BLog

Have you ever made vinegar?  I haven’t but I love cooking and experiments.  And, vinegar is all the rage right now as a seasoning for many dishes.  Never let it be said that I am not one to get caught up in trends!  So, I’ve done (a little) research and feel up for...

We are often told that enjoying wine involves all the multiple senses; taste, smell, appearance, temperature.  But you might not be aware of how critical the senses are to the wine drinking experience.  One way to get an idea of the importance of all the senses to our...

You're deep in your reverie. What a find! You're sipping some of the best wines you've tasted in ages. Free tastes!!!!!!! Over seventy bottles from ten amazing small production winemakers. Looking up you see one of the coolest curated selection of shoes, yes shoes,...

This Blog entry is one of a series exploring some of the more common questions I get asked by visitors to Locals.  We will also delve a little bit into how the questions relate to the Russian River Valley wines and Locals’ wines in particular.  Today we are exploring...

The nature of self is fickle, prone to temper tantrums, runs of bad behavior, and can easily be abraded when brushing up against the ideals and ideas of others. But without the reflections seen in the shining eyes of an audience the self could lack validity--after...

Didn't I grow up in a quiet stretch of country? Every passing year, I hear the name of my small sun-soaked valley on the tongues of people further and further abroad. There are some things they can't know. No one but me saw my grandfather sketch and paint a sign whose...

Part One - In which a baking neophyte watches the Great British Baking Show and thinks, without any basis in reality, “I can do that.” It looked doable. Not easy, but only few ingredients and a lot of hard (but simple) labor. After watching the Great British Baking...

When you are lucky enough to find a gorgeous piece of fresh sushi grade tuna its time to pull out the stops and go for “Friday Night Sushi.” And since we were feeling adventurous we decided to try “inside-out” rolls among other things. We’d had these rolls in Sushi...

I often get asked about the Russian River and its history. As the water rises from our “once in a decade” rain fall, I wanted to provide a little information. The Russian River is approximately 110 miles long. The watershed area is roughly 1500 square miles, with...

On Friday morning June drove up Hwy 128 past Cloverdale to the last little patch of Sonoma County before Mendocino which is where our very own Mike Pendleton plies his trade. “I parked, Mike picked me up in his 4-wheeler and we zipped up into the vineyard to taste...

I’m a peanut butter nut -- All I want when I get home is that tasty, salty rhizome. PBJ for lunch, A cookie with my tea; Smooth and creamy, Coarse ‘n’ crunchy, Peanuts do it all for me.     Recipe: ¾ cup extra Crunchy Peanut Butter ½ stick Crisco Baking...

In some hands the opening of a bottle of wine can vie with the Japanese Tea Ceremony for most arcane beverage ritual, in others it can be as perfunctory as twisting off a screw-cap—of course, neither protocol is indicative of the quality of the wine in the bottle....