What Volcano?

It just seems like last year that we used to visit San Francisco to check up on it's dining scene and especially it's wine scene. Hot places like One Market, Stars, Postrio and so many others served up the latest and we were there to report back to our restaurant accounts on trends. The West Coast was hot, especially south of us.

We were all learning and teaching at the same time. Being in the wine business and repping meant sadly... travelling to vineyards, talking to winemakers and chefs, learning the ropes and then coming home to transfer all the enthusiasm we had absorbed while away. Such fun. Those were the halcyon days of the industry, we thought.

Now, so much is so rapidly taught and learned; classes bring knowledge by the roomful - in culinary schools, wine and sommelier classes, hospitality management courses (what's that!?), and all the arts of the table. So close. So easy. So accessible.

Not to take anything away from the way it is now. It's just different. Fresh. Enthusiastic. Everywhere. At the table, online, in forums, blogs and between friends. I love that it's so easy. We are spoiled. Friends now know so much and can share so much. Restaurants can (mostly) be relied upon to recommend the right wine for the right dish for the right price and rarely miss the mark. It wasn't always so.

I'm just learning how to upload videos on PlanitBC to share our travels with friends and colleagues. It never stops. Wonderful. Exciting. And just when you think that you'd just like to sit down with a glass of port, there's another wine to try, another winemaker to teach you more, another chef to share their techniques, and heaven knows another bit of technology to learn.

And we were worrying about a volcano and how it would 'ruin' our trip. Not to be. It sent us to California where we enjoyed great restaurants, the beautiful Sonoma Valley and it's so close to home, so different.

And so familiar...


Perbacco's Kitchen