Valentines Day 2005

In protest to the commercialism of the holiday, Chris and I decided to celebrate Valentines day on Saturday instead of Monday. Ok, so we’re not really fiery protesting types, but we celebrated on Saturday nonetheless. In the morning we went wine tasting in Temecula. We first stopped at Pat and Oscars for lunch (breadsticks, a fine alcohol absorber) and then started our drinking adventure.

Our first stop was Callaway. While Callaway may be the biggest winery on the strip, their wines are less than impressive. The reds are lacking in body and the whites in luster, the only “ok” one was the Sangiovese but even that couldn’t tickle our taste buds. We decided to forgo the free wine tour at Callaway and opted for more wine tasting and stopped at our second destination: Mont Palomar. Here we had a single flight of 7 tastes. The reds were not spectacular but good. The more notable red is the Sangiovese, moderate in tannins, full with spice and a long finish, perfect for a spicy dish. The fireworks were the whites and dessert wines. Most notably the Mount Palomar Cream Sherry. This dessert sherry is crazy good! The golden amber colored sherry smelled of sweet roasted caramel and tasted of caramel and hazelnut. The nutty flavor complemented the sweetness of the caramel perfectly, and the intoxicating smell of brandy finished the sherry a decadent treat.

Our third stop was Wilson Creek, the home of the famous chocolate port in a chocolate cup. Here we had 6 tastes, one notable wine is their Almond Champagne. The champagne is sweet with a hint of almond, it was very good. We tried 5 other kinds of wines but I must admit, a lightweight that I am that at this point I can't remember much of the wines we tasted at Wilson Creek, I just remember the chocolate port in the chocolate cup and not passing the bartender’s “drunken meter.” The chocolate port was good, as always, but as good as it is (and you all know what a chocoholic I am), it didn’t come close to beating out the Mount Palomar Cream Sherry. <>

We next stopped at our final winery, Cilurso. (we thought about going to more, but at point Jean was quite giggly and decided that 4 wineries was really her limit). Cilurso is the name of the first vineyard in Temecula and it’s more humble than the other wineries on our visit, but do they know how to make whites! Ever since Napa I’ve been trying to find a Viognier that’s on par with the one at Sterling and I finally found it at Cilurso. The Viognier was delicious. The light golden colored wine filled the cup with smells of grapefruit and peach. The flavor of grapefruit was so potent that the Cab they later poured (we forgot to wash out the cup), smelled of grapefruit. The flavor is crisp and clean, with a touch of sweetness lingering on your tongue, one of the best whites I’ve ever tasted. Another notable wine is the Muscat Canelli (which I almost got over the Cream Sherry, that’s how good it was). The Canelli was a desert wine with a bouquet very similar to the Sterling Viognier (although a lot sweeter in taste), full of flavors of apricot and peach, absolutely delicious. After Cilurso Jean just could not walk..er..I mean, drink, anymore, so Chris and I exchanged Valentine gifts: I bought the Viognier for him, and he went back and bought the Cream Sherry for me. <>

Later that night we drove back to San Diego and went to an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest named Antico Toscano. I found this restaurant after much research and the raving reviews finally persuaded me to give it a try. The restaurant was cozy and elegantly decorated. As an appetizer we got a pasta dish to share, the pesto e pinoli, which translates to fusilli pasta, toasted pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes in a basil pesto sauce. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and the dish was excellent. For our main dish Chris had the chicken picatta which from what I recall was excellent but I can’t really remember what it tasted like because I was utterly enthralled by my dish – the tagliata di filetto. The tagliata is filet mignon cut over a bed of Gorgonzola cheese risotto topped with julienne arugola with a dash of white truffle oil. The meat mel..mel..just mellllts in your mouth and the Gorgonzola sauce was to die for. I usually like my food, but rarely do I fall in love with it. This dish rivaled the blueberry stilton and demoted the stilton to second place – it was the best meat dish I’ve ever had. While it is tough to have anything else after falling in love with my filetto, I somehow overcame it with the soufflé di cioccolato – a warm chocolate cake with a rich molten chocolate center topped with a scoop of vanilla gelato over an espresso vanilla sauce. Chris, who doesn’t usually like chocolate things, opted to have the soufflé over all other desserts and he made a wonderful choice indeed. All in all, it was an awesome Valentines. Good wine, good food, good company, what can you ask for more?