Farmstead Cheeses and Wines: Jeff’s Blog

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet! I was invited to have dinner with another of my wine heroes the other day – Jorgé Ordoñez – arguably one of the wine world’s movers and shakers, at one of my favorite restaurants on the planet – Piperade, Gerald Hirigoyen’s amazing Basque-inspired eatery in [...]

We strive to offer you the best of what’s out there in cheese, wine and beer. It’s a daunting job, as there are hundreds of cheeses, and thousands of wines and beers available to us here in the Bay Area. If we make a wrong choice and select an item that doesn’t resonate with our [...]

I love Wednesdays – it’s when the newspapers publish their food sections. The best of the bunch is the New York Times’ Dining In/Dining Out section, featuring the always sensible Eric Asimov writing on Wine, Beer and Spirits. This week’s column, entitled Toehold in Napa:Some Starter Bottles, was a summary of Napa cabs, priced at [...]

…or don’t, actually. Once every two weeks or so, on my days off, I go on a “busman’s holiday,” where I surreptitiously tour local cheese or wine stores. I learn a lot on these tours: what new products are in the marketplace that I may not know about, new ways of presenting items, and how [...]

Here’s a ‘reprint’ of an article I wrote for the Alameda Sun in 2005 on the subject of what wines to pair with Turkey and other Thanksgiving fare. This month, we’re talkin’ turkey and the wines that go or don’t go with it. Here’s the deal: A boatload of friends, relatives, and strangers are coming [...]

There I was, in the private dining room at Spruce, a hot new San Francisco restaurant, sampling the wines of Betts and Scholl with Richard Betts (no, not the ex-lead guitarist of the Allman Brothers, the sommelier at The Little Nell in Aspen, surrounded by sommeliers from every hot restaurant in The City. I felt [...]

This past week has been all about Riesling, that fabulous white wine grape that dominates German and Austrian winemaking. Twice a year, Winewise (a local distributor) conducts a huge German and Austrian wine trade tasting featurning wines imported by Terry Thiese. He flies in a gaggle of winemakers to present the wines, and over 150 [...]

Here’s a photo of my lovely bride, Mrs. Farmstead, at my 50th birthday bash, putting the final touches on a huge mass of ribs. (Secret: first we  smoke the ribs covered in a dry rub over Hickory for 8 hours, then finish on the grill with a mustard/Jack Daniels sauce in order carmelize the sauce [...]