elcome to my Food and Wine pages.
For the last two decades I've been interested in food, wine and
cooking. I've gathered together a few pointers to some interesting
Wine
sites on the Web along with several of my favourite recipes. I hope
that you enjoy them. Bon Appetit.
If you want to skip right on down to my recipes, just click here Recipe List .
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The Wine Country in California is comprised of a number of viticultural areas from the South Coast region near Santa Barbara all the way north to Lake and Mendocino Counties, north of San Francisco. In fact, a nice article on California Appelations appeared last Spring in the San Francisco Chronicle. |
Over the years a number of Wine Country Web sites have appeared. Here's a short list of the sites I visit when I'm planning a trip to the Napa Valley.
From time to time as you visit the Wine Country you happen upon a real gem of a small winery. My current favourite in this category is Goosecross Cellars. Here's a shot of the front of the winery that is located just north of Yountville in the Napa Valley.
Goosecross specializes in ultrapremium ($15+) Chardonnay. And is it tasty! I try to keep a couple of bottles handy for when I need a really nice white wine to go with something like fresh Dungeness Crab. Yum! They are also one of the friendliest wineries to visit and just started offering a Wine Basics Class this past summer. Check out their Web Page for details.
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One of my favorite wineries is Raymond Vineyards & Cellars . They produce good quality wine from the vin du table level all the way up to the ultra-premiums. Here's a bit of background on the winery. |
The Raymond family boasts five generations of Napa Valley winemaking history, dating back to Frederick and Jacob Beringer in the late 1800's. Roy Raymond Sr. arrived at Beringer in 1933 and married Martha Jane Beringer in 1936. Roy spent the next 35 years making wine at Beringer. In 1971, at a time when he could have considered c retirement, he co-founded Raymond Vineyard & Cellar with his two sons, Roy Jr. and Walter Raymond. As fourth generation winemakers, Roy Jr. and Walter take great pride in carrying on the family tradition. Craig Raymond, Roy Jr.'s son, is now following in his father's footsteps by taking over the vineyard management for the winery.
Just three years after the purchase of their 90 acres in St. Helena, the Raymonds made their first wine. In the 1990's, they replanted this vineyard, developed another 250 acres in the southern area of Napa Valley, and planted 300 acres of Chardonnay in Monterey County.
Today, the Raymond family produces 165,000 cases annually of three different tiers of wine. It uses both estate grown fruit and grapes from prime locations in Napa, Sonoma, and Monterey. "The relationships we've developed with independent grape growers give us a real advantage," winemaker Ken Vigoda says. "By diversifying our sources, we are assured of superior quality and consistent quantity from vintage to vintage. We can also develop more complexity in our wines."
The winery and tasting room are located at
849 Zinfandel Lane
St Helena, CA 94574
(800)-525-2659
The winery is pretty easy to find: Zinfandel Lane runs east-west between Hwy. 29 and the Silverado Trail. The easier approach is off the Silverado Trail because it usually does not have the heavy traffic that you find on Hwy. 29. A detailed map and directions can also be found on their Web pages.
The Tasting Room is open from 10 am to 4 pm daily and is one of the friendliest and most pleasant in the whole Napa Valley. You can also call ahead for a tour. Its a pretty good tour especially if they have the bottling line going. The pallet wrapper is just awesome to see in operation!
Our favorite selections from Raymond include the Amberhill Chardonnay and the Napa Valley Reserves Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Amberhill is particularly nice because I can get it at the local Price Costco for a very good price. It's become pretty much our house white wine.
Here's a list of some of our favorite Napa Valley wineries:
Beaulieu Vineyard Beaulieu has the second best winery tour in the Valley (right behind Mondavi). Their recently refurbished Tasting/Sales Center is always comfortable to visit. Be sure to go downstairs and check out their Signature series. These are wines made in small lots from sometimes unusual grapes. They are sort of experiments by the winemakers and are only available at the winery. They're fun to try and make fun conversation topics at your next party.
Beringer Vineyards Beringer is one of the oldest wineries in the Napa Valley and is one of the largest. It produces a full spectrum of wines from simple sipping wines up to the ultrapremium level.
The regularly scheduled tour is one of the nicest in the Valley. They take you back into the old aging caves that were driven into the hillside back of the winery in the last Century. Very historic!
Also be sure to visit the Founders Room. It's on the second floor of the Rhine House and offers a selection of Beringer's reserve wines for a modest charge. You can skip the tour and go right up for a taste of the most recent reserve vintages. Be sure to ask for Mark and tell them that Sheila Faulkner sent you!
Cakebread Winery produces some wonderful wines. The Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc is the first wine we on our very first visit to Napa. We were having lunch at the now defunct California Cafe just north of St. Helena. I had tagliatelle pasta with duck breast which went spendidly with the Cakebread.
Domaine Chandon Great sparkling wine and a very pretty restaurant. One of the nicer tours in the Valley.
Robert Mondavi Winery The Mondavi winery is thewinery to visit in the Napa Valley. They have the best tour where they take you out into a vineyard and talk about viticulture. Then it's into a working winery where you learn how wine is really made. Finally, you go through a complimentary tasting of some of Mondavi's latest releases.
If you have some time, just walk around the ground and enjoy the lovely Napa setting and pretty landscaping. Also you might want to visit the To-kalon room to taste some of Mondavi's reserve wines. The last time I visited the winery they were remodelling that section of the winery that used to house the To-kalon Room so if you're interested be sure to ask at the front reception desk.
Last but definitely not least, Mondavi has a very active advanced tour program. Be sure to check out their Web pages for a current schedule. We particularly like the Picnic in the Vineyard. You get an in depth tour and tasting and then retire to a lovely picnic out in one of the local vineyards. Absolutely wonderful!!
Mumm Napa Valley is the California connection to the G.H. Mumm champagne house in France. They produce several styles of sparkling wine. We like the Blanc de Noir the best. They have a very informative tour including the mechanized riddling system that they have developed. You can also taste their wines for a modest charge in a lovely salon with indoor and outdoor tasting areas which overlook the heart of the Napa Valley. Very relaxing.
Niebaum-Coppola The home of Francis Ford Coppola, the famous Hollywood director and producer of some very nice varietal reds. He has done some very nice architectural things to the old Inglenook estate. It's a joy to visit even if you're not going to try any of his wines.
Robert Sinskey Vineyards Lovely tasting facility, very active food & wine program and some great red wines from the Carneros. Also try their Pinot Blanc for a good sipping wine. And be sure to ask for a taste of Commander Zinskey's Zinfadel.
Rombauer Vineyards The Rombauer tasting facilty is comfortably intimate and is located above the Valley floor on a hillside overlooking some vineyards. The wines are very good, especially the '96 Merlot.
RMS Brandy Distillery
1250 Cuttings Wharf Rd, Napa; Tel: 707.253.9055
While RMS is a distillery and nota winery, it still produces some beautiful brandy that I would easily compare to some of the best cognac from France. The visitor center is quite handsome and the regularly scheduled tour is fun as it goes into the distillery hall and aging facilities (i.e., the "Angle's share").
ZD Wines The winery is named after the two cofounders Norman de Leuze and Gino Zepponi. ZD produces some very good Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. If you visit ZD I'm sure that you'll like the tasting/sales room and be sure to ask about the Rosa Lee Pinot. It's only available at the winery.
I know that this is going to sound slightly goofy but I'm never so happy as when I'm in my kitchen cooking. My first and still primary cuisine is French which I learned from Julia Child. The first of her cookbooks that I bought was The French Chef Cookbook which was the companion book to her first TV series, The French Chef. I still turn to this cookbook for her Chocolate Mousse recipe.
Still it was her Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which Julia co-authored with Louisette Berthole and Simone Beck, that really whetted my interest in cooking and French cooking, in particular. The very best thing about her recipes is that she explains the why behind the steps in a recipe. Once you understand the why of cooking, then you can apply whose techniques any time.
I found a short biography of Ms. Childs at the "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home" Web Site (see below) which I reproduce here: Julia Child
Speaking of French cooking, have you caught any of Jacques Pepin's cooking shows on PBS? He is absolutely the best teaching chef on TV because he knows every trick in the book and explains and demonstrates them so wonderfully.
Jacques' latest 26 part series for PBS is titled "Jacques Pepin's Kitchen: Encore with Claudine" In it he is joined in the kitchen by his lovely daughter Claudine. Having Claudine in the kitchen brings out the best in Jacques as an unexcelled teacher of fine cooking. They work very well together as they prepare quick, healthful meals with an eye on economy.
The series is actually produced in the studios of San Francisco's public television station KQED. You can get more details on his new series by clicking here: Jacques Pepin's Kitchen: Encore with Claudine.
Besides being a talented teacher he has revisited many classical French dishes and cooking techniques and reduced the oil, fat and salt content making them perfect for today's diet conscious cook. For example, he uses oils (mostly olive oil) almost exclusively for things like sautes and then may add a small bit of butter right at the end to add richness and flavor while keeping the saturated fat in the dish to a minimum.
If you do get a chance to see any episode of Jacques shows, please watch his hands. His techniques for preparing food and using a knife correctly are simply beautiful. His technique for crushing and chopping a clove of garlic is well worth the price of admission. Also it's a real treat to watch him do something simple like peel an apple or orange.
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Although Julia Child and Jacques Pepin have appeared together on TV before, they have never done a joint series, until now. In the Fall of 1999, a new series premiered called Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. Two of the world's best known and most loved culinary stars, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, join each other in Julia's home kitchen for an all new 22-part public television series. America's favorite cooking duo takes you to the heart of good home cooking and shows you that while there are traditional ways of preparing a dish, nothing is written in stone. Their deep friendship and the high professional regard in which Julia and Jacques hold each other make the show a pleasure to watch. |
Here are a few of recipes for dishes that I make often. I hope that you enjoy them!
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Please send your comments, suggestions or questions to Sheila Faulkner. | Also if you'd like, you can leave me a note in my Guest Book. I'd really love to hear from you! |
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