We've put together several holiday samplers for your gift giving or entertaining pleasure.

Six Packs: 

$99 France ($111 value)

• Hérétiers de Lafon Milly Lamartine  - organic and biodynamic white Burgundy/Chardonnay
• St Florin Bordeaux Blanc - Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon
• Domaine Laroque Cabernet Franc - well balanced Cab Franc, perfect with most meals!
• Clef de Murailles Vacqueyras - award winning Grenache-based wine
• Ponzac Cahors - tank fermented Malbec. Earthy goodness
• St. Roch Cotes du Roussillon Chimères - Carignan, Syrah, Grenache - 91 pts Parker

$99 Italy ($117 value)

• Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio- sustainable Pinot Grigio from the Sudtirol
• Inama Soave - organic refreshing white from the Veneto
• Torre Quarto Uva di Troia - unusual varietal from Puglia - similar to Pinot Noir!
• Chiarlo Barbera - deep and rich, great with many foods
• Il Poggioni Mazzoni - Super Tuscan
• San Cristoforo Carandella - organic Sangiovese from the maremma (Tuscany) 92 points Parker!

$99 South Africa (a $120.50 value)

• Pieter Cruytoff Chenin - balanced easy drinking Steen
• Kloof Street Chenin Blanc- old vines, tank feremented from Chris and Andrea Mullineux
• Kloof Street Rouge - Syrah and friends, old vines, from the Swartlands
• Eikeboom Pinotage - more like a new school Zin than a Pinotage!
• Riebeek Cabernet - balanced red
• Mullineaux Syrah - sustainably farmed old vine Syrah.  Reminiscent of a Hermitage

Washed Rind Cheeses - When the weather gets cooler, I turn to washed rind cheeses. Their supple, sometimes oozy and flavorful paste, accompanied by a distinctive stink seems appropriate when there is a chill in the air.  Washed rind?  They're the stinkiest of any cheese you'll find in the shops; they're the ones that make you search your refrigerator for something that's gone bad.

Washed rind cheeses are bathed in a liquid solution-- normally a saltwater brine-- during their aging process (hence the term washed). The practice originated in monastic Medieval times, where there was plenty of wine, beer, and spirits available to those monks who busied themselves with, among other things, cheesemaking. Washing the outside of a cheese not only protected the interior paste by preventing the rind from cracking, but it also produced, they found, cheese with a meaty, more pungent flavor that was a surprisingly welcome replacement for meat during periods of religious fasting.

Washing in a brine or booze solution cultivates the growth of brevibacterium linens (or b. linens), a bacteria unique to washed rinds, that softens the acidity while producing a reddish/orange mold and a distinctive stink. The bacteria itself is smelly, which explains, in short, why the cheese becomes so, as well.

Washed rind cheeses should look moist, and there should be a slightly tacky texture to the rind. Cracking of the rind is probably an  indication of a ripe cheese if the interior is oozing from the cracks, in which case it may be perfectly fine (but should be eaten quickly). Depending on the age of the cheese, the interior should go from semi-soft to  soft and supple, or with some varieties, oozing and unctuous.

I've been thinking a lot about community and localism and the new economy lately.  I'm sure that you've noticed more and more empty storefronts in Montclair Village and on Park St.  Every day, the news media pounds the drums of economic gloom and doom, and customers like you ask me "Are you doing okay?," with a great deal of concern in their voice.

We're doing fine here at Farmstead, and thanks for asking.  Business is down a bit, but it's down everywhere, and Carol, the staff and I are truly blessed to have located our shops in Alameda and Montclair Village -  two communities that have been been more than superlative in supporting local, family owned businesses.

I wonder what my community would be like if there were no shoe repair shop and I'd have to drive miles to get a prescription filled or to have my computer repaired.  I shudder when I think of the suburban sprawl that I see in my travels  - chain stores, big boxes and franchise restaurants as far as the eye can see.
 

Oakland/Alameda Magazine  November 2010

Explore Versatile Chianti by Jeff Diamond

Chianti is one of the most popular wines in the world. When made well, this versatile wine goes with many foods, and is a good choice for holiday fare — as its natural acidity and Montmorency cherry flavors complement turkey, beef and ham.

The word Chianti refers to wines coming from the Chianti region of Tuscany (simply called Chianti DOC — Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata — on the label) or with grapes coming from and produced in any of the seven Chianti DOCG subregions (Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita). Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) is the Italian quality assurance label for wines and is modeled after the French AOC system. DOC wines are produced in specified regions, according to well-defined rules that are designed to preserve traditional wine making. Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) is a similar system to DOC, but that indicates wines of the highest quality. Generally yields are lower than DOC wines, and the wines need to be aged longer. All DOCG wines must pass an evaluation of a tasting committee.

We've brought in a boatload of new cheeses for your holiday larder, and  can't wait to tell you about them!

They're from all over the world: Asturias (NW Spain), Austrian and Bavarian Alps,  Catalunia, Piedmont, Switzerland, and Upstate New York!  These are all fabulous,cheeses, and all in limited amounts, so don't delay!

Juni - a cow's milk Toma Brusca from Piedmont infused with Juniper berries,is a slightly tangy and cake-y cheese with complex flavors.   The aromas of crushed, dried  juniper berries infused in this unique cheese gives it an incredible and complex flavor.  Juniper berry is  the same botanical used to give gin its distinctive flavor.

Anton’s Allgauer Limburger I discovered this Bavarian cheese at last year's Fancy Food show, and have been lobbying for it to be brought to California since February!  Allgauer Limburger is an organic cheese made by master cheesemaker  Anton Holzinger who uses fresh, free range cow's milk from local farms. It is ripened for 3 - 4 weeks during which time the rind is washed daily. This treatment gives the cheese its characteristic peach coloring and full aroma. Despite being washed as it ages, this Limburger often develops a thin bloomy crust which gives it a mellow flavor and a beautifully creamy texture with flavors of hay and mushrooms. We can't be sure where Limburger picked up its bad reputation, as its not even as pungent as many other washed rinds out there, but this is a cheese to change your mind.   Even kids love this cheese!

Welcome to National Rosé Month! Or so it seems, to scan the wine section of any newspaper in June. Wine writers treat rosés like Emily Post treats white shoes: dusted off for Memorial Day, retired on Labor Day, perfect for summer but verboten from September to May. Even as they tout the growing popularity of rosés among both consumers and winemakers, the once-a-year rose roundups rarely appear in any month but this one, making drinking pink synonymous with the reappearance of Speedos on Dolores Beach and speedboats on Clear Lake: a drink for vacationland and summer shares, poured poolside, lakeside, out on the deckside.

And with good reason, frankly: while a good rosé is worth drinking any day of the year, there's no denying that their strawberry hues and Jolly Rancher bouquets are best enhanced by long, sunshiny afternoons that postpone the twilight until deep in the evening. Like a summer romance, these are wines of instant enchantment, capturing the bliss of a moment. There's just something kissable about a rose, something that makes you want to pucker up, put the glass to your lips, and laugh.

Fresh, light, a little racy, with a jazzy red-fruit profile that dips from strawberries to cherries to thirst-quenching watermelon: that's your typical Mediterranean-ready rosé, and the type I like best for my summer sipping. For one like this, look no further than Domaine de la Fouquette's Cuvee Rosée d'Aurore ($16.50), made in Provence from a blend of 65% grenache, 35% cinsault, and 5% rolle grapes. Pale salmon in the glass, it balances its watermelon bounce with a smooth white-linen crispness that keeps it fresh and pleasing from sip to sip.

Jeff Diamond, owner of Farmstead Cheeses and Wines in Montclair and Alameda, drinks rosé at home all year round. 85% of the time, if I come home and my wife's got a glass in her hand, it's going to be a rosé," says Jeff, pointing out her particular favorite, the Domaine de la Mordorée Tavel ($28). Tavel, of course, is an A.O.C. region in southern France where nothing but rose is made, and the grapes for this wine are not just grown in Tavel but grown biodynamically by what Diamond dubs "the best Rhône producer on the planet." The end result? A supple, meaty rosé, nearly magenta, that's a smooth, suave dinner-party companion to grilled lamb or salmon. It's a rosé to convert even the hardiest of red-wine drinkers. "In our house, we probably go through 7 or 8 cases a year of this," notes Diamond. (More for weekday drinking is the Domaine de la Mordoree's Cotes du Rhône: light and balanced, a very nice food wine, and at $18, ten dollars further down the splurge scale.)