Farmstead Cheeses and Wines: Jeff’s Blog

Wine Dinner Fran Kysela Oct 21
Wine Dinner with Fran Kysela
October 21 @ The Bay Wolf

We’re proud to announce our first wine dinner of the Fall, featuring one of the wine world’s great personalities and palates - Fran Kysela, the mind behind Kysela Père et Fils, a world class wine importer (and the importer of about 15% of the wines at our shops), to be held at The Bay Wolf restaurant 7:00 p.m. Tuesday October 21.
The six course dinner is priced at $100 per person, including tax and gratuity ($95 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.

Well be tasting some great, handcrafted wines from Argentina, France, and Spain, like

* Roland Champion NV Grand Cru Chouilly Champagne
* 2007 Palacio de Fefinanes Albariño
* 2006 Tardy Crozes Hermitage
* 2006 Castlemaure Grand Cuvée
* 2005 Bressia Monteagrelo Malbec

Chef Michael Wild has crafted a six course meal to pair with Fran’s wines:

* Gougères
* Fennel and Beet Salad with Warm Goat Cheese
* Involtino of Swordfish w/Root Vegetable Gratin
* Duck Cacciatore with Wild Mushrooms
* Cheese course from Farmstead Cheeses and Wines
* Dessert
* (Vegetarian and “non-duck” options are available, just ask in advance)

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 Fran Kysela Fran Kysela began his career as the national sales manager for the import arm of Kermit Lynch. Subsequently, he worked briefly for Weygandt-Metzler, another high quality importer. Kysela founded his own firm in 1994 dedicated to discovering high quality top estates in France, Italy, and Portugal. Since then, he has expanded his selections to include wines from Argentina, Australia, Germany, Spain and New Zealand. Fran’s offerings all tend to be extremely pure, ripe, fruity wines…in short, faithful reflections of their appellations. He is not an aggressive interventionalist importer, but neither does he permit his producers to take a laissez-faire approach to their work. His wines consistently score well with the pundits and are fairly priced.

Kysela has emerged as one of the finest palates and selectors of top wine, whether it be an inexpensive Muscadet or a top of the line Burgundy. The words Kysela Père et Fils on the back of a bottle is an assurance of a quality, value wine.

He’s a certified Master Sommelier*, and I’m proud to call him a friend.

This event is limited to 40 people and will sell out quickly. Please call us at 510 864 9463 in order to reserve your place.

Here’s a smattering of photos from our big 2002 (pre Farmstead) trip to France. Paris, Burgundy, Rhone, Provence, Bourges, Chartres, Paris

I went to a food show today at a large hotel put on by a large food broker.

Generally, these affairs are set up for large groceries to visit with the commodity specialty food providers they deal with - to plan for their holiday orders.

Big numbers are bandied about, lotsa folks in suits with clipboards. Guys like me - small fry who look for gems in the dross - don’t have much to do at these sort of shows, except to wander the aisles in hopes of finding something new.

Who knew I’d run into one of my Cheese Heroes?!?!?!

Pierluigi Sini runs Sini Fulvi/Mitica/Forever Cheese, arguably the most important cheese importers in the US. Out of the 150 or so cheeses that we carry in the shop, at least 35 are brought in by Mr. Sini’s company - literally our entire Spanish line and most of our Italian (including their sublime Pecorino Romano!!)

I walked right up and shook his hand, and proclaimed him to be one of my heroes. He seemed a little embarrassed, but stood still long enough for a photo. We chatted a bit. He asked if I wanted to taste any of the cheeses he’d brought with him. I’d tasted them all….

Sometimes I lead a charmed life. I was invited to have lunch today with another of my wine heroes -Terry Theise - at one of my favorite restaurants, The Wood Tavern. I had expected the usual sort of Wine Lunch - 15-20 folks, a boatload of wines, and little face time. When I arrived I was surprised to see my salesman, Terry, and one other wine buyer. This would be a good lunch.

Arguably Terry is the German and Austrian maven in the US, has been awarded numerous awards (including a James Beard award this year) and is the author of fantastic, opinionated wine guides, replete with great quotes, like “soul is more important than anything, and soul is expressed as a trinity of family, soil,and artisanality.”

Terry brought five wines with him - a single vineyard Gruner, an Austrian Riesling, two German Spatlese Riesling and a lovely Dolcetto-like Zweigelt. As always, the wines were great, but his descriptions - swirling, Proustian, razor sharp and spot on, were amazing. Instead of trying to write them down, I just let them wash over me, and direct my perceptions of the wines (several of which will be in the shop - including the amazing 2007 Donnhauf Felsentur Spatelase Reisling - a finish that goes on forever and was the perfect complement to Wood Tavern’s perfect pastrami sandwich).

What a transition - after 18 hours in transit (Mendoza, Santiago, Dallas Fort Worth, San Francisco), I’m met at the San Francisco airport by Mrs. Cheesemonger.

We say adieu to our Bay Area compatriots (Meryll from JV in Napa, Jim from Wine Steward in Pleasanton, JP and Andy from Angeles/Kysela), and pile into the Cheesemongermobile for the trek back to the Oakland Hills.

The pups are glad to see me, but not as glad as I am to see them, my great house, and most of all, my lovely wife, Mrs Cheesemonger.

I bathe, unpack, and then it’s off to Farmstead Montclair for our Friday night wine tasting. Mike from Regal was hosting, and we tasted some great Elyse Zin, Mantanzas Creek Chard, Espelt Corali Rosado, and Bored-Doe from Goats do Roam.

It was great to see so many customers in the shop as well as my fabulous staff.

The next morning, it’s back to work, hosting a booth at the Alameda Art and Wine Fair(e). Every year, we man a booth at the fair, providing an educational component to the wine program (they pour mostly supermarket wine).

This year, I chose South Africa as a theme, and we’re pouring selections from MAN Vintners, Porcupine Ridge and Goats do Roam. People seem particularly enamored with Goats White and MAN Pinotage. It’s a great way to teach folks a bit about a new (to them) wine region, and a nice way to extend the Farmstead brand to some new customers.
Joining me are Mrs. Cheesemonger, Michael Tripp from Epic Wines (representing Porcupine Ridge and MAN), Mike Peterson (representing Goats do Roam), and some trusted staff.

Having been to South Africa is definitely a boon here, as I can describe the terroir, winemaking styles and techniques with real world experience…..

After the visit to the Olive Oil factory, we repaired back to the hotel, where I blogged and napped before dinner. Surprise, we were going out to have some Asado and Malbec! This time to the famed Don Mario restaurant, a trdition of Parilla and Asado in Mendoza for generations.

We had eaten at don Mario’s first restaurant several days before (see photo below of brick sized portion of meat), but tonight it was to have his famed baby goat - butterflied, salted and grilled, delivered sizzling on the table, accompanied by the most excellent wines of Viejo Isaias.

Eating all of this meat for days on end was starting to get to me, so I was overjoyed at the sight of some vegetables arriving at the table - wow, a salad - who’da thunk I could get so excited over a slice of unripe tomato and a few lettuce leaves!

The goat was amazing — succulent, crispy and juicy - different from the Birria Tacos I’ve had from International Blvd taco trucks. This had more depth of flavor with subtlety, and wasn’t gamy at all. Would I go out of my way to eat baby goat again? Sure.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nightcap and dreamland.

The next morning, we piled back into the busses for our last winery trip - to Belasco de Baquedano - a relative newcomer on the Mendoza wine scene, but one that has four generations of winemaking experience in Spain.

The winery and vineyards are the site of some of Mendoza’s oldest vines (100 years old), and is one of Mendoza’s only gravity flow winemaking facilities.

The wines are elegant, deep, and not over the top (their 2005 Tiza Malbec will be a Wine Club selection in August).

The winery is state of the art, utilizing every trick in the book - high tech barrel washing machines, cold maceration rooms, gravity feed delestage cap management , and minimal intervention.

The results are stunning - balanced wines, deep and rich, with complexity, depth and grace.

Did I mention the views from the winery? Or the really cute 10 week old Mastiff puppies (bigger than my medium sized dogs now, these cuties will be 200 lbs in a year!)? The sweet, crotchedy owner’s speech about Basque independence when asked about the spelling of his name? Belasco is the Basque word for crow.

After touring the winery, we went upstairs to the terrace to admire the view and taste through the wines.

After that, some Asado (surprise!), then off to the front lawn to play with the puppies.

Then back in the bus for siesta, final dinner, and Adios Argentina!

Muchos Gracias and much appreciation to Fran Kysela for organizing and hosting the trip, it’s a privilege to be able to hang with one of the wine world’s great minds for ten days), and to Manuel for providing spot on translations and making sure we had enough beef.

After our most excellent Patagonian adventure, it was nice to get back to the Hyatt Mendoza. There’s something to be said for the curative powers or a fluffy bed and a warm bath to replenish and restore.

The next morning, we met in the lobby for the short drive to Viejos Isaias for a tasting and Asado (did I mention that the Argentines love meat??).

Viejas Isaias is a relatively new winery, run by Rodrigo Romero (who is Paul Hobbs’ right hand man in Argentina). Given that this is a new project, the winery leases winemaking space, so we met in the family Finca, or ranchhouse. It was nice to meet in a home, the scale felt more human.

Viejas Isaias makes several Malbecs, a Malbec/Cab blend, a sparkler and a Rosé of Malbec (slightly off dry and full of flavor). Romero’s wines seem more food friendly and less dependent upon oak toast than some of the premium Malbecs I’ve had in the US, and it was nice to taste them with food.

When we got off the bus, we walked the vineyards - learning a bit about flood irrigation and canopy management. Then we walked back to a patio near the Finca for some sparkling wines and fresh made empañadas (chorizo, blood sausage and ground beef), before repairing inside to taste some wines.

The wines were all well made, and several will be on Farmstead shelves before too long.

Then it was time for Asado - and out came the requisite beef ribs, along with chicken, chorizo and blood sausage - all expertly cooked over wood fire by the Finca’s staff.

We had ample time to eat, taste more wine and ask questions of Rodrigo and his vineyard manager.

Before going back to the hotel, we stopped by a small artisanal olive oil producer for a tasting of some very nice and fresh EV Olive Oil.

If you had told me that I was going to spend 24 hours on a cramped bus in order to taste wines for two hours and have a dinner with a charming winemaking family, I’d have thought you were nutso, but I did, and I don’t.

The next morning, we met at 7AM for the 12 hour drive to the bustling city of Neuquén, in the northern part of Patagonia. The trip was non-eventful - hundreds of miles of bleak scrub, punctuated by tire stores, unclean bathrooms, bumpy roads, more bleak scrub, a few goats, and curio shops.

I was able to add to my store of wacky photographs about half way through the trip at a gas station that seemed to specialize in weirdly nostalgic ceramic figurines with religious, slightly offensive Africana, or Argentinian iconic images.

Scary and fascinating to be sure, I had to be dragged away from the shop to get back on the bus. (It seems that I’ve found a plethora of wacky ceramic figurines on my wine trips - Spain, South Africa and Argentina- someday I’ll have to publish a book of wacky ceramic figurine photos! What a great gift idea).

We arrived in Neuquén City at around 7:00 p.m., and it seemed that every 14 year old on the planet was lining the streets. Seriously, there must have been thousands of them.

This region of Argentina is very wealthy - as it’s the source of all of the country’s energy - electricity and oil. The city is bustling with new construction, high end shops, new cars and well-dressed citizenry. I realized that by contrast Mendoza is a bit depressed, and hasn’t quite recovered from the economic woes that hit the country in 2002.

I unpacked and wandered the streets for an hour before meeting up with colleagues in a wine bar to sample some Patagonian Pinot.

Patagonia - especially the area around Neuquén - is a new hot wine region, specializing in Malbec, Cab, and Pinot. The soils are volcanic, the climate is harsh, with nearly constant winds (good for organic farming, as bugs don’t like strong wind and you can farm without chemicals), and a strong diurnal temperature variation (grapes that are stressed between hot and cold tend to have more vigor and flavor).

This is a young wine region - not more than ten wineries - and Fran Kysela has gotten in on the ground floor with arguably the best winery in the region, NQN.

We were met at the hotel by some winery representatives, who accompanied us to a local casino restaurant for another well-prepared meal of Argentine cuisine (meat) and wine.
The conversations were lively, cross-cultural and fun, and we left around midnight for the hotel.

In the morning, we piled back into the busses for a short drive out of town to tour the state of the art winery for a short tour, extended tasting and adasa (more meat!!)

The wines were lovely and showed great promise for the winery and the region. I was particulary impressed by the Seleccion wines - inky Malbec and a lovely blend of Cab, Malbec and Mer-LOTT.

Then it was goodbye NQN and a 12 hour ride back to the hotel. Thank god I brought a bunch of old film noir and western DVDs, so we were able to pass the time watching Ida Lupino, Eddie Albert, Ricardo Montalban and Robert Ryan.

We traveled back from the Estancia tired but happy, and arrived at the hotel a little after dark (we’re in the height of winter, and have about 10 hours of daylight - from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). After a wee siesta, some of us gathered in the hotel and wandered around in search of dinner.

We found a charming place near the hotel - populated by locals (a good sign) and ate some local fare. I had an interesting meal - a veal chop with a fried egg (there’s no doubt that the Argentininans love their protein!!), and we tried some interesting wines - a slightly overoaked Viognier, and a pretty good Semillon/Chardonnay blend.

After dinner, we repaired to the hotel bar and had a nightcap.

In the morning we traveled out of the city to Bressia Bodega, makers of some impressive Malbec-based wines. Walter Bressia has over 30 years experience as a winemaker, and his family based winery (every family maker has a role)- while a work in progress, is producing some elegant wines (Parker 89-94 pts).

Like most of the Mendoza wineries, Bressia is situated in a beautiful spot, with staggering views of the Andes.

The public portion of the winery is under construction, but the cellar and winemaking facilities are completed and state of the art…. smaller steel fermenters, walls of new French and American oak. We had a small component tasting - most of Walter’s wines are blends, so we tasted different lots of Malbec, Cab and Merlot that went into his fabulous Profundo and Conjunto blends.

Then we had a full tasting of current vintages - a lovely sparkler, some single varietal wines, and then the two red blends. Profundo (92 pts Parker) is Malbec, Cab, Syrah and Merlot (pronounce mer-LOTT here - a fun pronunciation). Profundo is a great wine - cassis and spice and depth - and Parker noted a 45 second finish in his review. My review was more succinct: Yumbo!

Conjunto is another story - truly a world class wine with grace and finesse. Nearly the same cépage as it’s less expensive brother (minus the Syrah), but with the addition of hyper expensive Taransaud, Mistral, and Radaux barrels used in the aging program, one could truly see the difference that barrel selection, toast levels and time in barrel contributes in the creation of great wines. Parker noted that the wine is “full-bodied, dense, and brooding, the wine has gobs of flavor, ripe tannins, and a long, pure finish.” (Both of these wines will be featured selections in our High End wine club later this year).

After the tasting we had some lunch, and expertly prepared and presented re-interpretation of tradional Mendoza food: lovely meat and sweet potato pies, goat meat stuffed with gorund pork, and sweet flan and dulce de leche desserts.

Then it was back to Mendoza city for a few hour of rest and shopping. I wandered about solo, and found a great leather sports coat for not very much $$ (less than US $150). We gathered back at the hotel and walked to another great restaurant for Asada at La Barra with Richard James of Obvio.

La Barra is a rustic place that specializes in simply prepared grilled meats. The meat is all grass fed, which has much more flavor, but more toothsomeness than American corn-fed beef. If you aren’t used to the texture of grass-fed beef, you might find it tough, but the trade of for flavor is definitely worth it. (For a full discussion of the merits of grass-fed versus corn-fed beef, please read “>The Omnivore’s Dilemma, available at your local bookstore, or through Amazon).

After the lovely goat meal at Bresssia just a few hours previous, I didn’t think I could eat any more (I felt like that fellow at the beginning of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life), but I was able to put away quite a lot of grilled short rib, flank, rib-eye and filet, with nary a vegetable in sight).

The meal was hosted by Richard James, a Welsh ex-pat who lives in Buenos Aires and heads up Obvio - a value-priced brand of Malbec, Torrontes, Pinot Grigio and Cabenert. The wines were a good complement to the meal, and Richard was a lovely host.

Then it was back to the Hotel for a night’s rest to prepare for our trip to Patagonia.