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While I was judging wine last week for the Mendocino Crab & Wine Days, I was also putting a lip color through its paces.  I’ve tried so many lip glosses, lipsticks and stains that claim to last all day.  I finally found one that lasts better than any of those.  Covergirl makes Outlast, a lip stain that looks like one of those thin magic markers.  My shade is 420, “Sassy Mauve,” a plummy stain.  It held up pretty well after tasting 48 wines, with countless sips of water in between.  My one caveat is that it makes your lips feel dry — but then I haven’t found any last all day lip colors that aren’t dry.  Retails for about $8.

The Mendocino Crab & Wine Days festival is a great event in that you’re eating local Dungeness crab and drinking local Mendocino County wines with it.  I tasted many of them as a component of the wine competition for the Crab & Wine Days event.  The same five judges in the the crab cake cook-off sipped and spit 48 wine entries.  Our mission:  choose the wine best paired with pure crab meat.

In the blind tasting lineup there were only white wines, except for one sparkling Rose.  Lots of Chardonnays were entered, but many were over-oaked or butter bombs.  The top three wines were #1 Graziano Chenin Blanc; #2 Navarro Vineyards Gewurztraminer; #3 Yorkville Cellars Sauvignon Blanc.

At the public crab and wine tasting, my favorite discoveries were the wines from Toulouse Vineyards, and the wines from Elke Vineyards. I almost don’t want to tell you about Toulouse because he’s a small producer and he sells out quickly.  Owner/winemaker Vern Boltz is a character, as I found out at his tasting room.  Loved the Gewurtz and both his Pinots — the reserve just rocks!  Please save a few bottles for me!

Mary Elke was one of the few vintners pouring a pink wine, a Rose of Pinot Noir.  I just loved it, lots of strawberry fruit character.  Her Chardonnay is unoaked and fabulous, clean, crisp and fruit-forward.  Love those unoaked Chards!

A People’s Choice award was also given for wine.  It’s not an apples to apples with the judges; we tasted the wine with just crab meat, while the people tasted wine with crab cakes.  Also the public vote was for best overall winery, not just one wine.  The choices were #1 Toulouse Vineyards; #2 McNab Ridge Winery; #3 Maple Creek Winery.  All are worth seeking out either online or through your local wine merchant.

Last week I was a judge at the Mendocino Crab & Wine Days. For the past 11 years, local chefs have entered their crab cakes in a cook-off to be chosen best of the best. In a separate contest, local wineries enter the bottling they think pairs best with pure crab meat (look for this in a later post).  It’s all Dungeness crab, caught locally off the coast of Mendocino.

We blind tasted our way (chef, restaurant and ingredients not identified) through 15 crab cakes and awarded scores for taste, presentation and originality.  The best cakes really honored the crab — nice chunks of crab meat, simple preparation with no one ingredient overpowering the crab.

The judges for the most part were in agreement on which crab cakes worked and which ones didn’t.  We preferred the less fussy presentations, and the cakes that had more crab than filler.

The winners above L-R:  1st place:  Silver’s at the Wharf – full of chunks, moist, not perfectly shaped.  We liked the acid from the grapefruit.  2nd place:  Cafe Beaujolais.  Great presentation, crab chunks with and green bean garnish.  3rd place Mendo Bistro.  Nice clean flavors and presentation, panko breading, (just awesome in my notes).

The next day, there’s a public tasting of all the crab cakes, and everyone casts votes for the People’s Choice award.  Results were similar to ours.  1st place:  Def Chef Catering; 2nd place:  Silver’s at the Wharf; 3rd place:  Mendo Bistro.  Congratulations to all!

This post’s title, Snack on This! I have totally borrowed from friend and colleague Mark Oltz.  Whenever we were looking for new titles to segments on In Wine Country he’d always throw out “snack on this.”  Today’s the last day of the three day Fancy Food show in San Francisco.  There are hundreds of food vendors, from all over the country and all over the world.  You can spend all day there and eat nothing but cheese — some darn good cheese.  I managed to pull myself away from the cheese pavilion to sample other things.  Here’s my list of favorites.

Everything’s better with bacon.  The cured meat was everywhere; lots of jamon Iberico legs being carved up.

Bacon makes its way into chocolate at Vosges, in a dark choc bar and in a fantastic bacon caramel toffee.  Also saw dried smoked salmon “bacon bits.”

Porchetta was on display too.  Tasted this really delicious petite porchetta from Porchetta Primata in Italy. The good news, it’s available at Costco.  For those of us who live in or near Napa Valley, or are visiting the wine country, you’ve got to go to Fatted Calf at Oxbow Market in Napa for their amazing porchetta.  I’ve seen it made and it’s full of garlic, lemon and all sorts of herbs…yum!

Next to cheese caramel was everywhere you looked, in all sorts of decadent bars and candies.  Poco Dolce’s Burnt Caramel was one favorite, and so were the chewey vanilla caramels from the relatively new Happy Goat.  Their caramels are made with goat milk — from goats from small loca farms producing milk that is antibiotic, growth hormone and pesticide-free.

More for the sweet tooth – wine country-based Anette’s Chocolate Factory has always had an exceptional (and addictive) beer brittle.  Here at the show they’re introducing triple nut bourbon brittle, a new favorite for me, with pecans, pistachios and almonds.  I also tried their Chardonnay wine brittle which is terrific.  Follow this link to a story about Anette’s that we did on In Wine Country.

There were lots of beverages too…flavored sodas, zero-calorie flavored waters, tea and more tea.  I love the rose nectar called Sence.  The packaging is beautiful…the bottles above on the left.  It’s not too sweet, and is a great mixer for coctails, like the vodka-spiked drinks they were making.  It’s stylish and fun and something different.  The teas I really like actually come from a coffee company in Hawaii.  The pulp of coffee beans grown on Moloka’i is dried and blended with other herbs and flowers, into a tisane.  My favorites are the lemongrass and the lavender tisanes.

To quote Rachel Zoe, some of the foods “I die” for — and will be buying as soon as I find them online or at my local grocer:  the coco-passion jam from The French Farm just rocks!  Also love the confit of jasmine flowers, confit of violet, both very delicate flavors.  Can’t wait to get my hands on a bottle of Lucero‘s peach balsamic vinegar.  It’s a white balsamic and the peach is just perfect, not overly sweet.  Lucero’s ascolano olive oil is one of the best I tasted.  I must also have the new spicy ketchup from Maya Kaimal, a purveyor of Indian food.  I love their curry simmer sauces too.

One product related to wine caught my attention.  You may have heard of Vinturi, a hand-held device that decants (aerates) one glass of wine at a time.  It is similar to a funnel and it makes a sucking sound as the wine passes through it.  The Soiree is an alternative for decanting on the go.  It’s a glass bulb that fits into the bottle mouth, and you pour right through that.  Check it out.  I’m going to do a side by side test and will let you know the results.

You know how fashion designers end their shows with a wedding gown walked down the runway?  To end my post, here’s the foodie version of a wedding cake — in cheese!  This was created by the folks at Cypress Grove Chevre, and is made up of a variety of their cheeses…including the wonderful Truffle Tremor, made with yes, fragrant, earthy truffles. Cowgirl Creamery introduced Devil’s Gulch, a new seasonal cow’s milk cheese topped with spicy dried red pepper flakes (adds a nice kick!)

Rogue Creamery had a great line up of blue cheeses.  The cheesemaker also paired up with Oregon beer brewer Rogue, adding a chocolate stout to cheddar.

Were there things I didn’t like?  Yes, like the pesto from a vendor who told me it’s the best in the world — but not to me.  Also tasted pasta sauces with overcooked noodles (yuch), some overly sweet sodas, green tea ramen noodles.

Mmmm – Dungeness crab, fresh and local.  Does it get any better than that?  Well yes it does, especially with a spot-on wine pairing.  In this case you’ve got the crab with its clean flavors and just a little bit of sweetness.  A regular Chardonnay esp w/ any oak will overpower the crab.  While a Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling are more reliable choices, why not try this? An unoaked Chardonnay.  Look for Chards that are fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks.  My choice for this evening -  Sarah’s Vineyard “Steel Blue” Chardonnay.  It’s zippy and bright, and really helps enhance the tasty crab.

Low country is what people call the areas including Savannah, GA, Beaufort and Hilton Head Island, both in South Carolina, all the way up to Charleston.   No mountains or hills, just flat (and low) marshes and beaches.  During the holidays I got my fill of real BBQ, shrimp and girts and other seafood that low country is known for.  The wild Georgia shrimp are so fresh and sweet.  Had a standout meal at a fairly new restaurant in Bluffton, South Carolina.  Bluffton used to be the speed trap on the way from Atlanta to Hilton Head.  Now Bluffton’s becoming a place you want to visit, with local artisan shops and restaurants.  If you go, be sure to check out the May River Grill.  Panko-crusted fried local oysters, fluffy biscuits served with onion butter – yum!  And crab cakes stuffed full of the local blue crab and hardly any filler.  The special that day was a parmesan crusted Walleye which was moist and flaky and cooked just right.

Over the holidays I discovered a cool line of wine glasses. Made by Accademia Luigi Bormioli in Italy. This set of six nice and big crystal glasses are the Cabernet / Super Tuscan glasses from the Esperienzi line. The look is really modern, with the graduated base.  Guess what I paid? $36 for set of 6.  Very reasonable.  Like Riedel, there are glasses for specific varietals and stemless glasses too.  I have a few Riedel sets at home, so it will be fun to do a tasting between the two (I had to ship the glasses from the store I found them in South Carolina).  Will let you know how my taste test turns out once I get the glasses.   Oh and the glasses are diswasher safe too.