Winter Holidays 2015

Steven Kent Winery 5443 Tesla Road Livermore Valley, CA 94550 925-243-6442 www.StevenKentPortfolio.com    Wine for a pre-feast quaff: Lola(Sauv Blanc/ Semillon Blend) Wine for a typical turkey dinner: Merrillie Chardonnay Wine for a holiday fish feast: Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir Wine for a plant-centric feast: Lot 029, Red Blend Wine to go with a spicy dessert: 2012 Home Ranch Cabernet…

Nottingham Cellars 2245-C South Vasco Rd., Livermore Phone: 925-294-8647 The NC Collection www.thenccollection.com Celebratory bubbly selection: 1846 by Nottingham Cellars Sparkling Pre-feast quaff: 1846 by Nottingham Cellars 2014 Chardonnay—Crisp and refreshing Wine for a typical turkey dinner: Vasco Urbano Wine Company 2013 “Norm” Grenache—Above the Norm for sure! Wine for a holiday fish feast: Nottingham…

  Northbrae Bottle Shop 1590 Hopkins St, Berkeley 510.525.5323 northbraebottleshop.com Best celebratory wine: Barnaut Grand Cru Champagne, $48. Toasty, nutty and beautiful. Best pre-feast quaff: Charles Bove Sparkling Rosé, $17. Bright, fresh rosé from the Loire Valley. Best wine for a typical turkey holiday dinner: Poseidon and Stomping Girl Pinot Noir, $31 each. Two lovely…

  Dana Velden Profile Video Photographer and filmmaker Scott Peterson shot this short video in the humble kitchen of Dana Velden, a Zen priest and author of Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook. In the film, Velden shows how she prepares a simple salad and gives viewers…

It’s hard to miss what’s been happening in the local housing market as space is valued at an ever-growing premium. It seems to be the same here at Edible East Bay, where we keep learning about more and more exciting stories we want to include. Try as we might, we simply can’t wedge it all…

Carica Wines 1325 Canal Blvd., Richmond 415.902-7514 | www.CaricaWines.com Best wine for a typical turkey dinner:  We like to start with a dry, crisp white wine, like Carica 2010 Sauvignon Blanc with appetizers or the first course. Winemaker Charlie Dollbaum recommends the Carica 2011 Grenache with roast turkey and all the sides, because this medium-bodied wine’s fruit…

By Jessica Prentice   Jessica Prentice, Maggie Gosselin, and Sarah Klein created the Local Foods Wheel to help us all enjoy the freshest, tastiest, and most ecologically sound food choices month by month. Here are seven of Jessica’s seasonal favorites illustrated by Sarah Klein (sarahklein.com) with coloring by Maggie Gosselin. You can learn more about…

Covered Bowls Sarah Kersten, a Berkeley-based potter known for her clay fermentation crocks, now has a line of covered storage and serving bowls. “I wanted to make a beautiful set of bowls that are versatile in the kitchen, especially for leftovers, prepped meals, or prepped ingredients,” she says. “I designed them because I wanted to…

The Spanish Table 1814 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley Link to Map (510) 548-1383 berkeley@spanishtable.com Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm   Bubbly: 2012 L’Hereu de Nit” Raventos i Blanc Rosado Brut, $23.99: Organically grown estate grapes from this family owned winery makes one of our top selling sparkling wines.  Their rosé drinks twice as expensive as it…

Phat Beetz Youth Pickle n’ Catering Company supports youth, and you too! Want to support your digestive tract with a daily dose of healthy cultured pickles, kimchi, krauts, and dilly beans? Join “The Cultured Case,” a new monthly subscription of preserved, fermented, and pickled foods from the Phat Beetz Youth Pickle n’ Catering Company. The…

Garré Vineyard & Winery 7986 Tesla Road, Livermore www.garrewinery.com Best celebratory bubbly selection: Garré Sparkling White-Private Cuvée. This California sparkling is crisp with a touch of sweetness. The nose is rich with pear, green apple, honeysuckle, ground almond, and a hint of brioche. The mouth feel has well-rounded bubbles, with a long finish. It’s a…

Serving top restaurants and diverse community needs By Sarah Henry | Photography By Scott Peterson   Continuing our year-long series about relationships between local farms and restaurants It’s around six at night and Rachel Littlefield, 16, purposefully carries a wooden crate with a WOW FARM logo into the kitchen at Flora, a long-time anchor restaurant…

  Artist Cynthia Pepper enjoys a whimsical life of teaching dance with San Francisco Ballet’s DISC (Dance In Schools and Communities) program, creating short dance films (some that ran in two seasons of Sesame Street), printmaking at Fort Mason, and partaking of the Bay Area’s riches at every level, especially, but not limited to, dining,…

  Paul Marcus Wines at Rockridge Market Hall James Krajewski, wine merchant and social media manager, offers these holiday wine ideas: Celebratory: Nothing really beats bubbly from France in this category! Best deal: Henri Billiot Brut- France $50 Splurge: Tarlant “Cuvée Louis” Brut-France $105 Other option: Madeira! (This is what our forefathers drank when toasting…

Ferment’n If you’ve been intrigued by home fermenting and want to try a small batch, Ferment’n, the Home Fermentation Kit, is an easy way to go. Created by Berkeley ceramicist Mikael Kirkman, Ferment’n is a two-part system using a dishwasher-safe ceramic weight and screw-on recyclable plastic airlock. With any wide-mouth jar, your favorite vegetables, and…

Les Chênes Estate Vineyards 5562 Victoria Lane, Livermore 925.373.1662 leschenesvine.com Best wine for a Pre-feast quaff: While spending time with family, enjoy our 2014 Deux Soeures (two sisters ), a cuvee of viognier and roussanne with tastes of pineapple and white peach. Best wine for a typical turkey dinner: With the tastes of all the…

Holiday Beverage Recommendations from Brian Goehry of Wine on Piedmont Wine on Piedmont 4183 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland 510.595.9463, wineonpiedmont.com A celebratory wine: J-M Seleque Brut Rosé, one of the best rosé Champagnes we’ve come across in a long time. A pre-feast quaff: Aperol Spritz Best wine for a typical turkey holiday dinner: Evesham Wood Pinot Noir,…

  Farmstead Cheeses & Wines Alameda:  1650 Park Street Oakland: 6219 LaSalle Avenue farmsteadcheesesandwines.com Phone:  510 864 9463   Best celebratory wine or pre-feast quaff: A “grower-producer Champagne,” aka Farmer Fizz. I’m particularly fond of Ruelle-Pertois’ Duo Emotion cuvée at present. Best wine for a typical turkey holiday dinner: Try the Beaujolais crus for reds…

By Heather R. Johnson Illustration by Lila Volkas The baguette, the goat and sheep’s milk cheese, the olive assortment, the wine, all neatly arranged, both wooed me and sent me into a panic. I nibbled a few olives, accepted tastes from the cheese plate, and forced myself to drink the wine slowly. As a cool…

Concannon Vineyard 4590 Tesla Road Livermore, CA 94550 Phone: (800) 258-9866 (925) 456-2505 concannonvineyard.com Pair those pre-bird munchies with our Reserve Assemblage Blanc, a crisp, refreshing, aromatic wine that’d vibrant and fruit forward with tropical fruit aromas. The juicy fresh pear notes of the sémillon are well balanced with the honeydew melon characteristics of sauvignon…

Arts, Education & Entertainment CELIA WEDDING   Drawings, prints, and paintings. celiawedding.com DAWLINE-JANE ONI-ESELEH  mixed media art. dawlinejaneart.com EAST BAY WALDORF SCHOOL  Where Children Thrive. Located 20 minutes from Berkeley at 3800 Clark Rd, El Sobrante. eastbaywaldorf.org HELEN KRAYENHOFF SHOP  Food-themed notecards. Find them on etsy.com HIVE MIND  Gabrielle Myers’s riveting memoir about life on a…

No Access to Land By Mike Madison | Photography by Scott Peterson Farming is increasingly popular as a career choice, partly because of the poor job market in other occupations, and partly because young people have come to recognize that a life of cubicle-serfdom is a life wasted. We are mammals, and are meant to…

Which wine complements a holiday turkey or vegetarian feast? What’s best to sip with a spicy dessert? Some of our local winemakers and bottleshop owners share their wisdom so you won’t be caught wondering.  Click on each link below to see what they recommend. Carica Wines Concannon Vineyard Farmstead Cheeses and Wines Garré Vineyard and Winery Les…

      R&B Cellars 1325 Canal Blvd. Richmond https://rbcellars.com 510.234.8477 Tasting room hours: Saturday & Sunday from 12noon – 5PM Pre-feast quaff: The Improviser – It’s our Zindandel-based red blend and it’s the perfect everything wine. It’s a great sipper, but it also pairs with all kinds of fare: pizza, zesty pasta, and barbequed meats. …

THE NEIGHBORHOOD BREW 21st Amendment builds community in San Leandro By Derrick Peterman 21st Amendment Brewery and Restaurant has long been identified with San Francisco, where co-founders Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan set up their venerated establishment in 2000. But few of their fans have been aware that since 2008, much of the company’s production…

A place at the wine bar, a place at the winery By Jillian Steinberger The maiden voyage of the Wine Soul Train was a response to the debacle last August in which 11 women in the Sistahs of the Reading Edge book club were marched off the Napa Valley Wine Train and met by police…

Book reviews by Kristina Sepetys and Charlotte Peale There are 146,680 cookbooks listed for sale on Amazon. If you broaden your search to books about “food,” you get 295,406. And these numbers probably don’t include the scores of historical books and pamphlets on the subject. Food and cooking are surely important, but sometimes I do wonder what more…

My Love of Olives Story and illustrations by Swati Mhaiskar When I was a student in India, my little black and white geography textbook with its neat hand drawings taught me that California has a unique climate where olive trees, grape vines, and many tall conifer trees grow. The words “conifers” and “olives” fascinated me.…

By Annelies Zijderveld Illustrations by Jillian Schiavi Florid, romantic drink descriptions are now commonplace in today’s craft cocktail culture, and increasingly, you’ll find some that are steeped in tea. Here’s how Oakland’s Plum Bar describes their Valais drink: 5-month aged batiste agricole rhum, tequila, dandelion liqueur, strega, and tea-infused mescal tincture Tea also infuses its…

SOUP”S ON Simmering a broth business By Christy White Photography by Shannon McIntyre Lindsey Ott first put the bone pot on the stove for the sake of her son’s teeth, but deciding to keep it there was more of an evolution. The backstory is that when Ott’s boy was four years old, his dentist found…

By Barbara Kobsar Art by Patricia Robinson Choosing produce harvested at its peak is your sure bet for flavor and freshness. November Early ripeners, the Bartlett pears reign supreme until late-season pear varieties find their niche at the markets. Most recognizable are the red- or green-skinned Anjous and the Bosc pears with their long, tapered…

  Retlzaff Vineyards and Estate Winery 1356 S Livermore Ave, Livermore www.retzlaffwinery.com Best wine for a typical turkey dinner: Retzlaff Vineyards, Isabelle’s Blush is our lovely dry rosé, which pairs beautifully with your Thanksgiving turkey. Best wine for a holiday fish feast: Retlzaff Vineyards award winning Sauvignon Blanc. Best wine to go with a spicy…