As a kid, I shared a bedroom with two brothers and my sister. The room cluttered quickly so mom was always on us to pick up our clothes and toys and books and shoes and everything else one would imagine piling up. Being pulled away from my favorite cartoons (Thundercats Ho!) to clean my room was certain torture. My brother endured the same agony. 

I don't know whose idea it was. Maybe that magical blanket was already on the floor, stretched out beneath the rubble. But the universe spoke to us one Saturday morning. Why not just pile the entire mess in the center of the blanket and wrap it up? We looked at each other silently and nodded, We came to appreciate a little known fact: under a bed or in the back of a closet, a blanket stuffed with toys and other nonsense looks just like a blanket. No questions. We admired our genius. We called it "The Bag of Tricks". 

Mom was surprised to see us back watching cartoons so soon, and went to investigate. When we didn't hear from her again we knew our stratagem was sound. This became a regular scheme. The funny thing was, we would eventually require certain things from the "Bag of Tricks", be it a spare pencil sharpener or a matching sock and, as the week progressed, we'd gradually deplete and, by default, put everything in the B.O.T. away. Perhaps it wasn't that different than the actual closet. Life lesson. Also, looking back, I'm 99% sure mom could give a damn how the room got cleaned up. Not having to see our mess was enough for her. Maybe she had a bag of tricks too. Well played, mom.

Put your troubles in a blanket and stuff them in the closet. You'll get to them in good time. Come out to OAKLAND YARD for our weekly flights- taste and enjoy some delicious wines and explore and connect with us.

TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! We have a great line up of stony and dry Loire Valley whites and some stellar Spanish reds. Flights just $12 from 4-8pm. All wines in the flights are 10% off tonight!

SATURDAY: Wines of Sicily (part II). Frappatto, Nero D'Avola, Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. Sicilian Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

SUNDAY: Austrian Flights! Crisp, mineral-driven Gruner Veltliner, Dry Riesling, and Blaufrankish. Tasting Flights from 2-6pm and other delights by the glass. 

See you soon,

Daniel

They say it's spring, though winter seems reluctant to yield. This seasonal shift doesn't usually mean too much to me, but with a 3 month old daughter everything is kind of a milestone these days. Changing leaves turned to changing diapers in December, and that month the turning colors of poop became something to monitor, if not celebrate.

Thankfully, we are now on to new and more meaningful firsts these days. Ellery made her first friend this past month. It's a rusty chandelier (whom we now call Shandy). Shandy is greeted daily with more warmth and joy than she could muster for me in a month. But that's ok, I won't get in the way of love. 

Pretty much every new something feels significant. A first trip to the coast, a first time seeing rain, a first time hearing french. We just heard her very first laugh, full and rich, during her last bath. I should note that I was in the tub with her - apparently the sight of me nude elicits this response. 


Watching the shelves here at the shop - with the colors and labels changing, some disappearing for good, others falling off for a spell and returning the next season - is a certain subtle and significant celebration. Our weekly tastings yield an ever-evolving cycle of firsts, of new selections and new arrivals to OAKLAND YARD. They are occasions to greet old friends and make new ones, to recall a trip to some foreign coast, to practice french pronunciations, to escape the rain. And, above all, to laugh. 

Tonight: THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS. Whites from Croatia and Hungary & Spanish Red Flights. Choose your own adventure every Thursday night. Flights $12 from 4-8pm!

SPARKLING SATURDAY: All Italian Bubbles... Sparkling Natural Garganega, Organic Prosecco and Lambrusco! Flights 2/24 from 2-5pm.

SUNDAY: PINOT NOIR TASTING. Pinot Flights from Around the globe. Jane et Sylvain (Bourgogne Rouge) B.Kosuge (Sonoma Coast), Moutin Noir OPP (Oregon). Flights $15 from 2-6pm.

See you soon,

Daniel

Ten years ago, Julia and I enjoyed a honeymoon in France and Italy. We drove through the Alps from Lyon to Cuneo and stayed in a tiny hilltop commune, called Bene Vagienna, where we were bit by miniscule, striped mosquitos while we drank Barolo Chinato and watched the local elders play bocce after sunset, mixed doubles under the lights on the public courts.

From Piedmont, we traveled to an agriturismo in Emilia-Romagna, where we were welcomed by the young and vivacious Valentina, who was using government subsidies to revive a small organic farm in Gorzano. One morning, we heard shouting in the field near our room and inquired about the noise. Valentina explained that her father was a retired public health bureaucrat who was so excited to be replanting the vineyard, so happy to be working outdoors with his hands, that the shirtless sixty-year-old let loose a howling ‘YEAHHHH!’ as he completed each row.

After a week of day trips to Modena and Bologna, we bought a half wheel of Pecorino from Valentina’s neighbor and drove south to the picturesque seaside villages of Liguria: the Cinque Terre, Lerici, and Tellaro, where stone steps, alleyways and hobbit homes hug the rugged coastal cliffs. The early mornings there were especially magical, as the still and quiet darkness gave way to the soft pink light of dawn, a rooster crowed once, twice, three times, and the wind off the water would pick up, loudly flapping colorful lines of hanging laundry. One morning, as I lay in bed, awoken by indigestion and mosquito bites, and with that first light, several swallows flew in through our French doors, and swiftly and silently circled the room before exiting through various windows.

Come join us for a wine tour of Italy this weekend - we’ll be pouring flights of new Italian wines both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. 

But first…TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights: French Reds or California Whites $12 from 4-8pm

SATURDAY: Northern Italian Tasting Flights – Garganega from the Veneto, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Tuscan Morellino, and Piedmontese Barbaresco - $15 from 2-5pm

SUNDAY: Specifically Sicilian Tasting Flights – Grillo, Frappato & Nero d’Avola - $15 from 3-6pm