Organic & Other Premiere Wines

We are living in very exciting gastronomic times.

In the 1960's and 70's, while social and political change made headlines all over the world, a revolution in cuisine was being enacted in California which has already had a tremendous impact on the way we eat, and which promises to continue that effect for years to come. In the days since this revolution began to take shape, we have learned to pay better attention to the gifts the natural world has in store for us. We have learned to treat meats and fish with more respect, to delight in the seasons, to properly savor a perfectly roasted organic golden beet.

Nowhere has this revolution been felt more strongly than in California, and nowhere has the concurrent explosion in wine expertise and appreciation been more palpable. It seems fairly safe to say that California is presently the greatest wine market in the world. For all the fantastic wine that Parisians drink, or that Romans find on their shelves, few of them will know what the 2002 vintage in Napa tastes like, or keep up with what's happening around the Margaret River in Australia. In addition to the many priveleges of the farmstand that Californians enjoy, we are also lucky enough to sample the greatest flavors--from grapes, topographies and climates all over the world--as a matter of course at our local wine shops and restaurants.

My sense of my job at the Wilshire is to work with Chris to do my best to honor these gifts with which we have been presented. I think we're very lucky to be living here, and now, and I hope that we can make grateful celebrations of as many dining experiences as possible in the near and distant future.

Matt Straus, Wine Director