Earlier in the fall, we visited Vino Noceto for the first time, and sampled their red wines, and as a special treat, we tasted Frivolo for the first time, and loved it! We went back to Vino Noceto in January, and the tasting room staff told us about the upcoming dinner. We were actually on our way to Taste for dinner when we stopped at the winery, so when we arrived at Taste, we immediately made reservations for last night’s dinner, and were the first on the reservation list. We wanted to share the experience with friends or relatives, so we made a reservation for four. When I got home, I immediately e-mailed Lee to invite her and Mark to come, but it wasn’t in their plans due to other commitments. So, we proceeded to try to think of someone else to invite, and finally decided to invite our friend, Shawn, who unfortunately called yesterday to say he couldn’t make it to dinner due to an outbreak of poison oak. So, there we were with four reservations, and just Greg and I able to go to dinner. Greg called the restaurant to cancel two reservations, and we felt badly that it might have prevented someone else from attending dinner. (We later found out there was a waiting list of 30.) We knew there were very few tables for two at the restaurant, but we had enjoyed dining with strangers at our table when we were in Europe, and thought it would be great fun if we shared our table at Taste with someone we didn’t know.
From our couple of trips to the winery, we became slightly acquainted with the tasting room hostess, Tracy, who is very knowledgeable about wines, local geography, horticulture and viticulture, and local history, and she likes to share her knowledge with others, so she is a really interesting conversationalist.
We arrived early at Taste and were very pleasantly surprised that we were served a glass of Frivolo. Of course, the restaurant was packed—with wine connoisseurs, wine brokers, grape growers, winery owners, investors, high-volume wine buyers, and media people. And then there was Greg and me.
Tracy, from the winery, was there to help with the presentations, to mingle, and of course, to sell wine. We greeted each other and visited for a few minutes, and then she was off to greet other people. At one point, she came back to our table, and said she thought that the seating had been changed so that she would now be sharing our table. Of course we were delighted that we would be sharing our table with someone we already knew a little. Then she flagged down her husband, Brad, and brought him over to the table, which was the first time we had met him. We all hit it off famously and started visiting, and sharing experiences, and just really had a great time getting to know each other.
At one point, Brad used a word for a beverage that is never heard in California. He called soda “pop”, and I was just about to ask him if he was from Wisconsin or Minnesota. He then said he was from St. Peter, MN, so we were off on Minnesota stories, and growing up German. All in all, we had a great time, made some great new friends, ate delicious food, drank wine we would have never otherwise tried, and I deemed it the best birthday party I ever had!
Check out the websites for the restaurant and winery at www.noceto.com and www.restauranttaste.com If you come to California, we will take you to both, and you will have a great time, eat amazing food, meet cool people, and see beautiful scenery.
This is the menu from last night. The restaurant owners remembered that I am allergic to shellfish, so they substituted the prawn on my plate with a piece of monkfish. We think we are kind of pretentious and snooty, eating cheese for dessert (and both of us with a sweet tooth).
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