of the moment, to have dinner at Mrs. K’s Toll House in Silver Spring, MD. The house has been there as a toll house since the very early 1900’s and has been a restaurant since 1930. I don’t know how I have...

of raspberry and cherry with soft tannins and a little bit of spice and earth, probably my favorite of the night. 05: Millbrook Venison – Pistachio Puree, Macerated Cherries, Rye-Caraway Bread Pudding and Allspice Venison...

My friend and I took a day trip up to Sonoma yesterday, managed to visit 5 wineries and grab a nice lunch at Sunflower Caffe in Sonoma. We started our trip south of Sonoma w/ Cline Cellars. I was pleasantly surprised by some of...

. Personally, I’ve not been a fan of Dungeness for crab cakes because the texture’s not right, but this version managed to minimize the stringiness and highlight the complex depth of flavor of our local crab with Asian...

. If you’re looking for something specific you could call the store, ask for a manager and ask them whether it’s on the shelf, although I wouldn’t count on it. The help are usually friendly but not terribly...

(thus, it is corked, oxidized etc), you may have the manager/sommelier confirm that the wine is flawed. Be honest with your likes/preferences, ask for assistance, most restaurants are trying to find a good match for you so that...

they urged you to buy them? I’m curious. My bottle, FYI, still had decent tannin, but almost no fruit. It was essentially dry and flavorless. Argues somewhat for having been stored poorly, but I can’t say.

I don’t know, Robert. Years ago when I was first getting into wine, zins from Ridge and some of the Napa wineries seemed like the ultimate. In retrospect, they were too young, tight, heavy on oak and tannins, and good...

a restaurant, it was a toll house in the early 1900’s) and I don’t know how I’ve not managed to go there at least once in the last 25 years. Our trip started on a sour note, the people who entered the parking lot...

red wine of the evening, for me at least. The wonderful, charming Larry Hyde was there, too, with his charming wife (whose name escapes me at the moment; sorry). Larry is, of course, the general manager of Hyde Vineyards, one of...

, but not crowded or stuffy. The decor is punctuated by warm and dark colors and wood, with a youthful and eclectic “hip” vibe that somehow manages to speak Spanish. The seating is divided between higher bar type...

sauce. They served a Syrah with this that I don’t remember a thing about, but the floor manager informed me this dish is difficult to pair for, and the Syrah had enough weight (I assumed he meant tannins) to hold up to the...

decanting the young ones for aeration. We managed to deplete the stock of stemware with three red wine glasses per person. I chose one of the specials of the day to start, the fresh softshell crab with aioli. Greaseless and...

for that! The evening started off with a lovely reception in the club, where caterers were busy serving up complementary drinks and hors d’oeuvres and whisking away empty plates and cups. Burumun and I arrived early and...

struck out – 2000 Goldies Vines RRV Pinot Noir, 2000 Richard McDowell RRV Merlot and 2001 Cacophony Paso Robles Zin – too much oak for the delicate fruit and drying tannins. I had better luck with the pigment-impaired...