It was right down the road from Round Pond (our 12:30 appointment for olive oil tasting), so we went. The history truly was amazing, and the preservation is too. We skipped tasting at that point, though, so we could get to Round Pond in time.
We were the only ones signed up for the 12:30 time slot, so we got a private tour!
At Round Pond they use 3 types of Spanish olives and 5 types of Italian. Many places pick all of their olives and just press them together, but at Round Pond, they do it similar to wine: each type gets pressed on its own, and then the owner tastes each one and decides how to blend them. They are also the only one that has a stone press and a hammer mill press. The stone press just pulverizes everything,
and the other pierces the skins. When they pick the olives though, they get a lot of leaves and stems in with them, so it runs down a conveyor belt, past a vacuum that is only strong enough to pick up the stems and leaves. They head into the presses to get smashed or pierced. Then they go into a horizontal centrifuge where the spinning action separates the pulp from the oil and little bit of water. Then the oil and water goes into a vertical centrifuge that sends the water to the bottom and the oil to the top where it comes out ready to eat (although this is the point where Round Pond blends them). Our tour guide, Jill, explained that many “infuse” their oils with different things, such as lemon, by simply adding the flavor at the end. Round Pond instead throws the peels of lemons or blood oranges into the press, so the flavor is with it all along. Then, they decided to start doing something with the edible sections of this fruit, so they started making syrups out of them.
We went into a room to taste them all, along with Round Pond’s vinegars. First we learned how to taste professionally. Professional tasting cups are blue in color so that the color of the oil will not affect your opinion, because apparently the color of oil has nothing to do with its taste. We placed about 1 teaspoon of oil in our mouths, coated our mouths and then sucked in air to oxygenated the oil in our mouths. It was quite an experience as the nuiances of the oil shone through such as the pepperyness of the Italian blend (we ended up coughing during the tasting of this oil which was considered polite). Then we tasted the vinegars on sugar cubes, and then the oils on different foods. We didn’t realize just how different foods could taste; breads, okay, but for example, the tomato was good with the Italian oil, but it was fantastic with the Meyer lemon olive oil. The Italian oil was very peppery; on its own, it made us cough (which is considered a good thing). The Spanish oil was much more buttery, in part because at Round Pond, they pick the Spanish olives after they have matured much more. Jill got us each a bite of homemade vanilla ice cream and had us sprinkle a bit of sea salt on it and drizzle the Spanish oil on top. We thought it sounded odd—when she brought the ice cream out, we assumed it was for the blood orange syrup—it was delicious! We ate our fill and then placed our order, which was difficult to make decisions on because everything was so wonderful.
We drove up to St. Helena and looked around all of the shops. While we were out walking, we noticed a familiar face walking down the street toward us. It was Joe Montana. We were too slow on the uptake so we don’t have a picture as proof. He ducked into the home furnishing store that we had just come out from before we could get out the camera. We continued on our way up the row of shops. We bought a painting of a vineyard with the mountains behind it, and a tray made out of an old wine barrel. Then we picked up an olive wood cheese board at the local olive oil place. We ate a bit of salad at a little Italian place who met our two requirements- light food, and a bathroom. We then stopped at Dean and Deluca’s, an extravagant grocery store that also sells many food-related products. They have an entire shelf of salts and sugars to buy in bulk—vanilla sugar, tarragon sugar, sea salt, Himalayan salt, and about 35 more! They even stocked a 10 year version of the Jura scotch, which we wondered if it might be better than the 6 year.
We headed back to Rubicon Estate for the tasting, which was decent, but nothing we wanted to buy.
We drove back to Sonoma to check in at Ramekins, where we were the only guests that night (yes, the place where we had our cooking classes- notice a theme in the decor?)
Then we went down to the girl & the fig for an excellent meal. To drink, Emily ordered a “gin”ger basil martini… the basil was a little overpowering, so although she drank it all, she wouldn’t order it again. Ryan chose the “red varietal flight” (see the list below). All of the girl & the fig’s wines are Rhones, so the red flight consisted of grenache, syrah, etc. We started with a cheese plate, which consisted of 6 cheeses, including fiscalini bandage wrapped cheddar (modesto, california), les levezou (a french sheep's milk cheese), and bellwether farms pepato (sonoma's own sheep's milk; surrounded by black peppercorns):
Ryan started with a wild boar ragout with an oven dried tomato and polenta.
Emily had a bowl of hot potato and green garlic soup.
After this first course, the entrees came out. Ryan had a filet of grilled tuna topped with an olive tapenade and grilled artichokes, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.
Emily had a steak, which was MUCH better than the night before’s. The flavor had been seared inside, and there was a green garlic butter that went on top. The steak was served with a side of potato confit.
For dessert, Ryan had a cheesecake parfait with a blackberry coulis sauce that was delicious.
Emily had profitaroles: cream puffs stuffed with homemade vanilla ice cream, drizzled with bittersweet chocolate.
We had such a great dinner we wanted to get a memento from the restaurant- lucky for us, they sell silver figs as paperweights and bookshelf decorations). We asked for one but were told that they had sold out. They said they had one left but it was marred up from being glued to the table. Emily explained that we were on our honeymoon and we ended up with the fig at a discount. After dinner, we headed back to Ramekins to get some sleep.
Wines for 31 May 2009:
Rubicon Estate, Captain’s Reserve, Pinot Noir, 2006, $38 – this was the best of the Rubicon wines that we were able to taste (the $145 a bottle Rubicon was not open for tasting the day we went), but it was not as enjoyable as the McManis Pinot Noir that we usually drink and especially not for the price difference
Rubicon Estate, Captain’s Reserve, Zinfandel, 2005, $30 – too many tannins and too spicy for our liking
Rubicon Estate, Captain’s Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, $52 – our third favorite wine at Rubicon
Rubicon Estate, Cabernet Franc, 2006, $56 – a interesting varietal, the smell was not indicative of the fruity taste but again not worth the price
Rubicon Estate, CASK, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, $75 – the second best wine at Rubicon
Girl and the Fig Red Varietal Flight ($15 for 5 tastes):
Mas de Guiot, Grenache-Syrah, France, 2007 – a very good wine (Ryan’s favorite of the flight)
Monte Oton, Garnacha, Spain, 2007 – too much bite (also paired with the tuna which made the wine more enjoyable)
River Run, Carignane, Cienega Valley, 2006 – a very good fruit-filled wine (Emily’s favorite of the flight)
Philippe & Vincent, Jaboulet, France, 2006 – another great wine in the flight
Cline Cellars “Ancient Vine”, Mourvedre, Contra Costa County, 2007 – good but a little complex for the cheeses we were having
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