Looking forward to 2013

Random Thoughts

I just have to mention. We called the Salvation Army to donate some furniture from my mom's apartment. We made an appointment several weeks in advance. When the day came they showed up and told us that the couch and dresser were not good enough for the Salvation Army and that we should try Goodwill! The couch was in very good shape but they said it had a slight discoloration on the arms. No no one told us nor does the website warn that the donated furniture needs to be museum quality. NYC is a tough market. Oh well.

Robert Parker has sold part of the Wine Advocate to Singapore investors. Stay tuned to what this means. Originally he said that the print version would go away and that there would be ads. He very quickly backtracked. Mr. Parker is 65 and a true iconoclast but there are many people vying to replace his notoriety. He has made a large impact on the wine industry and from what I understand, his impact has been very positive.

Santa was good to me this year. One son gave me chocolate red wine from Holland and my other son gave me some interesting bottles of beer from Germany. Other family members gave me
 Frogs Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 2009,
Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon Monument Ridge 2007,
 Sterling Platinum Cabernet  Sauvignon 2009 ,
Paoletti Cabernet Sauvignon Bella Novello Calistoga, CA 2008, and an
 Oregon Willamette ValleyPinot Noir Pali Wine Company Alphabets 2010.
2006 Terlato Vineyards Cardinals' Peak Napa

I gave out to family

Chateau Meyney 2009 France
Chateau Gloria 2009 France
Spcie Route Chakalaka 2009 South Africa
Chateau La Thil Comte Clary 2009 France
Chateau Dallau 2009 France

What will be the new food discovery for 2013? My top ten food and wine notables for 2012 are

Willamette Valley, Oregon - Really enjoyed our trip their. Domaine Drouhin  made an impact on me. I love their wines especially the Pinot Noirs. The winery visit there is exceptional. Say hi to Ashley.
British Columbia wines and Victoria, BC - Who would have thunk that BC would have so many wineries making interesting wines. Victoria is a great place to visit and I would not mind living there.
2009 Bordeaux - I am a broken record (if that saying has any meaning today). These wines, not including he first growths, are comparatively cheap and great to drink.
NJ law allowing shipping of wine to NJ -It was about time.
Anguilla - Our new fav in the Caribbean.
BYOB - Try it at restaurants that have liquor licenses. Call ahead first. You will be amazed how many places have reasonble corkage charges.
Cellartracker- Love this site. Great way to keep track of your wines and to see what other people think about particular wines. Can't praise this site enough. Check out their reports. I can print out a wine list of all of my wines by geography.
Fresh NJ fish- I get withdrawal symptoms in the winter. Hope things return after Sandy.The tuna went south.
Chocolates - Debrands and Donna's. Indiana and NJ - perfect together.
Food genes - Be patient. It has taken some time but both of my sons are now cooking all types of interesting food with very good results.

Recent new wines (purchases and/or consumed)

Champagne Lallier Brut Grand Reserve $28
Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin Champagne NV- gift
2008 Orlando Abrigo Barbaresco Rocche Meruzzano $30

2011 Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Colli Senesi $11 A WS Top 100

2008 Giuseppe Cortese Barbaresco Rabajà $30
2006 Terlato Vineyards Cardinals' Peak - gift
2010 Bodegas Volver Monastrell Tarima Hill $8.99  Highly recommended but I did not enjoy. Alot of alcohol.
2010 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County $16 Like this wine so I bought another bottle. Not a fruit bomb.
Louis Jadot Macon Lugny 2010 $10.99 A great bargain but I can't find anymore. It restored my faith in Macon white wines.
NV Codorniu Cava "Anna de Codorniu" $11.00 A cava made from Chardonnay. Have enjoyed in the past so I bought another bottle.
Spcie Route Chakalaka 2009 $15.99 The new fav. A very good wine. A Rhone blend from South Africa.
2011 Marchesi diBarolo Barbera del Monferrato Maràia $11 Piemonte, Italy,  A WS top 100. A real bargain. Barbera can be a very nice fruity grape. Enjoyed this wine and have another in the basement.

I am under the weather again but for New Year's Eve we will try for the Pekin Duck meal with the Lallier Champagne but we won't be going in to NYC.I think I might make hot passion fruit souffle.

 Does anyone remember Ben Grauer. He announced the ball coming down in Times Square for New Year's Eve for NBC. Ben died in 1977 the same year as Guy Lombardo who was Mr. New Year's Eve for 48 years. It was Guy Lombardo's death that paved the way for Dick Clark's popularity on New Year's Eve.

Start a new tradition for 2013. Any ideas, let me know.

Have a great 2013.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Wine Shopping and Champagne

This is a good time of year for wine shopping. Stores are having great sales. I find that the internet is making shopping easier and harder. Easier because you can take your time  and pick out the wine that you want and take advantage of the online sales. Harder because when you go into a store, you are never sure if you have the best price or are missing a special wine advertised online.

This week I have seen billboards that proclaim free shipping at the Wine Library using code Library. I have not seen this offer on their website or in an e-mail. Interesting marketing strategy.

It is time to think about Champagne. We love Champagne and always have a bottle or 2 on New Year's Eve. For many years my tennis friends and I had a Champagne and paella dinner for the holidays. Due to unusual circumstances, we are not playing tennis this year and hence no Champagne party. Boo hoo. Nothing is better than to drink 4 or 5 champagnes side by side to compare their styles. It is amazing the amount of styles. Some are big and bold - Bollinger. Some are lighter and elegant - Perrier Jouet and some are just good stuff.

There is much debate about what is the best Champagne to drink vintage, extra premium or non vintage. The non-vintage is what the winery wants their Champagne to taste like since they have the most control in making  it. Non vintage Champagnes are blends of several vintages. Lettie Teague had a good article on Champagne in this past weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/on_wine.html

I like the non vintage Champagnes and find them to be the best values. Vintage Champagnes can get expensive. Look on the back of the bottle for a disgorged date. This is the date the Champagne was finalized to be sold. Since you do not know how old a non vintage Champagne has been sitting in a store, the disgorged date helps alot. Many Champagnes have this date but some do not. Be wary of bottles without the date.

Champagne is also about marketing. The big names sell most of the Champagne - Moet, Veuve Cliquot, Piper Heidsieck etc. However do not be afraid to experiment with any Champagne that you see. Remember if it says Champagne it must be from the Champagne region of France. The only exceptions are some cheap American wines that have been allowed to use the Champagne name since they have been doing so for a long time.

Also remember that besides style, there can be different grapes in different Champagnes Many are blend of pinot meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. A Blanc de Blanc is 100% Chardonnay and a Blanc de Noir is usually 100% Pinot Noir. Try to keep track of what grapes and styles you like.

Eric Asimov in NY Times also has a good Champagne article. Asimov always has interesting thoughts on wine every Wednesday in the Times.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/dining/pinot-meunier-unacknowledged-grape-of-champagne.html?_r=0

Recent Wines

2010 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot NoirWillamette Valley VG 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. $30 I bought this at the winery. Medium body, nice bouquet, terroir with good fruit, not a fruit bomb but we love this style. Not a sipping wine as it needs food. Had with rack of lamb. Not sure how it will develop as I have not had many aged Oregon wines. Like the style of DDO.
2010 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Chardonnay Arthur $40 Bought this at the winery. Love this wine. Fruit, balance, bouquet, complexity. I tasted it at the winery at an earlier date and it out shined a Drouhin 2009 Chablis that we drank side by side and I love Chablis. This wine has more fruit and less acid than a Chablis but it is a wonderful wine. The oak is used carefully as only half of the wine has been aged in oak.

NV Angove's Zibibbo South Australia Decent sparkler but too sweet for me. Clean flavor and my friends liked it alot

2010 Bodegas Borsao Garnacha Campo de Borja Tres Picos  $12 This is the expensive Borsao! I should like this wine but it didn't do anything for me. Spicy, some complexity, ok nose but no mouth feel and tasted thin. It is high in alcohol which may account for some of the above. I will definitely try this vintage again as I have had this wine in other vintages many times in the past. 2009 Château La Cardonne  Médoc Red Bordeaux Blend $16 This is an excellent wine, good nose, nice mouth feel; fruit, balance and complexity, should develop nicely, this is a wine for California cab drinkers if they want to branch out. A great bargain. 2009 Ghost Hill Cellars Pinot Noir Bayliss-Bower Vineyard, Yamhill-Carlton Flat, not much nose, lacks fruit, not like other 09 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. Random Thoughts My son and I chopped down a Christmas tree this year. It was fun but tough to pick one out.The trees seem so much smaller out in the open. We ended up with a great tree that my wife has done her usual masterful job of decorating. Why are many food gifts for the Holidays just empty calories? I think that we should try to send food gifts that friends or business associates will really appreciate. What would you want to receive. I doubt it is a wicker basket of fruit, mustard, crackers, nuts and vacuum packed fish. I think that wine is a good gift but only if the recipient loves wine and and only if you can pick out bottles that the wine lover will enjoy. You do not need to spend lots of money. Went to Lanskys, a Jewish style deli restaurant on Columbus Avenue around 71st Street in NYC. Bought the pastrami sandwich to take out. Not sure what it was, but it was not edible pastrami. Good pastrami has always been hard to find but it may becoming almost extinct. The problem with many foods is that when it is hard to find a good quality product, people start thinking that the product itself is not worth eating. Try Katz's in lower Manhattan for pastrami and only buy one sandwich for 2 or 3. Have not been there in a while but hopefully the quality is still there. Let me know. My wife makes pierogis for her brothers on Christmas. They are fabulous. Dough, farmers cheese and potatoes. Sauteed in butter. A treat. Just ate at Osteria in Philadelphia.osteriaphilly.com The restaurant is owned by Marc Vetri, who is a chef and has 4 restaurants in Philly. The restaurant is trendy and the food is good although the menu is too precious. Ingredients that no one has heard of are sprinkled throughout. We had a special of roasted vegetables and arugula which was OK. We then had a pizza  lombarda baked egg, bitto cheese, mozzarella and cotechino sausage. The pizza was good but nothing special as dough was not as crispy as I like it. The wine was good. It was a blend of 90% Sangiovese and 10% cabernet Sauvignon. Morellino Di Scansano Poggio Alle Sughere 2009. Apparently the wine is not sidely distributed. It is from a not so famous area of Tuscany. It was soft and fruity but no heavy.  I has doppio ravioli with pear, casatica and walnut pesto, which was very good.  For a main course I had roast suckling pig with roasted potatoes. It was very good but it could have used a side with more pizazz. I also had a side of polenta which was good and creamy. For dessert I had olive oil apple upside down cake with apple raisin composta and caramel gelato.  Enjoyed. The gelato was creamier than most. Overall it was a very good meal and probably the best meal that I have had in Philly. The prices are reasonable also.     Merry Christmas to all and to all ...

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday especially since my birthday is always close to it. The menu is frozen in time as my family does not want any changes but...
This year
23 pound turkey
gravy
chestnut stuffing
baked potatoes and sweet potatoes
Spinach souffle
Cranberry relish
New this year-- stir fried Kale
Apple tart
Pecan pie
Chocolate
Italian pastries from Ferraras
Wine -- Chalone 2006 Pinot Noir magnum Everyone loved this wine last year so I bought some magnums. Wine was great.

I have been under the weather lately so my wine tasting has slowed down.
November is the time for Nouveau Beaujolais. It is not great wine but it is a tradition. Some years it is not drinkable. This year it was. It comes by air for the week before Thanksgiving and then it comes by boat. I bought the Dubeouf 2012 Nouveau for $7.98, which was a great price by air.


Pre- Thanksgiving dinner

Friends over for dinner. Menu of cheeses, scallops with fried rice, duck breast with roasted fingerling potatoes, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, citrus sorbet and chocolate truffles that I made. Wines
2004 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla Clio A darling of the critics but not my type of wine. Light in color,nice bouquet, no real mouth feel, it opened up slowly, good initial taste, no middle and not a great finish. Not sure if I had an off day but this is not the quality of wine that people are proclaiming it. Do not be intimidated by Parker who gave it a great score. Finished my meal with a 1966 Warre's port which was wonderful. The Clio is somewhere between a port and wine and it is neither.15.5% alcohol for a wine is goofy. I am curious to try this wine again but I think that the emperor has no clothes.
 Prosecco  A generic sparkler that we had with the cheese
Chalone 07 chardonnay - Love this wine as always.
1966 and 77 Warres ports. My friends gave me the 66 as a wedding present. 26 years in my cellar and the port was awesome. It had a light color but a beautiful nose. The taste was intense but not overpowering. The 77 is a good port but when we drank it with the 66 it did not compare. These ports were a real treat. I had never had wine or port like these.

2010 Bordeaux

Critics are calling this a good year. I have not tried one yet. They are on my short list to try. I am still seeing a number of 2009 Bordeaux's available at great prices.

My Birthday

For my birthday we went to the Borgata in Atlantic City. I was still somewhat under the weather. We had dinner at the bar in SeaBlue, Michael Mina's restaurant. We had eaten there before and had good food. Ate mussels in broth, naan, onion rings and mini lobster rolls. The wine was a Pascal Jolivet 2010 Puilly Fume. We had a 1/2 bottle for $30. We had profiteroles stuffed with ice cream for dessert. Everything was very good and it was not expensive.

They have wonderful wine lists at the  restaurants at the Borgata. They are available online to check out before you go. Some of the pricier wines are especially good values. They had a Grand Cru Chablis for $100 which was a great price in a restaurant for that wine. I was tempted but did not feel like drinking much wine that night. I will need to return.

Enjoy the holiday season. Let me know if you find any interesting food or wines for holiday gifts.

Sandy

Sandy

Where to start? I have been eating out more than usual unfortunately due to Sandy. We lost power from the Monday of the storm until the following Monday. It was cold. Luckily my town center had power and we were able to eat at several places. In addition I had the opportunity to meet lots of people at communal tables in restaurants and sitting at the bar in several restaurants.

Communal tables in restaurants is an old/new idea. Arturos in Maplewood and Indie in Lincoln Center, NY both have communal tables. I like the concept.I was able to sit next to delightful 8 year old twins and some Julliard drama students. My new friends made dinner a delight for me and my wife. What do you think about communal tables? We have seen where people have declined to sit at these tables with looks of horror.

Sandy has caused unimaginable grief for the tri-state area. I would like to help more than just giving money but it is not that simple. I am searching for ideas on how to be able to mobilize people to help specific issues faced by others in times of need. It seems as if agencies such as the Red Cross and the different levels of government can handle the big picture (maybe) but simple things like a hot meal seem to be difficult. It seems that even with all of the communication devices and social media that exist today it is still difficult to identify specific needs.

Actually I just came up with an idea. Why not send food trucks into these areas. We can contribute towards paying for a food truck to give out free food in distressed areas. Food trucks are the new rage. The Summit farmers market has a pizza truck that makes fancy pizza in a wood oven. The market also has a taco truck. We could use donations to send these trucks to areas of most need. Nothing warms the heart like a fresh pizza or taco. Hopefully these trucks are already doing this but I have not seen it yet on tv or in a paper.

In the last week I have had Thai food, pizza, steak, calamari salad, antipasto salad, and middle eastern food. I have eaten at several bars and made lots of new bar buddies. I usually have draft beer when I eat at a bar. Bars are great for watching football games and just hanging out.It is good to know that there are still places where "everyone knows your name". I find that draft beer is a treat but that many bars are stocking small batch beers which don't usually impress me. Many of these beers taste okay for one sip but it is hard to drink a pint. I still like German beers and other beers with long histories. In my area Yuengling is an inexpensive tasty lighter style beer that has been around for a long time.

Interestingly I found a Duane Reade drug store in NYC that has a beer bar. You can fill up or buy a growler of beer to take home. The beer is some new brewery's beer. Interesting concept. I did not try the beer to see if it is any good.

Theater tip of the week.

We saw Giant at the NY Public Theater on Lafayette Street publictheater.org in NYC. It is a musical based on a book by Edna Ferber and a movie of the same name from 1956 with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.It was directed by George Stevens and has made of the AFI's top 100 films of all time. I have not yet seen the movie.

The musical was superb. Brian D'arcy James and Kate Baldwin star. The theater is small, they have a decent sized orchestra and the production is engrossing. Michael John LaChiusa wrote the music and lyrics.The music was very good. This is not Cole Porter song and dance but we found the play fascinating. It is long but we were never bored. Great singing and the story is intelligent.It is about rancher and oil in Texas from the 1920's to 1950's. Check it out. It has not officially opened yet.

Wines of the week

Chateau Dallau  Bordeaux2009 Good 09 Bordeaux; good value; nice bouquet, good fruit and nice structure;enjoyed the bottle with Thai food

Borsao 2011 Not my favorite Borsao. I found it too grapey with not much tannin to balance the wine. Still a good wine and a great bargain.

Edition Rose 2011 Domaine Drouhin, Dundee Hills Oregon $15 Very good rose. Bought this at the winery. Do not believe it is available elsewhere as production was limited to 570 cases. The grape is pinot noir and it is a dry wine with good flavor and structure. Enjoyed with salmon.

2004 Bodega y Viñedos Fernández Rivera Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León Dehesa la Granja    Funky nose; opened up as we drank it; started somewhat sour but developed well, complex, good structure; enjoyed the bottle; drank with london broil; good stuff; could develop more.

2010 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County  $16 Good wine. Not a typical Cali Pinot Noir, terroir, low alcohol and good balance with nice acid. Complex, the wine just works. Enjoyed the bottle. Good value for the price.

Jadot Macon Village 2010 $11 Good solid white Burgundy. Nice fruit, no oak and decent complexity. Very good value. I think 2010 was a good year for white Burgundy.

2008 The Winemakers' Collection Stephane Derenoncourt Cuvée No. 4 Château d'Arsac  $17

Started slowly but the wine opened up nicely after about 20 minutes. Nice bouquet, good mouthfeel,

nice structure with fruit and tannin balanced. Enjoyed the bottle.

 

2010 Louis Jadot Mâcon-Lugny  $13  Solid white burgundy; nice acid with fruit, not a light wine;

enjoyed the bottle; restored my faith in Macon wines

as I had not been having much luck lately; good value

 

2007 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico  $17 Good chianti. Nice fruit and balance;

not as complex as I expected. Enjoyed the bottle with my pizza.

 Have had this wine before and this bottle was not as good as I remembered.

2009 Bodega Numanthia Termes Toro Termes $24   Had 2 glasses of this wine at a restaurant. 

The first glass was excellent with great flavor and mouth feel. Nice aroma and good balance.

The second glass tasted grapey and did not appeal to me

 Did not see the wine being poured so did not know if the glasses came from the same bottle

 

2009 Moulin d'Angludet $24  Good 09 bordeaux; nice balance, good nose; excellent fruit

without being grapey;  enjoyed the bottle. I think this wine has a good percentage of cabernet sauvignon

2009 Poderi Foglia Taburno Concabianco Galluccio $17

Good white wine,not sure of the grape but good balance with decent acid and fruit.

Good mouth feel, not a light wine. Drank with spaghetti with clam sauce.

  Enjoyed the bottle.

 

2011 Bibi Graetz Casamatta Bianco Toscana IGT  $8

Decent wine. Not complex but nice fruit with some structure. Good value wine.

 

2009 Sokol Blosser Pinot Noir Estate Cuvée Dundee Hills

VG 09 Willamette Valley PN; Had 2 bottles at dinner in a restaurant. The second bottle

was not as good and tasted like cherry soda, not good,

it was as if it as completely different wine. This rating is based on the first bottle.

 Nice structure, good nose and well balanced. Enjoyed the first bottle.

 

My mom

 

My mother died 2 weeks ago. She would have been 82 in December.

She was my inspiration for all things but especially food, wine and travel.

She and my dad introduced me to all kinds of  food at a very young age. I remember going to Chinatown in NYC 

when I was around 5. We would go to King Wu and Wah Kee on Doyers street. King Wu had

sizzling rice dishes and was run by the dragon lady. You did what she told you or else.

Sizzling rice is really good. I will post a recipe in the future.

 

I remember going to Manganaros, an Italian food shop in NYC and getting a 6 foot hero sandwich

for my parents New Year's eve party when I was around 10. This was way before anyone else 

was doing this kind of sandwich. Not Subway ingredients either. The sandwich could not fit in our

car and we had to extend it through the windows. My mother then wrapped the sandwich

 and  we had guests at the party try to guess what was in the box. Of course no one figured it out.

The shop is still on 9th Avenue around 39th street.

 

We went on vacation to Nova Scotia one year and stayed at Keltic Lodge on Cape Breton Island.

It is a beautiful place on a small peninsula. The dining room was elegant and had large windows

overlooking the ocean. My mother ordered lobster and proceeded to eat every bit of it, not just the claws

and tail. When she had finished several other diners started applauding in amazement at how

much she had enjoyed the meal and her lobster eating technique.

 

She loved to cook whole red snapper. As a kid I did not like it. Now it is a favorite.

One day we tried to think of a food that my mom did not like. The only thing that we could get

her to admit not liking was pickled watermelon rind. She also liked to bring back all types of cheeses

from Europe. Customs never tried to smell her luggage.

 

That was my mother.

 

 

New Wines, Chinatown and Chocolate Desserts

Wines

I have had several very good wines in the last 2 weeks.

Domaine Du Cayron, Gigondas 2006 Really enjoyed this wine. I was a gift. Probably around $20. Gigondas is a Rhone wine from France. This wine is a blend. Good fruit but not overly grapey. The bottle disappeared quickly.

Melville Pinot Noir 2008 Estate Verna's $25  I ususally like Melville wines. We once visited the winery which is outside of Sant Barbara, CA. Lately I have been down on their Pinot Noirs because of very high alcohol levels and that hot taste that goes with high alcohol sometimes. This wine was superb. Terroir, complexity, nice fruit but none of the ordinary Pinot Noir cherry soda flavor. 14.1% alcohol was just fine. Savored this wine.

Allegrini 2005 Palazzo Della Torre Veronese; $15 Italian from the Venice area. A favorite. These wines are ususally grapey but good. This wine was probably over the hill; it lacked sparkle. We had with pizza at our local pizza place. It was OK but I would still try other more recent  vintages.

Codorniu Cava, Spain $8, Classic cava. Love it. Good fruit but not sweet. Nice bubbles and low alcohol. The critics only write about small cava makers. Codorniu is one of the largest so it is not a critic darling. Trust me, it is very good, well priced and goes well with lots of food or drink with cheese and other snacks.

Just bought the following wines at the Wine Library;
Spice Route Chakalaka $16 South Africa-- Rhone blend  that I have had before and love it.

Au Bon Climat 2010 Pinot Noir, CA $17 ; This wine has received some favorable press. The wine maker is controversial. The Wall Street Journal had an article about the winery. Supposedly a Burgundian style of California Pinot Noir.

Borsao 2011 Spain Still $6.39  The fav.

Chateau Dallau, 2009 Bordeaux $12; Second bottle, let's see if if it still good.

Segura Viudas Brut Reserva cava Spain $6.98 ; A usually decent cava. The store did not have Codorniu which is my fav.

Bibi Graetz Casamatta $8.98 Sangiovese, Italy 2011. The Wine Spectator gave this a 90 so I decided to give it a try.

BelleVue 2003 Bordeaux $11 The Wine Library had a great deal on this wine. It is an older Bordeaux that had a good Parker rating when it came out. Review on Cellartracker are not that kind. I was intrigued. Will let you know.

NYC

Recently went to NYC ate in Chinatown at Nom Wah Tea Parlour. Second time to this place. Did not like this time. The dumplings tasted tired and frozen. Some other pork dish we had was not to our taste. Place is very reasonable and the meal cost $20 with tip.

After Chinatown I changed tradition and skipped Little Italy and we went to Payard Patisserie on West Houston Street. Love this place. We bought a chocolate tarte with salt, caramel and almonds, pistachios and walnuts?, a chocolate terrine pastry and and apple pear pastry with lots of fruit. Also bought ice cream sandwiches which were 2 for the price of 1(2 for $5) The chocolate sandwich is awesome. Also had chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream.payard.com

I was in a chocolate mood so we then went to Jacques Torres Chocolate and bought some chocolates. Great stuff.mrchocolate.com Store is on Hudson St near Houston. Best bargain dark chocolate disks for $14 for 2 pounds, Shh.

See how my mind works. Bad Chinese food equals overkill for dessert.

Enjoy the fall. Go Yankees.

Recent Wines; More Pacific Northwest

Recent wine purchases

I wanted to buy some inexpensive, lighter wines for nights when we do not want to finish a bottle.
Louis Jadot Macon Village 2010 $12 2010 was a good year in Burgundy.
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2011 $14 I have had this wine before and it is very good. Fruity but with more structure than most New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.
Borsao Red 2011. $6.39 The perennial favorite.
Chateau Dallau 2009 Bordeaux Superiore $12. Trying another 09 Bordeaux. Drank this wine and it is a winner. Good fruit and yummy.
Chateau Nardian 2009 St Emillon $12 Trying another 09 Bordeaux. Drank this wine and it is OK. More structure than the Dallau but not as much fruit. It will probably age well. Still a good wine.
Chateau Parenchere Blanc 2010 $12 Tried a Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion blend. The WS loved this wine; I did not. Alcohol with little fruit.

Pacific Northwest

Day 3 We left Victoria by boat for a 3 hour trip to Seattle. It was a foggy day and we did not see much. The ride was not very exciting. We walked to our hotel, a Marriott on the waterfront in Seattle. The hotel was nice and we had a small balcony overlooking the harbor.

The hotel was a short walk but up a steep hill from Pike Place Market pikeplacemarket.org, Seattle's food heaven. Luckily the hill could be navigated by taking an elevator 3/4 of the way up. We walked around Pike Place Market and found a place to eat. I had my first Dungeness crab. It was good and not cheap around $25 for a half of a crab.

Pike Place Market was quite interesting. Amazing flowers at very reasonable prices. $15 gets you a bouquet that will suffice at your wedding. The berry season was almost over but we bought some cherries and some peaches that were juicy beyond belief.

We did the tourist thing in Seattle and went up the Sky Needle. It was pretty cool. It is in a park that also has a rock n roll museum designed by Frank Gehry. The views from the top of the needle were great.

Seattle did not really impress me. We did not spend much time there but I did not get a great vibe. There are many homeless people and they are much more aggressive than in NY. For dinner we went to Wild Ginger.wildginger.net The food is Asian fusion and it is a very large restaurant. The food was good and not overly expensive. They have a large wine list although they did not tell me about it. Apparently they 2 lists; the regular one and the special one. No one mentioned the special one until we were leaving and I struck up a conversation with a waiter.

We ordered glasses of Washington rieslings(the restaurant was featuring rieslings) and a half bottle of an Elk Cove 2010 Pinot Noir $27 from the Willamette Valley. This was our first Oregon Pinot Noir on the trip. I thought that it was light but my wife enjoyed it. Later on in the trip I began to realize that I liked the wine more than I had initially thought. We enjoyed our meal.

Day 4 We checked out of the Marriott and picked up our rental car. First we made some stops at the market and picked up food for lunch later in the day. We had fairly long ride to the Willamette Valley.

After driving for a while we exited the interstate and a found a Millersvania State Park for lunch. We were still getting acclimated to the beautiful sights wherever we were in the Pacific NW. Mount Rainier dominates Seattle and the park we chose for lunch was scenic. It had a small lake for swimming and we found some picnic tables.

We ate our lunch which hit the spot and we continued on our way to Oregon. We took another exit on the interstate and headed towards Mt St Helens. We reached a information center and found out it was a long drive to the mountain. We decided to skip the drive and continue on to Oregon. We did have a great view of the mountain or what is left of it, from the info center.

We reached the outskirts of Portland and hit traffic at 3:30 in the afternoon. Apparently the traffic in the Portland area is ridiculously heavy. We were headed to Carlton which is the middle of wine country - the Willamette Valley (rhymes with dammit). It took more time than we expected to get to Carlton. The road had lots of 4 way lights and everyone followed the speed limit. ugh!

See my posting on Oregon wines for the details on our 2 night stay in Carlton (evening of day 4  and day 5) and wineries visited.

Had some very good wines recently at a friend's house. I cooked most of the meal.
2010 Ken Wright Shea Vineyard Enjoyed this wine. Ken Wright makes big wines and the 2010 vintage is OK. This wine was very good since it is a big wine in a light vintage but nowhere near as big as the 2008 wine which was more California to my taste.
2010 Benton Lane Willamette Valley Pinot Noir  Very light and not my cup of wine.
2006 Joseph Phelps Insignia Great stuff.
Chateau Grand Puy Ducasse 2009 I expected more. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend but no Petit Verdot. I think this wine will age beautfully but now is is somewhat austere especially when compared to some of the other 2009 Bordeaux wines that I have tasted.

I made raspberry sorbet and the plum crostata for dessert.

Enjoy the fall. Had my first apple cider of the season. As my grand mother always told me -- An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

2010 Bordeaux wines are next on the horizon. Let me know if you have tried any.

Pacific Northwest and More 09 Bordeaux

Day 1 We flew to Vancouver. Flying over the Canadian Rockies was quite a sight. From the Vancouver airport we took a bus that went on a ferry from Twassen(outside of Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (20KM from Victoria). First we had some doughnuts from Tim Horton  at the airport. Tim Horton's is big in Canada. The doughnuts were good.

After a 30 minute bus ride, the bus drove on the ferry. It was obviously a very large ferry. The ride was over 2 hours. The scenery during the second half was spectacular as the boat navigated between several of the Gulf Islands on to Vancouver Island. The geography in the area is fascinating; lots of islands, wilderness and water. Vancouver Island is over 300 miles long and there is not much development except for Victoria on the southern tip.

 We landed and the bus continued on to Victoria. Our hotel was easy walk from the bus station. The hotel was a very nice Marriott (Inner Harbor) and the room was about $200 per night.

Victoria is a fun city with a good blend of old and new and the inner harbor makes thing special. There  are boats, seaplanes, water taxis and restaurants. Victoria is a good walking city; it also appears to have a good bus system although we did not use it.

The first night we ate a the Flying Otter, a casual place on the Inner Harbor. The beer was good as we had Phillips, a local beer and the fish was fresh. We had a  halibut wrap and a halibut and avocado
sandwich. Phillips is one of the local beers and we had 3 different bottles.

Day 2 We decided to rent a car for the day. Butchart Gardens is the must see in the area.butchartgardens.com I was skeptical, a Levine tradition on famous sights,but my wife insisted. I then found a brochure touting British Columbia wineries. To my amazement there are over 20 wineries on Vancouver Island. Our day was set.

Right before the Gardens there was a sign for berries. We took a small detour and came to a farm where we bought blackberries. These were the most amazing tasting blackberries. A complex flavor that we had never tasted before.

 We went off to Butchart Gardens and it was pretty special. It was well organized at the entrance but not Disneylike. The Gardens have been developed a family for a long time and they change the plantings by the season. It is open all year round and the Christmas show is supposed to be awesome. They have huge greenhouses where they start all of the plants.

The pictures don't capture the true splendor.

We then found a few wineries. The first Church and Street has a large, modern, beautiful building. We tasted their wines and they were OK. Apparently the thing about BC wineries is that they grow most of the grapes in central BC and have wineries and tasting rooms on Vancouver Island for the tourists. The wineries try to make the big name grape wines but they are not the best. We generally enjoyed the whites - pinot gris, pinot blanc. However Church and State churchandstatewines.com seems to specialize in red wines. They were OK but the prices were very high. I can't see paying $35 for a Bordeaux blend from British Columbia when I can get a very good 09 Bordeaux for under $20. Wine economics do not make much sense to me. The restaurant kitchen at Church and State.

The next winery was de Vine Vineyards devinevineyards.ca. It was a beautiful winery on top of a hill with great views of Mt Baker in Washington. We tasted a number of wines and liked their whites. We bought a 2011 Pinot Blanc for $18. The whites are austere but have enough fruit to make them enjoyable.

We next made a stop at Victoria Spirits. victoriaspirits.comThey distill gin and vodka. It started as a winery but they found it a tough business so they switched. We toured the small distillery and tasted the products. The gin is expensive and probably is very good but I am no expert.

 

That night we ate at Canoe Brewpub  canoebrewpub.com along the river in Victoria. We ate outside and had a good time. The beer was good and the food nicely prepared.  It got cold sitting outside at night, around 50 degrees, but if was refreshing after the heat we have had in NJ this summer. The restaurant had a good chocolate cake with cherries for dessert which hit the spot.

 

 

Wines of the week

Chateau Meyney 2009 Bordeaux $33 I can't stop loving the 09 Bordeaux wines. This wine started slowly but it has a nice bouquet, good middle and great finish. Really enjoyed this wine. Drank it with an 09 Haut Bergey also from Bordeaux. The Haut Bergey had a great first sip but the finish was not as long as the Meyney. Both wines were excellent.

Recipe of the week

From Bon Appetit and adjusted by me. -- Preheat oven to 425.  .

• Cut up around 8-12 plums depending on size. Take out the pits and cut into 1/8 ths. add lemon juice, sugar to taste(around a 1/2 cup) and a teaspoon of cornstarch and mix with plums in a bowl.
•  Make a pie crust and roll it out to  a 12 inch circle. Place crust on parchment paper on a baking sheet.
• Pour plums on the middle of the pie crust leaving a 1-2 inch border.
• Fold the border over the edge of the plums and brush the border with a beaten egg. Sprinkle sugar over the egg wash.
• Bake in the oven. Start checking at 25 minutes. It should look nicely browned and the plums should be soft.
• Take out and let cool.

Enjoy the weekend. It is a great time of the year in the Northeast.

Labor Day Weekend; Pig Island; Tennis and Wine

Recent wines

Montgras Reserva 2010 Sauvignon Blanc $10 Really like this  wine. Great bargain if you can find it. Not a light wine but good fruit and structure.

Andrew Rich Prelude 2010 Pinot Noir -Tried a glass at a Thai restaurant in Ashland, Oregon. Good basic, Oregon Pinot Noir. About $20 per bottle.

Segura Viandas Reserva Cava- Dependable cava and a real bargain at $6.99.

Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 . I was lucky to get a case of this years ago. It is drinking wonderfully. I wish California would make wines like this today. $15

Archery Summit Vireton Pinot Noir Rose 2011 $20 - We loved this wine. Forget the color, it is full flavored good wine. Lots of fruit but nice balance.

Dubeouf 2010 Beaujolais Villages $9.00  A dependable wine. We love beaujolais and this was a good one.

Edna Valley 06 Syrah Another one of my bargains. I think its time is over. Did not like this bottle. Past bottles have been very good. I have one more bottle to test.
 American Syrahs are good values these days.

Chalone Pinot Noir Estate 2006  $8-- A crowd pleaser. Another one of my bargains and house fav. Great balance with nice fruit and spice.

Les Grands Marechaux 2009 $18 - This was my second bottle. I thought I liked the wine more but this second bottle has me thinking. I have a few more to try. A little grapey but it opened up after  a few minutes.

Le Volte 2009 Tenuta Dell'Ornellaia IGT- A delightful wine that is a blend of Merlot, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. Balanced and easy drinking. A crowd pleaser. $70 in a restaurant probably $25 in a store.

Spice Route Chakalaka 2009 $16 A great wine. I discovered this wine in the Cayman Islands. This was the first bottle that I have found in the US. A Rhone like blend of many grapes, it is balanced with nice fruit but not grapey like alot of Rhone wines.

Fattoria di Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Reserva 2006 Enjoyed this wine. It is tannic but it went well with pizza but it has more complexity going for it.

La Maialina Chianti Classico Reserva 2007 $16 This wine impressed at a tasting but I was not impressed with my first bottle at home. It drank better the second day which is not a ringing endorsement. I have more bottles to  try.

Louis Jadot Macon-Villages 2010 $11 Another very nice Chardonnay without too much oak. A good value for a Burgundy. I have not been impressed with Macon Villages wines over the past few years but this wine is a winner.

As you might notice from some of my comments there appears to be lots of bottle variation in wines. It maybe the wine or it could be my taste.



Pig Island
This Saturday, September 1, Governor's Island in NY is turned into Pig Island. A number of top chefs will be cooking 80 heritage pigs in all different styles. We are attending. pigisland.com I will let you how it was. One price for all afternoon of food and beer.

US Open Tennis
I attended the first day of the event. Aside from a little rain it was a fun time.Food prices are all over the place and typical for a sports event. However water at $3.75 a small bottle and Gatorade at $5 a bottle is a bit much for an outdoor summer event. Moet Chandon Champagne at $24 a  glass at number of Moet stands is cuckoo.

Chinatown, NY restaurant of the week -- nom wah Tea Parlor, 13 Doyers Street, NY 10013. We had assorted dim sum at very reasonable prices. The food was not greasy. The sweet and sour ribs were good. Not too much sauce and the ribs were breaded pork chops with the bone- in. Also had steamed shrimp with greens dumplings. nomwah.com

Found a fun German style beer hall in Jersey City. Zeppelin Hall Restaurant & Biergarten. http://www.zeppelinhall.com They have big outdoor and indoor spaces with a number of beers on tap. We had Spaten and HB Munich beers. One minor complaint, the mugs are plastic.

More on the Pacific NW in the next few posts. I am looking forward to lots of food, wine and sports this weekend. The tomatos are coming in nicely. Everyday I get a few more cherry tomatoes. Chinese eggplant is still doing well. Have a  great weekend.

Oregon Wines

Oregon Wineries

Returned from the Pacific Northwest last week. Had a great time. There are an amazing amount of wineries in British Columbia. In the next few weeks I will get into lots of information on the trip. We had good food and saw some impressive sights. Here are some notes on the Willamette Valley. It's Willamette, dammit.

We stayed 2 nights in the Willamette Valley wine country which is 40 miles outside Portland. BTW the traffic in the Portland area is terrible.
We stayed in Carlton, a small town with about 12 tasting rooms. We stayed in the Winery Lofts 119 West Main St, Carlton, which has some affiliation with Ken Wright who makes Ken Wright wines and Tyrus Evans wines. The lofts were across the street from the Ken Wright tasting rooms.

The first night we went to Mcminnsville. We wandered around town and found a tasting room for chocolates and a winery called Twelve. The tasting room was closed but the owner of Twelve twelvewine.com, Linda Lenyo, opened the door and when we told her we were from NJ, she let us in. She was also from NJ.We tasted her 08 Pinot Noir. It was $25 per bottle and was very good. We also tasted her 2007 reserve Pinot Noir 144. This was also very good. We bought a bottle of the 08. Parker and the Wine Spectator have both given good  ratings to the wine  She did not charge us for the tasting.

We ate at Nicks, nicksitaliancafe.com an Italian restaurant and ate in their back room. We had several small dishes. One dish, ribs roasted in their oven with salt and olive oil was great. We also had pizza which was very good. The crab lasagne was OK. We had the Stevenson Barrie 2008 Pinot Noir for about $50. It was good. The fruit wasn't as pronounced as I like it. We were beginning to understand Oregon Pinot Noirs. BTW 2008 was considered the vintage for Oregon Willamette Valley wines.

The next day we planned to spend all day tasting wine. We started at Anne Amie Vineyards anneamie.com. This winery surprised me. I had never heard of it but it produces a significant amount of wine. The winery was beautifully situated ( although most of the wineries we visited were located in very nice geographically located.

At Anne Amie, we tasted a number of wines. Tasting were $10 for a flight.  2011 Pinot Gris; 2011 Estate Dry Riesling; 2009 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; 2009 Annahala Veneyard Pinot Noir , which was made with grapes from California; 2009 Amie Late Harvest Muller Thurgau Dessert wine; 2009 Prisme Pinot Noir Blanc. All of the wines were very good. Their style is balanced wines that were not fruit forward. This to me is the typical Willamette Valley style although we did find many different styles of wine in our tastings. We bought their 2010 Pinot Blanc $20, which we did not taste. However Pinot Blanc has more fruit than the Pinot Gris and we like Pinot Blancs.

Our next stop was Archery Summit archerysummit.com. This was another exquisite winery with prices to match the environment. We tasted a number of wines here.We tasted the 2010 Premier Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2011 Vireton Pinot Noir Rose, and several other Pinot Noirs. We found their style to be more California in that the wines were fruitier and had more alcohol than other Oregon wines. We like the 2010 more than the 09's.Their wines are very well rated and very expensive. The cheapest Pinot Noir was $48. We bought a bottle of the Rose for about $20.

Our next stop was  Sokol Blosser sokolblosser.com, which was close by. We had hoped to eat lunch here but the offerings were slim. We tasted their 2009 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, 2009 Estate Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, 2011 Rose of Pinot Noir, Evolution 15th edition, which is their blended white wine that is less expensive than their other wines. They also make a red Evolution.

We enjoyed their wines. Their 2009 Pinot Noir was more austere than the 09 Archery Summit. We really liked the 2009 Estate Cuvee at $60 a bottle. Despite the price I bought a bottle. I was on vacation! We did not like the Evolution wines.

A note on buying wines at the winery. It is usually a rip-off. Sometimes you can get very good deals like I received at the next winery Domain Drouhin but usually you can buy the wines much cheaper at good wine shop. Thus I usually stick to buying wines at the winery that are not available in stores.

We stopped at a small olive oil farm to get lunch.

My wife was somewhat annoyed because as I was brousing in their store a woman splattered olive oil all over my shorts and sneakers. I got a "sorry". The cheese and meat plate was fine.

The next winery that we visited was Domaine Drouhin domaineDrouhin.com. I had made an appointment to take their winery tour which include a tasting of their Oregon wines with their French wines. Drouhin is a top Burgundy negociant and make a number of excellent French wines. The tour was great. We heard their story of how they bought land in the Willamette Valley around 1985. They made their first wine in Oregon in 1988. The winemaker is Veronique Drouhin who also makes their wine in France.

We then toured the winemaking area and the wine storage area.

We then finished the tour at a table that was beautfully set. We tried a number of wines with some cheese. The wines were 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Rose $20; 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $40; 2008 Laurene Pinot Noir $65; 2010 Willamette Valley Chardonnay $30, 2009 Maison Joseph DrouhinVaudon Chablis Premier Cru (France) $35; 2009 Joseph Drouhin Savigny-Les - Beaune Clos Des Godeaux $48; 2001 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $75.

The wines were excellent. We really enjoyed comparing the French and Oregon wines. I liked the Oregon wines a little more. The 09 Chablis, which is usually one of my favorites, was oakier and fruitier than I was expecting. The Oregon wines held up beautifully. 09 was a very good vintage in Burgundy.

The deal was that the tasting and tour was $25 per person. If we joined the club, the tasting were free and we received a 25% discount off all of the wines. This made the wine purchase very competitive with stores. They also can now ship to NJ which was a big plus. NJ recently changed its laws and not all wineries have their process set-up to ship to NJ. We bought 3 bottles of the 08 Laurene Pinot Noir, 3 bottles of the 2010 Pinot Noir; 3 bottles of the Rose and 3 bottles of the 2010 Chardonnay. They will ship the wines when the weather is cooler.

Everyone at the winery was great and our tour guides made things fun.

The last winery of the day was Ken Wright kenwright.com who also owns Tyrus Evans. The tasting room was across the street from our apartment. We tasted a number of wines here. Ken Wright is an iconic winemaker in the area. He sells his  wines as futures and then raises the prices each year. They are sold by the case although at the tasting room they will sell 6 at a time. 2011 futures are being sold at 6 bottles for $300 with a 2 6-pack minimum.  2008 6-packs are being sold at $350. He makes a number of single vineyard wines and gets very good reviews from the WA and WS.

We tried the 2010 Chardonnay; 4 single vineyard 2008 Pinot Noirs, Carter, McClone, Meredith Mitchell and Savoya; the 2010 generic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; and some Tyrus Evans wines. The Tyrus Evans wines are made from sourced grapes from southern Washington and are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syah, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

The Ken Wright 08 are more California in style. Fruit forward, big wines. They are good wines but not wines that you want to drink frequently. However I have never had a full bottle of Ken Wright wine so it is hard to project a tasting to a bottle. The 2010 generic wine was more austere and more to my liking. In general, we warmed up the 2010 Pinot Noirs and really like the wines wherever we tasted them.

The Tyrus Evans wines were not my favorites. 2007 Ciel de Cheval Claret $37 was one wine. My palette was tired when I tried them and I was not prepared for Bordeaux styled wines in Oregon. However they were all quite expensive in the mid $30 range. For the price I would stick to the 09 Bordeaux.

To end the day we had dinner at the Painted Ladythepaintedladyrestaurant.com. I read somewhere that it was the best restaurant in the Portland area. It is a small house in Newberg, which is in wine country,. They have a price fixe menu. We ate outside and had a fun time.

The wine, Horsetail Pinot Noir was made by a small producer. The owners are related to the winemaker at Beaux Frere, the Oregon winery run by Robert Parker's brother in law and partially owned by Parker. The wine a 2010 vintage was excellent. Light, balanced with fruit and acid for all.

More on this meal in the next report.

Enjoy the end of summer. It can be a great time of the year. US Open tennis and football are on the horizon.