rone | busy, busy, busy (Reply)

Mom and Dad came to town on Saturday, and soon thereafter we headed to Pollywog Pond for palecur's and rjray's birthday party, where amywithani uncorked this incredible `94 Priorat (don't recall the house, alas). Sunday was spent getting my parents a rental car, then going to Best Buy, Home Depot Expo, and Costco; then Paul, Ami and Randy had dinner at our house (a delicious chicken vesuvio cooked by the magnificent 2wanda) with Mom and Dad (and Renée).

On Monday, my boss came to town from Massachusetts, so he took me, my previous boss, and their boss to dinner at Roy's (WARNING: gratuitous use of Java). What a fantastic meal... we all started with a Tanqueray and tonic (except for the boss's boss, who had a glass of merlot); my meal was the shellfish combination — two eastern scallops on a bed of rice and black beans, a piece of cornmeal-dusted grilled hebi on a bed of roasted potatoes (themselves sitting on a small amount of mashed potatoes), and a lonely but flavorful shrimp in the corner. We ordered a bottle of Stag's Leap 2001 ARTEMIS cabernet sauvignon and it was absolutely great on its own, with the meal, and with the dessert... a superb chocolate soufflé. Everything was just damn near perfect. The only downside was that i didn't get home until 23:00.

Today convinced me that i should simply not go wine tasting for the foreseeable future, because i will buy wine until i'm in the poorhouse (besides, i don't have any freakin' room for it anymore). I took Mom and Dad to Bonny Doon and, god damn, those people there are the nicest you'll find at a wine tasting room anywhere. We got to taste 10 wines in all: two whites, five reds, and three dessert wines. For free. Mom and Dad were floored by the Framboise and bought two bottles as well as a bottle of their charbono; i ended up with three bottles, one each of the Old Telegram, Freisa, and a barbera which name eludes me (it's not the Ca' del Solo one). After enjoying some delicious St. Louis ribs at Bruno's BBQ in Scotts Valley, we moved on to Cooper-Garrod. Kim used to ride there as a teenager, as they have stables along with the vines. I wanted to replace the bottle of the`97 George's Vineyard cabernet sauvignon we opened to go with the chicken vesuvio (George Cooper used to be a test pilot for NASA; there's pictures of the various aircraft he's flown in the tasting room); they're down to their last 12 cases, so you should really buy one if you can — the stuff is great. We also got to taste their 2002 viognier (which is a Randall "Mr. Bonny Doon" Grahm clone), which was peppery (a peppery white wine? inconceivable!) and good, but not good enough to buy. However, their `98 cabernet franc... that was too good to not buy. As they say on their site, "What is this Cabernet Franc, after all?" Damn, but i love that stuff.