Wine Cellar Room is a whole other world

if you've never been to the subterranean Wine Cellar at The Sardine Factory on Cannery Row in Monterey, go, before more dust collects on the bottles, or on you.

 Down and down the stairs you go, arriving in another world bedecked with antique chandeliers, artwork and stained glass, high-backed brocade chairs from a steamship that made the San Francisco to Los Angeles run in the 19th century and - most charming of all - an enormous redwood table made from a 1,000-year-old Big Sur giant plucked from the forest floor after a long repose.

The remainder of this giant was hewn into the beams that frame the ceiling and crafted into the exquisite bar manned by white-gloved Cellar Master Arvind Dutt, who has spent most of his life working in this old-world setting.

The locked iron gates of the catacombs hold thousands of bottles of wine treasures, some dating back to the 18th century. It's an atmosphere that seems to eschew the entire concept of modernity: Screw caps seem oddly out of place, but nonetheless, for the Scheid Harvest Dinner last Friday, servers poured screw-cap sauvignon blanc. Scheid is going 100 percent screw-cap with all their wines, including the reds, beginning with the 2007 bottling.

Sardine Factory Executive Chef Jacques Wilson hails from St. Louis, and brings a stout Midwestern approach to every dish, serving hearty fare such as lobster and corn pot pie, braised pheasant with fig balsamic reduction, and olive oil-poached lamb along with seared prime filet medallion. You needed Scheid's earthy 2005 Pinot Noir Reserve and the peppery 2005 claret as a foil.

The harvest vegetables were a lovely escape from the onslaught of meat. Dessert nearly felled me, consisting as it did of warm apple cake, Indian pudding and pumpkin crème brulée.

Mark your calendar

Today, Oct 25: San Saba winemaker dinner at Sardine Factory Wine Cellar. $130 per person

For menu and reservation information, call Brian Overhauser, 831-678-2212, ext. 24.

Thursday, Oct 30, 6:30pm. Meet Gary Pisoni of Pisoni Vineyards and Jeff Fink of Tantara for an evening of wine and culinary mastery at Bouchée Bistro in Carmel. Call 831-626-7880. $140 per person.