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Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Farmhouse Wines

What do you look for when buying wine? That it tastes good? That the price is affordable? With Farmhouse wines, the wines taste good, are a great value AND they are produced organically and that is why they are the Please The Palate pick of the week.

Typically, when I think about an under $15 wine from California, right or wrong, I assume the wine will be a big fruit bomb, high in alcohol and possibly have residual sugar. I think of the “people-pleasing” wines for the masses. But, Farmhouse Wines are a great lesson in not judging a wine by its price, as these are wines that can happily be everyone's everyday wine. These are "people-pleasing" wines that are balanced and do not sacrifice quality. Farmhouse Wines is produced by the Cline Family, who also produce Cline Family Cellars and Jacuzzi Wines. Farmhouse Wines produces one white wine and one red wine.

16 June, 2018

Brunch Spot: Ysabel in West Hollywood

A friend was in town last weekend and we wanted to enjoy a late brunch before she had to head to the airport. I had read that cocktail chef Matthew Biancaniello was doing his weekend pop-up at Ysabel in West Hollywood that day so we headed to Ysabel on Fairfax. Sadly, when we got there, we learned he had switched days, but luckily we had happened upon this hidden spot. Ysabel is located on Fairfax Blvd. The nondescript building has no sign (at least not one I could find). But my GPS said I was there so I pulled into the driveway and parked in the lot. I entered a long tunneled walk-way and on the other side was a truly beautiful midcentury-modern space.

The large space is like a butterfly. There is an outdoor patio that leads to an indoor area in the center.

Even the indoor area feels like it is outdoors with the large glass window doors open wide and a live tree in the center of the space. The space feels like a luxurious living room with sofas and chairs grouped together.

15 June, 2018

DoctorWine’s tips on food and wine pairing

The story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

I spent the past week traveling around California with Daniele Cernilli, aka DoctorWine.

Daniele is one of the most renowned wine critics and journalists in Italy and he came to California for a series of wine seminars and tastings for both the trade and consumer in conjunction with his book The Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine 2018.

While I was organizing these events, I worked with him to design menus for four meals to pair with the wines. From planning the menus to sitting down for the meals, I absorbed much of the insight he had to share about the importance of food and wine pairing.

Daniele made a point of the fact that Italians eat and drink together. They believe that wine is meant for food and explained that pairing wine and food “is a religion for us.” There are many considerations when it comes to food and wine pairing, and Daniele offered a few key tips.

12 June, 2018