Today, at Premiere Napa Valley® with a kick-butt CIA buffet lunch. Lots of micro salad (with mache effectively ascending to the throne once held by iceberg), buffalo burger sliders and almost any wine you can imagine. Being on the Ital-in-Cal beat, I thought we'd voyage to explore new wines and new experiences.After tasting wines from Napa made of Primitivo, Malbec, Gruner Veltliner and Sangiovese, we sidled over to the Cabernet counter. Just for fun I had them pour a 2003 Silver Oak Napa Cab, so I could blind taste my writer-gal. See what someone thought of a popular wine if they didn’t know it for its celebrity status. I took a little taste too.
The Silver Oak Cab? She thought it was really tasty, felt it really expanded well in her mouth, but was not overly jammy. Surprised? I was as well. Did it boldly go where no wine had gone before? No, but it did seek out new woods.
At the dessert course, an Italian from Venice came up to our table to share the space. We got to talking in Italian (Yes, I sometimes do parlare in Italiano), and he suggested I stop by and taste his Nero D’Avola from Calistoga.
I promised I would, and on the way we fell into an accidental celebrity vortex around Silver Oak’s corner. And who was tasting their wine but William Shatner (James Tiberius Kirk or Denny Crane depending on how old you are). Lots of fun seeing the old boy. Now there’s a profile.
Nothing earth shattering, just a little mindless fluff for a damp and cold Saturday afternoon, from the Alpha quadrant traveling past the transwarp barrier.
Fresh pepper?