2002-10-21 - 8:20 p.m. slice of life This was a most fulfilling weekend. After a week of stress and turmoil, a coworker friend and I hopped in the car and drove north across the Golden Gate Bridge to enjoy the wine-soaked bucolic landscape that is the Napa Valley... After picking up a friend who works in the wine biz, we headed up highway 29 and made our first stop at Cakebread. In the past, I've enjoyed their cabernet. This time around though, nothing really grabbed me. The '99 cab was too light (!) to be of interest. We ended up leaving empty-handed. We drove on the back roads around the harvest fair, not stopping for a pony ride even though I've been jonesing for one ever since Maira got married with the oh-so-compelling pony rides on the beach beckoning to me during the sand castle building contest. You see, we had to get to Pride Mountain in time for our appointment. Typically, I refuse to make appointments to taste. After all, I have neither the cellar size or the pocketbook to make big purchases and don't want to waste anyone's time... But, thanks to a coworker who is absolutely smitten with this winery's product, I simply had to bite the bullet... and have my friend make us a reservation. It turns out this was a very wise thing to do. I came home with a bottle of their viognier which is easily the best CA viognier I've ever had, plus a bottle of cabernet franc. Their cab franc has an amazing level of complexity and is simply fabulous...I'm quite pleased to have found it. Lunch at Pinot Bistro directly after our tasting at Pride was a very good thing. The crispy heirloom tomato tart was perfect, and not what we'd expected. A super crisp cracker/roman style pizza crust was topped with two thick slices of an orange and yellow and red heirloom tomato, with copious amounts of olive oil. It nearly got me to do something interesting with the season' s last gasp of tomatoes that are sitting on my countertop...My risotto entree was good and extra cheesy, and topped with a tasty if somewhat underdone duck confit. By underdone, I mean the skin was still fatty rather than crunchy, causing me to peel it off (yuck) rather than eat it. No one else was hungry enough to order their own dessert, and I couldn't pick just one treat, so I missed out on the fig tart in order to procure the chocolate bread pudding and the creme brulee. The two folks I was with were certain they couldn't eat any dessert... right until it arrived. The creme brulee had a perfectly crunchy top (though the custard could have been warmed)...the bread pudding was the real star with its layer of chocolate topped with custard dotted with chunks of what you'd traditionally think of as bread pudding...simply perfect. I'd certainly marry any boy who made me such treats with any regularity... After our lengthy lunch, we headed out to the evil Dean & Deluca where I gave in to temptation and purchased some wine, lemon extract, and I can't recall what else. Right: it was a T-Vine petite sirah. Thank god I don't live any closer to that store. I am obviously not strong enough willed to refuse its charms... last wine stop of the day was at Miner, which saw me come home with a bottle of their fabulous Zin (which I've tasted at several wine events) and their '99 Oakville Ranch cabernet sauvignon which, despite being light, was still quite enjoyable. Though it may appear from the above that the pleasures of the stomach were what made my cheeks red with pleasure and filled my heart, reconnecting with an old friend did an equal amount of that as well. I'd not seen her in a good 4 years and had missed her terribly. She'd always been concerned my ex was going to break my heart and wasn't "good enough" for me. She gets many points for not reminding me of this or for saying "I told you so." I love her dearly. Double points to her for reminding me of when I met Dave Vanian of the Damned (a.k.a. the object of my teenage lust!!!) any comments? (1 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09