2006 Qupé Chardonnay Block Eleven Bien Nacido Reserve – USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley (1/29/2010)
Lemon meringue, almonds, and fresh baked scones. Buttery, but not overdone. Maintains a lively, spry character while still giving some ooomph on the finish. Nice wine. (89 pts.)

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2005 Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Marqués de Casa Concha – Chile, Central Valley, Maipo Valley, Puente Alto (1/29/2010)
Ripe plum with some pine and coffee secondaries. Oak is a bit disjointed and green but there is a chance this will resolve some. The wine fleshed out with air but the finish is short and thin. I thought the 2007 vintage was a significantly better wine. $16 retail would have been far more palatable than the $50 we paid off a pricey restaurant wine list. (83 pts.)

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2006 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard – USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Red Mountain (1/28/2010)
Monstrously good wine. Deep, rich, dark chocolate covered cherries. Brooding. Wood smoke, molasses, espresso, new toasty oak. Earth. Long and vibrant finish with licorice and milk chocolate. Obviously just a baby but far more approachable young than my experience with QC’s Columbia Valley Cabs from the early years of this millennium. Still, this wine is going to become seriously special in just a few. Best QC I have tasted. (94 pts.)

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• 2005 Judd’s Hill Cabernet Sauvignon – USA, California, Napa Valley (1/28/2010)
  Fleshy raspberry with a full, rich mouthfeel. Currant, tea leaf, and a touch of green herb that I love in many 2005 Napa Cabs. Tannins are fine and not off-putting but a few more years in the cellar will pay off for this wine. Not a 91 just yet, but I think it will be in time. A friend brought this to a restaurant but I see that it retails for somewhere just above $40. That’s a heck-of-a-deal for an excellent Napa Cab. (91 pts.)

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• 2007 Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc Hawkes Bay – New Zealand, North Island, Hawkes Bay (1/28/2010)
  Crisp lemon zest, lychee fruit, pleasant level of grassiness. Hint of sweetness. Winner at $6 btg. (86 pts.)
• 2006 Boutari Santorini – Greece, Aegean, Santorini (1/28/2010)
  Light and refreshing with predominate melon and honey notes. $35 from a rather expensive restaurant list. I don’t know what this retails for but I’d say it’s worth $10 – $12. (84 pts.)

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On Wednesday, January 27, we will help Wineberserkers.com celebrate its one year anniversary. Wineberserkers is a fun, friendly, irreverent, highly informative, online community of folks who share a passion for wine. It also has one of the highest numbers of wine industry folks participating. They all, like us, are donating prizes and helping make the 27th a special day for this community of almost 2000 folks who have gone berserk over wine.

What is Match Vineyards doing? We are raffling off six magnums of the soon-to-be-released 2007 Butterdragon Hill. To enter this raffle you must be a registered member of WineBerserkers.com AND have made verifiable donation(s) totaling at least $135 (the retail value of the wine) to a charity or charities doing work in earth quake ravaged Haiti. This donation needs to have been made from 1/12/10 through 1/27/10. You also, of course, have to be at least 21 years of age. Complete details of how to enter will be on Wineberserkers.com.

So come on by WineBerserkers right now and join in the community. And on the 27th, it can really pay off.

Fo Drizzle. Well, I thought it was funny. Thanks to my son for that one. It’s quite appropriate given Northern California weather this week.
And continuing the totally useless, non-wine-related theme of this blog entry…
I stumbled upon this interesting site: One Sentence – True stories, told in one sentence.

1997 E. Pira & Figli (Chiara Boschis) Barolo Cannubi – Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (1/16/2010)
Burnt cherry pie, baked dark berries, road tar, green herb. Tannins are pronounced but not debilitating. I liked this slightly unpolished, roguish barolo. Middle and finish are shallow but I expect this wine will flesh out more in 2-3 years and gain a few points beyond an 88+. (88 pts.)

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After a recent evening exhibition at the SFMOMA, Sasha and I found ourselves in need of a bite and where better to meet such a need than a place called “Fang.” We’d never heard of this slightly upscale Chinese restaurant but the hip decor and house full of San Francisco Gen X & Y-ers showed promise. It was a good choice.
Our waitress was obviously new and had little familiarity with the menu and sake choices. However, she promised that the chef would be by our table soon. Before we could stop her from summoning the chef, he appeared and indicated that he was here to cook whatever we wanted. (We later figured out that he did this at most, if not all, of the tables.) We were trying to steer clear of oily or heavy sauces and he recommended a white fish with spinach. We added some bok choy and tofu to the mix as well. This turned out to be a delicious variation on one of their menu items. We both thought the fish was fantastic. Sash thought it, and most everything, could have gone a little lighter on the salt. I saw her point: I like salty stuff and even I noticed the salt here. Giving in to that sodium siren though, I ordered a rather pleasing salty and spicey prawns on purpose. We shared an appetizers of steamed duck rolls. They were tasty, but not special.
In fact, “tasty but not special” sort of sums up our whole experience at Fang. I would walk several blocks to go to Fang. If in SOMA and hungry for Chinese food, I would go to Fang if parking wasn’t too much of a problem. But I don’t think I would drive across the Bay Bridge or even across SF to go to Fang.
The wine list is non-starter. Don’t even bother. There’s a small selection of sake, beers, and cocktails.
Fang’s owner also owns the Chinatown mainstay, House of Nanking.
Fang Restaurant
660 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 777-8568‎

2009 Familia Zuccardi Torrontés Santa Julia Organica – Argentina, Mendoza (1/14/2010)
Light color. Rich fruity aromas promise a bit more than this wine can deliver. Pear flavor is dominate with some melon notes as well. Nice full initial flavor but trails off quickly. Still, a pleasant wine and fully worthy if you’re looking for a light-bodied white wine that retailed here for just $8.99. (82 pts.)

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