reserve fume blanc to the 2008 and 2003 versions of the Robert Mondavi reserve Cabernet. The place is amazing with their old school French oak fermenting tanks lined up as far as you can see. Here are some photos from that tour..

So, we've move on from the Victorian inn, up the street to franciscan's mustard house. We're in a residential area, but the vines flowing out from the backyard go on forever. While on a jog this morning, I see that these vines belong to spottswoode. Last night, we hit up calistoga after they rolled up the streets of st. Helena at 8:00. So today, we have a mondavi tour at 10:00, then we decided to head up spring mountain to Santa rosa. There we will see matanzas, pride mountain, and maybe a couple more . Dinner and library tasting at Franciscan tonight. Busy day today. Hard work, but someone has to do it. Here are the spottswoode vines in our backyard. Stay tuned for more pics.

Nothing like sitting on the back porch at Joseph phelps, tasting 05 and 08 insignia. Did not even know they produced white wines , but their Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, and dessert wine eisrebe were excellent. the vines that you see in the pics are actually all white, mostly Sauvignon blanc and eisrebe. Also their carneros Pinot noirs were very tasty.

Rombauer, which is number one Chardonnay by the glass is also an amazing facility. Tucked into the side of a hill, they have created a huge tunnel system for barrel storage. Enjoy the pics.