Wine Vault & Bistro

Our daughter posted this on her wall the other day. In case you missed it, here's the story: http://www.nbcnews.com//graduation-night-part-1-2167327396

Valle de Guadalupe comes to Wine Vault & Bistro! We're got an amazing Restaurant Week menu this January that features a Valle de Guadalupe inspired menu paired with Valle de Guadalupe wines. We're pouring all your favorites including Lechuza, Emeve, Casa de Piedra, Relieve and Cavas Valmar. Scoll down for dates and info! For those of you going on our Valle de Guadalupe wine tours later in the year (see www.WineVaultTours.com for more info), this will give you an idea of wha...t's in store. RESTAURANT WEEK ~ $30 http://www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com/rest/winevaultbistro/ Thursday, January 12 thru Saturday, January 14 Restaurant Week "Sneak Peek" Sunday, Janauary 15 and Wednesday, January 18 thru Saturday, January 21 Restaurant Week #1 (please note that we will be closed Jan 16-17, Mon-Tues) Thursday, January 26 thru Saturday, January 28 Restaurant Week #2 (please note that we will be closed Jan 22-25, Sun-Wed) RSVP: (619) 295-3939

In Kentucky at Knob Creek making a barrel selection for our Bourbon tours in 2016. Popping the bung the old school way - basically you pound away on alternating sides of the bung with a ginormous mallet until the bung pops out due to the vibration. Takes about 20-30 whacks before it comes out. Got 28 gallons out of this 12 year old 55 gallon barrel which means 27 gallons evaporated to the "angel's share." Barrel was at 130.2 proof and after being diluted down to the mandatory 120 proof for a single barrel bottling we yielded 156 bottles.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com//wine-vault-full-of-t/

http://northcountyfood.com//it-was-supposed-to-be-a-night/

In Louisville doing recon for our September 2016 Kentucky Bourbon tours. Tasting two of the best and rarest bourbons in the world side by side - Eagle Rare 17-year-old and Pappy Van Winkle 20-year-old. How rare you ask? Very few restaurants get allocations of these bourbons and those that do are lucky to get one bottle per year. Absolutely amazing. Both take bourbon to a whole new level. Not trying to be PC here but I kept going back and forth between the two trying to decide which one I liked best and I can honestly say that (for the first time in a long time) I couldn't make up my mind. For all y'all in San Diego I think Starlite on India Street about a half dozen blocks south of our restaurant still has some Pappy on their shelves (not sure if they have Eagle 17) if you care to indulge. Cheers!

Hanging out in Ribera del Duero, Spain with Alejandro Fernandez, founder of Pesquera Winery. 85 years old and still walks with a spring in his step. (Must be all the wine.) What a gracious, passionate and kind gentleman - I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend time chatting with him thanks to my trusty interpreter Gabi - who is also helping me put together some very cool insider stuff in Rioja and San Sebastián for our upcoming 2016 Spain tours.

Tasting through an amazing line-up of Gran Reserva Riojas at Muga Winery in Haro, Rioja, Spain. Hopefully they'll be part of our proposed Portugal / northern Spain wine tour(s) tentatively slated for May / June 2016!

The proper way to open a bottle of vintage Port (in this case a 14-year-old Quinta Nova) Pic 1 Get the port tongs hot - real hot - like red hot. Pic 2 Clamp hot tongs on bottle just below ridge at top of neck - making sure to remove foil capsule first so you don't have molten aluminum all over. Hold in place 20 seconds.... Pic 3 Twist tongs 90 degrees to evenly heat other side of neck. Wait until you hear the distinctive "pop" which is the bottle neck cracking (hopefully in a perfectly straight line!) Pic 4 Rinse cracked neck with icy water to cool the glass (and rinse away any of those pesky glass shards). Pic 5 Proudly display perfectly cracked neck with cork still intact! Makes sabering Champagne bottles look like kids play! Actually this process comes in quite handy when opening bottles of really really old Port as most of the time their corks will crumble otherwise and many times the bottles are sealed in virtually impossible to remove wax caps.

Hey, is that the Douro River in the background? Hard at work in Portugal doing research for an upcoming Port tour. Absolutely jaw-dropping spectacular scenery - and the wine ain't bad either! Photo was taken from Quinta Nova overlooking pretty much everything.

Geeking out over 18 year old Tequila. In between Tequila tours and rather than fly all the way back to San Diego and then all the way back down again decided to explore the highlands of Tequila. The highlands are located about an hour and a half east of Guadalajara and the town of Tequila in about an hour and a half west of Guadalajara so they’re roughly three hours away from each other plus another 30-45 minutes for traffic through Guadalajara. So if you ever decide to ma...Continue reading