New York, Paris, Lyon Part 1; How to rate wine

New York

Marriott Rewards sponsored a dinner at Marc Forgione's restaurant in lower Manhattan. Larry Forgione and his son Marc Forgione cooked the meal. It was a 5 course meal paired with wine. http://www.marcforgione.com/menu/ The food was very good and we met a number of interesting people. The atmosphere was electric and everything was very well organized. The menu:
Kampachi tartare, Avocado, Sechuan Buttons, Toasted Pinenuts with 2012 Loimer Gruener Vetliner, Kamptal, Austria. The wine was very good. Kampachi is like tuna.

Tete De Cochon, caviar, black pepper brioche with 2012 Anne Pichon Ventoux, Rhone, France. The wine was a rose that was good.

CIA Greystone Farms Pumpkin Ravioli, Wild herbs with 2012 Qupe Chardonnay "Y Block", Santa Maria Valley , California. The Chardonnay went well with the ravioli.

Filet Mignon, Dry Aged potatoes, dinosaur kale, smoked blue cheese, wild mushroom huckleberry with 2011 Terres Promises "Au Hasard de Souvent" Vin de Pays , France. The filet was a little dry  and the wine too funky for me. I had a glass of Sancerre Rouge instead. I had never had a red Sancerre and it was very good.

Local pear cobbler, spiced ginger ice cream, oatmeal crumble with 2010 Chidane "Clos Habert" Mountlouis, France. A sweet dessert that was quite good.

 

Overall the food and wine was well paired and we had a great time. Seating was at tables of 8 and it created a nice environment to meet people.

 Sunset from lower Manhattan looking at New Jersey. Romantic. Anyone ever see that touch of green.

 The Forgione's in the kitchen.

More photos of the event are at http://mattharrington.smugmug.com      Gallery: Marriott Rewards NY event      Password: MarriottNY

Paris
We went to Paris and Lyon for a vacation. We thought that October would be a good time to go and it was.The weather was mild and the cities were busy but not overcrowded by tourists.

Day 1 We landed at Charles De Gaulle Airport and took the Air France bus to Paris for 17 Euros. It left us off near the Arc D'Triomphe, 2 blocks from our hotel.The bus was very convenient and it leaves every 20 minutes. We stayed at the Renaissance Paris Arc D' Triomphe Hotel on Avenue Wagram. The hotel was very modern and we enjoyed staying there. We used Marriott points as we would not usually stay in such a fancy American hotel in Paris. Our room was nice and we had a huge terrace which made the room special.
Breakfast was typical Marriott and decent but lacking by French standards. The fruit was packaged and the croissants were commercial.

We walked around the city and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. WE have been up the Eiffel Tower several times so we did not go up this time.  Leaving the Eiffel Tower we went to the metro. On the train a group of young girls looked lost and we tried to help. At the next stop they all left except the oldest. She waited until the doors almost closed and she threw my wife's wallet on the train floor and ran out. She had picked my wife's pocketbook and taken the cash from her wallet. Then in a "nice"  gesture she let us have the wallet with credit cards. All in all we lost about $120 but we tried to forget the incident.
We walked around the area near our hotel and found an outside food market. There was a cheese shop, two bakeries, a fish store, several wine shops, several fish shops and a butcher and charcuterie.

We walked some more and found a wine bar. We ate dinner at the wine bar, L'Ecluse. It specialized in Bordeaux's. We had a  cheese plate and a charcuterie plate and ordered several wines by the glass. We quickly discovered that wine in Paris is reasonable and that they serve very good wines by the glass. There is no need to order a bottle of wine in Paris as all restaurants have very good wines by the glass. This gives you an opportunity to try all sorts of wines. We were generally charged from 5 to 7 Euros for a glass of wine; very cheap by NYC standards. Dinner was 48 Euros.

We were very happy. In Paris and enjoying  a simple meal.

Day 2 Saturday We have been to Paris a number of times so we wanted to see more of the "Brooklyn" side of Paris this time. We went to the Canal St Martin area which is next to the Marais and walked some more. We found lunch at 10 Belles, a coffee house.
We went the  Musee Carnavalet  www.carnavalet.paris.fr/ in the Marais district, which is a museum of the history of Paris. It is free and interesting.

Musee Carnavalet.

Canal St Martin.

10 Belles.

Dinner was a challenge as many Paris restaurants are not open on weekends. We took a short bus ride and found Café Constant. http://www.maisonconstant.com  They do not take reservations. We arrived around 7:20 and were told to return around 8:10. We were seated about 9:00PM. It was worth the wait. The food was very good - light and not too salty. Prices were reasonable. We had a Bordeaux at the restaurant. It was served somewhat chilled. It worked OK. The wine warmed up as we drank it. We were able to order 50CL of the wine, which was perfect. At home we usually drink about 2/3 of a bottle and ordering 50CL or 2/3 of a bottle allowed us to pay for what we drank.

 

 

To be continued.

How to rate wine

After much thought I have figured out the definitive wine rating system. No points, no stars no numbers.
3 categories

1. Undrinkable
2. OK wine
3. Would drink again

I think that all wines can fit into these categories and this may help us in communicating our tastes.
Think about it and let me know what you think.