Main Street Wine Bar...coming soon!

Over a month ago, I was hired as a freelance marketing consultant and social media manager at a little wine shop in Tiburon [Marin County, Ca]. They also needed someone to work in the shop two days a week, so you can find me there, mulling over the many Italian wines and posting images of their labels to Facebook, on Sundays and Mondays.

The previous owner had traveled all over Italy and trained as a sommelier at A16 in San Francisco; she called the shop, Prima Palate, and sold only Italian wines.

When Nancy Larson purchased the shop earlier this year (including all of the wine inventory), she decided to diversify and re-brand. The name of the shop is changing to Main Street Wine Bar and Bottle Shop; the new signs should be up next week! We're still hammering out the design of the new website, but in the mean time, please follow on Facebook and Twitter.

Other improvements include adding more seating, outdoor heat lamps, an espresso machine, and new wines. The selection is still predominantly Italian, but we’re making room for more California and French producers. And in the mean time, it has provided me with the opportunity to taste many new wines.

The Magnificat Pinot Nero ($18/bottle) is a terrific Spumante Brut from the Lombardia region. It’s light and lean with a whisper of pear and orange creamsicle on the palate as well as faint yeasty notes. Finishes clean with lingering flavors of tropical fruit.

I am also a big fan of the Ca’Vittoria Brut Rosé ($17/bottle). It’s made with Prosecco grapes and a small amount of Raboso, a native red Veneto varietal that contributes both color and aroma. Bone-dry but very full in the mouth, this sparkler shows good, lively acidity and a broad sweep of strawberry and citrus fruit.

We carry the 2011 Enkidu Chardonnay, Tin Cross Vineyard, which I blogged about after attending the Family Winemakers of Californiaevent. It’s $30/bottle with good acidity, pleasant fruit components, and no malolactic fermentation [my style of Chardonnay!]. As is the 2011 Foxen Chardonnay, Bien Nacido Vineyard from Santa Barbara ($34/bottle). As the owner/winemaker of Foxen told me, this wine is “Burgundian in style with California sunshine blended in.” Delicious!

The 2010 Winzerkeller Andau Blaufrankisch is an Austrian red that is quite tasty ($17/bottle). This elegant, juicy wine offers impressions of lavender, tobacco, pepper, plum, red cherry, cedar, toffee, and cassis. It’s similar to Sonoma Pinot Noir in weight.

I’ve also enjoyed a few of the Italian reds. The 2011 Alois Lageder Kalterersee Shiava from Alto Adige ($23/bottle) has the weight of a Chardonnay and similar food-pairing flexibility (pastas, risotto, chicken). It’s matured in large Slovenion oak casks but not for more than a few months. Transparent in the glass, it is light-bodied and fresh. Aromas of red currant, cherry, and violets are complemented by attractive nuances of red fruit and a slightly spicy finish.

The 2009 Pietradolce Archineri from Etna Rosso (Sicily; $26/bottle) is available by the glass right now. It’s complex but balanced; the perfume of this wine smells like sweet blackberry, plum, tar and spice. The palate delivers a wonderful harmony of bright raspberry and Bing cherry flavors, dried herbs, violet, and acidity.

I am also excited about the wines we carry from Fisher Vineyards (Napa) and the wines delivered this week—including Saintsbury Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and the Chappellet 2010 Cervantes Mountain Cuvee (red blend). 

The shop is open every day with special Happy Hour pricing on Fridays and Saturdays from 4-7 pm and on Sunday from 3-5 pm. Come say hello and stay for a glass of vino!

When to bring your own wine

More and more restaurants are posting both their menu and their wine list on their website, which makes it easy to decide whether or not to bring a bottle of wine and if so, what to bring that will pair nicely with the food they serve.

On Saturday, instead of celebrating Bastille Day in French fashion, my boyfriend and I decided to go out California-style. We made a reservation at Salt & Pepper restaurant in downtown Tiburon, a restaurant featuring California cuisine.

When I looked up Salt & Pepper online that afternoon and realized that they didn't have a website, I knew I should bring a bottle of wine to dinner.

At the restaurant, we were seated at a table in front of the small bar where the wines were displayed upright. It was warm inside the restaurant, so my first thought was, they should be storing the wines--on their side---in a temperature-controlled environment.

My next thought was, thankfully we brought our own bottle. Their wine selection consisted of the kind that you'll find stacked on the first or second shelf at Safeway. I love finding great wines for $10 a bottle, but I refuse to pay three times that at a restaurant for something that won't be that good. 

So for $15 corkage fee, it was worth bringing a bottle of the 2009 Dutton-Goldfield Devil's Gulch Pinot Noir ($48/bottle). With rich blackberry fruit flavors, nice spice, and good concentration, the wine was amazing!

I wish I could say the same about the restaurant.

Although the small space had charm, the dining room was so close to the kitchen that it filled up with smoke about half-way through our meal despite the overhead fans. It didn't get so bad that we had to evacuate, but my eyes stung and it smelled like smoke. When I went to the bathroom, the sloping floor made me feel like I was on a boat out at sea.

For a restaurant called Salt & Pepper, we joked that they didn't use enough seasoning. The menu sounded great, but the food was bland. The crab cakes were teeny tiny and Doug's pork chop was undercooked.  It was also weird that we were the youngest customers by about forty years (I am not exaggerating).

For consistently yummy food in Tiburon, check out the Boathouse (which ironically, is directly across the street from Salt & Pepper). Doug and I have only been to the Boathouse once for lunch (the chicken pot pie was the best I've ever had), but we go for brunch at least twice a month for the eggs benedict. We will definitely go there for dinner before we go back to Salt & Pepper.

And when in doubt, bring a bottle of wine to dinner. You can always decide not to open it if you see something more interesting on the wine list. Life is too short to drink bad wine with a 300% upcharge.

P.S. If you do bring your own bottle, don't make a stink about the corkage fee.  

He says, she says

Friday night, my boyfriend and I went to The Caprice in Tiburon for dinner. Afterwards, we both wanted to blog about it, so here is our joint review....

Pros: Great views. Good wine. Delicious dessert.

Cons: Mostly everything else.

In his words:

I live a short 5-minute walk away from The Caprice. I walk by it twice a day and have wanted to give it a try for quite a while. When I saw a LivingSocial deal for brunch, I thought that was perfect. And when I saw Juice in the City selling a similar deal some time later, I figured I should jump right on that neighborhood deal, too.

Thing is, I forgot about expiration date of the first voucher. By the time I realized it was going to expire, I was headed out of town on vacation and wasn't going to be able to use it. The management staff at The Caprice was really awesome and very nice about letting me use the voucher for dinner. I made reservations for us and was excited for a great dinner.

We had the perfect table in the corner, with views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge framing my gorgeous date perfectly.

As usual, I let her select the wine.

In my words:

When Doug handed me the wine list, I was surprised to see that I only recognized a handful of the wines (particularly the Gary Farrell Pinot Noir and the Bueyes Malbec from Mendoza). But I wasn't in the mood for Malbec and I was afraid the Gary Farrell might be a little too earthy for the occasion, so I asked for our server's advice.

He confessed that he wasn't familiar with the Pinots on the list, but that he would ask one of the other servers. Many minutes went by before he reappeared. I was starting to feel light-headed from hunger. 

When he returned, he said that the other server suggested the fruit-forward Paul Mathew Russian River Valley (TnT vineyard) Pinot Noir. At that point, I was ready to get the meal started and would have agreed to anything.

After many passings by and strange glances from our server, he finally returned and presented the bottle. I tasted and approved it — good, fruity, light-bodied — and he proceeded to pour the wine into all-purpose, non-crystal stemware. For a restaurant with such a top-notch reputation, I was shocked that they didn't have Burgundy glasses. 

In his words:

After the wine was served, our sever told us that bread would be right out. Before he hurried away again, we ordered the tuna tartare appetizer, which was really great. But, we were both very hungry, so it would have been great if the bread actually reached our table while we were awaiting our first course. 

Instead, 45 minutes later, the bread arrived on our table a few moments AFTER our entrees. Ummm, ok. 

After some internal debate, I had decided to go big and ordered the Filet Mignon. Now, I typically prefer my meat cooked medium-well. I know some people few this as a travesty, but knowing a filet is a thick slab of meat, I asked for the steak to be cooked close to medium. What I received would barely qualify as rare, but hey, it was still pretty tasty and I was starving — and our server never came by to check on us — so I ate it. The green beens and carrots that accompanied the filet were blanched and lightly steamed, but quickly became cold. But, worst of all — for a serious, oldskool mashed-potato-loving freak like me — the mashed potatoes really could not have been colder. This was pretty pathetic. How can you charge $27 for cold mashed potatoes? 

Now, after a very long day and after waiting so long for our entrees (without bread, while drinking quite a bit of wine) I destroyed that plate and ate every bite. I don't normally complain, but I would have if someone had stopped by to check on us — or at least, refill our wine glasses. By then, it was pretty obvious that no one really cared about our dining experience anyway. It sounded like there was a larger group downstairs, but otherwise, the restaurant was busy but not extremely crowded. 

In my words:

I wasn't impressed with my meal either. I ordered the duck with soft polenta, mushrooms, and sauteed spinach. It was an oversize portion (unfortunately). I've never been served duck still on the bone; Doug thought it tasted like brown turkey meat. I wouldn't disagree. And the spinach had absolutely no flavor. 

In his words:

Following dinner, the waiter did quickly make eye contact and asked us, 'Are you two doing well?' 

'Yes, I'm doing fantastic,' I said, but he didn't catch my inflection. I'm glad he asked about our state of being ... I'm pretty awesome and my date was even more so. However, it would have been really nice if he had asked us about the food. And, if that was timed to occur, say, shortly after we were served, that probably would have worked nicely.

Against our better judgement, and hoping to salvage the experience, we ordered their Warm Chocolate Cake dessert. It was fantastic! 

So, if you're looking for a restaurant with a great view where you can enjoy wine, apps, and dessert — The Caprice is awesome! If you'd like to enjoy your meal or have anything close to good service, dine elsewhere.

Regarding that second voucher I bought — it was $10 for a $30 value at The Caprice. I'm thinking the best deal would be not to use it at all. Then I only lose $10. If we go back, I would probably be spending another $100. You do the math.

The moral of the story: Now I understand why The Caprice is running so many voucher deals.

In my words:

All criticism aside, I had a fun evening. Although I wouldn't recommend the restaurant, I would recommend the Paul Mathew Pinot Noir (and suggest to my boyfriend that he only buy deals for restaurants he's been to before!). www.paulmathewvineyards.com