Lee Foster (fostertravel.com)

Cellar360 in San Francisco

The multiplicity of satisfying travel, food, and wine experiences available for a traveler in Northern California continues to expand exponentially.

I had an opportunity this week to sample in San Francisco one aspect of the evolving travel/food scene, Cellar360, focused on wine and food tasting.  You don't have to go up to Napa or Sonoma any more to have a quality wine tasting. 

You can have it right at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco at an entity called Cellar360.  These tastings are no longer free, but they are available, starting at $10. 

Cellar360 is an elaborate showcase for one family of wine companies, the Foster Wine Estates (no relation, but think Australian beer).  Cellar 360 has some top California companies in its family, such as Stags Leap, Beringer, Chateau St. Jean.  The portfolio of wines is global, but even among the California members of the group there is quite a spectrum, from mass to boutique producers.

The concept behind the name is that this one brand includes a cluster of wineries from around the world, good wine coming at you from all directions.

You can walk in off the street and do a quality tasting, perhaps with paired cheeses, for a moderate price.   The moderate price offsets the gas costs for a trip up to Napa, where quality tastings also now carry a charge.

When you taste at Cellar360, you may experience a new word for your culinary vocabulary, "wine flights."  You may need to choose a certain wine "flight."  Flight means the cluster of wines at different price levels or of different types that you might experience.  Some flights are more expensive than others.  I first experienced the word at a posh fine dining experience in Minneapolis this summer.  I have to choose my "wine flight" level for the meal.  Similarly, at Cellar360 there are levels of flights of wine.

Cellar360 hopes to sell a lot of bottles of all the wines in the store.  The hope is that a quality tasting experience, perhaps paired with "charcuterie" tasting plates, and some educational efforts, will put the traveler in a favorable mood to buy bottles of wine at $25/35.  There are about 200 premium wines for sale, from over 40 regions on four continents, with knowledgeable staff present.  Culinary events and courses occur at the Cellar360's tasting/cooking facility.   The "concierge" service at Cellar360 can also arrange visits to their wineries in Napa/Sonoma.  The website is www.cellar360.com.  Food and wine can be enjoyed outdoors at Cellar360, but the code word is "weather permitting."  Anyone who knows San Francisco will attest to glorious sunny days interspersed with fog, rain, and bone-chilling cold, some elements of which may be present year round.

The main people on site are manager Chris Langston and chef Kasey Passen. 

The amount of energy going into ever better food and wine experiences in the Northern California travel scene is simply amazing, spanning a spectrum of restaurants, wineries, celebrity chefs, and boutique food producer.  Cellar360 is a new element in the scene, worth checking out. 

"Plastination" in San Jose, CA

"Plastination" may be coming to a city near you, if you are fortunate.

Plastination is the art and science of preserving human bodies, halting decomposition and saving them in a plastic form for medical study and public wonderment when on display.  The technology was developed in Heidelberg, Germany by Dr. Gunther von Hagens.  However, von Hagens wanted to present the human body to an audience far larger than the world of medical students.   His displays have been seen by about 25 million laymen so far.

I recently saw his exhibit,  Body Worlds 2,  at The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA.  There are imitator exhibits, but the von Hagen exhibit is the gold standard.  For one thing, all his bodies are from voluntary donors.

To enjoy this exhibit, you must first accept the notion that it is appropriate to display bodies in this way.  Much of what we do with bodies comes from the metaphors we apply to the body.  I remember, as an undergraduate student, in my History of Science class at Notre Dame, reading the seminal paper in which Descartes portrayed the human heart as a machine, the first time this metaphor was used in Western thought.  Once the heart, and the human body, was seen as a machine, much could be done with it, including having its parts replaced etc.

The exhibit in San Jose is quite poetic.  In one display, the entire nervous system has been removed from the body and is presented as a marvelous web.

The presentation can also be sobering.  The black lung of a smoker is shown adjacent to a healthy lung.

Many of the bodies shown are presented as athletes in motion, so don't assume that this exhibit is a series of cadavers.  Parts of bodies are stripped away to show muscle, fat, bones, or whatever a specific display focuses on.

There are three Body Worlds exhibits now circulating, staying for 4-6 months in a location.

This exhibit is at the Tech Museum, a lively place in San Jose.  If you are journeying far to see it and need lodging, just across the street is the landmark Fairmont San Jose.  There are several good restaurants within walking distance, starting with the Fairmont's Grill.