Our Little Visit to Saratoga

Yesterday turned out to be more than what we expected. J and I decided to go to Saratoga (it's about 15 minutes from where we live.) J's always driving through Saratoga to go up into the mountains on his bike rides. He's also a fan of Cinnabar wines and they have a tasting room in downtown Saratoga. It's a cute road with little boutiques, cafes, and restaurants up and down the street. Why we never went there before is beyond me. I instantly loved how pretty Saratoga is, it's nestled right below the mountains and the scenery is beautiful. We stopped off at Cinnabar and did a tasting, which only cost $5 and we got to sample 4 wines, plus a dessert wine. We got to sample 2 white wines: a Marsanne and Chardonnay and 2 reds: Mercury Rising Cab and a Lodi Petit Verdot. They were all excellent. Really good wines. I liked the chardonnay especially. I'm used to Chardonnays being very okay, but this one was very crisp and clean on the palate. The dessert wine we tried was an Ice Wine and it's pretty tasty -- it was very sweet, but it would go nice with a fruity dessert or something. We bought 2 bottles of wine from there - J bought a Cab Sauvignon and I bought a Paso Robles Valdiguié (which is a limited release from Cinnabar). Haven't tried it or anything...but it seemed interesting enough and I'm always up for something new.

After we left Cinnabar, we walked around downtown for a while. We decided we'd eat dinner there, but none of the restaurants were opening until 5 or 5:30. We checked out some of the menus hanging outside the restaurants and we decided we wanted to eat at la Mère Michelle. We still has an hour to kill before dinner so we stopped by this wine shop called Uncorked. I didn't even realize there was a wine shop besides Cinnabar. We had a good time in Uncorked. We both did a $10 tasting and got 3 different wines to sample: a Fess Parker Chardonnay, a Page Mill Cab Sauvignon, and a Mann Syrah. They were all okay. I wasn't crazy about any of them. It was just nice to sit down and enjoy some wine. The wine selection the owner has is great. There are a lot of good wines in his shop. We left with 6 bottles or so.

Once we were done at Uncorked...we headed over to the restaurant. It's set inside a Victorian house. The restaurant's been around since 1972...so it's vintage. We were seated at a table near the windows. They had all the windows open, so you got nice fresh air flowing through. I was wined out....so I didn't pursue anymore wine, but J did and he ordered a bottle of 2002 Grgrich Hill Zinfadel. By the way...they have a huge wine list, featuring lots of known wineries and wines. We were impressed by their list. For starters I got the Baked French Onion Soup au Gratin and J got the Mixed Green salad. They make everything fresh so it was a good 15-20 minutes before my soup came out, which I appreciate, because you rarely go places where they make it from scratch as you order it. Well, the soup was good....fresh and hot, but in my honest opinion, it lacked a little something. It needed more flavoring or seasoning. I'm always used to the soup being a little saltier. Oh well....can't complain too much since everything else was delicious.

I ordered the Prawn and Scallop Cakes Topped with Lobster, which sits on a Lemon Vodka Caviar Cream sauce. J ordered the 20 oz. Bone-in Rib Eye. Both our entrees came with candied carrots, steamed broccoli, and scalloped potatoes. Can I just say that everything was superb and delicious. The prawn and scallop cakes were to-die-for...such a nice change from the traditional crab cake. I got 2 cakes on my plate and both were topped each with a lobster tail. I love lobster and this was wonderful and fresh. The scalloped potatoes were delicious! They were so creamy and so tasty. It's not like any scalloped potatoes I've had before. This was wonderful. J's rib eye was just as good...cooked to perfection. He ate the whole thing! All 20 oz of it. After our delicious meal, we ended on a sweet note with 2 scoops of the restaurants homemade double vanilla bean gelato. Yum yum yum.

We will definitely go to la Mère Michelle's again....but only for a special occasion. It is a bit pricey for the meals. We will return to Saratoga for another excursion in the future.