Good Morning!

Last night on twitter, I learned of the passing of Steve Jobs and my heart felt heavy. I have never met him but I have seen him many times on TV introducing whatever new gadget I would soon be buying and loving. He was always wearing a black long sleeve t-shirt and jeans, he was thin and wore glasses. He spoke like a leader and with deep conviction and passion about the products and his real belief that this new gadget was going to make your life better, was both inspiring and exciting. He would always say something towards the end of his presentation about how more inventions are coming and more advanced applications would be coming, so his cliffhangers were fun.

When I first moved to San Francisco, a friend of mine said would you like to go to a party with me, one of my friends is turning 40 and they have the most interesting friends. I said yes. We walked to a home in the Castro and walking up it looked nice, but when I walked in the door, the place was beautiful and the energy inside of the house was electric. I was introduced to the birthday boy and he was funny and as we stood there chatting I ask what is it that you do, and the room kinda went quiet and one guy said we all work for Apple. That started a whole conversation about who did what, how long they had been in each group, what products they worked on and all of them spoke so highly of the company, leadership and just their co-workers….This is all a bit odd to me, 6 years ago I was still recruiting and every single candidate I spoke with complained about their boss, their lazy co-works and the politics involved in their company. I had a great night, met great folks and was impressed with the attitudes of everyone I met from Apple.

Last night, I started thinking about the first iPod I bought for my step-son and the experience I had at the downtown San Francisco Apple store. There were many people there and the place was vibrant. I was ask a few questions and the “genius” who helped me explained everything and I took home the red tiny little gadget for the birthday boy. He was thrilled about the new toy and I could only remember the experience at the store being so…awesome! I wanted to buy more stuff, but I really did not understand any of it!

So when my cell phone was going down, I decided I had to get an iPhone and that started my love for Apple. This is my 3rd iPhone and I can not wait for the next version. Each phone does more for me, keeps me more organzied and I can communicate more easily with more information at my fingertips. Of course I can still watch my favorite bear cubs wrestling, access my bank and translate french wine labels with ease. I can remind myself to pick up a gift, drop off the cat and when my prescriptions are about to run out. It is all good.

Steve Jobs and his other biz partners started something really cool, did he know what it was going to turn out to be? I have no idea, I bet they hoped for the best and they way exceeded their wildest dreams. I have been reading quotes of Steve Jobs for the past few hours and all I can say is he understood his passion, his values and his need to create. He understood that there is always something better and any product could do more, be more and help more. He chose to live life on his terms, he did want he wanted, he dared to dream and think big and act bold. From what I have read he was a very attentive father and demanded the best from his employees and himself. He was not afraid to take time off to heal when he needed it. He was brave and showed courage at a time when some might just say enough.

I can not wait for all the biographies and made for TV movies to come out, I will read and watch them all. There are a handful of people that when you look back and can say they were the best at what they do, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Randy Pausch, John Wooden, Henry Ford, Maya Angelou, Jack Welch, Frank Lloyd Wright, Babe Ruth just to name a few, Steve Jobs will be remembered with the best. He created something we did not even know we needed! He helped build a corporation that rivals none other out there in profits and employee and customer loyalty. He helped inspire millions of people to use technology to make everyday living and working easier.

I am glad I took the time to read more about this awesome human being, I am inspired by his drive, his creative spirit and his human spirit. I am excited that every time I buy an iPhone or iPad or whatever comes next that he had the vision for our lives, many of us never even considered.

Tomorrow, I will jump back on the wine train…today, I just needed to talk about Steve Jobs and his impact on my life.

Thanks Steve, I toast you and I pray you are at peace and your family feels all our collective love.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

Most of you know I am an avid reader. Anything about food, wine or sports I can lose an entire day just reading and educating myself on any aspect of these subjects. When I was reading my last favorite book, Secrets of a Sommelier, by Rajat Parr, he mentioned the book Daring Pairings, By Evan Goldstein, I ordered it from Amazon and when it arrived, it kinda looked more like a high end cookbook and I was excited but I was hoping it would be more about wine.

Well, as normal this book can not be judged by it’s cover. It is an amazing book about wine and it is also an amazing book about food and cooking excellent meals. Evan Goldstein is a Master Sommelier and he starts the book out really diving deeply into the wine and the 5 key aspects of wine.

1. Acidity
2. Sweetness
3. Tannin
4. Oak
5. Alcohol

Then he launches into food and how they interact. I think the part of this book that really spoke to me was, He said, Wine will stay consistent, you can not change that, but a chef or cook can change food to make them really work together. He put in some cool sort of experienments so you can teach yourself at home.

One of the exercises was to make chicken 3 ways, boiled, grilled and fried and then try 3 wines with each and see what you taste and feel in your mouth. I broke out the chicken and tried this little experiment at home on a couple folks and they are not “wine” people but they are wine lovers and we had a really eye opening experience. Evan has about 6-7 of these experiments in the first part of the book, so you can taste how the food is prepared changes the way the food works with or against the food. VERY COOL…I am really hands-on so this was a great learning tool for me!

As the book progresses, it discusses tips for what works with each wine and then there are beautiful pictures of the wines that are really easy to find and what foods are amazing or Daring Pairings and the recipes are included. At the top of each wines’ page, there is a story about each grape varietal and that helped me connect the regions and cultures together. Well written and highly informative.

When it comes to the recipe, they come from world known chefs and I was intimidated…but the were written in a direct and very accurate way. Some were complicated and some were very straight forward. I have made 4 recipes and all turned out tasting wonderful ( I am going to need some training on plating like a chef). Some of the recipes have some items I had to look for, but I could find them, so you will be able to as well. Most of you know I like to cook, but I am much better with the grill and no recipe, but I was excited to try these recipes and pair the wines.

Another aspect of this book I really enjoyed, he added some great pairings at the end of each section of each grape and he even made suggestions of producers.

This book is packed with wine knowledge and if you like to play in the kitchen, this book is a great read and resource. I plan on using 3 of these recipes in the next 2 weeks for special dinners when my best pal “Cubby” gets here and we can hang out in the kitchen and opening many, many bottles of wine.

I wanted to share this Daring Pairing with you!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

This morning on the radio I heard them announce it is National Taco Day and my first thought was AWESOME, I LOVE TACOS! My next thought was who comes up with these National Days, Taco, Beer, Cabernet, Hamburger, pancakes, you name it they have a day for it and I for one will celebrate just about anything, but who picks the day for a National anything? Then my next thought is what wine goes with tacos?

My current favorite tacos come from a restaurant called Tiago’s in Texas and the Pork Chile tacos, well, they rock my world. The smoke the pork for hours and the meat is fantastic alone, but add the onions, cilantro and tomatoes and I treat them the same as you would a White Castle, just eating one after the other until I am stuffed. I normally pair them with a Cabo Wabo Margarita because the place has a crummy wine list.

But if I stick to my theory of pairing the sauces with the wine and not just get all focused on the meats in the taco, then I have some pairing ideas for your taco dinner tonight. I am not afraid of spicy heat at all, but I do take it easy when I am pairing wine with hot/spicy food, or I would end up drinking Riesling with everything…Spicy or hot food with a high alcohol wine or a really dry wine will intensify the heat, I just keep that in mind. If you like heat, knock yourself out.

Hear are my favorite pairings for each different kind of taco I have had:

Fish Tacos, since the fish is fried and there is some oil in the recipe, I like Prosecco or Cava or most anything that bubbles!

Shrimp Tacos, I love grilled shrimp with a crisp Rose’.

Chicken, I love my recipe for chicken tacos with a very sharp Sauvignon Blanc.

Beef, I prefer the beef not be ground beef, but it is sometimes and I can still hang with my favorite Rioja and beef tacos.

Pork, I like a fresh, young white, but I lean to unoaked Chardonnay, if you are looking for a brand on the internet to try, Find a winemaker named Cindy Cosco and her wines are Passaggio Wines. Order a case, I swear, Pork tacos and Roasted Chicken will never be the same after you have her wines with these dishes.

Veggie Tacos, go ahead and grill up some veggies and open a bottle of Vinho Verde, the veggies and the young white wine should be a great pairing.

These are my suggestions for wine on this National Taco Day. If all else fails, have a Margarita and get back to wine tomorrow! I have provided a couple of my favorite margarita photos today, just for some fun!

Enjoy!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

So much is going on right now in the wine world that you will benefit from in the near future! Grapes are being harvested all over the Northern Hemisphere and some new laws are changing so you can buy wines over the internet (in some states). I hope my grapes for TJR Select are maturing and the Brix (sugar levels are raising) I am hoping to pick at around 23.0-25.0….we are as of this morning at 21.4, and I would like to see a ph level of 3.1-3.3. It should happen in the next couple of weeks. Until then, I am keeping busy helping other wine makers with their harvest and I have to say everyday, I learn something new from all of them I get to work with.

As a winemaker it is very similar to cooking, if you are not classically trained, you go with your gut intution on when to pick, press, crush, add yeast, etc… But the more times you make wine you teach yourself the reasons why you pick at 23.0 Brix or why you would wait until the sugar levels were higher. I did not take chemistry or even biology in High School so, I started self educating at home with books and internet years ago. I still wish I had a degree from UC Davis every vintage! I will keep you posted as this harvest progresses.

The best wines I had this weekend…Yes, I said wines, normally I pick just one, but I had two great wines and wanted to share them with you, because they were both so good! It is getting cooler out and I got my red wines on this weekend, trying about 17 reds in total. Saturday night I found in my wine cellar a bottle of Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. I opened it up and poured it in the decanter and after about 45 minutes poured two glasses and we chatted about the 3 times we have toured and tasted at the Cakebread Cellars winery. This wine is big, this wine has 14.4% Alcohol by volume and it tastes wealthy…if that is a word for wine. I say wealthy because my wine drinking friend said this tastes like what I think rich people would drink. I liked that corralation, no wine description is ever wrong, it you mean it and it’s honest and as I took another sip, I thought about really thick and lush feeling velvet across my palate. I love this wine, it is a bit more on the expensive side for everyday drinking at my crib, about $59.99 at the wine store, but it did make me feel…wealthy and happy. The flavors and aromas I got from this wine was yeasty, dark raspberries and blackberries, some smokey, leather on the finish and the balance of this wine felt beautiful and wealthy.

Cakebread Cellars are a well known wine brand of high quality and in Napa it is a go to tour for visitors. Make a reservation before you go and enjoy the history of the vineyard and cellars. We were in Napa once and tried to go for a tasting on a busy Saturday and we were turned away because we did not make a reservation, so don’t make our mistake and not get to enjoy their place.

Second wine, this one surprised me, I have never had, or heard of this wine. We met some friends at Wine 101 for an afternoon in the sun/shade and they ordered the wine. The wine was a Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina 2006, it was Comendador De Viluco Reserva. When I picked up my glass, and the wine was at least 6-8 inches from my face, I said whoa, this guy is super cherry…my friends started laughing and I said try it for yourself. This wine was a beautiful an elegant cherry bomb! It was like the combination of these two aromas at the same time…Deep Dish Cherry pie and a meat smoker it was gorgeous! I did not even take a drink for the longest time because I loved the aromas so much I just kept going back to my glass and sniffing around to see if it lost the aromas as the oxygen started to do it’s thing on the wine.

This Viluco Reserva was not a super heavy wine, it was a medium bodied wine with a full mouth feel. It was not as cherry on flavor as it was on the nose, but it was a lively, bright and polished on the tongue, this was a young energetic wine. This wine was like a fun puppy at full speed, very vibrant but it did not misbehave or go too far. It was restrained and finish long and lovely, like a purebred. This wine at the wine bar was $34 a bottle, so I will look for it in the store and purchase a few bottles and try them at home and see if I enjoy them as much here as I did at Wine 101.

I hope you had some great wines this weekend, please feel free to share with me what you enjoyed and I will see if I can find your favorites as well.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I had a neighbor stop by to drop off an article he saw about wine in the paper and when he walked into the kitchen he looked around and saw a bottle on the counter that had “stuff” in it and he said what is that? I said it is infused vodka. He said what is in there? I said a vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and candied ginger. Is it good? I said yes, want to try it? He said, it is 7:45 AM. I said, So? and got out two shot glasses.

After taking a swig, he said that is smooth, how do you make vodka? I said, that is a whole other story, I buy the vodka and I infuse with the flavors I dream up. He thought that was kinda fun and I said I started doing this years ago. We had a long conversation but he left the house headed to work and had already done a shot! He was gonna have an awesome morning.

About 10-12 years ago, I was waiting for a table at Sullivan’s in Indianapolis, IN. When we walked into the bar and on the middle of the bar was this massive glass jar filled with pineapple slices and I ask about it and the bartender made me his special “Stolie Dolee”, it was a pineapple martini. This is strange for me because I have never really been a hard liquor drinking person up to that point, mostly a beer drinker and starting to really like wine with meals.

When I returned home I was thinking about how fun the drink turned out to be and I was having a party in a week and I went to Target to find a big glass container/jar with a lid. It was harder to find than you might think at that time, they are everywhere now. Finally, I found one and went to the store bought a gallon of vodka and 2 pineapples….Took it home cut up the pineapples and poured the vodka in. The next Saturday night I go to pour the pineapple vodka and it still mostly tasted like booze, so I got out the punchbowl and made a killer friendship sangria…(in college you might have heard the term Hairy Buffalo). It was fine, but I really wanted to serve a higher end cocktail.

Back to the drawing board. I bought a second jar and 3 gallons of vodka and 6 pineapples, I filled each jar with sliced pineapples and pour vodka to the top. (Note…always cover the fruit completely with vodka or the fruit will break down turn brown and just make the vodka look gross plus the fruit will start to ferment and then you have a whole new level of booze to contend with). Over the next couple of months I noticed that the pineapple flavor released into the vodka. Then I took the pineapple out of the jars and put it in freezer bags. The vodka was ready for the fridge and then ready to serve! It was clear and pineappley and my friends went crazy for it.

It was summer and I decided I would now take the frozen pineapple out of the freezer and make a little frozen treat for friends on the porch. Oh my Lord…this stuff was pure booze! You could light a fire from the alcohol or at least it felt that way. So I opened some Sprite and poured it over the pineapple slushy and it was a perfect way to beat the heat!

This started my beginning of the vodka infusion and every visit to a liquor store I would see new flavors coming out, Lemon, Orange, Lime, vanilla, pepper you name it I make my own. I make a great garlic, jalapeno infusion for Bloody Mary’s, I make a wicked Mango/Pineapple infusion for fun by the pool and I also have figured out the perfect Lemoncello…many friends have renamed the lemoncello, the Panty Dropper, enough said. I just like to have fun with my friends and try out new ideas on them. I am playing with more savory flavors now as well.

I also have about half a dozen different flavored oils I have created on my kitchen counter currently. When we started to design our “retirement” house, I said I am most interested in having a huge pantry for all my projects, like vodka, oils, hanging my chili peppers to dry and other stuff I like to experiment with.

Anyway, today’s blog is not about wine, but if you want to play with infusing vodka give it a try….make sure you let it sit with the fruit in it for several weeks and I say anything over a month or two will give you the most flavorful vodka.

Much LOVE and wine or vodka,

Tammi

PS….I always use Finlandia Vodka, it seems to absorb the flavors best for me!