Eve's Wine 101

Ten Year Challenge…With Wine and Spirits

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My husband Eddie has painstakingly categorized our photos by year on our cell phones, so I recently looked at photos from ten years ago to see if any were worth posting alongside a photo taken recently, for the latest #10YearChallenge on social media. As you can guess, most of my photos back then were of wine, so I thought I would take a look back at what I was drinking then.

(I also searched my name, 2011 and photos on Facebook to add to my wine blast from the past.) This is what I wanted to share:

Contributing Editor Michael Perlis, Eve and then contributor Rusty Sly at All Corked Up in 2011.

From Napa

Meeting with winemaker Gerard Zanzonico in the stunning caves at Del Dotto for maybe the first time, wine tasting at 10 am in the private room for club members at Mondavi, having a seated tasting on an expansive patio with incredible views at Joseph Phelps, an underground tour and tasting in the caves at Schramsberg, meeting with the most gracious host/owner Suzanne Phifer Pavitt at Phifer Pavitt, an evening tasting at the downtown Napa PureCru tasting bar with winemaker Mitch Consentino.

From Paso

Blending wine at TH Estate with winemaker and owner Terry Hoage, visiting Cass for the first time, a mind-blowing multi-course Earth Day dinner at Justin, visiting with the now shuttered Edward Sellers, winery tour and tasting with Lawrence Lohr of J Lohr, discovering that Whalebone really does have whale bones around the property and Calcareous has calcareous rock in their vineyards, time spent with the one and only Gary Eberle, tasting wines, spirits and having dinner at Opolo, seeing Sculpterra for the first time, the dry farming at Minassian Young, Niner when it first opened, the first concrete eggs were at Villa Creek, meeting and tasting incredible wines with Janell Dusi at J Dusi, tasting Nuggucciet Cellars made by a local newspaper man and Mystic Hills Vineyard lovingly owned by local friends.

Jamaica

Though not known for wine we were well taken care of on a trip to Jamaica ten years ago with French Champagne, Appleton rum blended drinks and icy cold Red Stripe Beer.

Events
The annual Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux tasting is always not only huge but amazing, and since I love Rhone wines the Rhone Rangers can’t be missed, local have Vine 2 Wine with lots of local support, Garagiste Festival offered drinkers events in LA as well as Paso, Pinot Days up in the Skirball Center, Paso’s Earth Day Food and Wine fest was new, and long-time favorite LA Wine Fest with Yoshi Murakami doing sake classes and Chris Uhde teaching about scotch.

Special Dining

Fontanafredda Barolo at Spago Beverly Hills with fellow wine writers, Martinis at Blue Mermaid Chowder House and Bar in San Francisco on vacation, wine and cheese at Wine 661 for locals, A Taste of Monterey Wine Tasting when I visited Eddie there for Naval Postgraduate School, Iron Horse sparkling that came complements of Bourbon Steak in San Francisco for our wedding anniversary dinner.

Places that no longer exist today

Wine bar/restaurant/wine storage facility – and even live music – at All Corked Up as loved by many, the two brothers that opened Artisan Paso Robles that was a favorite for locals and visitors alike, Chef Daniel Otto was first discovered at the Oaks Grille at TPC, Chef Jason Park at Maru Sushi when it was local on Town Center Drive and many times over drinking wine at Valencia Wine Company with owner Guy Lelarge and also attending all of the wine dinners and events he organized at local restaurants.

Eve Bushman has a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a “certification in first globally-recognized course” as an American Wine Specialist ® from the North American Sommelier Association (NASA), Level 1 Sake Award from WSET, was the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video (over 16k views), authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and has served as a judge for the Long Beach Grand Cru and the Global Wine Awards. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits.

Perlis Picks: The Oaks Grille at TPC Valencia

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For as long as I can remember, the Santa Clarita Valley has been referred to as “chain restaurant hell” [okay, maybe that was me saying that]. With the independent restaurants that have opened in our valley in the last several years, it is getting harder and harder to make that joke.

oaks grill April 2017 menuAnd now, having somehow gotten myself and Karen invited to the “influencers” preview at the NEW Oaks Grille Restaurant at TPC Valencia [it helps having Eve Bushman as my boss], I can safely say that the SCV has moved to the restaurant “heaven” category.

Before getting into the details of what we tried that evening, let me share with you some information that was provided to us by Troy Hooper, Director of Operations of Tournament Players Club Valencia…

The Oaks Grille (along with the Banquet venues and special events) is open to the public – so come one and come all!

The menu is “seasonally refreshed.” Produce comes from regionally local growers and proteins are “Farm to Fork” – they know at all times where their meats and fishes come from.

Products are certified sustainably sourced. Executive Chef Peyton Poulsen is a winner of SCV Ultimate Chef and the wine list has been put together by a Sommelier with 25 years of experience.

Now, onto the menu for the evening, where we got to sample a small selection of what you have in store when you visit the Oaks Grille…

Starters

Salmon Poke – house cured salmon tossed with tomatoes, cilantro, onion and jalapeno, finished with Hawaiian chili pepper water, toasted macadamia nuts and red sea salt.

House Bacon – thick cut house made bacon, beer battered and flash fried, served with pancake fritters and drizzled with a blackberry gastrique and Vermont maple syrup.

Salads

“Garden” Salad – mizuna, blue cheese crème, shaved candy cane beets and pomegranate seeds, tossed in a hazelnut vanilla vinaigrette and garnished with edible flowers.

Smoked Ahi Salad – cold smoked ahi with tatsoi, pickled mushrooms, cucumber and roasted macadamia nuts, toasted in a lilikoi vinaigrette with a hard-cooked egg.

Entrees

Vegetable Sacchetti – truffle and cheese filled pasta purses with mushrooms, onion, sun dried tomatoes and arugula, tossed in a white wine butter reduction.

Glacier 51 Sea Bass – pan seared over an orange cardamom quinoa with marinated golden raisins, candied pecans, splashed with a passion fruit reduction and micro basil.

Ora King Salmon – pan seared over farro, baby squash, finished with a peach and chilie chutney.

Colorado Rack of Lamb – harissa marinated lamb flame grilled, over babaganoush with spiced garbanzo beans and lentils finished with a cool cucumber relish.

 

All of the above were delicious, but I do have some notes on a few that really stood out for me…

House Bacon – OMG, OMG, OMG. I could have stopped with this. Fortunately, Karen doesn’t eat bacon, so I got hers. And then Eve was wandering around with a plate of these and Karen took another one…for me! OMG.

Smoked Ahi Salad – loved the smokiness of the ahi. From Karen: The smoke enhanced/complemented the fish. The nuance was subtle but distinct.

Vegetable Sacchetti – almost didn’t try this because, you know, vegetable. That would have been dumb. Amazingly rich and delicious.

Sea Bass

Glacier 51 Sea Bass

Glacier 51 Sea Bass – another one that I almost skipped. Karen loves sea bass; me usually not that much. This was cooked perfectly. From Karen: I congratulated the chefs on having the fish just right – medium to medium rare.

Colorado Rack of Lamb – of course I’d love this one.

Everyone this evening seemed to agree that the entire evening’s menu was perfect. And again, this is only a sample of a much larger new menu at the Oaks Grille that looks like it will please everybody, from starters to desserts. [I’m personally especially looking forward to trying the Berkshire Pork Porterhouse and the Durham Ranch Bison Rib Eye.]

Along with the new wine list, the Oaks Grille offers a great selection of specialty cocktails, including The Daily, which as the name implies is created new each day by the TPC Valencia bartenders.

I’d be remiss to not give a shout out to our servers that evening. You can tell when people are well trained and care about providing great service. Thank you to them and to Troy for hosting us. We can’t wait to go back.

Check out Eve’s slideshow of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVIngqlZRAo&feature=share

Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also Vice President of Eve Bushman Consulting (fka Eve’s Wine 101 Consulting) http://evebushmanconsulting.com/ and President of MCP Financial. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or michael@evebushmanconsulting.com.