The Uncorked Life

Here in Carneros I enjoy living close to the country. As I write this, I look out of my bedroom window and watch a covey of young quail peck their way through a field looking for food.

It sometimes seems I can’t walk anywhere without flushing a jack rabbit from the bushes. I’ve run into several snakes, even catching one, and one of my favorite parts of sitting out on the patio as night falls is watching the owls come swooping out of their roosts while making their haunting and weird calls.

One night last week I was up late. I had had a cup of coffee late in the day and the result was I couldn’t sleep. I was up at around 3 a.m. watching a Sherlock Holmes show on PBS, and kinda dozing off when I was snapped awake by a blood-chilling series of howls and shrieks. A pack of coyotes was running past our house letting lose a cacophony of snarls, yelps and vicious sounding growls. I jumped out of my chair and grabbed a spotlight, but when I flashed the field with the light all the noise stopped.

All I could see, at the furthest limit of the light, was just a row of coyote eyes staring back at me and shining in the night. I thought about grabbing my .22 and taking a few potshots at them, but shooting into the night at a vague target is never really smart. Instead I just watched them as one-by-one the coyotes turned away from the light and walked off into the vineyards.

Judging from a package in the latest issue of Food & Wine magazine and an article in a recent edition of the SF Chronicle on cold-brewed coffee, it seems that this trend has picked up some attention.

Proponents of this style of brewing claim it yields a coffee without much acidity and roasted or burnt notes in the aroma that they claim is ideal for a cool, refreshing cup of iced coffee. The method calls for steeping grounds in cold water overnight and then filtering out the liquid to create a mild coffee concentrate. The resulting concentrate can be mixed with water, either cold or hot, or milk.

I just don’t know why you would want to drink something that is made in a way that undermines the key steps of brewing coffee. Removing the acidity and aromas from coffee seems to me like diluting a fine bottle of Cabernet with water. In researching home coffee roasting, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Corby Kummer’s primer “The Joy of Coffee.” Kummer sums up cold brewing as a fad not worth the attention of the serious coffee drinker.

“This method becomes fashionable every few years and then retreats into deserved obscurity,” he writes. “The resulting extract, which is stirred into hot water, is mild and characterless because cold water does not extract the lighter aromatics or acids in coffee – or the oils, or much of anything.”

I’d much rather just brew some good coffee and splash it over ice — even if doing so isn’t trendy.

My friend John standing on our improvised fishing platform on the bank of the Napa River

This past weekend I had big plans for heading up to the Plumas National Forest to hang out at a buddy’s cabin.

I was getting all set to go, I had taken two days off at the winery, I had my shopping list all set for food (lots of meat and cheese) as well as booze (I had been planning to make Mountain Margaritas. What makes them mountainous you ask? The fact you made them at a mountain cabin) and was going to invest in half a box of cigars.

A few hours before I left to start shopping, I get a call from my friend.

“I got bad news,” he says, “I got the flu.”

Well, I didn’t really want to take any chances with the flu, especially after taking a few days off of work so the cabin trip was going to have to wait. Thinking of another option, I realized I could go see my friend in Reno. It would still be a mountain trip but subtract the forests, pristine lake and clean air for high-rise hotels, a bumping pool scene and smoke filled sports book lounges. (I would have bet large on Spain to win the World Cup, and would have won.) But it was a no go as well. That friend was going to be in Arizona for a wedding.

It looked like I was homebound. And it actually turned out to be a relaxing time. I played a great round of golf with my friend Bennie up in Yountville on Friday and decided to go fishing out on the Napa River on Saturday. I had purchased a fishing license for the cabin trip and still wanted to be able to use it.

Where I live in Carneros you can make it out to the river after a short hike through the vineyards. John and I enjoyed the stroll out to the water and after building a small platform on the riverbank soon had our bait in the water and cold cans of Budweiser in our hands. The tide was up, and pretty soon we were both getting strikes on our lines so my confidence was gaining we’d have some luck. I had not landed a fish in about two years and John hadn’t even gone fishing since 2003. On the Napa River your best bet is Striped Bass, a predatory fish that can reach upwards of 50 pounds. I’ve never landed anything that big, but I have seen some photos of monsters caught in the river.

After about two hours of just lounging with our lines in the water, I got a strong strike and was able to set the hook. As I reeled in the line we could see the fish was a good size, about 16 inches, but as I prepared to land the fish John and I forgot a rule of fishing: Land the fish first, then get the camera.

As John was fumbling with my digital camera, the fish slipped off the hook and swam away. A common fishing story, I know, but as we made our way back we both ended up catching something neither of us had expected.

Walking through the vineyards to get back home, I heard a rustling sound and paused to investigate. There between two vineyard rows we discovered a long, green snake. While we were looking at the snake, it slipped away into another vineyard row and John was quick to scamper after it. The snake then moved out of the vineyards and to my surprise John reached down and adroitly plucked up the snake by its tail.

“Oh my God,” John yelled. “I caught a fucking snake!”

I got out the camera for that, took a photo and John gently placed the snake back on the ground. It slithered toward me and I had to give snake wrangling a try so I too grabbed the snake and held it for about half a minute. I have to admit it was pretty cool feeling the strength of the snake’s tail moving in my hand, and cool to watch it coil back it’s head and stick its tounge in the air. We think it was either a rat snake or gopher snake, definitely not a rattler, but we still had to take care.

I never would have thought a fishing trip would end up involving snake catching.

After making it back to the house, I took a quick shower and Christine and I left for a pool side barbecue with some of her friends and coworkers.

It was an Uncorked Life weekend when in the course of one afternoon I went from snake wrangling to sipping chilled Pinot Gris poolside while snacking on bruschetta with panceta and fresh asparagus.

Turned out to be a nice vacation after all.

When the U.S. hosted the World Cup back in 1994 I remember I found myself in a San Francisco brewery staring at a list of beer options. I was visiting my older sister who was in college at the time. It was me and a bunch of college guys at the bar, I was underage and not sure what to order in a bar.

I went with the “World Cup of Beer.” It was good, and to this day I’ll always remember my first bar order. Brazil beat the U.S. in that World Cup, on Fourth of July too, it was the “Miracle on Grass” that never happened. The Americans went home early this year as well, but I always love the World Cup no matter how the Yanks perform.

This year it’s Spain versus the Netherlands in the final. I would have bet a large sum of money on Germany or Brazil to win, and I’m glad I didn’t. The following are two recipes for drinks to help you celebrate whichever side you’re rooting for in the match on the pitch not hoping for a score of nil-nil.

Dutch Sudden Death Shooter:

2 oz Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka
½ oz Herbsaint Liqueur
Shake ingredients over ice and strain into a shot glass.

Sangria

Two bottles, dry red wine.

1/2 bottle gin or vodka.

1 bottle ginger ale or club soda.

Misc. fresh fruit.

Let sit overnight in the fridge and serve cold.

And here’s your lock pick: Spain, 2-0. Spain’s technical style will frustrate the aggressive Dutch into making mistakes.