Flavors of Carlton

We had a great night at the Flavors of Carlton Charity Auction. They raised over $52,000 for the town's main charitable organization - Carlton Together Cares. Thanks to Ken Wright Cellars for hosting the event like they have every year.

We bid on and now own some Oregon wines from the early eighties - I've had very little Oregon Pinot from those years, so I'm looking forward to opening those soon. As one of the 18 wineries that were participating, we poured our unreleased estate 2008 Pinot Noir by accident. I could have sworn that I donated some 2007 Reserve, but I must have pulled a different case out of storage. Anyway, that is going to be a very nice wine.

Too Much Travel

I've just returned from my second consecutive week on the road. One is San Jose - one in Dallas. So there were lots of breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Only two meals stood out (is it me or are all steakhouses pretty much the same?) - a grilled cheese, sliced green apple and walnut sandwich at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth (more below) and stone crab claws at Truluck's in Dallas. It was my first experience with stone crab - out here in Oregon it's almost 100% dungeness crab - and, wow, those claws were amazing. And they come with mustard, which really worked in a weird symbiotic way. Had a really good wine that night too, a Jermann Pinot Grigio, which was to a basic Pinot Grigio what calculus is to adding single-digit numbers. I have always had good wines from that producer.

I spent the last day with my sister in Dallas - which is how I got to the Modern Art Museum. They had a collection of paintings from the last decade of Andy Warhol, i.e. well after the soup cans. I was blown away by a couple of the self portraits but most of all by his version of Michelangelo's Last Supper. Also loved his quote on one of the posters in the gift shop which I have attached above.

Valentine's Day Weekend Tastings

We participated in a Valentine's Day Weekend tasting at ADEA with the rest of the Gaston 6 (ADEA, Biggio Hamina, Bishop Creek, Cancilla. Matello, Twelve). I was a little dubious about whether the local area was ready for another "everybody is open" weekend, but it looks like the industry is moving that way. We had a better crowd than I anticipated - about 2/3 of the typical Thanksgiving Weekend attendance.