The Grotto

Last Friday, we went after work to a place called the Grotto over in San Marco. This happens to be one of my favorite places so far because it reminds me of the wineries in Santa Barbara. And they have a very nice selection of wines by the glass.

This time, I tried the Penfolds "Bin 389" Cabernet/Shiraz, 04, South Australia and the Valdivieso "Reserve" Cabernet Franc, 04, Central Valley, Chile.

The cab/shiraz blend was quite delicious. Ever since I went to Canberra about a decade or so ago and met a wine connoisseur who highly recommended a Penfolds cab/shiraz blend, I try and taste them when I can. Of course, by now I can't remember which bin # he recommended, but I haven't been disappointed yet, as long as it wasn't one of the cheapest bottles on the shelf.

I decided to try the cabernet franc because first, it was from Chile, and I've really enjoyed Chilean wines lately, particularly the carmenere. And second, I'd tried some cabernet francs at several wineries in central California and I was interested in how the Chilean compared with the Californian. I enjoyed this wine also, but it had a bit more of a tannic taste to it than the cab/shiraz blend from Australia.

To go with the wines, I also had the mushroom, prosciutto and manchego cheese empanadas. The crust was nice and flaky. But the mushroom to prosciutto to cheese ratio was a bit off, with the mushrooms overpowering the flavor of the prosciutto and cheese. In fact, I could barely tell there was any cheese in there at all, let alone any prosciutto. The last time we went, I had the bruschetta, which was quite delicious with lots of nice tomato, garlic and basil.