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