it is just grapejuice

“Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life cycle comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not treated with reasonable respect it will sicken and die.”

Julia Child

Another great digital picture from FLASHPOINT photography….

March 26, 2007

Larkspur Restaurant

ATTN: KEVIN FURTADO

Kevin, thank you so much for allowing Cris and I to attend dinners with your wonderful dinner guests and to especially meet your wait staff and managers this past weekend.

We thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated your entire staff. We commend you all for your professionalism and for the customer service you extended to your dinner guests to make a dining event at Larkspur become a lasting memory.

Michael, the food is awesome. We loved the short ribs to the steak to the lobster bisque to the beans to the veal scallopini to the truffle French fires to the shaved brussel sprouts to the best burgers in the Valley! No wonder the tread mill is staring at us for tonight.
Your kitchen is a work of art and love – very impressive.

Rob, as GM of dining room – you are so kind and so professional and we really enjoyed dining in the restaurant. The atmosphere is more like family than just a working environment. It is so refreshing to see.

Please also show this letter to Thomas as we are so honored that we got to meet him and his wife. What an awesome restaurant and what a following you have.

To all of the very special wait staff – we just adore you and we had so much fun. We wish to personally thank each one of you for promoting our wines and listening to us for three nights in a row. For those of you had people who were mostly under 21 at your tables and could not truly push our wine, we so understand. You never know who will be seated in your area. Matt and Ann and Martha – thanks for pushing so hard Saturday evening! Who won the snake pit port?

What a delightful time for Cris and I to be able to spend time with you. We even walked in earlier one evening and just helped ourselves to the coat storage and a very nice lady said – May I help you, please? Oops – guess we were feeling quite comfortable at L.

Thank you to all and especially you, Kevin, for putting the winemaker’s dinner together for us, for the promotion of such and for believing in our wines. We hope to see you all soon, keep selling and have a great summer! Come and see us the next time you are in the Napa Valley.

Cheers!

Richard and Cris

it takes a lot of glassware to host a pinot summit. thanks everyone.

We had the absolute pleasure of having Cris and Dick Partridge at Larkspur Restaurant this past weekend. The 05 Napa Chard was bright and pleasing. It reminded me a bit of richer style chablis- which was nice (:

The Cabernet Flight was impressive to say the least. They were also a snapshot of 3 unique Napa Valley Cabernet Vintages. The ‘02 was my personal favorite. Check out the menu and the pairings.

tonight’s tasting menu has been designed to compliment the wines of our very special guests and friends cris and richard partridge

feuille de brick wrapped pork belly
cherry compote & frisée

nv louis bouillot blanc de noirs

butter braised maine lobster tail & snow crab claws
moroccan cous-cous and hamakua hearts of palm

2005 richard partridge chardonnay

The next three courses are paired with the following flight of:

2001/2002/2003
richard partridge napa valley cabernet sauvignon

seared hawaiian tuna
frazzled root vegetables and roasted portobellas

braised coleman short ribs
gorgonzola polenta and sauce chasseur

grilled certified angus beef tenderloin
yukon gold potato quenelle and cabernet reduction

danish blue cheese soufflé
palisade peach-fig preserves

white chocolate cheesecake
tropical salsa and amaretti

2005 gd vajra moscato d’asti

From left to right, Ed Kurtzman, Peter Cargasacchi and Andrew Vingiello at the 2007 Pinot Noir Summit. Andrew was explaining how fortunate he was to get fruit from Keefer Ranch.

Montlouis is in the Loire Valley of France. It is known for dry, semi-dry, sweet, and sparkling methode traditionele wines produced from Chenin Blanc.

Winemakers dish on grapes

BY WREN WRETIN of the VAIL DAILY

GOLDEN PEAK - The secrets of pinot production were finally revealed at Larkspur’s Pinot Summit Wednesday. “I want to make it very clear that it takes a lot of tequila to make good wine,” proclaimed Dan Kosta.

Kosta, of Kosta Browne Winery, was one of seven winemakers who participated in the interactive discussion about the state of pinot . The group, dubbed the Pinot Posse, has been traveling through Colorado on a oenophiles’ odyssey. For almost a week, the crew has shared a car (and perhaps some tequila) on their Rocky Mountain adventure, stopping in one wine-drinking town after another. In Vail, they talked about their winemaking philosophies, tackled audience questions and invited attendees to taste their way through the wines.

Kosta was joined by his peers Jim Prosser of J.K. Carriere, Ed Kurtzman of August West, Peter Cargasacchi of Point Concepcion, Brian Loring of Loring Wine Company, Andrew Vingiello of AP Vin and David O’Reilly of Owen Roe. The group hails from Oregon and California, from the Willamette Valley to the hills of Santa Barbara County. They’re unified in their love of the vine, and in their modest production quantities. They might only bring eight barrels of a single wine to market; once it’s gone, it’s gone.

So why would they trek through Colorado, when most of their stock is already allocated to particular restaurants, liquor stores and their own wine clubs?

“I’m not here selling wines,” said Kosta. “I’m sharing them.” Colorado is often the first market to get these wines. It’s a good time to be making pinots. Americans love an underdog, and the movie ‘Sideways’ jump-started a romance with the pinot grape, an underdog if ever there was one. Thin skinned and temperamental, it needs coaxing and care. Demand for pinot on the table is at a high. People are becoming comfortable with it.

People aren’t afraid to say, ‘pinot noir’ anymore,” said Cargasacchi, who is both a grower and a winemaker.
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