Wine Reviews and Food Ideas

Primary Format :
Art

Also Listed as:

User Tags:
appellation
baja
bar
burgundy
club
country
event
festival
food
frank mangio
grape
jazz
merchant
npa
san diego
santo tomas
sonoma
taste of wine tv
tasting
temecula
terrior
thornton
tuscany
valley
wine
wineries
www.tasteofwinetv.com

User Votes:

RSS Feed
Website

Visit Trumix.com for the most recent listings of:

Kendra Morales-Gillette Talks About ZD Winery of Napa Valley Wine Fame

Kendra Morales-Gillette Talks About ZD Winery of Napa Valley Wine Fame

Play Now -->

DATE : Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:10:23 -0800
Entered in Database : 2007-12-24 03:10:23
length : 3594079
Link to the Show / Show Notes

ZD Winery, that respected family winery along the Silverado Trail in Napa, was in San Diego recently and stopped at the Azul La Jolla for a formal wine dinner to present its new releases. Chris Pisani, the winemaker, has a lineup of lovely wines that I wanted to taste. I visited this innovative winery in 2005 and now the harvested grapes were ready for release. Azul La Jolla is a member of the Brigantine Family of Restaurants and is the showcase for the company with a lovely bay view and richly appointed furnishings. Helen Nguyen, manager; Kendra Morales-Gillette, ZD Sales; and Summer Lang, Azul Sommelier and wine director, all shown in the accompanying photo, tasted the wines and matched the menu. They paired the 2005 Reserve Chardonnay with the White Truffle Lobster Purse and the 2005 Napa Cabernet with Tahitian Vanilla & Cracked Peppercorn Crusted Tenderloin of Beef. Both wines were the standouts in a memorable evening. For more on Azul, access www.azul-lajolla.com. ZD’s site is www.zdwines.com. The mission of The Brigantine Restaurant Corporation is...To achieve the highest level of guest satisfaction and trust by providing value and quality in our food, beverage and service; To offer energetic, friendly and professional service in order to provide our guests with positive, memorable experiences; To search continually for new ways to improve our total operation to ensure growth and profitability. The Brigantine Family of Restaurants, since its inception in 1969, has built a reputation based on an unwavering commitment to guest satisfaction. With nearly one-thousand team members serving 1.2 million meals each year, our investment in our staff and in our communities around us has earned us the respect and loyalty of our personnel, of local business leaders, and of those in charitable circles as well. And so it begins... The first Brigantine Restaurant was opened by husband and wife team, Mike and Barbara Morton, on Shelter Island in 1969. With a loan against her house to finance her son's venture, it's been rumored that fear of losing Mike's mother's house was the only thing that kept them in business during those early lean times. The name of the restaurant was derived in a very democratic way - they drew names from a hat. "The Brigantine" won. The first menu consisted of nine menu items, including a "Late-Night Entrèe", and the dreaded "Beef Stew". On display in the home office are two original menus - both on round wooden plank. The early version with all nine menu items, and the revised one where "Beef Stew" has quite literally been "86'd" from the menu (a steak knife was the likely tool of choice). Fortunately, The Brigantine overcame the odds, and in the summer of 1973, Mike and Barbara opened their second Brigantine location in Coronado, followed thereafter by restaurants in Del Mar and Escondido. Before all was said and done, there would be Brigantine Seafood Restaurants in seven locations throughout the county, including La Mesa, Poway, and Old Town. House Wine Anyone? - Have you ever stopped to wonder which vineyard’s label is hiding beneath that house-labeled wine on your table? Or when the last time the restaurant’s proprietor paused and taste-tested the current vintage? Maybe when you asked what the house wine was, it didn’t have an affiliation with the establishment at all… Well, it’s been said that when it comes to wine, The Brigantine Family of Restaurants goes “the extra mile”. Yes, in fact, they actually go about 500 extra miles, traveling each spring without fail to the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. Every year since 1987, a small contingent of hand-selected employees and managers travels from San Diego to Sonoma to participate in the custom blending of The Brigantine’s house Chardonnay and Merlot. Working with their own personal wine-maker, the process not only ensures quality and consistency, but also a pride of ownership.

Play in your Iphone