Cline Harvest Party (and more)

So, today was apparently the "day for many food & wine events".

Alder at Vinography raves about SF FallFest 2004, while Sam of Becks & Posh and Pim of Chez Pim both attended the Chowing with the Hounds 2004 picnic.

For our part, we drove up to Sonoma with our friends K & O for Cline's Annual Harvest Party.

We've been Pendulum Club members with Cline for four years now, but this is the first Harvest Party we've been to! Free for members, and $25 for guests, this was a really wonderful way to spend the day. There was a ton of tasty food (and yes, I avoided all the pasta, bread and potato salads) - there was a duck sausage that was amazing - including an apple pie (which, again, I refrained from) which everyone said was amazing. I did sneak a quarter-sized piece of the crumble on top, which was AWESOME.

We sampled a bunch of new wines (and yes, Sam, I actually did spit!), and went on a really cool tour with their winemaker, Charlie Tsegeletos (who is one of the coolest vintners I've ever met), who told us the history of the winery, including the fact that it's the site of the northermost Mission in California while under Spanish rule.

We got to sample some new juice from the barrels (gorgeous, delicious juice... but compare it at $2/gallon to the finished product at $40/gallon), some wine that was pretty much at the end of the fermentation stage (I have to keep practicing tasting - I couldn't smell beneath the sulfur gasses on this) and finally, some that was just about to be bottled. Can you tell that I really think I missed my calling in life? .

At any rate, we loved the whole experience! So then we drove up to Ravenswood since K & O had never been there, and where we are members.

Enjoyed some of the Designate Zins, and headed up to Sonoma town square for an early dinner at Girl & The Fig.

C had a grilled cheese which he proclaimed "perfect" with the tomato confit. And as a lover of shoestring fries, he really seemed to enjoy their version that is served with tarragon aioli. O had a burger which came served on a dutch crunch roll, and seemed to enjoy that as well.

K & I shared "The Works" cheese platter and the Moules Mariniere. The mussels were in a gorgeous broth of pernod, garlic, fennel, leeks and herbs. The cheeses included a Pierre Robert, a Petit Agour, and I can't remember the last one. They were served with lovely capers, cornichons, salame, prosciutto, some macerated dried fruit and a fig cake.

With the boys' ciders, this early dinner ran $70 including tax & tip. A perfect stop before the drive home!

Comments

[Sam]

I think we should declare October 9th "Official San Francisco Food Day" from hereon in!