A Great Silicon Valley Restaurant for Wine and World Cuisine

“The world is yours when you wander into Tasting Dwelling,” states Enrique Leon, manager and sommelier at Wine Spectator Most effective of Award of Excellence winner Tasting Residence in Los Gatos, Calif., on the southern edge of Silicon Valley. It is a fitting description: This bistro and wine bar gives globally influenced fare and much more than 500 wine choices from across the planet. Tasting House’s adjoining Champagne lounge serves oysters, caviar and frites, while a retail area sells wine, cheese, chocolate and gifts.

Even with this world-wide outlook, homeowners Denise and Michael Thornberry established Tasting Property to be a community spot, just one wherever pairing meals with wine is elementary. When they go out to eat, Denise Thornberry clarifies, “Every time we buy a bottle of wine, we look up what to pair with it. … There are a lot of large-end food stuff-and-wine pairings [at other restaurants], but we assumed this could be a good knowledge for every person.”

After several years of learning and touring to deepen their appreciation of wine, the Thornberrys opened Tasting Home in 2022. Striped awnings, purple doors and a honeycomb tile ground give the cafe a distinctly European vibe but the Thornberrys choose a throughout the world strategy with the cuisine, drawing from Thai, Moroccan, Italian and French inspirations, amid others.

Curiously, it is the wine method that informs substantially of the menu. “It’s actually significant to us that [the pairings] are harmonious,” says government chef Julian Silvera, noting that the cafe implements a “panel” to discuss likely dishes and wine pairings. “We’ll say, ‘This is our notion for a dish.’ And we are going to converse about the pairings. If the pairing won’t work with the wines, we will never do the dish.” A wine pairing joins just about every dish throughout the menu, this kind of as Chante Cigale Châteauneuf-du-Pape White 2021 with Thai laab and Dominus Estate Napanook Napa Valley 2015 with A5 Japanese Wagyu and moo shu vegetables.

A Glance at the Wine Listing

Tasting House’s panel process extends to the wine plan, with a selection course of action for just about every location on the list. “We’ll convey in six bottles from different producers and blind-style them,” clarifies Leon. “We do our owing diligence to pick out the very best wine.”

The software displays horizontal breadth, with unique interest presented to France and California, which include bottlings these types of as Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau, Château Lynch Bages Pauillac, Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Martha’s Winery and Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains. But the list is not built up completely of special bottles, even in higher-priced wine groups: “We want to be able to offer wine from each group at each price point,” states Leon. “You really should be ready to have a Burgundy for like 80 bucks, or [you can] expend $3,800 on a bottle.” With 65 wines served by the glass and half-glass—including gems like Bodegas Marqués Murrieta Rioja White Capellanía 2018 and La Spinetta Barolo Garretti 2018—guests can also experiment with their very own pairings or tastings.

“Everything revolves all over wine,” states Denise Thornberry. “We picked this spot mainly because of its proximity to the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. Our thought is to be wherever people today are passionate about wine and food like we are.” Seeking in advance, she has visions of having the Tasting House thought over and above Los Gatos. “We want to go [to] other destinations. We’re actively looking for a place to assistance our enterprise product in other [California] AVAs.”

Tasting Dwelling and its neighboring Champagne bar are open up Tuesdays by means of Saturdays, with stay tunes nightly.