Farmstead Cheeses and Wines: Jeff’s Blog

It’s our last full day in South Africa, and our hosts Fran and Lisa Kysela wanted to show us where the Atlantic and the Indian oceans meet (as well as the new winegrowing region of Elim), so we piled into the cars for the three hour trip to Cape Algulhas, the southern most tip of [...]

Carol and I were invited to learn about blending wine at the fabulous Handley Cellars. We visited vineyards, blended wine, and ate a fabulous meal. Afterwards, we visited The Apple Farm. For a slideshow of more photos, please click here

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’re pleased to present a wine dinner featuring one of our favorite Wine makers at one of our favorite restaurants: Byron Kosuge at the Wood Tavern on Monday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m. The five course dinner is priced at $105 per person, including tax and gratuity ($100 per person for Farmstead Wine Club members [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Today, we visit the wineries of Charles Back. Charles is arguably the Robert Mondavi of South Africa, producing great wines in a user friendly, marketing-centric environment. He’s the mind behind Fairview, Goats do Roam and Spice Route wineries, and the head of a bustling food and wine empire, producing 25 different varieties of cheese, and [...]

Today, we were supposed to go to Table Mountain to see the views and unique plant species that live there, but the weather was bad, so we tried plan B, a walking tour of Capetown, followed by a traditional Cape Malay lunch at a restaurant on the top of Signal Hill. Capetown architecture is an [...]

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 [...]

Last March, I went to Spain as the guest of Jorgé Ordoñez Fine Wines from Spain. We visited many wine regions, and many wineries. One of the highlights of the trio was a dinner at Restaurant Lera in Salamanca, Toro with the Eguren family, makers of Bodegas Numanthia Termanthia. The restaurant was truly beautiful, rustic, [...]