Drinks

Sparkling Grape Harvest in Sonoma & the Tiziano Cocktail Recipe

September 20, 2011

Pinot noir grapes for sparkling wine are being harvested at Iron Horse Vineyards in west Sonoma County. 

The sparkling grape harvest is under way in Sonoma wine country, and of course that means it’s time for harvest parties.

Saturday was the Flavors of Fall Festival at Korbel Winery in Guerneville, which is the largest sparkling wine producer in the United States. The history of the winery dates back more than 100 years when three brothers from Bohemia started a farm in Guernville. They found that nothing grew that well, except for wine grapes. They made their first vintage of sparkling wine in 1882, using grapes that were readily available locally and the same fermentation method as used in Champagne region of France.

If you’ve never been to Korbel, you’ll find it’s a very picturesque property that spreads out among majestic redwood trees. The garden tour takes guests behind a ornate wrought iron gate that’s usually locked and into pathways lined with creeping hydrangea, heirloom roses, elderberry, dahlias, anemone and a variety of other exotic plants. The garden is also a magnet for butterflies; deep sapphire blue swallowtails flitted about. One of the most impressive sights are the ancient redwoods, some of which are more than 1,000 years old.

This stand of redwoods at Korbel Winery in Guerneville is said to be over 1,000 years old.

The winery also offers a range of sparkling wines that can’t be found easily in the market. Since I was signing copies of The Bubbly Bar in the tasting room, I had time to taste some wine. My favorites were the 100% Chardonnay sparkling wine which was dry at just 1.0 dosage, creamy on the palate and full of golden apple and citrus flavors. I was also really impressed with the refreshing Sparkling Riesling made from fruit sourced in Mendocino County. It’s pleasantly off-dry at 3.6 percent sugar with a notes of stone fruit, slatey minerality and good acid structure.

I woke up Sunday to another sunny and hot day in west Sonoma county and the harvest party at Iron Horse Vineyards for members of the Corral Club. We walked up a pathway lined with hand-painted wine bottles holding zinnias from the Sterlings’ garden. Lunch started with duck egg omelets, local sausage and creamy golden cheese with I am the Ocean Reserve. We walked through the tomato, squash and pumpkin patches and hiked up the hill to the tasting room overlooking Green Valley while others line danced. Then the feast began lunch with grilled local lamb, spicy turkey tacos and a jumble of tomatoes along with a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

We started the party with the Tiziano, a wine country cocktail made with fresh pressed grape juice and sparkling wine. If you decide to try this delicious and simple cocktail, juice your own grapes or buy some high-quality bottled grape juice like the Vignette Wine Country Sodas. Here’s the Tiziano recipe:

With fresh pressed grape juice and sparkling wine, Tiziano is a favorite harvest time cocktail at grape harvest time.

Tiziano Cocktail

15 to 20 red grapes for 3 ounces fresh-pressed red grape juice, plus 2 extra grapes

3 to 4 ounces brut sparkling wine

One red grape, for garnish

One green grape, for garnish

Puree grapes in a blender. Strain puree through a sieve into a champagne flute. Discard grape pulp. Top with Prosecco. Garnish with the red and green grape threaded on  a long bamboo skewer.

Variation: This cocktail takes on a whole different hue and flavor when made with green grapes or an aromatic variety like the Muscat.

Bubbly Events

A Scented Soirée: Jo Malone & The Bubbly Girl Launch Wild Bluebell Sept. 22-30, 2011

September 16, 2011

Whenever I create a new cocktail, my inspiration usually starts with an amazing piece of seasonal fruit, a fun sparkling wine or a unique spirit that captures my imagination. Then I start adding other flavors to create a cocktail that’s harmonious and complex.

That’s the same way the perfumers at the British fragrance brand Jo Malone blend fruit, floral and spice aromas to create a beguiling scent. I love the way Jo Malone fragrances like White Jasmine and Mint, Nectarine Blossom and Honey and Lime Blossom perfectly capture those natural aromas. Their latest creation is Wild Bluebell, a dewy and slightly mysterious floral scent.

This month I’ll be working with Jo Malone to present a series of interactive cocktail and fragrance parties to explore the elements in the new fragrance Wild Bluebell.

Our heroine Wild Bluebell grew up in a grand English country manor. When she was a young woman, she left home to go traveling the world on different adventures. When she returned home years later, she discovered that her childhood home had fallen into neglect; overrun with namesake wild bluebell flowers. The scent was so intoxicating, she couldn’t resist falling into the fragrant carpet of flowers – just like in the picture above.

Wild Bluebell starts with top notes of wild bluebell and orange flower water, heart notes of persimmon and eglantine rose and finishes base notes of white musk. It’s made to be layered with other scents in the Jo Malone range, the same way spirits like gin and brandy pair with a range of other spirits, liqueurs and fruits.

Call the stores directly to reserve a place at one of these scented soirées:

Sept. 22 – Nordstrom Walnut Creek, 4 p.m.
RSVP: 925-930-7959 ext. 1042.

Sept. 23 – Neiman Marcus San Francisco, 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m.
RSVP: 415-362-3900 ext 211.

Sept. 24 – Neiman Marcus Palo Alto, 1 and 2:30 p.m.
RSVP: 650-329-3300.

Sept. 30 – Saks Fifth Avenue San Francisco, 3 p.m.
RSVP: 415-438-5243.

Bubbly Events

SF Cocktail Week: A Celebration of Mixology Sept. 19-25, 2011

September 12, 2011

SF Cocktail Week celebrates the talented mixologists, craft spirits and cocktail bars in the Bay Area with dinners, classes, parties and general merriment.

It might seem like every week is cocktail week in a city like San Francisco, which has amazingly creative mixology bars  in every part of the city.

 

But a couple of the city’s most respected bartenders – Duggan McDonnell of Cantina and H. Joseph Ehrmann of Elixir – thought there should be a special time to showcase the best the region has to offer when it comes to drinking. A great cocktail starts with a mixologist’s creative idea, but it takes a bar owner committed to using the best seasonal ingredients and locally distilled spirits and creating a space that’s suited to enjoying hand-crafted cocktails.

The San Francisco Cocktail Week celebration runs from Sept. 19-25 with a creative series of cocktail classes, dinners, parties and pub crawls.

Highlights include:

Opening Night Party: Around the World with Anchor Distillery’s spirits and brews on Sept. 19.

Stag Dining Group international dinner by underground chefs Ted Fleury and Jordan Grosser paired with world-inspired cocktails 15 Romolo on Sept. 20

Shaker & Flask – a cocktail event showcasing the science behind mixology at Big Daddy’s Antiques on Sept. 21

An Iberian dinner paired with Gin 209 cocktails created by Alex Smith at Gitane on Sept. 21

To get in the mood, try making McDonnell’s official SF Cocktail Week drink, the Oxley Refuge & Tonic.

The Oxley Refuge & Tonic is an East-meets-West cocktail starring gin, coconut, lime and cardamom.

Oxley Refuge & Tonic

1-1/2 ounces Oxley Gin
3/4 ounce Lillet Blanc
3/4 ounce Perfect Puree of Coconut
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Fentiman’s Tonic Water
ground cardamom
lime wheel, for garnish

Add everything to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, then shake until well-chilled.  Pour into a glass over ice, adding a splash of Fentimans tonic, then dust with cardamom powder, a lime wheel and serve.

Follow these links for more SF Cocktail Week cocktail recipes, event schedule and to purchase tickets or a Gold Pass for admission to most events.

Cocktail Recipes, Drinks

Pimm’s Cup 3 Ways: Sparkling, Updated & Classic Recipes

August 28, 2011

I’ve been ignoring all the back-to-school sales and mentally trying to turn this into an endless summer. Sadly, the weather is making it quite apparent that autumn is on its way.

But I’ve been savoring some flavors of summer this month. While I never made it to a tennis or polo match this summer, I did indulge in the classic English summer drink at The Bubble Lounge SF: The Pimm’s Cup.

The Pimm’s Cup cocktail has a rather convoluted history–even for the drinking world–where so many tales are fuzzy because the people telling them are slightly fuzzy-headed.

We do know it was created in 1823 by a man named James Pimm who ran the popular Oyster Bar in London, according to the official site, fetchingly named Anyone For Pimms. The custom was slurping oysters and slugging back London dry gin, which was a bracing 90-proof spirit that didn’t necessarily enhance the flavors of the bivalve.

Mr. Pimm created a cocktail called Pimm’s Cup No. 1 that diluted the gin with citrus fruits, aromatic spices and water, making it a much more food-friendly tipple. Plus, I imagine he was happy his patrons weren’t getting smashed quite so quickly. His Pimm’s Cup No. 1 became fashionable, and Pimm created a few more versions of his drink with brandy and Scotch and rum, that were later bottled for sale.

Only the gin-based Pimm’s No. 1 endures and it’s featured in eponymous cocktails that might also be mixed with lemonade, ginger ale, ginger beer and an ambrosial selection of fruits including strawberry, lemon, lime, apples and cucumber (yes, cucumber is a fruit.)

This season, Bubble Lounge San Francisco in Jackson Square is featuring the Pimm’s Cup No. 1 a couple different ways. Their signature is the Pimm’s Royale, that’s livened up by champagne. They were kind enough to share the recipe:

Pimm’s Royale

1-1/2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 ounce ginger ale
6 inch ribbon of cucumber, for garnish
2 to 3 ounces champagne
slice fresh strawberry, for garnish
sprig of fresh mint, for garnish

In a tall Collins style glass, add the Pimm’s, lime juice and ginger ale and stir. Slide the cucumber down the side of the glass, then fill the glass 3/4 with ice. Top with the champagne, then garnish with the strawberry slice and the mint.
Makes 1 cocktail

As I was enjoying the Pimm’s Royale, Eileen, a Bubble Lounge bartender, suggested I try her updated version of the classic Pimm’s Cup.

Eileen’s Pimm’s Cup
3/4 ounce simple syrup
3-inch slice cucumber
2 sprigs of fresh mint
1 ounce Pimm’s No. 1
1 ounce gin
1 ounce lemon juice
1 ounce ginger beer

In a sturdy rocks glass, muddle the simple syrup, cucumber and 1 sprig mint until fragrant. Add the Pimm’s, gin and lemon juice and stir. Fill the glass with ice, stir again then top with the ginger beer. Garnish with the remaining mint.
Makes 1 cocktail

For the classic recipe , listen in to National Public Radio’s Michele Norris doing a fun interview on Pimm’s Cup history with the catering director at Wimbledon, where Pimm’s No. 1 is the unofficial beverage.

Travel

Top 10 Amazing Museums in Barcelona

August 24, 2011
barcelona_meseum_map

Barcelona is full of wonderful museums; here’s an eclectic list of 10 museums celebrating everything from Catalan history to the art of Gaudì that shouldn’t be missed. Click on the map to be taken to an interactive museum location map created with Google technology.

1. National Art Museum of Catalonia

Explore Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance art as well as modern pieces by Gaudí.

2. Picasso Museum

Immerse yourself in the early works, drawings, paintings and personality of this complicated artist.

3. Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

The modernist Richard Meier building is stuffed with works by contemporary greats like Casamada, Puig and Bonet.

4. Museums at Disseny Hub

Double your pleasure with a pair of museums: The Textile Museum with a stunning display for fashions from the Baroque period to modern day and the Decorative Arts Museum which explores design of everyday and fanciful objects.

5. Sagrada Familia Church Museum

Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was killed by a taxi before he could complete this Gothic and Modernist Roman Catholic church, but it’s still considered his masterpiece.

6. Ceramics Museum

The collection ranges from the intricacies of early Moorish ceramic coloring techniques to rooms dedicated to Miró and Picasso.

7. Gaudí House-Museum

Fans of the artist Antoni Gaudí will want to see the Torre Rosa where the artist lived and in his then visit his fqnciful Parque Guëll.

8. Barcelona Football Club Museum

There’s tons of Futbolart like trophies and bronze shoes along with some stuff by Dalí and Miró for less-devoted soccer fans.

9. The Egyptian Museum

This archeological museum with more than 1,000 exhibits is dedicated to shedding light on daily life and burial traditions in ancient Egypt.

10. Museum of the Antoni Tàpies Foundation

This influential living artist started as a surrealist, helped establish a movement called Dau-al-Set and then was one of the first to incorporate mixed media objects like marble dust, string and even furniture in his work.