art – Stefania Wine

September 10, 2013

Dinner at Our Place

Every year we make a donation to the Washington Open School in Santa Clara. Usually we do a case of wine or a couple of magnums. Last year they asked if we could do something bigger so we offered a wine dinner at our home. The package was a four course dinner paired with our wines and we were told it brought in a huge bid. We had the winners over on Friday night and Stefania prepped the house and dinning room. We’re still trying to figure out what art to put in the living room so for right now the chalk boards to track football scores are in the space along with the banner for the Roller Girls.

We started in the living room and bar with some fresh fruit and a selection of cheese. I opened our unreleased 2010 Chardonnay and the just bottled 2012 Chardonnay. We wound through the what would be five courses and a dessert on the patio about 11PM. I started with a Caesar salad with grilled shrimp. Then Stefania had a soup and I followed that with lamb chops over cabbage and mushrooms in red wine. I added a few slices of home made sausage to the plate. We finished with Filet Mignon and summer squash.

We put a dent in the wines working through some unreleased wines and some from our library. I though the 2011 Nueva Casa de los Padres was the highlight. The 2006 Uvas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon was also really good and I was surprised that the 2012 Chardonnay wasn’t showing any bottle shock.

We really enjoy putting together dinners. Charity events are a rarity but for friends coming into town it’s something we try and pull together. It might not always be as many courses but it will always be something good!

July 25, 2011

Sabor Del Valle Recap

Friday night we poured wine at Sabor Del Valle for the second year in a row. We enjoyed this charity event last year and we were looking forward to doing it again this year. The event is at the San Jose History Park in Kelley Park and it was a beautiful evening. It just takes us 5 minutes or so to set up so Stefania got to go visit some of the other wineries:

There is really great food at this event and lots of seating which is very nice for a wine event. I really liked the fish empanadas.

There was also some really nice local art .

One of the highlights was this band that strolled through the park for the first hour of the event. Then there was more live music and dancing until well after sunset.

We had a great time again and look forward to doing this event again next year.

June 6, 2011

Travel, Prescriptions, Vineyard Updates.

You may have noticed that there was no Part 3 to the Memorial Day Vineyard Tours. We never got to the Harrison vineyard and Chaine d’Or. I was sick. It came on Sunday and by Monday I spent most of the day in bed. Tuesday I missed the day job and only worked a 1/2 day on Wednesday.

We had travel planned for the weekend to New Mexico to visit a friend of Stefania’s. Traveling with a cold seemed like a bad idea so I wanted to get as much rest as I could to see if I felt well enough to go. I also thought I might have something else going on with me as three colds is very very unusual, and I just had the last one a month ago. It seemed like I might have something besides a cold.

I scheduled a rare trip to the doctor to see if maybe some antibiotics were needed. It seemed to me that I had something a little more serious. The doctor agreed and wrote out a prescription for me. How rare are these trips to the doctor and prescriptions? Well this is a brand new doctor for me so he asked: “Where do you usually get your prescriptions from?” My answer: That’s a good questions. I’d say it’s been over 10 years since I’ve had a prescription so just about anywhere would qualify as ‘the usual place'”.

The antibiotics really seemed to help. My lungs are finally feeling really clear for the first time since January when I first picked this bug up in Seattle. The trip to New Mexico went off well. There was smoke in the air from a huge fire in Arizona but the skies were still great.

Stefania and I each bought a little art in Santa Fe and had some good meals while Stefania caught up with some old high school friends. I also picked up some Pinon nuts for my Dad for Father’s Day. I have a little more travel later this week and then we’ll finally finish the vineyard tours on Saturday.