Redd Redd (Wine), you make me feel so fine.

I have had that little catchy title in my back pocket to pull out all week. I thought it would be a great way to describe a drunken wine tour, but instead an even better way to tell you about out dinner from last night.

We went to Redd in Yountville by Chef Richard Reddington (a 2011 James Beard nominee) and it did not disappoint. I had a crispy chicken thigh, gnocchi, pancetta and wild mushroom ragu appetizer and NY Strip/Short Rib entree. The portions were huge and everything tasted amazing. Mike had an appetizer of sauteed sweetbreads and parsnip puree. For those of you who are wondering, sweetbreads are not sweet bread but rather the neck, giblets and glands of a piglet or lamb. Sadly, pan fried up they are freakin good. His dinner was equally as interesting as it included duck confit and foie gras meatballs. Again I enjoyed the foie gras meatballs. We both enjoyed a great (fairly inexpensive) bottle of red wine from Elyse winery. It was called C'est Se Bon and had the front end of Pinot Noir and the backend of Zin. Zexy.

But of course you could care less about the food and wine and are actually looking for me to add my sarcastic tone and keenly negative slant on a generally enjoyable evening. And that comes from guest contributor Mike. (Raucous applause). Since our waiter had the less personality than a rock and seemed to go missing for long periods of time, most likely to stand in front of a mirror trying to remember his name, we had time to play everyone's favorite game - "People Mike Hates." Mike's empty stomach and penchant for keeping on East Coast time made tonight's list particularly fruitful ( or fruit forward in honor of wine country).

People Mike Hates - April 19, 2011:

(Update at 6:56 AM PCT on April 20, 2011: Mike does not really hate these people. They might get on his nerves a little but Mike does not hate any one. Thank you).

1. Europeans who say they are from New York.



2. People who wear white clothes before Memorial Day - unless it is the classic white dress shirt



3. People who drink white wine at night.



4. People who change their cell rings to sound like rings from land line phones of yester year.



5. People who are on Pacific Time



6. People who blog (He thinks they are self important which I have continually owned up to. This one only came up because I was taking notes as he told me the people he hates and I mentioned I would be blogging this. I am sure he actually doesn't hate me.)

Oh, and I wish I could of eaten dessert (silly lenten promise). Redd had to have the best dessert menu I have ever seen. One read something like peanut butter/chocolate donuts with caramel sauce and another was a vanilla bean/strawberry bread pudding.