The season of gluttony continues

The season between Thanksgiving and New Year's is the season of gluttony. We all eat too much, that is just part of the season.

Just got back from spending ten days in Chicago for the holidays seeing family and friends. The weather was the nicest it has ever been in December, no snow and sunny the entire time.

We got the most inspired Christmas gift from my in-laws: an evening at Charlie Trotter's! We went on the Wednesday after Christmas for a near four experience. The service was wonderful, they had an exotic juice pairing for the non wine drinkers, and all in all a wonderful evening more later after I review the menu.

A couple of other interesting restaurant highlights from the trip were trips to Avec and Mia Francesca.

Avec is a hip, small plates restaurant with a great bar. The pork shoulder was amazing. Definitely a great place for a fun night out with friends.

Mia Francesca is more of an old school Italian place for the younger generation. It was suppossedly the hang out for Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn while they were filming the Break Up in Chicago. Place was packed and the pizza was really nice.

Both are recommended.

The Wire is the best show on television

HBO is responsible for the best shows on television in the last ten years: The Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, and many others.

However, I think that "The Wire" is the best show they have run to date. Season 4 continued the story arc of both the street and police involved in the Baltimore drug war and how it impacts kids, education, and politics. The ensemble acting is incredibly strong with no one star, it is the power of the entire cast and more importantly the writers that carry this show.

Omar is an amazing character as the thief with a code that only steals from drug dealers and thugs and kills them if necessary. He doesn't go after civilians at all and when framed for a civilan murder, tells Bunk "a man has got to have a code". Even McNulty said "when has anyone know for Omar to do a civilian" and he was right. The police let Omar off for this framed murder. He is gay and also takes his grandmother to church on sunday. Just fascinating stuff.

I am sad that I won't be able to follow this show again for another year until season 5 arrives.

If you don't have HBO, go put "The Wire" in your Netflix queue now.

Been a busy month...

With the holidays on us, things are just crazy. I went to visit my family and came by really sick for a week. Not fun times.

A couple of quick wine updates.

I was recently introduced to Rick Davis of Calstar Cellars. Rick makes a few hundred cases a year of Zinfandel and Pinot Noir. All are excellent values. The 2005 Sonoma Coast Pinot has wonder cranberry and tea profile. Nice balance and acidity. One of the best sub $30 Pinot Noirs I have tasted, I split a case with a friend which brought it down to $23 a bottle. Highly recommended. Contact Calstar directly for more details.

I went up to Siduri for their holiday open house with a friend. They had a 70's theme going on, which was fun. Siduri is an amazing operation run from a warehouse in Santa Rosa and in fact the San Francisco Chronicle said Siduri was a winery to watch. This proves that you don't need to have a fancy winery to be successful.

There were over 30 Suduri and Novy wines poured. The highlights for me were the 2004 Novy Rosella's Chadonnay, the 2005 Siduri Sonatera Pinot, the 2005 Siduri Keefer Pinot, the 2005 Siduri Terra de Promissio Pinot, 2005 Siduri Rosella's Pinot, and the 2005 Siduri Clos Pepe Pinot. All excellent wines worth keeping an eye out for at your local retailer or by calling Siduri.