Wine Tasting Nonnenhorn

Bavaria, Lake of Constance, Germany :: Etwas vom Allerfeinsten zum Nachtisch im Gasthof zur Kapelle zu Nonnenhorn :: eine Kugel Lindenblüteneis an Brombeersauce mit Ananas Stücklein, nur der Weißwein hat das ganze noch überrundet. Und die Kellnerin war so nett. Nicht einmal König Ludwig II hatte es besser in seinem Schwanenschloss, Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Wine Tasting Zurich

Andelfingen

Zürcher Weinland, Switzerland

Himalaya

Hello Zinsli
today I was in the Himalaya. Finally. I was never there, I always admired your traveling there and then climbing some of the highest peaks in the world. I liked your slide shows. My Himalaya is the restaurant in San Francisco, Taste Of The Himalayas, and it spiced me up deliciously and greatly, so please listen to this: By chance I saw this restaurant on my way to the morning coffee, it's on Lombard, quite a heavy traffic street, all the traffic crossing the Golden Gate Bridge are driving Lombard. I never check out restaurants on heavy traffic roads, but this Himalaya was a true find.
I had Lunch buffet for $7, and it was great. A very nice welcome, friendly help in explaining the food, but the best is coming up: my Lunch was delicious, delicious! Best rice i had since long, and i chose two different side dishes, i don't know the names to it, who cares, but i loved it. The mango chutney with it was yummy, the curries all to my liking, and a serving of Plain Na an, this is Balek Bread baked in a tandoori oven. All carefully handmade or better said home cooked. While eating this tasteful Lunch, i was sure enough that's also very healthy and good for longevity. I ate in a couple of different Asian restaurants, but this is the best eat for the money. I love the interior decoration, a burning candle in front of a Buddha as a reception, a prayer mill, various flags and photographs from the Himalaya, i felt good sitting there. And great sound, no iPod`s, just oh wow, just great, just what i liked to go along with this tasty Lunch. This sound by “ Buddha Bar ” made me at this moment while eating so at ease, my mind started to travel and go go go far away without any drugs, all combined together, the spices, the tastes, the Buddha sound, the other easy going customers. dear Zinsli, i then was ready to climb with you the highest peaks in the Himalayas! I was so together and felt so at ease, and i was so pumped up of joy and eager to go up and up and up and me leading the way. But hey my best man, you were not around, probably busy guiding a ski tour in the Alps, instead of taking care of my wishes. “der berg ruft” was in my heart, but instead i walked across over my beloved Golden Gate Bridge, it was great, very few people, lot's of traffic, no sailing boats, four pelicans flying very high near the bridge while all the seagulls gave them the right of way. On the return stroll, a big sunset started to show up, while the China Shipping Lines loaded with exactly the same colored containers, all in green, was heading out underneath me into the Pacific.
“ Buddha Bar ” is a restaurant, one in New York, the other in Paris, they produce their own sound, a fusion. Of what i heard, i like it very much. But maybe you have also some sound from the Himalayas, do you, Chris? Then i need to have a copy. Please, please me, I'm a sound freak.
Chris, thank you for your sms after arriving in ZRH from New Zealand. I hope your foot is ok by now, because i like to see you back in the Himalaya on high altitudes, some call it the dead zone, so please will be careful. The time i could spend with you while you were guiding us ski touring in the snow capped alps, it stays on as one of my strongest memories. When in Zermatt and very eager to rokk and roll some downhill fun, i always take time to sit down on a quite place, mostly @ Trockener Steg, and look over to the Gornergratgletscher and all the peaks dominating it. Before you i never went ski touring. Thank you Chris for giving me such a good time, for introducing me to the splendor of snow white dream works and rokking alpine memory. Say hello to Markus and Peter, two great mountaineers, i guess i`ll meet him with Jeannine @ Nagens. In February i will do my rokk and roll on snow, a true member of the * Two Lane White Top Fan Club *, of which i am the founder, only member, and proud CEO --> as of now. I even had a website with that name, but it was a disaster. Ausser spesen nix gewesen.
Hopefully some day we will work on your website.
Hopefully some day we will rokk and roll on snow in the rhythm and blues and techno of the Buddha Bar sound while dancing *Ballet On Snow*, as Andyman Mannhart, the skiX building man and snow poet, so beautifully explained what snow skiing is all about. To me, this is good description for snow skiing: *Ballet On Snow*. This has class, style, stylish movements, rhythm, four different limps doing moves in rise but mostly in flows at a regular rhythm, in a fast pace. A technically and highly demanding difficult sport, only very long practice brings you there.
But for simple minded people please consider: forget showboarding, it sukks. The two most important limps in most sports for truly free freestyle moves are free, even in wave surfing on a surfboard the feet are free to move, but in showboarding they're stuck on a single board. No wonder their active sport is passively sitting down in the middle of a run. excuse me Zinsli for lashing showboarding, but I'm not only a true member of the *Two Lane White Top Fan Club*, and the founder, only member, and CEO, I'm also the missionary and priest of the *Two Lane White Top Fan Club*. Like the Mormons i have to carry the bible and truth of truly free freestyle moves of snow entertainment into the clumsy world of showboarding. Amen.
more from the sommelier: Let me say thanks to the following supporter, keeping me up in writing this to you, thanks to the liquid spices from:
Firestone Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Ynez Valley, 2000, los olivos, CA
poured into an elegant glass from the Goodwill store in Healdsburg, CA.

nature pur.

Christmas time, Jeff Buckley and Halleluja

Christmas 05

In the USA there is a big debate going on. No more wishing to you Merry Christmas, but Happy Holiday and lots of new wording. Even president Bush, who calls himself a hard core Christian, doesn't wish you from the white house a merry Christmas, but a wishy washy something that sounds like blabla. Uh, he is a faky. If he would do a faky on snow skis, that would be great, but a faky on Christianity? Uh ah I'm not very religious, I'd rather be rokking and rolling, but if u call yourself Christian, then please keep to it. Uh ah I'm not very religious, I'm not really Christian, but i grew up in this Christian culture, but i WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Sears was the only company that wished you a very Merry Christmas. I spent part of my Christmas season in the Sonoma wine country, cocktail parties, dinners, always the best wine, good food, just a very enjoyable time in company of interesting and entertaining people from very young to very old. The brain topics rokked from Machiavelli, Zinfandel Wine, Stealth planes, spymasters.com, the beat of hip hop to the design of ultrafast multi use connections. And a small word to my sukking European counterparts: i was astound of the detailed knowledge about the world by many American friends i met. Now just one example: not only knew this person about the topic of a vote in Switzerland, he even told me how he would have voted!

Christmas day i spent in rainy San Francisco. My lunch was at my darling restaurant on Haight/Ashbury: * All You Knead *. During my Christmas lunch, as ever always a great treat for your tastes, all the while was playing Jeff Buckley and Grace, even so the restaurant is noisy. Oh gosh & oh god, what a treat. Next to oxygen, as Pitchfork.com so well defined, music is the most important ingredient to keep one alive, but besides 4 me: donuts, root beer, well done garden burgers, rokking & rolling, books, Zinfandel from the Wilson Winery, Yearbook the ski movie, snow and mountains, Hallelujah. I have never ever heard Jeff Buckley's music in a public eatery or drinkery. Here i am, enjoying my Christmas garden burger, well done, very cool customers around me, very stylish staff around me, one waitress had stockings on just to her the knees, small blakk pattern with lots of glitter in it, mini skirt in blakk, a tank top, so her rose tattoo on the back was in plain sight, just at the end of my lunch, one of my favorites by him started: Hallelujah. This is not a Christmas song, but it fit the day. I heard a lot of great Christmas music and I'm not getting tired of it. Many of them are very old melodies, time proofed, to glorify a peak religious event, composed by masters while giving their best. It's their harmonies that blow me, some of the most balanced music. And one of my all time favorites is : Phil Spectors Christmas music from the 70ies. From my hotel room i often could hear the saxophone by a black musician, always on the same street corner, playing Oh Tannenbaum. he played it many times, and i always loved it.
Today i walked from San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin City. Out of downtown Sausalito, away from the tourist trap, at the * Sailor's Landing * i stopped for lunch. This is a very good restaurant, one of the few that have NO background music. What a joy. A great place to be. Great Californian style interior, wood paneling, lot's of windows, real table cloth with real cloth napkins, nice simple wooden furniture, great old fashioned wooden bar, nice clientèle, friendly staff, and a great hamburger with really good French fries for just 7 dollars, the glass of zinfandel wine by Coppola was more expensive than my meal.

Sunday Best Ocean Beach and Brunch

16dec05

Today in my Sunday Best it was my Sunday Stroll with another short bath in the San Francisco Pacific. It woke me up, but before I had coffee and a long shaped pastry with lots of powder sugar on top at the Garden House Cafe @ Clement. I was reading The Sunday Times, writing a letter, mostly jingle bells songs in the background. Then slowly down to Ocean Beach, admiring all the nice and simple houses with the most varied paint jobs along the streets. Again I saw there the same truck I spotted already yesterday from my bus ride, but yesterday I was walking without my camera, so today I took a shot of this van.

It's a '52 Chevy, as the owner, Bob, 54 years young, explained. An old surfer since more than 40 years, he has 2 more of this car. He is a painter, and also surfs in Hawaii, where he has his own place. I asked him where I could take a dip on the safe side and he gave good advice. It's like with snow skiing off-piste, or freesking, it's good to know the local conditions. Still, nothing is safe. I had a good talk with him, good surfer scene @ Ocean Beach. Hopefully I meet him again. Today the waves were high, in the 12 feet range. I took another plunge into the water for a few minutes, still a bit chilly in my blood. I slalomed along the beach through many, many, many dogs, mostly barefoot in the water disturbing many seabirds searching for their Sunday best brunch. Not only that, but I saw the first pelicans diving for fish, just before the surf broke. I found a small shell, shaped exactly like the Shell shell, only mine is in white and gray and not yellow. At the zoo, I got on the bus and made a different city tour with transfers. I will not shower tonight, the all natural pacific essence on my skin is too precious for me to drain it back into the San Francisco bay. As it says on MUNI ads: only rain down the drain. While I'm hacking, I treat myself to two glasses of Fetzer Shiraz, two very laaarge glasses, now I don't see the pixels clear anymore.

Pacific skinny dipping

11dec05
I finally landed with my full body in the cold Pacific. That was one of my main goals on this trip. Living in a country without any oceans, but mountains and money banks, the sight of sandbanks make my heart sing. The skinny-dipping also turned into a long walk. First I boarded a bus out to the ocean beach. On the way, I stopped for coffee in Richmond at Clement and 32nd Ave. This coffee shop is so pleasant, very friendly service, great interior with nice home painted paintings, the New Yorker on the table, and Bing Crosby singing I'm dreaming of a White Christmas. While I was enjoying my hot coffee, reading the bad news and the good news: the sunny weather for the next five days, and writing a short letter. I got on the bus again, a young guy came in with a surfboard on Ocean Beach. It turns out that he is Swiss from Moléson, spent 5 months in San Francisco, doesn't like it here at all, he is a show boarder. Well then it figured to me his small mindedness. Tastes are different. Another guy came in, started to read a thick heavy book, but he always glanced over to the beach to check out the surf, and the waves were big. I asked what he is reading, he was at the end, it's Tolstoy, War and Peace. He said tomorrow the waves will be even bigger, so I'm going back to Ocean Beach tomorrow. Glancing out the bus, a Ferrari club was on the next lane, spiced with a Lamborghini and a Lotus.
I stopped quickly at the * Aqua * surf shop, nice shop, nice boards, nice staff, but no grrrrls. So where then are all these California surf grrrrls the beach boys were singing me in the sixties? But i flew to California so i can hit the pacific, and i wanted to try this at China Beach, so i started to walk. I passed Cliff House, the Palace of Legion of Honor, where Hitchcock filmed Vertigo, i walked along million of dollars houses with manicured greens, and there was China Beach, small, very few People. I checked out the water, the flow, the currant, the coldness, and with respect and precaution i plunged in. cold was the water, and powerful. What a rare feeling this is for me. In China Beach the waves are small, still they are powerful and can smash you right into the sand. Also I'm not a local and regular with open pacific water, i was careful. A couple of weeks ago, on a Sonoma county beach, a couple of people drowned there in a undercurrent. I didn't dare to swim, i just played, waded, and enjoyed the feeling of salt water on my skin, on my tongue, in my hair. At home i didn't shower, i want to keep the salty taste of my skin as long as possible. I walked over to Baker Beach, where * Burning Man * started. Barefoot on this great beach with great view of the golden gate, Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza, and then I could walk all barefoot in shallow water to the Marina. The tide was so low. In the bus to Haight/Ashbury into my darling All You Knead place and I had again the same plate as yesterday, because it is so yummy, and all the while they had John Lennon singing! On the way to my hotel by bus, a Friday night crowd came in. It was a pure pleasure to see all these diverse people, styles, attitudes, class, and their excitement in what is coming up for them tonight. This MUNI bus ride was way better than any production of Parsifal opera staged in Los Angeles by Avant-garde director Robert Wilson.
Now while hacking this, I'm supported by a bottle of Fetzer Wine, Vineyards Valley Oaks, Shiraz, California, vintage 2001, good, I had a great day, I enjoyed it.

Haight/Ashbury

10dec05
Today was my first visit to Haight/Ashbury. I walked in from the panhandle side. The first sound I heard out from a delivery truck at the cross-section of Haight/Ashbury at the red traffic light was from → Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Déja Vue. Not Eminem but Déja Vue. Such coincidence was powerful, one of my favorite albums. Their song is better than any masterly directed opera. This is a true live opera without any Verdi influence or Modzart, performed just for me with many coincidences coming together at the right time. This invisible director staged a perfect welcome opera party for me. Without paying a steep opera style priced admission, this opera was my private own opera in full public view. Oh, man. Me as an ex hippie and still an old true hippie in my heart with sometimes very long silver hair, in my age politically not correct, out of a truck comes the orchestra playing a time correct soundtrack. I don't know if it was from a radio or a Cd. Right on I felt good and like at home, the good old days. What a welcome the original hippie town gave me, a better script than any from Hollywood. I walked the whole Haight on both sidewalks, up and down. I noticed a dog groom store, with heavy-duty black dog collars and tons of the sharpest steel spikes on them, in the window display. It turned out to be not a pet store but a sado Sade maso sex store.
The best vintage clothing stores you find here, next to London in Camden Town. I had lunch at the *All You Knead*, i sat in a sumptuous leather covered booth in brown all by myself, my neighbor an old man in my age with a black t-shirt with huge green marijuana plants screened on it, lot's of plants, many posters on the wall, like the famous *the night birds* by Edward Hopper, or the *the runaway kid* by Norman Rockwell, out of which the ski brand K2 made a good advertising version for fat skis. I had the daily special: vegetarian burger with salad, and a root beer, it was very delicious, the greens very fresh, the burger tasty and rightly grilled, the salad dressing to my taste, all this for a bit more than 8 dollars. I have a very good time in San Francisco, this was another highlight.
For dessert i walked into the music store *Amoeba*, now this, for a music lover like me but tired of mega hits, this is heaven. Huge, and so pleasantly designed, unlike these super commercial music mega store filled with the newest billboard shits.. Amoeba has music culture, the mega stores have capital culture. I wanted to make a test with a music group i haven't seen for 30 years stacked live in a shelf as a lp or Cd in a music store. Now listen to this, this blew my mind, although i didn't let it show in my facial expression: i walked up to the information booth at Amoeba and asked the young guy: “where can i find *Pearls Before Swine*” ? This is a group from 1968, unknown even in 1968. As if this is the same question the tourists ask over and over again, year in year out, at the tourist information next to the turning point of the cable car at Market, he answered calmly and very well assured, without first much reflecting, without thinking who is this weirdo band, without checking first the data base in his computer, he just said: down there in the Rock section. Hey, are you still with me ???, hey thank you, and there was *Pearls Before Swine*, and many of them, Musicalicous! The staff at Amoeba must be very well trained, must have a big musical brain. I was impressed. I'm going back, i hope D.... is joining me.
hANS bOLLI :: pAINTER

iWino Report

By a Sommelier from San Francisco:
iDrink a lot more wine than iUsually do, but hey I'm in wine country, and I'm not driving a car but high in spirits, here comes iConfess:
Montevina, Sierra Foothills, Zinfandel, 2001, Amador County
Fetzer,Valley Oaks, Shiraz, 2003
Arbor Crest, Syrah
Fetzer,Valley Oaks, Chardonnay, 2003
Wilson Winery, Healdsburg, CA, Old Zinfandel,
Buehler, Chardonnay, Russian River CA

Zinfandel

Zinfandel Wine Country, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, CA
19nov05
I feel good, i don't need sports bars, sitting in my hotel room with the police sirens in the foreground, I'm drinking an Estate Zinfandel, Wilson Winery, 2002, Dry Creek Valley, Sawyer Vineyard, in a glass i bought for one dollar in a Goodwill store on polk street, and on this glass is engraved in a stylish font: Healdsburg Lavender Festival. I bought this glass before i tasted this wine, which is the present from Diane. Even no one sees me in my room, I'm dressed up in a classic style for this strong wine, I'm handsome as the devil, as the line of Kevin Costner goes to the boy in the movie *Perfect World*. Again it's funny that the glass and the wine are from the same place by chance. When in California and drinking red wine, if i can, i will opt for Zinfandel. All other wines they grow in Europe, but not Zinfandel. Still this might be the California grape, i guess so, that this is the grape in southern Switzerland they re imported 100 years ago, after a disease killed the local grapes, and is called now: *AMERICANA*. In Switzerland, this Americana grape is not for wine making, but a table grape for eating, small berries, very sweet with a soft skin, a very delicious grape, my favorite grape besides *Muscat De Hambourg* of Provence and the white grape *Chasselas*. All other grapes for eating have no chance to these 3 varieties, all other grapes are in taste boring. A good ripe Chasselas has golden cheeks, most other white grapes are uniformly green, light green, dark green, it doesn't matter what green, but green and never gold. And as plane green they are, they also taste plane boring. Chasselas is a superb tasting grape, and they also look visually appealing, i never understood how people could buy these plain boring white grapes in a uniform green color.

This is good wine, says a man not in a gray flannel suit, this is what it says on the label:
our Sawyer Vineyard is located on the bench lands off West Dry Creek Road near Bradford Mountain in the Heart of Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County. We are a small family owned and operated winery specializing in handcrafted small lots of carefully selected grapes. Come visit us at our tasting room in our historic facility, one of the oldest bounded wineries in California.



Stylish Zinfandel Wine Tasting And Football watching in the Heart Of Zinfandel Country.
I did id with great pleasure. Thank you for the wine, prost Diane!

iHallo S&C from San Francisco

iHallo Darlings SueD&ClaudiaR
ich wollte dir, euch schon lange antworten, aber es klappte hier nicht alles, i have so much to tell u, so much goes on through my head, it's rokk 'n roll pure. Ein SMS habe ich erhalten, ich habe herausgefunden, man kann mich erreichen, aber ich kann nicht antworten. Ich sitze hier am Hotel Compi mit Internetanschluss, der aber ist meistens besetzt, und als ich mal dran war, ganz am Anfang, ist meine Antwort als E-Mail an S nicht herausgegangen, und ich habe ihr einen halben wahren Roman geschrieben für die Katze.
Hey sisters, zuerst einmal viilen dank für deine, unsere Freundschaft, für das Denken an mich, für viiles mehr, für die Gastfreundschaft, es macht ein Leben reich, jemanden wie S&C zu kennen. Ich habe mir neue, stylische, very upper class Americano looking shoes gekauft, brogues genannt, und erfahren, wie ich bin als weiser Mann, statt zuerst sorgfältig einzulaufen, machte ich damit instant long City street walks, jetzt habe ich die bösesten Blattern an den Füßen. Gestern Nacht erreichte ich das Hotel nur noch in der schleichenden Geschwindigkeit, ich humpelte nur noch dahin. Die Schuhe sind vielleicht zu eng. Heute muss ich denen eine Pause geben, leider, denn ich kann kaum ruhig da sitzen.
Ich war gestern in Marin County mit der Ferry (ich vereiste in die USA mit einer dicken Winterjacke) und ging zu Fuß weiter bis nach Fairfax, 80 degrees out there!! Mitte November. Im second hand store habe ich mir Shorts gekauft. 2 books habe ich mir gekauft: *Zen and the art of motorcycling maintenance*, und *interviews with american artists*. Ich kaufte immer schon viele Bücher in den USA, meistens aber lasse ich sie da, bedauerlicherweise, wegen des Gewicht im Gepäck. Wie hast du C das lesen oder die Kultur der Bücher genannt: Kultur der Langsamkeit? Dear sisters, hey, if I could, I would not come back. I love it here, und ich bereue es, dass ich in den letzten 20 Jahren nicht mehr Zeit in den USA verbringen konnte. street poverty ist hier schlimm, massiv, sehr traurig, ich habe sogar ein Kind, homeless mit dem Vater, in der Nacht in einem shop Eingang schlafen gesehen. Ab morgen habe ich ein Auto für eine Woche reserviert, $140 eine kleine Kiste in der Woche, mal sehen ob der Trick von Däzze mit den travellers cheques klappen wird. Wenn noch kein Schnee in den bergen auf den Straßen liegt, möchte ich auch nach Lake Tahoe abrokken, Sonoma county, Marin County, ach, i'm so exited. Als ich ankam, hatte ich kaum Geduld, ich wollte alles machen, schmecken, sehen, sofort, was ich seit neun Jahren vermisste: ich trank Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, donuts, hamburgers, Zinfandel Wine (wine is rather expensive), es war nicht die gesündeste Lebensweise für Langlebigkeit. I will cool down. Apple Pie while sitting in a red leather covered booth will be on it's way.
Hey C&S, you are darlings, sorry i don't miss you!