April Showers bring May Flowers

The Wall Street Journal Weekend edition has a wine column written alternately by Lettie Teague and Jay McInerney. They are usually interesting. This Saturday's column by Ms Teague http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303916904577376161929250858.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5 is exactly what is right and wrong with wine writing these days. Her article is about German Rieslings. It highlights the difficulties of classifying Riesling wines. However her explanations of the terminology for German wines is confusing, if not misleading but the article is interesting an hopefully will convince more people to try German Rieslings.

However the main point that I take from the article is that one should not choose their wine by the grape variety but by the geographical area of where the grape variety is grown. For example New Jersey and New York can produce some good Rieslings but they can be very different from the Rieslings of Germany or Oregon. This week try a Syrah from California. They can be very good and are reasonably priced these days since it is not a popular wine. However Syrah is a major grape in wines from the Rhone Valley in France which are very popular.

Charleston

Recently had a chance to go to Charleston, South Carolina. Had dinner at a restaurant called Fig. http://eatatfig.com/This restaurant has received many excellent reviews. We ate at the bar. The food was pretentious and not very good.

The first dish was breast of beef with vegetables and some broth. The beef was fatty almost inedible. Not sure what the purpose of the dish was. It was highly recommended by our server the bartender. Not like me to follow a waiter's recommendation but this time I did.

The second dish was a fish stew that was OK but nothing special and you can see the presentation was silly. Hard to eat and did not showcase the fish under the mussels.

The wine list was overpriced so we ordered the cheapest bottle. When in doubt always order the cheapest bottle on an overpriced but decent wine list. Sure enough the wine was good. I did some checking on my Robert Parker phone app but we enjoyed the wine.

2009 Ponce Clos Lojen Bobal from Spain. It was a solid  and fruity wine. It was about $35 in the restaurant and it retails  for about $17.

Also had a chance to snack a the Bar at Husk. Everything was local and we had southern ham that was like serrano ham from Spain and we had a cheese plate with cheeses from Georgia. I had a local beer with the food. Everything was excellent.http://huskrestaurant.com/

Wines of the Week
It has been a busy few weeks for wines. On reviewing my list, we have been drinking very eclectic wines with mixed results.

I am trying a new approach to my wine review. I enter the wine reviews into Cellartracker. Cellartracker has detailed information on all wines and it also allows you to cross reference other people's review as well as professional reviews. The link below brings you to my notes on the wines that I have tasted. Let me know how this works.
https://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&iUserOverride=215105&HideNullNote=0

Montgras Reserva 2010 Sauvignon Blanc Chile--
Patriota Tikal 2009 Argentina --
Sterling 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa
2010 Cantina Convento Muri-Gries Lagrein Alto Adige - Südtirol
Kim Crawford 2011 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
Ondarre Mayor Reserva 2004 Spain
Kila Cava 2008 Spain
Ferrari Carrano 2007 Chardonnay
Productori Di Barbaresco Barbaresco 2007
Chalone 2006 Pinot Noir Estate
Chateau Haut Barrail 2009 Bordeaux
Barbera D Asti Les Ormes Michele Chiarlo 2009
La Foret Des Dames Sancerre 2011
Orlando Abrigo Nebbiolo 2008
Crios Torrontes Argentina 2011 Note that this wine was a major disappointment. I have had this vintage previously and it was good. Maybe a bad bottle.
Crios Rose Argentina 2011 Note this wine was a major disappointment. Not worth drinking. I have had previous vintages and they were much better.
Cotes Du Rhone Cypress Cuvee Kermit Lynch 2009

My garden is growing nicely. More details soon.

Enjoy Mother's Day. Surprise Mom with a new and different wine. Have her favorite wine in reserve since it is Mother's Day.

Enjoy.