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 [...]

Someone stole a $300 bottle of champagne from the store today. This is the second time we have suffered a loss of one of our most expensive champagnes. I suppose I should be overjoyed that we don’t have to endure theft on a regular basis, but right now, I’m just disappointed. ——— In not related [...]

…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 [...]

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 [...]