We're very proud to announce our first Wine Dinner of the Year, featuring Terry Theise, one of the world's great wine advocates, to be held at The Bay Wolf restaurant 7:00 p.m. Monday, January 26, 2009
The
six course dinner is priced at $115 per person, including tax and
gratuity ($110 per person for Farmstead Wine Club members in good
standing). The Baywolf is located at 3853 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.
Prepaid reservations are a necessity and can be made by calling Farmstead Cheeses and Wines at 510 864 9463.
Despite what the British band The Stranglers
might have sung in 1977 about there being "No More Heroes Anymore", I
have quite a lot of them, especially in the food and wine world.
I've
written about some of them in the past, and have had the privilege to
meet and get to know a few of my culinary and wine heroes (Charles
Back, Fran Kysela, Jorgé Ordoñez, Marc Kent, Jim Clendenen, Gary Pisoni, Yves Gangloff, and Modesto Lanzone).
I've
been lucky enough to dine with Terry several times, where our
conversations were wide ranging and fascinating, with lots of give and
take - especially around our mutual love for the great, sadly departed
guitarist Ollie Halsall.
But
the give and take stops when Terry talks about wine, especially
Austrian and German wines - and I'm all ears, trying to absorb every
morsel of his musings on soils, the personalities behind the wine, how
the vintage speaks to him, minerality, and et cetera.
His
style is poetic, complex. evocative and grand - he's not one that
speaks in simple declarative sentence, and I'm not one to take notes.
I just let his words sweep over me, informing my palate as I taste the
sublime wines he is presenting.
He's a wildly entertaining
speaker, full of keen insight and brilliance about those subjects he
loves, and Boy, does he ever love German and Austrian wines.
I'm sure that this will be an evening full of discoveries, humor, great food, and wonder.
As always, there will be opportunities to purchase the wines tasted at the dinner at discount.
We'll be tasting some great wines from Terry's Austrian and German portfolio, like
Chef Michael Wild has crafted a six course meal to pair with Terry's wines:
About BayWolf A Bay Area
tradition for over thirty years, and a perennial Chronicle Top 100
restaurant, The Bay Wolf offers an elegant and relaxed setting in which
to enjoy fine cuisine, inspired by the regions of the Mediterranean.
Founding chef and owner Michael Wild opened Bay Wolf in 1975 with the
goal of serving simple food bright with flavor in an inviting,
comfortable environment. Since then, he has cultivated a place where
fine food and wine, conversation, and celebration happen naturally.
Long
influenced by the food of Tuscany, Provence, and the Basque country,
over the years Wild has developed and refined Bay Wolf's robust,
down-to-earth blend of California and Mediterranean cuisine. His
devotion is to straight-forward cooking prepared with the freshest
seasonal ingredients.
About Terry Theise Winner of the James Beard award for Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional, and named Importer of the Year by Food and Wine magazine, Terry
Theise is America's pre-eminent importer of fine German and Austrian
wines and of small, quality grower Champagnes. He has introduced
American palates to the charms of Grüner Veltliner, he has introduced
thousands of Americans to the wonders of German rieslings, and has
become the champion for grower-producer Champagnes.
In addition to the high standards of the wines in his Terry Theise Selections
portfolio, Theise is also one of the best wine writers in the U.S. (or
anywhere for that matter). Picking up a Theise catalog is like opening
one of the crazy manifestos that some Berkeley radicals mimeographed
and sold in independent bookstores in the Sixties. Part rant, part
poetry, part reference manual, and part literature, Theise's catalogs
are simply a hoot.
Terry's Manifesto:
* Beauty is more important than impact.
* Harmony is more important than intensity.
* The whole of any wine must always be more than the sum of its parts.
* Distinctiveness is more important than conventional prettiness.
* Soul is more important than anything, and soul is expressed as a trinity of family, soil, and artisanality.
This
very special event is limited to 40 people and will sell out quickly.
Please call us at 510 864 9463 in order to reserve your place.
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