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The Food Party!

By Laura Stec

E-mail Laura Stec

About this blog: I've been attracted to food for good and bad reasons for many years. From eating disorder to east coast culinary school, food has been my passion, profession & nemesis. I've been a sugar addict, a 17-year vegetarian, a food and en...  (More)

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Keep Calm and Drink More Wine

Uploaded: Feb 29, 2020

Food Partiers! loves to toast life with good glass of wine.

Sometimes it’s about about Natural Wines?.

or a trip down the Back Roads of the Wine Country.

We've been known to imbibe in wine-soaked sun dried tomatoes atop avocado toasts.

or have a good laugh at Doug’s wild adventures in Opus One.

But we don’t take wine quite as seriously as the folks at JamesSuckling.com who just put on one of THE wine events in the City. If you are that serious about Italian wines, or you just like a good party that throws in a little education when you're not looking, Great Wines of Italy is for you. I wish I could get you a ticket – you’d love it - but all dates are sold out, world-wide. Too bad, but no matter, jot the name down for next year. Held at the historic Presidio overlooking sailboats and the San Francisco Bay,



Great Wines filled five rooms with 100’s of wineries from all over Italy.



There was so much wine to taste and explore,



with fun Italians pouring and speaking their ItalianEnglish, while you practice your EnglishItalian. Multi-level seating, perfect house soundtrack, places to stroll outdoors…it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon (3 – 6 PM). A special shout out goes to party organizers for having enough cheese plate and meat platter to last to the end of the event, a rare and welcomed treat after an afternoon of high-minded drink.

I have to say I washed my hands a little bit more during the event, considering Italy is one of the hardest hit places for the coronavirus. (I just heard we wash for TWO verses of Happy Birthday). It sounds silly but I couldn't help but think about all those cross-culture microbes being swapped. I've never been a germophobe, but I guess this is the new normal, eh?

If any Food Partiers! are in the wine trade, another wine event in town deserves a shout out and your presence. The Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri Tour is coming back to SF this week. Nearly 200 Italian wineries pour wines awarded the coveted "Tre Bicchieri" ("three glass") designation, Italy's "best of the best."

Gambero Rosso creates an annual wine guide, the Vini d’Italia, which reviews Italy’s finest wines, as well as passionate Italians who devote their lives to winemaking. A team of 70 expert tasters then blind-taste 45,000+ of them and award fewer than 1% the Tre Bicchieri designation. Those travel to four cities in the U.S. for the 2020 tour. Consider the Tre Bicchieri designation when shopping for Italian wines.

If the germs don't end up winning, we will be Food Partying! at these events and all over the Bay Area these next weeks, writing about new openings and fun food events around Silicon Valley and beyond. Join us here, or if you want to join us in person, send in your name. We are looking for citizen Food Partiers! to come as a guest and write their own review.
Local Journalism.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by musical, a resident of Palo Verde,
on Mar 3, 2020 at 1:44 am

Aah, the Golden Gate Club is a wonderful venue.


Posted by I Prefer To Drink In Smaller Numbers, a resident of another community,
on Mar 3, 2020 at 8:57 am

ambiance doesn't look very relaxing...way too crowded.


Posted by Laura Stec, a resident of Portola Valley,
on Mar 3, 2020 at 9:07 am

It was crowded - so many people wanting more info on Italian wines, or who just love doing their wine thang'. It was young too - brought me back to the ol days of FOMO, before we had a word for it. Still it was exciting. Siri took me on a road through the Presidio to get to the event, a route I had not taken in years. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area, with a world-class city at our fingertips. Age aside, I want to continue to motivate myself to take advantage of it's opportunities.


Posted by Visions Of Palermo, a resident of Los Altos,
on Mar 3, 2020 at 4:16 pm

My grandfather resided in the CA Central Valley & made his own Barolo & Chianti from grapes he sourced from local growers.

Though not PC nowadays, it was referred to as 'Dago Red' & he bottled it in jugs, mason jars, small oak barrels, thermoses & whatnot.

Ernest & Julio Gallo wanted his recipe to use for their cheaper wines but he told them to get lost...in addition to reminding them & Carlo Rossi that their commercial jug wines (i.e. Hearty Burgundy & Paisano) were not worth buying or drinking unless desperate.

And the same went for Gallo's 'fortifide' reds & whites (i.e. Thunderbird & Ripple)
which were the mainstays of the Tenderloin winos back in the day.

Today most of the derelicts do meth instead.


Posted by Laura Stec, a resident of Portola Valley,
on Mar 4, 2020 at 7:09 am

Thank you Visions of Palermo - I love the stories of wine and Italian culture - which is one of the reasons I love these shows that bring Italians over to the States to share their wares and work. The Italians do it with passion; when you are there, you get to join in :) You're family, right?


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