Home for the Holidays

Family and food is a great way to spend a day or evening. Christmas Eve found me cooking, something I usually try to worm my way out of. I did a pork tenderloin with a cherry sauce. It was right out of Maria Sinskey's cookbook (husband Rob owns Sinskey Vineyards in Napa). It was fabulous along with the supporting cast of meatballs, cheezy potatoes, jello (I love jello), green bean casserole, carrots, cinnamon rolls and pecan or pumpkin pie. I am salivating just writing about it. The wine I selected for the feast was a Dare Cabernet Franc. Dare is a second label for Viader. The wine was gorgeous, it was full in the mouth, hints of violet on the nose and a big rich flavor that lasted almost forever.
Christmas Day was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was nice enough to go out for a cross country ski, to build up an appetite for dinner. Dinner is a family favorite, cannelloni. Mom uses a Spanish recipe. It's made with ground pork and beef with spinach and a light cream sauce. With 3 brothers, 2 sons and a nephew dinner with cannelloni is more like a feeding frenzy. It was delicious. We had an Eos Zinfandel that was perfect, nice fruit, some pepper and hints of leather. I left a happy camper. Life is good in this winter wonderland.

Sunday and Snow

December 14 is cold this time of year. We spent at afternoon at an art exhibit. Sara Jones had a showing in town, she's a rising star. Dinner with friends seemed a great way to spent the evening. We had dinner at Ursula's Wine Bar & Cafe (did I mention I own it?) A wonderful bottle of Forth Syrah graced the table. Forth is a small producer in Northern Sonoma County. They are wonderful people and make marvelous wine. The syrah was well balanced with a touch of earthiness. It paired very well with my pork loin with yam bread pudding and a sugar plum sauce. While at dinner our friend Sheila pulled out a bottle in a paper bag. We tried this delicious red that turned out to be Blackstone Sonoma Reserve Rubric. It's a Bordeaux blend, doesn't cost an arm and a leg and tastes great. After dinner my lovely and I retired to our entertainment suite to watch a movie and share a glass of wine. The movie has already been forgotten but the wine was a 2005 4 Vines Bailey Vineyard Syrah. It was outstanding. The flavors were wound around a silky mouth feel and finished with a long and lingering "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh". So what if it's freezing, I've got my love and wine to keep me warm.

My story

Here's my story, in a condensed form. I'm I wine geek. I love food, I love wine and I love the synergy between the two. I have the greatest job in the world. I own a restaurant in White Bear Lake, MN called Ursula's Wine Bar & Cafe (you may have heard of it). I spend my nights talking to people about food and wine. I'm the wine steward and I create the wine list (award winning I might add). I've even had my picture in the Wine Spectator. As I'm writing I'm drinking a glass of Archipel. It's a Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc blend from California. Mostly Sonoma County fruit with about 6% coming from Napa. It's dusty with dried cherry notes, absolutely delightful. It was great with barley topped pork chops. The blog idea came to me while I was dining with friends on November 30. We've had a dinner club for 15 years. That Sunday we did tapas. The food included tapanade stuffed tomatoes, tapanade on yellowfin tuna, carrots in herb sauce, mushrooms in chili oil (absolutely volcanic), herbed shrimp, salmon and peppers and chicken in phyllo. The wines were all Spanish. Pompano Rueda, which is currently my favorite white-it is just a marvelous food wine. We had a Rioja from Cosme Palacio and a Tempranillo from Berberana and the piece de resistance was a 2004 Alion. It's Ribera del Duero and I was concerned it was a bit young. It was fabulous. Thick, lush and voluptuous with black cherry, leather and smokey overtones. My tongue was dancing for a week. We'll talk more about my wine adventures and tastes but I need to get warmed up for Top Chef. Never miss it. Wine is a journey, oh what a ride. Cheers! Kurt