Thanks to the folks at Raymond Burr, Ferrari-Carano and RODNEY STRONG for renewing my faith that good wines are still produced in "Wine Country". The amazing aromas and the multi-layer silky tastes of these stars of the Northern region of Sonoma opened my senses and left me feeling comforted. Maybe Sonoma should be my next place of residence?
Raymond Burr Vineyards is a small 14 arce parcel of hillside that produces about 3000 cases a year. They could produce 5000 cases but they are careful to only use the best of the crop to produce a stellar array of wines.
There entire line are a delight and the Cabernet Blend awakes the senses and . Among the wines we enjoyed were the 05 Chardonnay, 05 Cabernet Franc, the 07 Estate Port, and my personal fave the 05 Cabernet Sauvignon. Did I mention the tasting was free. NICE!
Raymond Burr Vineyards has a number of cool parties each year including the Taste of Azores Islands in late September and I hope that we can get a chance to participate.
We enjoyed our lunch on the picnic tables with the sweeping vineyards all around us. A perfect place for a healthy pour of Cabernet Sauvignon and ham & cheese on baguette from Bouchon Bakery.
We even got to take photos with the emmy!
Next Stop Ferrari-Carano.
3 comments:
Need more wine for a toast to John Madden.
"Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble." - John Madden
Monday Night Football, camera pans to a shot of the full moon, Madden says deadpan: "Can you believe a cow jumped over that thing?"
You'd be much sexier if you shaved your head bald.
(That's for Jim, not lovely Nina. Bald wouldn't be too good on her.)
Century Plaza going away ... remember The Plitt? Remember going to see Star Wars there in 1976???
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Atom Bomb Hangar, Hotel Make List of Endangered Sites (Update1)
2009-04-28 15:30:38.655 GMT
(Adds Next Century Associates comment in 11th paragraph.)
By Patrick Cole
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Century Plaza Hotel, a 19-story landmark building in Los Angeles slated for demolition by its current owner, made the list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places" of 2009, the National Trust for Historic Preservation said today.
Opened in 1966 and designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki -- who also drafted the World Trade Center's twin towers -- the hotel got a $36 million facelift last year from owner Next Century Associates LLC. The company then said it wanted to raze the structure to build a pair of 600-foot "environmentally sensitive" towers.
"They called it a jewel, and now they want to destroy it," said National Trust president Richard Moe in a phone interview from his Washington office. "This would be very destructive to the environment."
Other structures on this year's list include Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois; the Wendover (Utah) Airfield hangar that housed the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb in Japan in 1945; and Dorchester Academy in Midway, Georgia, a deteriorating one-room schoolhouse founded in 1868 for freed slaves.
Wright's Unity Temple, designed for a Unitarian congregation in Oak Park, Illinois, has suffered water infiltration over the years, Moe said. The church wants to raise as much as $25 million to renovate it, he said.
Since 1988, the Washington-based National Trust has chosen
211 sites for preservation, including buildings, cultural resources and neighborhoods considered "historic treasures."
Anyone can nominate a site to the endangered list.
Mount Taylor near Grants, New Mexico, considered sacred ground by American Indian tribes, was selected this year because more than 160 proposals for uranium mining on the site could "have a devastating impact" on it.
'Diverse Selection'
"We try to get a diverse selection from around the country," Moe said. "Demolition isn't the only threat to the structure or site."
Opposing the planned destruction of the Century Plaza is part of the National Trust's campaign to discourage demolition that could trigger climate change. Tearing down the hotel would release carbon into the air and alter the climate, Moe said.
"That's just one more reason to save and use the buildings when they can be adapted for new uses," said Moe, who is scheduled to announce the list of endangered sites at a Los Angeles news conference today with actor and National Trust board member Diane Keaton.
Next Century Associates spokeswoman Barbara Sayre Casey said in an e-mail statement that the hotel is "less than 50 years old and does not qualify for consideration under stringent criteria" to be a historic site. "We're building a landmark for the future," she said in the e-mail.
The other endangered sites on the list are: homes and commercial buildings in Lanai City, Hawaii, built by pineapple baron James Dole in the 1920s; Ames Shovel Shops in Easton, Massachusetts, an intact 19th-century village that has been targeted for some demolition; a series of 19th-century Greek Revival and Italianate buildings in Galveston, Texas; and Memorial Bridge, which links Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Kittery, Maine.
The National Trust also listed the Miami Marine Stadium in Virginia Key, Florida, a modern structure built in 1963 that has deteriorated since its closure, and the Human Services Center in Yankton, South Dakota.
South Dakota wants to demolish 11 neoclassical, Art Deco and Italianate buildings on the campus founded in 1879 although the site has "potential for preservation," the National Trust said.
--Editors: Jeffrey Burke, Laurie Muchnick.
To contact the writer on this story:
Patrick Cole in New York at +1-212-617-2072 or pcole3@Bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at +1-212-617-3486 or mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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