Look Who’s Coming To Dinner: Randall Grahm

Monday, September 19th

Last year, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Bonny Doon’s Le Cigare Volant, Randall Grahm’s great Rhone Valley blend that has contributed so much to California’s wine palette. More importantly, we celebrated Randall’s newest adventure–his latest efforts in reinventing the way he makes wine.
Here’s some background on what he’s up to.
As for [...]

Drinks for Oceanic Dinners 2011

We’ll be featuring Randall Grahm’s Bonny Doon wines for this year’s Oceanic Dinners because duh, we really like his wines! But also because he’s always been ahead of the pack on the transparency front and in that regard, his commitment to tell-all labels makes a fine compliment to our well-linked menu. Always an amusing teller of tales, we asked Randall…

Produttori del Barbaresco, a timeline in progress

Aldo Vacca, the Director of Produttori del Barbaresco in the Piemonte region of Italy has been very important to Oliveto and the development of our ideas about wine.  Yet again, he steps up to the plate, and agrees to help us with this ambitious idea:

Tasting Notes: Los Bermejos

There is always something fun and interesting in the bag when Keven from Farm Wine Imports stops by. Today, as usual, he brought an assortment of great wines, but the one that stood out as the most unique and truly memorable was a red wine from the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. As you can see from the picture…

Randall Grahm’s Greatest Adventure

On Thursday, December 9th, we’ll celebrate the publication of his book with a special dinner prepared by Chef Canales paired with Bonny Doon wines, including some older vintages. We’ll hear about the preparations for his adventure, and wish him well. Dinner, wines and your own copy of “Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology,”…

Dinner with Roberto

This evening will be somewhat casual, certainly impromptu, but we hope interesting, worthwhile, and delicious. Roberto is one of the most informed and thoughtful people we know in the wine world. And now, with the wine business in considerable disarray, we thought it a fine time to consider how it may be evolving as we work our way back towards normalcy, and perhaps…

A Visit From Two Piedmontese Friends

Essential to the Oliveto Wine in Time project is Aldo Vacca, Director of Produttori del Barbaresco. Beginning in 1998, he has helped shape our ideas about wine, introduced us to many other fine producers, found old wine for our list, been a great host and friend, and helped us acquire hours of video tape about the region. On June 25th and 26th, Chef Canales will offer…

A Visit from Fontodi’s Giovanni Manetti

There are few winemakers who are as well respected as Giovanni Manetti from Fontodi in Panzano, the heart of the Chianti Classico region. He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of wine as well as for his warmth and charm. While we’ve tended to present more traditionally made wines…

Paitin Comes to Dinner – February 17, 2009

We’ve just learned that this Tuesday evening, February 17th, Giovanni Pasquero-Elia of Sori Paitin in Barbaresco will be coming to Oliveto. We’re big fans of his wines (and have been able to acquire a good number of bottles of his great 1990 vintage), so we thought we’d let you know of the visit…

Brunello Dinner

A Visitor from Montalcino
Saturday, January 23rd, 2008
Traditional-style Brunello producer Francesco Ripaccioli, of the small, very fine estate Canalicchio di Sopra, will spend the evening with us.  Whereas his wines will be available throughout the dining room, we are also offering limited seating with Francesco where guests will dine with him, taste his wine, and talk [...]