Tag Archive for 'wine'

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…

What is spicy, affordable & goes well with hot weather? Puglian Wine!

A consistently hot and dry region, the grapes of Puglia are most often very ripe and high in alcohol. And while Puglia is not one of the prized wine-producing regions of Italy, like much of southern Italy viticulture, it has more recently begun to evolve in interesting ways.

For Puglia, the grape of the moment is…

Dinner with Francesco Ripaccioli

The Tre Bicchieri road show hits San Francisco this month, bringing to town some of Italy’s most outstanding winemakers. The notables include one of our favorites, Francesco Ripaccioli of Canalicchio di Sopra. He will be joining us for dinner wednesday, February 16th….

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:

Heirloom Polenta in the Cafe

Beginning tomorrow, May 14th, we’ll have a new addition to the Oliveto Cafe evening menu — La Polenta. This fresh, whole-milled heirloom Red Flint corn polenta will be served with simple to exalted accompaniments that run the gamut from saucy meats, cheeses, poultry and wild game, to vegetables, mushrooms and fish stew. To kick things off we’ll be participating in the Rockridge…

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…

Dinner with Canalicchio di Sopra

Traditional-style Brunello producer Francesco Ripaccioli, of the small, very fine estate Canalicchio di Sopra, will spend the evening with us Thursday, February 25. A number of his wines will be available by-the-glass and in flights, and Francesco himself will be available to discuss…

Fèlsina Olive Oil Tasting

Caterina Mazzocolin will be in town next week for Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri and will stop by Oliveto on Tuesday night to share some of Fèlsina’s olive oils from the 2009 harvest. A complimentary tasting of three different oil varieties (Leccino 2009, Moraiolo 2009, and Plurivarietale 2009) will be offered with dinner. Also, the menu will include…

Dinner with Bruno de Conciliis

Working in the relatively uncharted Cilento zone on the Campania coast, Bruno de Conciliis is one of the most admired and innovative winemakers in Campania. An avid jazz lover, De Conciliis experiments, improvises, and has fun. Yet, he is deeply philosophical about understanding his role as a winemaker, and is truly committed to finding balance through natural wine making. Oliveto Chef Paul Canales will prepare delectable Campanian-inspired courses to match six De Conciliis wines, including…

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,”…