The Chilaquiles @ Miguel's Restaurant, Calistoga (minus the sour cream)
I was first introduced to chilaquiles while I was living in Los Angeles. Back then, I was working a prep cook at Houston’s Santa Monica, trying to get some real-world kitchen experience before heading off to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Since I was working mostly mornings at that time, the “family meal” at Houston’s was often chilaquiles, which I would best describe as breakfast nachos, for lack of better terminology. These meals would assume varying forms from day to day, based upon whatever [... read more ...]
As I spent 2009 combing the Napa Valley for great wines (the one definite perk of living here and being in the wine business), I decided to pay special attention to the Cabernets that were priced at $50 or less, hoping to one day compile a list of favorites. In order to confirm their merit, I plan to eventually put all of these wines into blind tastings alongside a few of their $100 counterparts, just to see how they fare against the big boys (I suspect that many of these lesser-priced wines will easily rise to the top). But [... read more ...]
Six wine professionals, including yours truly, blind tasted six Napa Cabernets this week, all from the 2005 vintage, and all hailing from the legendary Oakville appellation. The survey produced some mixed, yet interesting results. The list of wines was as follows:
• 2005 Tamber Bey Cabernet Savignon ($65)
• 2005 Groth Cabernet Sauvingnon ($58)
• 2005 Ghost Block Cabernet Sauvignon ($55)
• 2005 Gargiulo “Money Ranch Road” Cabernet Sauvignon ($85)
• 2005 Nickel & Nickel “John C. Sullenger” Cabernet Sauvignon ($90)
If times are as difficult as people say, then Turnbull Wine Cellars should be on everyone’s short list of wineries to visit this year. Not only does the winery offer a terrific 2005 Napa Cabernet at just $45 per bottle, but its 2006 Old Bull Red, priced at just $20 per bottle, will prove to be an unbeatable “barbecue” wine this summer. I buy a fair amount of both of these wines annually, since I can always count on Turnbull Cellars for a price-to-value ratio that is almost unmatched anywhere here in the Napa Valley.
I’ve often acknowledged that my blog entries on Thirsty Reader comprise only what I find time to mention, and that they account for only a small portion of my excursions into wine country. I happen to enjoy wine tasting, so I’ll visit dozens of wineries within a month, just for my own education. But even if I had the time and the energy to deliver notes for all of the wines I taste, there would still be hundreds of wines left uncovered. Even the Wine Spectator, which rates tons of new wines in each issue, tells only [... read more ...]
