My Wine, Your Wine let's all try

Last week we got a gift in the mail -- a selection of 6 different wines from MyWinesDirect. They are a website where you can order wines for yourself or others, and - get this - there's always free shipping. We decided to review their wines and their service the only way we know how - with a bunch of friends and some food.

We had eight friends swing by the office last week, with promises of wine and pizza from North Beach Pizza (maybe not the most elegant, but who doesn't love pizza and wine) and a winetasting party. And they came willingly. Shocking. They were a mixture of wine lovers who shop for wine all the time, and others who enjoy just picking up a bottle now and then. We disguised all six wines with our colorful WineWrappers from WineParty (which was recently featured in the Washington Post and Gayot !). And the tasting and talking began.

Our friends Justin (from BPS who also happens to hook us up with all our local printing needs, and we need a lot) and his wife Aya regularly get a selection of six wines from a local store but Justin said "I never had them all together before" -- this seemed to strike a bunch of people as a fun idea. Instead of holding on to the wines or enjoying them slowly one at a time, invite friends over and make it an event in itself to taste them all at once. And a box like we got from MyWinesDirect, does all the shopping for you, which might be great if you're too busy or just want to be surprised.

We started with a Chateau de la Roche Sauvignon Blanc 2003, from Touraine, this was quite a light wine, almost too light without much of a nose. It got in the 3-5 zone in the rankings (with 1 being great and 5 not great). Next up, we had Hahn Estates Chardonnay 2002 from Monterey CA. This was buttery, smooth, fuller-bodied, with some nuttiness. It generally rated around a 2-3. Neither white was a huge crowd pleaser, but the fun began with the reds.

The group split on their favorites between the 3rd and 4th wines -- a good argument for having a wide variety of wines on your table. The Moorewood Pinot Noir 2001 was a hit with some people (especially Chip and me) -- great with pizza, smooth light with berry flavors, great body, really lovely and woody with some strawberries. Others in the group were big fans of our fourth wine, the Palio Vecchio Merlot 2000. This Napa Valley wine was described as musky, peppery, bittersweet chocolate, earthy, nice tannins. And some people wanted more of that right away.

The final two wines were a Chateau Picoron Bordeaux - Cote de Castillon 2000 and a Vitae Sangiovese 2001 from Puglia, Italy. The Bordeaux got comments like "Yum, great structure, with licorice notes, new wood, barnyardy - in a good way." Though one person described it as having a bigger bark than bite, and too watery. The final wine was almost port-like in its lovely sweetness, but without being syrupy. People were surprised by it and most enjoyed it. Perhaps a good sign of how much people enjoyed trying all these wines is that the 4 reds were polished off by the end of the night.

So, what did our wine lovers think of the idea of giving or getting MyWinesDirect? They loved the free shipping and that each box comes with their tasting notes, as well as note sheets where you can take your own notes. They also really liked the suggestions of what kinds of foods to serve with each wine. The price was also popular - $79.95 for all six wines. The individual wine prices, if you were to buy them through MyWinesDirect, seemed a little expensive and not quite such a deal as the group, but not bad. And the group in general said the imagery used in the marketing worked better for gifts for people with more traditional tastes, who are a little less urban.

Our favorite comment came from Justin -- "It's like speed dating for wines" - now that's the kind of dating I like. Chip said the drawback for him on a service like this is that he really wants to know who he's talking to - like he can at a winery he loves or a local wine store. But for others they liked the wide variety that they never would have picked themselves and MyWinesDirect offers a variety that you can't get when you join one winery. The service seems great if you live in a city that doesn't have great wine stores, than for people who live in a place like SF. It also seems like the quality is good across the board - not every wines was a favorite for everyone, but each person discovered something new they liked and wanted more of. Tune in for our next tasting....

WineClub & WineParty

So I unveiled WineParty, our new winetasting kit to my wine club (SFWC) last week. Our little club of about a dozen great friends have been getting together about once a month to learn more about wine for over seven years. While our unwritten -- but frequently mentioned -- rule is "you don't talk about wine club", I have to give them a bit of a shout out as these friends have been my inspiration for my half many SmartsCo product ideas and concepts.

To me, WineParty is basically SFWC in a box. We've tried out kits in the past that didn't really work as there usually weren't enough blinding sheets (we typically blind 8 to 12 bottles, and WineParty has 24 WineWrappers), didn't have good note pads, and they certainly weren't stylish. I also found it difficult to pour a bottle of wine with a bag wrapped around it - our WineWrappers adhere to the bottle and there are four really festive designs (okay I'm biased).

Our Review of Italian Barberas

Eight members attended the last meeting that featured Italian Barberas. Everyone got one of our WinePassport: Italy as their handout for the evening on arrival with a glass of our starter wine, the new Bootleg Italian Sauvignon Blanc . Our hostess, Tracy, put out some great cheese, dips, and Italian sandwiches and we were set for a great evening. We sipped on one of as we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we jumped into the tasting itself. With our tastings, everyone starts with about 1 to 2 ounce pour of each of the wines, so we can quickly (and soberly) make an assessment of the wine. Once our favorites have been determined, we typically finish off the rest of the wine, typically getting a bit loopy (let's just say in the past, some of our tastings have turned into slumber parties).

This time everyone was behaved and they took great notes on the Tasting Notes provided in WineParty which I summarized below - mactualacutal quotes, but a bit of paraphrasing (as you can tell, some people take better notes than others).

#1 - 2003 Agostino Pavia Barbera d'Asti "Bricco Blina" - $10.99 at K&L (a great wine shop in SF)
GROUP SUMMARY: A clear loser from the get go. However, we had a great selection from which to choose, so on it's own, it would be enjoyable at this price point.
Color / Aroma

• hearty and earthy, "like dirt after a fresh rain"
• cloudy, lots of alcohol on the nose
• bright ruby color
• brownside of red
• smooth balanced smell

Taste

• Tangy and acidic, with subtle tannins
• Orange, acid
• A little harsh, nice nose, metallic, oak
• Hot tangie, slight jam, not too smooth, steel / "like biting metal when getting fillings"
• High acid, raspberry young, subtle jam
• Light, raspberry, tart, earthy, fresh rain, mud, musky

Overall opinion

• good for a pre-dinner wine
• "unique"
• Not super fond of (after breathing, mellowed out a lot though)
• Excellent aperitif, needs fat such as salami / cheese, pizza
• "Sort of like licking a 9-volt battery"(NOTE: Several club members were familiar with this taste from childhood. I'm surprised they made it to adulthood.)

#2 - 2003 Cascina Val del Prete Barbera d' Alba "Serra de Gatti"- $15.99 at K&L
GROUP SUMMARY: A close 2nd to wine #4 (the Ruggeri), and a nice bargain. Same winery as #3, and while the less expensive option, this beat #3 hands down.
Color / Aroma

• dirty, plumy, fresh black fruit
• Clear, deep ruby color
• Acidic fruit
• Cranberry red

Taste

• soft, balanced tannins, with good acidic finish
• Woody, plum, soil
• Tangy, soft with high acid
• Bright, concentrated black jammy fruit, nice acid finish, odd vannillan character, well balanced
• Plum, ML
• Plum, smoother than slight spicy. Weacidicanced with slight acitic end

Overall opinion

• good with pork in a cherry reduction or other fruit
• Smooth and nice
• Smoothest overall

#3 - 2003 Cascina Val del Prete Barbera d'Alba "Carolina"- $33.99 at K&L
GROUP SUMMARY: 3rd favorite - most people guessed this was the most expensive as the jammy, rich wines, tend to be pricier. While favoritethe 8 SFWC members favorited this one above all, most of our group prefer more lively wines and clearly found wine #2 (from the same winery) & #4 more enjoyable.
Color / Aroma:

• rich, cocoa butter and honey aromas with evident wood
• Dark odor, nice nose
• Honeysuckle
• Roasted red pepper, musty

Taste:

• leathery (pigskin), oaky, tannic, wild fennel and cooked green pepper
• Structured tannins, carmeley, well balanced
• Good acidic, light & thin
• Burnt-sugar, fennel, cherry
• Vegetal, pinewood, melon

Overall opinion

• would be good with osso bucco, pork with leeks or braised fennel, stewed lamb, duck with cherries
• "okay, but not very inspired:
• Smooth after about 10 minutes, pretty biting at first - eat with putenesca
• least favorite - appetizers only

#4 - 2003 Ruggeri Corsini Barbera d'Alba "Armujan" - $17.99 at K&L
GROUP SUMMARY: this was the overall winner, with most everyone putting it as their first or second favorite.
Color / Aroma:

• soft nose, leather, fresh stewed artichoke
• lovely nose
• deep ruby color
• very nice cherry smell
• vanilla nose

Taste

• soft wine, with good acids and a nice long finish
• A little hot, spicy, tannins, burnt sugar
• Pineapple, leather, cherry
• Dark berry, smooth
• Balanced, fruit and well structured tannins
• Very fruit forward, more tannic / pucker at end
• Fresh goat cheese, dry tannins

Overall opinion

• would be good with lonzo (cured pork loin), salami or anything salty
• Some tannins, good finish
• Floral finish, bright acid
• Good with salty food, fat, porcinis
• very nice
  
  

Something Fishy's Going On

My friend Eric went on a fishing trip in Cabo a couple weekends ago and brought back some yummy fish for a fish party that I helped out with. This year, instead of the Sea of Cortes the fishermen set their sights on the Pacific side of the Penninsula in hopes to catch some marlin, with little success (given the fact that marlin isn't so yummy to eat, it seems to me a better idea to stick in the bay where you're sure to catch lots of tuna and dorado, but I'm not a fisherman). But he was intent on bringing back fish for the party and chartered another boat and brought back some great tuna and dorado.

Saturday consisted of an early trip to the SF's Ferry Plaza farmer's market where we could pick up all the goodies to prepare a fab meal. Then we stopped off at Trader Joe's for the few items not available at the farmer market and and then we spent all afternoon cooking. We tried to keep a pseudo Mexican theme and had the salsa music when we served our friends with a great meal:

First Course
Chips with Tomatillo salsa and homemake guacamole (mashed avacado, diced garlic, jalapeno, onion, lime juice)
Seared Tuna encrusted in sesame seeds with a soy-based sauce with ginger, green onions, and garlic, and jalapeno
Dorado Ceviche - (Did you know that Dorado is the same thing as Mahi Mahi? I didn't). Got the perfect ceviche recipe from my friend James at Destino Restaurant, who knows all about making great cevice. James tells me you can make ceviche from any fish and there are 5 elements to ceviche and you can adorn is as fits your personal preference.
- fish (any kind you want, really, just be sure it's super fresh and cut up in small pieces)
- lime juice (the key is that you really don't want to marinate the fish for long - 5 minutes for light fish, 15 - 20 minutes for steakier fish, such as swordfish. A saw a recipe that says to marinate for 3 hours which I suppose you would do if you're not working with really fresh fish, but with the good stuff, James says a few minutes is perfecto!)
- heat (japapeno or other hot pepper, garlic)
- diced veggies (red onion, tomoato, avacado, etc.)
- herbs (typically cilantro, but others could work too)

Main Course
Sauteed dorado - just fish in some butter
Tuna belly baked with onions, lemon in tin foil
Caesar salad - key is to cover each piece of lettuce in olive oil that's been infused with garlic overnight. Then you'll boil one egg (or 2 depending on the size of the salad) for 1 minute and break it and mix it in with the lettuce; and then add chopped up anchovies (fresh ones are much preferable to canned) and lots of parmesian cheese and croutons (use some old french or sour dough bread fried in olive oil and diced garlic). Mmmmmm.
Baked eggplant and tomato with a vinagrette, parmasian cheese and bread crumbs. This was a bit of a complicated dish we got from the Alice Water's Chez Panisse Cookbook, but well worth the time and effort. My only change would be to reduce the amount of bread crumbs as the eggplant and tomatoes were so tasty on their own

Dessert
Creme Brulee - I actually had never made it before. It's basically egg yolks and heavy cream infused with vanilla bean. The key is to only cook half the cream with the vanilla bean and then cool it down with the 2nd half of the cream before you mix in the egg yolks and pour it in the ramakins. One of many techniques I got from my favorite cookbook The New Best Recipe Cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. It's quite weighty, but they clearly have done the research on how to perfect any recipe.

Definitely fun was had by all. The early Sunday morning flight to DC for the WineParty launch came way too soon (fortunately we turned the clocks back so I got an extra hour sleep).

Definitely Count Me In (maybe you too?)

Regular readers of this blog know SmartsCo received a Make Mine a $Million award from Count Me In, OPEN by American Express and the Women's Leadership Exchange in August. Since then, it's been a whirlwind of activity which has been pretty exciting. Thus far, we've benefited from increased financing opportunities, marketing exposure, and business coaching -- all things that are helping our business grow - details on that below, but first:

If you're a woman-owned business you can win, too - How to Apply
We're thrilled that we have this opportunity and know there will be lots of amazing things going on over the next few months that will help get us to the $Million mark (and well beyond). What's even better is this opportunity is still available to other women-owned businesses. I highly encourage East Coast women-owned businesses to apply for this great award by November 18th - winners will be announced in NY on December 2nd, and Jen and I will be there to cheer other applicants on. It's a very easy application (and the folks at Count Me In will help you if you need it) and well worth your time. If you know of any woman-owned business looking for more tools and resources to help them grow, do tell them about it.

Here's how we've benefited from winning the Make Mine a $Million award..Yippee!

1. New Financing Opportunities
As soon as we won the award, the folks at OPEN by American Express and Count Me In helped open financial opportunities for us through new loans and lines of credit. We've always been big users of our OPEN card when we're in a cash crunch as it has low rates and doesn't have penalties for using the 'checks' they send you. Now we have a line of credit from OPEN which will also come in handy when the bank account gets a bit low (doesn't every small business go through that from time to time?).

These new financial opportunities have already played a key role in helping us increase our growth rate as it afforded us the ability to bring on new people to our team to help us sell and market our exciting products Moreover, now that we know we have access to capital and lines of credit, we're able to expand our product development plan for next year so we can create lots more ways to learn about life's greatest pleasures th(hint: think Paris, French wine and bubbly for the near future and lots more fun stuff later in the year).

2. Increased Marketing Exposure
The folks at OPEN have also been really great at generating publicity for us such as featuring Jen on a panel moderated by OPEN's president at the New York Times Small Business Summit last month. This was a great panel, and we were able to connect with other cool businesses such as ZipCar, a very cool urban car share company that we are collaboring with on fun marketing programs.

3. Coaching
Last, but certainly not least, this award comes with excellent business coaching, which is proving very valuable and inspirational to us. We've also been getting great advice from TV producer and entrepreneur Nely Galan, of "The Swan" and other shows and from Dresdene Flynn-White of Action International. It's great to have successful and intelligent women provide us with ideas, opportunities and help us think strategically about continuing to help SmartsCo grow.

Pretty exciting stuff for sure. So if you're a woman-owned business, be sure to apply. If you're just looking to learn more about life's greatest pleasures, get excited for lots more more great new products to come out of SmartsCo.

Wine Party On

So we hosted our first official WineParty sipping on great Pinots and Sparklers at J Vineyards & Winery this weekend. It was a blast. About 50 super fun and friendly folks joined us for a tasting filled with all sorts of fun and games on a gorgeous afternoon in Sonoma. When they arrived, everyone received a copy of our new WinePassport: California and then we quizzed them with questions from WineSmarts and then had them guess about the wines they were tasting which we blinded with the WineWrappers from WineParty.

This type of event was exactly what we designed WineParty for, and I think everyone learned something about what they were tasting because they had to take a step back and think about it. It was great to have our "official" launch at J as we've been fans of J for years. I think their bubbly is my all-time favorite, and it's always such a nice place to visit - friendly staff, nice patrons, delicious food (check out their recipes), and awesome stylish merchandise (and I'm not just talking about our stuff).

We had 3 stations set up outside of J's gorgeous tasting room and our guests tasted two wines at each station.

Station One was manned by our friend Stefani, the creative genius behind J's merchandising program and a super fun gal to boot, who poured their Chardonnay and Viognier. While I'm typically an ABC girl ("Anything But Chardonnay") I really enjoy J's version of it as rather than an oaky and buttery style, it made in a nice and crisp, almost in a Burgundian style. The Viognier, which is currently one of my favorite whites these days, on the other hand had just enough oak to mellow out some of the citrus characteristics of the varietal.

I covered Station Two which featured two Pinot Noirs: 1998 Nicole's Vineyard and their 2003 Russian River. I had a blast getting our guests to identify which was which. At first they were stumped, but after I explained that with age, the flavors in a wine are going to blend together and it will become smoother and mellower, almost everyone got it (and they went home really understanding how age impacts a wine). I really would love to do a tasting with the same wine from various years and see how well people do. (The first photo is me manning my station with some yummy Crimini mushrooms on creamy polenta).

Finally, Jen poured a yummy Zinfandel and of all things a Pinotage at Station Three. The only Pinotages I've ever had have been cheap ones from South Africa, and I found them to be thin yet jammy and they didn't really impress. But J (which, by the way, is one of just three wineries that make the stuff in California and I believe there are only 15 acres of it under vine in the state) has done something really nice with it. In fact, it was so yummy that I was duped and mistook it for the Zin - Oops. Oh well, I've never claimed to be a wine expert, just passionate about it and love to continue my education too. (Second photo is Jen pouring wine for some of our guests).

BTW - Jen and I would love to hear about your wine tastings and fun themes or comparisons you're doing so we can provide suggestions on PartyCentral of our website. If you have some good stories, please send them our way

Wedding Non-Crasher - Part II

So the last of my 5 weddings this summer took place last weekend, and to be honest I'm a bit sad. Not that my social schedule isn't packed with SmartsCo parties across the country this fall, but I do see what the "Wedding Crasher" characters were onto (not that I'm bringing home strange guys from each of these - I just like the dancing).

This last one was for my dear friends Tracy and Carl and it was georgeous. I was particularly honored to be able to play the flute in this one (I don't get too many opportunities to perform anymore other than the occasional wedding - and I much prefer the flute to being a bridesmaid). I think the best part of the whole weekend for me was the arts and craft projects which I helped out on. I just love weddings where friends and family chip in and create beautiful things.

Tracy and Carl's moms made yummy cookies that were family favorites and we boxed them up, and tied cute ribbons around them. Next up was tying bows on the programs which was a 3-step project: folding the programs, punching the holes, and then tying. As a former process consultant myself and Carl being a product manager, we both were quite interested in streamlining the process so there were no bottlenecks. I think we did a pretty good job reconfiguring the assembly line when certain people got behind.

The highlight of the wedding weekend for me began the next morning at 6 am when we got up and drove up to our friends McNultys house in Sonoma County to pick roses. They have about 1000 absolutely gorgeous rose bushes and were kind enough to donate roses to the wedding. I learned a lot about roses that day. The rose pictured here is called "Perfect Moment" - how fitting! According to Terry McN. "It is one of our favorite roses. However, it is not at all
fragrant. What it lacks in fragrance, it makes up for in its spectacular color scheme."

So here's what I learned on my rose pruning expidition, thanks to Terry's great lessons.

1) You should always cut a stem so that your cut is about 1/4" above an outward-facing leaflet
2) when you prune, from the base of each rose you select for cutting, count down at least 5 leaflets until you locate an outward-facing leaflet. Then cut just above that leaflet.
3) some bushes are more prickly than others (boy can it be painful if you aren’t careful).

Storing
1) You should immediately put them in a clean pot filled with TEPID water. NOT warm, as warm water tends to blow the blossoms too quickly. And NOT cold water, as cold water will cause the cut ends to seal themselves, and then they die too early.
2) you should remove the bottom leaves, but keep the thorns on

Cool stuff.

Types
There certainly seem to be a heck of a lot of roses out there: different species, different colors, different varietals. It’s actually pretty fascinating, and beautiful I think they create a new rose for every first lady as I saw a lot of names of former president’s wives. (My favorite rose was believe it or not – the Nancy Reagan. Not sure what to think about that one.)

Hmm – maybe one day I’ll leave the City, get a house of my own and grow roses. Could be fun.

Now that's my kind of fundraiser

Last weekend my friend Darcy and I ventured out of the City to an "It's a Girl Thing" fundraiser for Katrina relief out in Diablo (that's in the East Bay). It was a fabulous party filled with fun shopping, spa treatments, and great food and beverages. We brought lots of clothes and toys for Katrina survivors and raised money through a silent auction and proceeds from the product sales.

At first Darcy and I felt a bit out of place in the 'Burbs, but we quickly settled in and had a blast. First stop was covering up with our favorite Relish Sunscreen so we would keep our skin young and beautiful (okay, full disclosure: my friend Michele Dispensa owns the company, but I swear by it - particularly the bronzer which I love to apply to my pale skin when I go out - it's got an awesome shimmer). (Photo is Michele (R) & her friend Laura Markstein, the hostess of the party).

Next stop: Booty Parlor, a sassy sex toys company, which really impressed. Now I've seen my share of sex toys through our development and marketing of SexSmarts, but I gotta tell you, most of them really miss the mark when it comes to design. If you're into the girly stuff (lots of pink feathers), Booty Parlor is the place for you. I particularly love how they disguise their "body treats" like perfume bottles ("so you don't need to hide it from the cleaning lady" - love it!).

Next up was some wine tasting from Clos du Lac, a winery in the Amador County (Sierra Foothills). Pretty yummy stuff. I must say I quite enjoyed their experiment with Zinfandel Blanc. That's right, you heard me, this wasn't the sickly sweet white Zinfandel (which is actually a rose) we all grew up on and have since learned to snub. I'm not sure if I'd drink too much of it, but I do applaud the attempt - it's a light, low acid white wine, that's really quite palatable (not unlike some of the light French roses I find (which isn't surprising considering the winemaker is French). Went great with all the delicious food that was served. (Photo of Darcy (R) and me sipping on the Zin Blanc.)

So after a few glasses of wine, it was time to enjoy the body treatments. As Darcy got her nails done, I got a facial from a SK-II Skin Care consultant - pretty cool stuff. Apparently, it's some Japanese line made from some liquid that's extracted from sake fermentation that is "age defying". We then got 10 minute massages followed by a full makeover from a Bobbi Brown makeup artist. Too bad I had to go home afterwards, as I think I've never had so much makeup on in my life. While I felt pretty silly, it did look pretty good. Too bad I don't have the time or inclination to put the stuff on myself.

I really enjoy this trend of having fun and doing good. Instead of just going out to dinner or a bar, why not make all our activities fundraisers for good causes such as the Red Cross who will continue to need money to support Katrina survivors. Jen and I always try to work with our favorite non-profits for our events, such as our upcoming wine tasting supporting the Women's Community Clinic we're hosting with Lolawines.com on October 5th. If you're in SF, please join us - it's a great cause and will be a great party.

Paella Party

As part of wedding season (have I mentioned I have 5 this summer?), I've also had a lot of showers and bachelorettes to go to. Last weekend my friends John and Jess opened up their new Kenwood home for a a co-ed shower celebrating our pals Tracy and Carl's (shown here - aren't they cute?) upcoming nuptuals. It was great. Our hosts hired chef Gerard of Paella y Tapas (shown below) who's paella-making is pretty well-known in wine country (and beyond).

It was delightful. He cooked the entire thing in front of us on an authentic paella pan and filled it with all sorts of delightful goodies: chicken, peppers, prawns, octupus, garlic, mussles, clams, rice and lots of saffron. Mmmmmm! Apparently he's has one coming up at winery featuring a 9 foot paella pan that will feed 1000 people. Now that would be fun to watch!

I suspect guys aren't too thrilled about this new trend in pre-wedding festivities, but I certainly prefer having them around. Now they're finding out how much cash we girls typically shell out when our friends get married - not only do we have 3 gifts (shower gift, bachelorette party lingerie, and the wedding gift), plus at least one new dress and the cost of the bachelorette party, as opposed to their one gift and bachelor party. I'm sure the guys probably spend much more than we do on booze, gambling and stripers on their Vegas trips, but that's their choice whether they want to spend hundreds of dollars on lap dances, not part of wedding etiquette.

I think with the addition of men the not only does the food get stepped up a level, but now the wine seems to be flowing much more liberally. Not that I don't love my girl time, but for some reason, I've found showers tend to be rather both in terms of food and conversation. I can't count the number of light bruches featuring salads and quiche or sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and possibly a glass of champagne or cheap Chardonnay. Now that the men are invited, I'm seeing killer paella parties with great food and lots of wine (typically the good stuff). Moreover, these coed showers are no longer focused on watching the bride open gifts for an hour while the guests are required to ooh and ahh over how great each present is (zzzz!!!).

Gentlemen, you are most welcome.

Getting Beer Smarter

Last night I finagled an invite to help some friends bottle some of their home brews. I’m bummed I missed the initial brewing process that took place about 3 weeks ago, but the bottling certainly was fun. After a few false starts getting the siphon to work, we had a nice little production line going (this picture is Eric and Mark filling the bottles – Jen thinks it looks a bit like a meth lab, but I assure you it’s beer).

I had “Lavern’s” job of inspecting the bottles to make sure they were capped properly and packing them in their case – an important role for sure (or at least one in which I couldn’t screw anything up). From what I understand, home brewing is a bit tricky and takes some patience. The key apparently is to keep everything super clean, which results in getting a bit wet during the process. But I think it’s well worth it. We tried a few sips of the brew, and it was scrumptious, and will certainly even be better after a few weeks in the bottle so the carbonation can occur. I can’t wait to try the final product.

If you’re interested in learning more about home brewing, our friends at Beer Beer & More Beer and help you get up and running in a snap.

With BeerSmarts coming out in the next month, I’m getting inundated with opportunities to taste yummy beer and learn more about beer and beer making, which has been pretty eye opening. I’ll admit, for quite some time, I’ve had a slight aversion to beer. I suppose it all started during my grad school years in St. Louis where the beverage selection at bars and restaurants was less than enticing. To quote a typical waitress response to my query on what type of beer they had: “Oh, we have all types: Bud, Bud Light, Michelob, Michelob Light, Busch, Busch Light. All types.” And a potable glass of wine certainly was not an option. Which makes sense, Anheuser-Busch rules that town. After moving back home to SF, I steered clear of beer altogether since I had so many great options in the wine area.

But I now admit this attitude was rather short-sited of me. There are some absolutely wonderful microbrews out there doing really cool stuff (21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat beer is my current summer fav), and I’m finding quite often beer is as good if not better complement for certain foods than wine (consider beer with your cheese selection next time – yum!). I’m even told from a trusted authority that the image of beer having many more calories than wine per serving is a myth (I’m still going to do some more research on this one and will let you know).

In the meantime, bottoms up.

Wedding Cupcakes Take the Cake

So my oldest and dearest friend / sister Wendy got married this past weekend. The wedding was a blast, held in the back yard of her next door neighbor from childhood. What made this wedding particularly special is that Wendy catered the whole thing herself!!!! Now how's that for a superb wedding caterer. The food was delish and the setting idyllic.

As bridesmaid / best friend / sister, I felt it my duty to pull out something special for this one, so I undertook creating a wedding cupcake cake (or at least I assembled a committee to do it all while I supervised). What a fun and tasty treat for everyone involved (plus a lot cheaper than those thousand-dollar wedding cakes that taste like cardboard).

The first step in the cupcake challenge was baking the cupcakes. Since I was in NY the week before, I had to rally the troops to assist - and rally they did. What was great about the "Cupcake Committee" is we could make a variety of different flavors so everyone would find something they liked. Jenny made 50 red velvet cupcakes (yum!), Suzanne (or more specifically her mom) pumped out 50 chocolate one, and Carrie, the real trooper made 75 carrot (always a hit) and 50 lemon cupcakes. And I pulled up the rear with 30 Magnolia Bakery white cupcakes (mmmmm).

Next step was icing them all, which was the best part. Carrie kindly opened her home to the frosting party / day care for about 8 kids between the age of 1 and 9, that was managed by Suzanne, Becka, Carrie and myself (we think we scored as our other option would have been setting up tables and chairs at the wedding site). The kids were very helpful in helping ensure that all the icing was up to par - thanks kids. Once we iced them all, we popped them back in the fridge and freezer and then put them out at the wedding the next day.

Finally we displayed them on a tier that Wendy got. Since we were a bit busy getting all dolled up for the wedding, we had the staff do this. As you can see from the photo, we decided to take the minimalist view on the tier and then put out tray of cupcakes on the buffet. I think it ended up looking quite beautiful.

My words of advice on making a wedding cupcake cake:
1) make sure all the cupcakes rise to the same level - test out 1 or 2 (versus a whole batch) to determine the right level (we went just to the top of the paper)
2) make sure the recipe you use does well with icing (the one that faired worse for icing was the boxed kind)
3) you can bake them a week in advance (or more) and freeze them
4) make sure you have plenty of tupperware or other trays to transport them
5) make about 1 1/2 cupcakes per guest to deal with "oops" and people who eat 2 - 3 cupcakes
6) icing - we used the butter recipe off the back of the sugar box - worked out great

Swiss Alps ice and wine

I just got back from a trip to Zermatt in Switzerland. This little town, with no motorized cars--just electric vehicles--has spectacular views of the triangular Matterhorn, a moutain that seems to rise by itself out of the valley and lower mountains. I was on a family trip with lots of nieces and nephews, hiking everyday, playing Ghost, and getting to see glaciers, valleys, and not one traffic light.

One of the best aspects of hiking in Zermatt is that an all-day hike can be planned with a stop at a tiny mountain village of one to ten little wooden houses, one with a fabulous restaurant. You can get Rosti--delicious fried potatoes--great salads (gemischt salat), bratwurst, carpaccio, excellent coffee, delicious and refined pastries, and unbelievably good coffe ice cream. Yum.

Order a Cafe Glace (either with or without rahm--whipped cream), and you'll get a huge sundae glass, filled perhaps with Movenpick coffee ice cream , which has tiny shavings of chocolate in it, or with locally made ice cream. Either way it will have a drizzle of coffee on top, or coffee syrup. The taste is unbelievable, whether you've been hiking all day, or just hanging out...rich & creamy, with intense coffee flavor.

I did some research on Movenpick's ice cream, and it turns out it's owned by a New Zeland company, which makes sense because New Zealand ice cream is some of the best I've had--especially the Hokey-Pokey, a vanilla ice cream with sweet cruncy toffee bits. Apprently New Zelanders are the largest per capita ice cream eaters, and hokey pokey is the Kiwis' 2nd most popular flavor.

But back to Switzerland... the local white wines we had were generally whites from the Chasslas grape: light and acidic enough to pair well with some of the more oily foods such as rosti, fish in butter sauces, smoked salmon, etc. The wines tend not to be too expensive and it feels right to be drinking wines made nearby. Robin Garr's Wine Lover's page has some more information about this grape.

Big SmartsCo News!

So we're super giddy right now as we found out this week we won Make Mine a $Million Award from American Express OPEN, Count Me In and the Women's Leadership Exchange. This is a pilot program through Count Me In (women small businesses - I highly recommend checking them out for micro loans) which includes a $45,000 loan from American Express OPEN and a "Dream Team" of business coaches from the Women's Leadership Exchange to create specific business plans to reach $1 million in annual revenue.

The coaches and mentors include: Nely Galan, CEO of Galan Entertainment and producer of The Swan series on Fox and called the "Tropical Tycoon" by the New York Times Magazine and named "one of the most powerful young executives in Hollywood" by Entertainment Weekly; Dresdene Flynn-White of Action International; and Vivian Shimoyama of Breakthru Unlimited, and many other successful women entrepreneurs. It's really quite cool and I can't wait to get started on the whole thing.

But we almost missed it all, as last week during our move to an awesome new office in SF's SOMA district, we had a series of Murphy's Law incidents from a technology perspective. First, the phone company canceled the DSL order for some strange reason, then our phone guy went on a bender and disappeared mid-way through the project, then apparently our email server when down, and finally our phones got forwarded to a disconnected line. So we didn't get the message that we were finalists for the award. After making one last call on Monday afternoon that actually went through, we learned that we did make it and were supposed to be in Long Beach at that very moment and the presentation was the Tuesday morning!

So I hopped on the next flight to Long Beach (so glad Jet Blue now has that route), and got quick run down of what was involved: telling the entire SmartsCo story in 4 minutes. I can't even describe what I ate for breakfast in 4 minutes, much less talk about the last 3 years of my life, but somehow I was able to convinced a packed room and panel of judges that we deserved the award. Well, actually all the six finalists were also able to do so as the panel could not pick just three winners from the strong group of finalists and in an unprecedented effort were able to raise additional capital from Microsoft and Merrill Lynch and sign up three new coaches at the conference. I'm really thrilled to share the award with 5 other great women who are venturing out with a wide variety of cool and creative businesses: Cha Cha's Doggie Day Care; Bonnie Plotkin Bail Bonds; Little Twig, personal care products for children; a music learning system company; and Marian Farms, a biodynamic farm.

I now take back every four-letter word I've uttered about Microsoft in the past. They tell us that just 3% of women-owned U.S. businesses generate more than a million dollars in annual revenue, compared to 7% of men-owned businesses in the same category. This program is designed to grow winning businesses into sustainable million-dollar enterprises. I know we're going to get there (and far beyond that) in no time.

My faith in corporate America giving back to the community is renewed. Stay tuned for entries on this blog about our experience in the program - who knows maybe we'll be on Nely's next reality show.

Yippy!!!

Enfuego!

Last Saturday I went to the San Francisco GenArt Ignite Party. Wow, was that quite the scene! I think all the beautiful people of SF were out and about, clad in their sassiest attire (in the words of one charming SF leacherous fellow said to my friend Darcy and I "you gals have a lot of competition here"). I say so did he!

While I'm not generally into the club scene, this party was awesome as most of it was outside at this huge lot near China Basin. The party started in a big warehouse in which they were screening some indy films from local filmmakers and displayed some cool multi-media art. After checking out the art inside we moved outside (during an unseasonably warm night) for a awesome performance by firedancers, which was a sort of belly dancing / Cirque du Soleil / modern dance thing with fire. Very cool. We got to watch the performance while sitting outside on comfy bean bag chairs while sipping on our favorite vodka drinks (vodka and cranberry was my choice of the evening). While not much of a spirits drinker, I generally try to steer clear of the wine served at these types of things as most (but certainly not all) of the time it's usually not of the finest quality. After the fire show, we cruised over to the Burning Man dome which they brought in as dance floor to get our groove on a bit.

My one complaint: they were handing out free cigarettes and everyone was smoking. Yeah I get it, "Ignite". At least we were outside. But even so, smoking kills. I just hope the cigarette sponsors paid the organization a lot of money!

Other than the smoking thing, way to go GenArt! SF is lucky to have such a great organization stepping it up all in support of art, film and fashion.

Bastille Day Picnic in South Park

Celebrate la Guillotine!
Vive la France!

Leave it to the French to continue to celebrate the decapitation of hundreds of royals (okay, I know, the celebration is really about the release of the prisoners from the horrific prison, la Bastille, but you really can't think of the Bastille without envisioning a guillotine chopping off someone's tete). Regardless, 14th Juillet is one of my favorite days of the year. First of all, my nephew Nicholas was born on this day 12 years ago! Sadly I rarely get to celebrate with him since he lives in Austria, but I always do send my love.

Secondly, Bastille Day gives me an excuse to eat some of my favorite foods and drink some of my favorite wines. This year, we had a brief break in the fog for some unseasonably warm weather here in San Francisco (it actually got into the 70s!), so my friend Tracy thought it would be nice to do a little picnic in South Park, a hidden little park right in the center of the city. Tracy just moved back from London and said that her friends would often have impromptu after work picnics as it would stay light until past 10, so we decided to give it a go.

Here's a sampling of what we served:
- French bread with tomatoes, basil & chevre (goat cheese)
- pate de campagne (wasn't a huge hit)
- some delectable salami brought by my friend Eric of Niman Ranch (I don't think it's commercial available, but all their meats are delicious and they're nice to their critters)
- cheese selection including: triple cream Brie, Pont L’eveque, Morbier, and an aged goat
- radishes (tres French)
- Nougat de Provence (little candies)
- Croque Monsieur from The Butler & the Chef (an awesome cafe on the edge of the park)

And the wines included:
- Chateau Thurry (a rose I brought back from Coteau Valois en Provence - quite light and refreshing)
- Chateau Routas (of course - my favorite rose)
- 2003 Clos du Caillou (a delightful red Cote de Rhone) - brought by our office resident wine expert Kimberly Charles of Charles Communications.
- and we finished off the night with some yummy Kir Royales (Tracy's favorite)

So next time you find yourself facing a georgeous evening, I definitely recommend foregoing the bars and restaurants and grabbing your friends for a picnic.

Smarts in the City?

Last week Jen & I were interviewed by Jess McCuan at Smart Money Magazine. Jess was great to talk with and captured the essence of SmartsCo. We feel especially privileged to be her last featured company before her move over to the Wall Street Journal! Congratulations Jess - I look forward to reading your future pieces - it's great to see talented people achieve success.

Apparently after reading this blog Jess thought to compare us to the "sassy ladies of HBO's 'Sex in the City'". Certainly it's quite the compliment, but I suppose we should dispel a few misconceptions this comparison might lead to.

Shoes
When I think of the HBO series, the element that most comes to mind are Carrie's shoe fetish. I don't think Jen has worn stilettos in her life and generally cruises around in jeans and Pumas. Now I do share Carrie's passion for shoes and often find myself painfully hobbling around S.F.'s hills in heels that make no sense whatsoever. But, being an entrepreneur has sadly diminished my ability to purchase the latest designer footwear (and we all doubt a newspaper could really support Carrie's penchant for Manolos).

Party Scene
One great part of writing about food, wine and sex is we get invited to all sorts of fun events. Unlike the NY-based "Sex in the City" gals, parties here in San Francisco tend to shut down by 11pm so everyone can get up in the morning to workout (especially since half the city seems to be training for a marathon or triathalon at any given moment) and enjoy the our georgeous surroundings. And I gotta tell you, I don't mind going home early. Love NY, but I gotta tell you, it can wear a girl out!

Other than that, are we (a) fun-loving, (b) a bit irreverent, and (c) somewhat whimsical? We try!

Beer Trends from 21st Amendment's Shaun O’Sullivan

As we prepare to launch BeerSmarts, we've been meeting lots of cool brewers and beermakers across the country. I've found that beer is a very complex and interesting beverage and goes well with all sorts of food (my newest favorite is beer and a nice selection of cheese). We've recently had a chance to interview Shaun O'Sullivan, the owner of San Francisco's hot brew pub, 21st Amendment, located at 563 2nd Street between Bryant & Brannan.

After working as a legal assistant in his early career, O'Sullivan "traded his suits for rubber boots" and started a career in the beer industry, cutting his teeth at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley. He realized his dream of opening up a place that was comfortable, accessible for everybody, nice staff, and good food, when he opened 21st Amendment in SF's South of Market location in August 2000. Its 5-year anniversary is next month so keep an eye out for anniversay parties.

O'Sullivan brews a variety of beers from traditional microbrews such as a blonde pale ale, and IPA, to a very unusual, but delighfully refreshing Watermelon Wheat. While you can find some of his beers in a few outlets across town, you best bet is to get it at the brewery either over dinner (the food is great) or you can even purchase a 64 oz "growler" to go or buy a keg for your next party.

Here are some highlights of our interview:

SC: What are some of the trends you’re noticing in beer drinking –customers, types of beers that are popular, etc?
SO: Something I noticed from the get-go was that our customers, the people interested in microbrew beers have a discerning palate and are more interested in the flavors vs. mass-produced beer. We have training-wheel beers for people who are trying microbrews for the first time, that are blonde beers, more BCM ( “bud coors miller beer”). Then they put their toe in a little deeper – watermelon wheat, and then try a pale ale, and ramp up to IPA.

SC: Have you noticed regional differences in brewing styles?
SO: I always have and I think it’s becoming a little bit blurry in terms of regional differences. There was the West Coast IPA – higher in alcohol, more malt and way more bitter and way more aromatic. Especially in Washington and Oregon and Northern CA. The East coast– probably because of its proximity to England – had a style that was malty and not so bitter; a little more comparable to British beers. Now with innovative beer categories at beer festivals you start to see double IPA category and bitter beers made by breweries all over the country. It’s more and more of a melting pot. Though people still refer to west coast IPA. I still think we are producing some of the hoppier beers.

Who’s doing innovative things?
At Magnolia, Dave MacClean -- in terms of cask conditioned beers. Also, nontraditional styles of lagers and ales coming together. Brian Hunt at Moonlight Brewing Company with his “Death and taxes” beer.

Bellini (or not)

The other night, I went to SF's Mecca Restaurant for drinks with a few friends. Upon arrival, a martini glass filled with their famed frozen bellini was thrust into my hand. Typically, I would be quite grateful for a free drink in my hand, but with the case of a bellini, I have to admit, I'm a bit of a traditionalist and snob. I absolutely love them, but only in their purest state (meaning a sparkling Italian wine and peach puree). Unfortunately, few bars and restaurants offer them as I suppose the peach puree can be difficult to make or get.

On my first Mecca bellini experience, I was shocked when the waiter brought me a blender drink as opposed to one of my favorite refreshing beverages and immediately sent it back in a huff (how dare they mess with perfection?). But last weekend, I thought it would be a bit rude to send back a drink someone else bought me, so I proceeded to drink it down. And contrary to my expectation, I found myself actually enjoying the chilled beverage. In fact, not only did I not send it back, I actually had a second one!

That's not to say that if I was given the choice I wouldn't choose the sparkling wine version 99% of the time, but perhaps on one of those hot days by the pool, the Mecca version might really hit the spot (and if you do enjoy blender drinks, this one is really yummy).

Here's how to make a traditional bellini:

5 oz sparkling wine (preferrably an dry Italian one, such as a Prosecco)
1 oz peach puree (Drink Boy provides some good instructions on making some or where to buy it online)

"Zuppa" Duppa - Great New SF Restaurant

Last night I went to the opening of Joseph Manzare and Mary Klingbeil's (of San Francisco's delectable Globe Restaurant) newest creation, Zuppa Restaurant.

The 4th & Brannan restaurant takes over the space that once housed Monk, one of my favorite places during the dot-com days. While the pictures of the Dalai Lama are gone, they've preserved much of the other great features of the space, most notably the bar running along the long open kitchen where you can sit and watch the kitchen staff prepare your meal, the 15' long "Sunday" table to house huge parties, and plenty of dining upstairs, including a great "crow's nest" table from which you can check out your fellow diners from above.

If the drinks and appetizers they served last night were any indication of things to come, this place will be a delightful addition to the South of Market area. Their theme is "Italian Cuisine with specialties from southern Italy" (I love it that so much Italian stuff is going on in the wine and food world). We had a great time sipping on some lovely Proseccos, Plymouth Negronis, and wine from Iron Horse (yum) among others, while nibbling on such treats as delicious pizzas, ahi tuna in roasted red pepper, crostinis with octopus, and much more (I need to take better notes at these things). I believe the prices will run around $7 - 10 for appetizers, and $15 - 18 for main courses. Right now it's dinner service only, but I'm told lunches will come soon.

I think this opening is a sign of good things to come for the whole city of San Francisco. After a pretty depressing past few years with restaurant closings being much more frequent than openings, it's great to see some exciting new restaurant openings going on. While this restaurant won't keep the kitchen open until the wee hours as Globe so kindly does, it does still have the super friendly and knowledgeable staff who provide impeccable service (not an easy task for a crowded opening night party).

I'm particularly delighted to see a resurgence of the restaurant scene South of Market, as we're moving our office over there this summer. I'm sure I'll be a regular at Zuppa!

Zuppa Restaurant
564 4th Street (at Brannan), San Francisco, CA
415.777.5900
Opening June 21, 2005

SmartsCo at NY BookExpo

Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates keeping me company at our fun booth at the NY Book Expo.

Slow Food Italian Wine Tasting

When we first started WineSmarts, I would go to all the big tastings down at Fort Mason. At first, these were really fun, but after a while, I got a bit overwhelmed fighting the thousands of people to get a sip and chat with the wine makers. But I have been wanting to further develop my understanding of the Italian wine biz, and was pleased to get a ticket to Slow Food's 2nd Annual Golden Glass Italian Wine Tasting from my friend Dava of Noise 13, who was on the board. Much to my surprise, I found myself having a delightful time with a more manageable number of wineries who all were able to chat about the wines.

The event featured some of my favorite folks in the Italian food & wine biz: Claudio Villani, formerly of Incanto (one of my favorite Noe Valley spots), now the wine director at Bartolotta Restaurant, Wynn Resort Las Vegas who was super helpful to us in developing WinePassport: Italy and Shelly Lindgren of A-16 (despite being in the Marina, one of my favorite restaurants in the City). We were not only able to sample food from those great places, but were also able to taste delightful creations from Chez Panisse and Fresca Italia, an importer of some wonderful cheeses and other speciality food from Italy.

But what was particularly wonderful, were all the wineries who were there -- it was like a brief visit to Italy, but in our own backyard. Many of the winemakers flew out from Italy for the event, and you could tell by their classic fashion (most notably some 1940's style wide, short neckties which must be all the rage in Italy these days, and a guy with some awesome bright orange jeans). Many of these folks didn't speak much English, yet rattled on about their wines entirely in Italian. I only understood a bit, but my friend Eric understood a lot and I had my advance copy WinePassport: Italy, which came in super handy with the great maps and guides to the grapes of and wines of Italy.

All in all, un giorno bello. I can't wait to take my WinePassport and my real passport and travel around Italy tasting wine!

CHOW, part 2 on newsstand Now!!!!

Run, do not walk, to go get the 2nd edition of the fabulous new foodie magazine, CHOW. Or better yet, get a subscription. I know I've been eagerly waiting for the second edition since I got my hands on the first one, back at holiday time. If you haven't seen CHOW yet, you're really missing out. It's sort of Food & Wine meets Maxim, in other words food writing for fun people in their 20s and 30s.

Sound kind of like SmartsCo? Or is SmartsCo so "CHOW"? Well, we can't keep it straight. We met our now good friend Meredith, CHOW's #1 employee (at the time, their "Sous Chief"), at a Book Expo party in LA in 2003 and soon found ourselves dancing to the wee hours at a Ozomatli (awesome band - kind of a hip-hop Gypsy Kings thing going on) concert.

After returning home, Meredith quickly introduced us to Jane Goldman, CHOW's founder and we found we shared a similar vision for our companies: to make food and wine appreciation fun and approachable. Imagine that? You mean make it stylish and remove the snob appeal? But CHOW and SmartsCo not only share the same view of making food and wine cool, but we're also both SF-based women-owned businesses that are bootstrapping it with our own sweat, blood, passion and ever elusive cash (which is why it took 6 months to get the second edition out, but it's well worth the wait!!!)

This month's edition has some great recipes for summer drinks and BBQ, Las Vegas restaurant guide, cool wedding gifts, and much more, including a well-written feature entitled "Yuck! Why do you hate liver? The science of revulsion" (how cool is that?). So intrigued yet?

YELP - Recommendations in the Bay Area and beyond

So these days, I'm now hooked on YELP to find reviews on all the great places in SF. And I'm not just a fan because my friend Nish is their marketing guru! It really is useful. You can read up on people's reviews of various restaurants and things to do, or better yet, send out a Yelp with a question (i.e., "anyone know a great tatoo artist?" or "where's a great place for drinks after work in Po Hill?" or "anyone know of a good hotel in Belize?") and you'll get all sorts of great feedback.

Their tagline is "real people, real review" so people are encouraged to post their photo and a bit of background on themselves too. It's sort of like a friendster meets craigs list meets city search meets match meets daily candy, and then some. Definitely check it out.

Home Cookin'

After a long week in NY, I was finally able to relax in the SF Bay Area and was treated to two home-cooked meals from some gourmet friends. Friday night, my friend Rebecca who works at Broadbent Selections invited us to her georgeous SF loft for a delightful osso bucco over polenta with greens. Yummy. Of course we went though a few great wines from Broadbent, including a dry rose, Chateau Roubaud from Costieres de Nimes, and naturally finished up the evening with a Broadbent Port (Bartholomew is known as one of the top U.S. experts on ports and Madieras), and they have this gals seal of approval.

After recovering from a bit too much wine on Friday night, I was finally able to rally and head over to my friend Wendy's in Alameda for another great meal. Wendy has an awesome personal chef and catering company, Herbs and Spices, so I'm always excited to join her for dinner. We began the evening on the back patio nibbling on some delightful cheesees and a bottle of Pinot Gris from J Wines. I absolutely adore all of J's wine, but the Pinot Gris is particularly special as they only produce small quantities - get 'em while the last!

After cheese hour, we moved inside for the main course, which consisted of Wendy's trademark Ahi tuna (marinated in soy sauce, ginger, cilantro, and I few other things that I forget), roasted rosemary potatoes, and a delightful summer salad filled with asparagus, cucumber, strawberries, zucchini, and lots more yummy goodies, which we washed down with a delightful organic Pinot Noir from Oregon (sadly, I forgot the name - oops).

All-in-all, a yummy and relaxing weekend with great food, great wine, and great friends.

Books & Booze in NYC

While trade shows are generally a horrific experience, BookExpo can be the one exception. The event is filled with all sorts of different characters from all walks of life who share one interest: the written word. We did our first booth there and were the hit of our area, sharing our booth with Charles Chocolates, a delectable new SF chocolatier. People were very excited about our upcoming new wine products WineParty and our WinePassports and they got to check it out while they sipped on delectable Wattle Creek wines from Anderson Valley, California.


After some exhausting days, we did get at little time to play. I went to Artisanal on Park Ave. & 32nd St. Great food, at least 100 wines by the glass, and wide array of cheese - all of which were super yummy. Plus we had great service. I highly recommend it!!!

The next night, we met with our BeerSmarts team for dinner at Hearth. Once again a great meal and wonderful service. Joining us were BeerSmarts author Joseph Cummins, our editor Garrett Oliver, who's the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery and the author of the Brewmaster's Table (an excellent book!), and BeerSmarts fan Timothy Hall, the brewmaster at New Jersey's The Ship Inn. Great conversation, great food, great beer (and some wine too). Friday morning came up way too quick!

After the show on Friday, I was invited to a friend's potluck dinner in the Upper East Side, which was great as I was able to swing by one of my favorite wine shops, Best Cellars, that coincidentally was featuring my current favorite wines - roses. I picked up a great Hunter Valley, dry pink Shiraz (Captain Margan) which was delightful. Upon arrival, most of the other guests looked at me like I was a wine novice for bringing the pink (still thinking it's super sweet). But, once I coerced everyone to take a taste, they were sold (and soon they were fighting over the last taste). It was super refreshing in the hot weather and wonderful accompaniment for the food. So the night's mission was accomplished - 8 new rose converts down.

After a long (but delicious and interesting week) I got some downtime with friends at the beach in Rockaway on Sunday, and now off to jet back to SF for more food and wine adventures in the Bay Area.

Cheers!

All Cupcakes, All The Time: Cupcake Bouquets!

Rachel Kramer Bussell, a Senior Editor of Penthouse is not only a fan of our SexSmarts game, but like Jen & I, she's also a huge cupcake lover and has a blog dedicated to this delicious subject. I'm making a cupcake cake for my dearest friend's wedding this summer - great to have Rachel's connections to inspire me!!!

All Cupcakes, All The Time: Cupcake Bouquets!

Hand Shake Advice from Splendora.com

Very good advice from splendora.com (although I think 3-4 pumps is a bit much). I know of one man who is 10xs worse than any woman who's hand I've shaken. Ick!!!

NO LIMP HANDFISH!
A few weeks ago while we were having beer with the "dudes" (both men and women) the topic of limp handshakes came up. The opinions were unanimous: LIMP=WIMP.

And it seems that ladies are guilty of this tragedy more often than men. As a company that commits itself to ensuring that women will one day rule the world, we feel it's our duty to pass along these "handy" tips.:

1. Lean in for the shake. Don't just flip your hand up like a seal.
2. Your thumb should point toward the crook of their elbow.
3. After a quick downward glance for hand placement:
3a. Look the other person in the eye before, during, and after hand contact.
4. Engage the hand fully, palm-to-palm, and FIRMLY pump 3-4x.
5. You are not a cadaver. Show some life in your hand.
6. NEVER, never let someone shake your limp fingers.
7. This is not the Victorian Age. Don't present your hand, palm down, to be kissed.
8. Do not shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Please pass along these tips along to friends and help us eradicate this plague. Shake, rattle, and roll!

French Rosés

I just came back from drinking lots of wonderful rosé wines in the Coteaux Valois region of Provence. Did you know that Coteaux Valois is an AOC? I certainly didn't. The region only achieved AOC status in 1993 (and before than only made VDQS in 1985). It's a great region with I'd venture to say the best rosés I've ever tasted, at a fraction of the price of some of the better known neighbors (even with the horrific exchange rate they were very affordable).

Located east of the Rhône River this region is nestled in the foothills of the Alps between the appellations of Côtes de Provence to the east and Coteaux d’Aix en Provence to the west. Most producers create blends from the following AOC approved varieties: Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, the ancient Tibouren, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the whites Rolle, Ugni Blanc, Clairette, and Sémillion.

My favorite wine there? Hands down must be Routas http://www.routas.com And that's not just because I stayed there - the wine is delightful, especially the rosé and the Voignier). Good news is you can easily get your hands on it here in the U.S.