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.

Pacific Northwest, Summer Market Bounty and Good Food

Pacific Northwest

Planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest in the next few weeks. Flying to Vancouver and going to Victoria, Seattle. Willamette Valley(Portland), Bend, Oregon and Ashland, Oregon. Looking forward to the trip. I have been trying to determine which wineries to visit during our time in the Willamette Valley. Possibilities -- Argyle, Domaine Drouhin, Ken Wright, Anam Cara, Domain Serene, Archery Summit, Sineann, Patricia Green -- Many wineries to consider. Any suggestions.

We have tried several Willamette Valley wines lately.

 Eyrie Pinot Gris 2010  $15 OK pinot Gris. Not enough fruit.
Adelshem 2010 Pinot Gris $15 Liked this wine alot. Good fruit and acid with nice bouquest
Anam Cara 2007 Nicolas Pinot Noir $22. Enjoyed this wine. Oregon Pinot Noirs tend to have more acid and less fruit than California Pinot Noirs. Nice wine.

Farmers market haul today -- Cauliflower, Paula Red apples, prune plums -- plum torte time, corn, escarole, shitake mushrooms, carrots, cippolini onions, wahoo from NJ waters, flounder, and leeks. Dinner tonight fried flounder, corn on the cob, sauteed escarole, steamed cauliflower, buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes from my garden and  carrots and toasted Italian bread. The Adelshem wine was excellent. Good acidity with nice fruit. Enjoyed it a great deal.

My friends came over for a crazy meal last week. Lobster and avocado salad, lamb kebobs, grilled vegetables, cheeses and wonderful wines. For dessert we had a vanilla cake with a chocolate ganache frosting. My wife had requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting but I got things reversed. The wines were awesome.

Prosecco riondo - Good basic prosecco. I am not a fan as I like Cava much more. OK. Slightly sweet.
Champagne Baron Dauvergne Brut Privilege $50 80% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay. Big wine with lots of flavor. Enjoyed.
1994 Podere Rocche dei Manzoni Barolo  Oldest Barolo I have ever tasted. It was very good. The fruit was still there and the wine drank wonderfully.
Acacia Lone Tree Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008 $50 Enjoyed this wine. Nice fruit.

Scottsdale, Arizona tip. Champagne bar Nar-Cisse http://narcisse.drgtools.com/ in the Scottsdale Quarter mall. Excellent Champagnes by the glass. They have happy hour most days and I had a decent Spanish brut rose cava Campo Viejo for $4 per glass. They also had a Chateau St Michelle sparkling wine that I tasted and was not impressed. Not sweet with good fruit flavor. I also had small plates of food for $3 per plate. The place has a nice bar and lots of comfy tables.

Other wines
Domaine Le Fay D'Homme muscadet sevre et maine sur lie $10  Nothing special, unbalanced white wine that I would not recommend.
Chalone 2008 Chardonnay Estate $20  One of my favorites. Oak nicely integrated with fruit.

Next stop the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy.

Summer Heat, NYC and Fireworks

NYC

It has been a hot few weeks around the country. Of course we chose to spend a few days in NYC in the middle of the heat wave.
Stayed at the NY Hilton at their Hilton Club time share facility. Everything was fine.We obtained a good deal because we agreed to listen to a a timeshare pitch.
We saw One Man, Two Guvnors on Broadway and were not impressed. In fact we can't figure what the critics liked. The star is personable and is funny when he improvises but overall it was not our kind of humor.

Ate dinner at Tertulia http://tertulianyc.com/ This is a small tapas restaurant in the West Village on 6th Ave near 5th street. We had ham croquettes, lamb breast with faro, roasted potatoes, and grilled mussels on toast mixed with stuff. The food was much creamier than expected. The croquettes were creamy inside, the potatoes had a creamy sauce over them and the faro was creamy.

 The wine list did not look inviting. They did not have a reasonable cava and did not appear to have any sherry. We settled on a Spanish beer on tap. The board listed the beer as $7 or $9. We received small maybe10 oz glasses of beer. The check showed $9 for a beer. When I checked  with the waitress, she informed that we had the large beer. Oh well. It is difficult to accept a meal when 3 small beers are $27, even in NYC.

The New Yorker highly recommends this place. I would not tell anyone to go there. No reason to go. We have been to Spain several times and have had great food all over the world. I am coming to the conclusion that "tapas" in the US is not what I want to eat. I am may be finished with tapas for a while.

We also had dinner at Traif. http://traifny.com/ This is a restaurant in Williamsburg,  Brooklyn and is worth the trip. We had a very interesting meal with very good food. It is a small place and serves small plates. I won't call them tapas. We had an amuse bouche of watermelon gazpacho. Then we had strawberry cinnamon glazed baby back ribs $10, an arugula salad with berries $9, fried collar of hamachi $22, and broccoli rabe, porcini truffle toast, asiago cheese and a fried egg $12. All except the arugula salad were very good. The toast was exceptional; the truffle oil added that little touch. I was surprised that the chef did not add bacon. The hamachi collar was different but good. It was the collar bone with meat attached that was deep fried. Not heavy and fun to pick at.

The dessert was chocolate pudding with sour cherries and black sesame ice cream. It worked. We had a bottle of Dibon Reserve cava for $30. It was good but a touch sweet.

The restaurant is small and the service was very good. We received new plates with each dish and the cava glasses nice flutes. Some times wine glasses are not too good, if you know what I mean. We enjoyed it.

While I am on the subject, this weekend's WSJ had article by their wine person Lettie Teague on wine snobs.  "In Defense of Wine Snobs. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304299704577502660282767838.html?mod=WSJ_0_0_WP_2507_RIGHTTopCarousel_1She is a wine snob and thinks that wine snobs have a place in the world and have been feeling a backlash lately. She is counter attacking the backlash. Interesting article.

Ate lunch at Mangia http://www.mangiatogo.com/on 57th street in Manhattan. I have loved Mangia forever. They have several location in Manhattan. The salad/food bar is exceptional. They have salads, desserts, sandwiches and main courses. In NYC for the quality of the food, the prices are reasonable. We had red snapper from the food bar with wild rice, a chicken quesadilla, and a lemon meringue tart. All was good. With coffee and a soda the meal was $22.

We also found the Food Hall at the Plaza Hotel. They don't have much of a website. They have a number of food shops such as maison du chocolat, Francois Payard bakery  http://www.payard.com/  , Luke's Lobster and Todd English's Wine Bar, Cheese & Charcuterie Station, Sushi Bar, Burger Bar & Rotisserie, Asian Noodle and Dumpling Bar, Espresso & Tea Bar, Brick Oven Pizza, and a Fish and Seafood Grill.

We had a lobster roll, an organic ginger soda and potato chips for $17 at Luke's. The lobster roll was very good. It was basically lobster on a hot dog roll. Payard has ice cream sandwiches with french macaroons. We had the chocolate sorbet with cocoa nibs, $5. Run don't walk to Payard's for the ice cream sandwiches. Best thing we have had in a long time.

The Todd English place is very large but almost hidden. It looked interesting with one menu giving the selections for all of the different food stations. Lots of different places to sit.

We went to walk the Highline  http://www.thehighline.org/about/maps , the new elevated park in Manhattan. It starts in the meatpacking district, west 12th street,  and continues to around 30th street. There are permanent food trucks and gardens and places to sit. Cool place.

We decided to ride the Staten Island ferry. It is free and may be the best thing in NYC. WE hopped on late in the afternoon and motored past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The view of lower Manhattan was great. When we landed in Staten Island, we just got back on line and took the boat back. It is about 25 minutes each way. Take the #1 subway to the end at South Ferry.
BTW we saw the Queen Mary 2 on way back to Manhattan.

We visited MOMA(Museum of Modern Art). It is always fun to walk around. They have a beautiful garden and on Thursday evenings they have music. Nice ambiance. The only downside with the Museum is the price of $25 for adults. They have student rates and kids under 16 are free. Also Friday nights are free but the lines are enormous.

NYC note- the popularity of Halal food trucks is amazing. At 10pm at night almost 50 people were lined up for food.

Wines of the Week

My Cellatracker notes at https://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&iUserOverride=215105&HideNullNote=0&T=1000

Protocolo Spain 2010 $6. A long time favorite, mostly tempranillo.

Chateau Larrivaux 2005 $12 Nice light Bordeaux. It was highly recommended for the 05 vintage. It is not as good as the 09 cheaper Bordeaux's but it has been improving the last few years and it was good the other night.

La Barotte 2009 Bordeaux $8. WAs written up in wine column. It was OK. Light, earthy with some fruit. Not really representative of the 09's.

Chateau Haut Barrail 2009 Bordeaux. $14.99. A very good Merlot based Bordeaux. nice fruit and and good structure. Some complexity. Tried twice.

Chateau Retout 2009 Bordeaux $17. Drank another bottle and liked it more this time. A little heavier than I originally thought. Great fruit and complexity. The Cabernet Sauvignon come through.

Fireworks

I was not terribly impressed with fireworks this year but I noted a trend. 2 major firework displays -San Diego and somewhere in Connecticut --had major problems due to computer issues. Think about that.

Farmers market

Todays's haul -- green apples, sour cherry pie, mushrooms, eggs, cucumber, potatoes, onions, little cherry plums, muskmelon, swordfish, clams, mahi-mahi, and flounder.

Good eating and try a bottle of rose with your meal. Don't be afraid to chill wine in the summer, even red wines. There are no rules.

Hope you had great 4th of July.

Anguilla

Anguilla

Just returned from Anguilla. 6 days and 5 nights. We had a great time. Stayed at the Viceroy. The hotel was truly wonderful. Breakfast was included in our deal and everyone at the hotel was very nice. No pretensions. Breakfast was a large buffet and the fruits were great. I pigged out on passion fruit every morning except one when they did not have any. Our room was unreal. Plunge pool on the terrace overlooking the ocean.The bathroom was huge.

They have tennis courts, kids club, rock climbing walls, state of the art basketball court, 3 pools and 5 restarurants. Except for breakfast we did not eat at the hotel. The restaurants were expensive and the main one was Italian, which did not interest us. For the time of year their a good amount of people. Chairs and umbrellas were provided on the beach and they provided bottled water in ice buckets on the beach.

The hotel does not nickel and dime you and no one is looking for a tip. The service is good. The manager is all over and tries to run a top flight place. He saw me hitting tennis balls by myself and apologized for not playing tennis with me. Next time he offered.

We ate at a number of restaurants.

Jacala - French restaurant on Meads Bay, 1/2 mile from the Viceroy. The owner allowed us to bring a bottle of wine since we brought it from home. It was a Chalone 2008 Chardonnay. He told us that if we bought a bottle on the island he would charge us $70. The food was OK. I had a whole snapper grilled. It was a tiny fish and I am not a big eater. My wife had crayfish because they were out of lobster. Of course they did not tell us until we were about to order. The service was very slow.

Gerauds http://www.anguillacakesandcatering.com/about.html One of my favorite places. Geraud and his wife are delightful and so different. I asked him to cater a dinner for us with the condition that we did not have a way to heat the food. He made us chicken Caesar salads and a plate of cheeses and meats. Brie, Swiss, pate, ham, turkey and of course french bread. For dessert we had 2 chocolate mousse pastries. Everything was wonderful and reasonable.

You can eat breakfast and brunch at Gerauds.

E's Oven - Geraud told us to go here. We brought our own wine - no problem. I brought an 09 Bordeaux that was good. Chateau Les Eyquems. See below.

We had red snapper. I had it grilled whole and my wife had fillet with some sauce. Everything was good and the place is cute. No AC but we sat on the porch. We had flour less chocolate cake for dessert.

Pimms - This is the restaurant at Cap Juluca, another of the top hotels on Anguilla. The restaurant is right on the water. Our table was actually sitting on rocks on the water. see below.They had a very good wine list and there were several 09 Bordeaux's on the list that were reasonably priced. They had a young wine person who was very knowledgeable. I ordered one bottle that the list said was a St Emillion but when they brought the bottle it was a generic Bordeaux. I asked about another wine and he brought it out. However this wine was from 2007 and I did not want it. He was also embarrassed by the 07 so he brought another bottle that he said we would enjoy - the Haut Caillou-- below. This wine was $75 on the list but he gave to me for $50, the price of the wines that I was looking out.I thought it was a very nice gesture from one wine guy to another. The wine had great depth, good fruit and was very good. I have not been able to find a reference to it in the US. It is a Lalande De Pomerol.

Sandbar - This restaurant is in Sandy Ground which a harbor with about 10 restaurants in the middle of the island. Sandbar serves small plates and is rated the one of the top restaurants in Trip Advisor. It is a cute place, right on the beach. The menu was small and interesting. Not local style food. The female chef was from Canada. We had small plates of fried shrimp, polenta and duck pancakes. Everything was good and reasonable.

SunShine Shack - This small place is on Rendezvous Bay between the Cuisinart Resort and the Great Anguilla Beach House hotel. Rendezvous Bay is on the Caribbean side of the island and you can see St. Martin from the beach. The water is gorgeous. Garvey? runs the shack. He has ribs and chicken and will cook fish if you call in advance. There is one table and some chairs. For $20 we had a plate of ribs and chicken and a beer and soda. We chatted for a while and he gave us 2 beers for the road. Our kind of place. Food good, ambiance - priceless.

Smokeys - This is another beach place down a small road to a dirt road. It is a regular place despite its surroundings and is open for dinner as well. They have music several times a week. WE had a fish sandwich which was tasty. I believe it was mahi- mahi.

Wines of the week

Chateau Haut Caillou , Lalande de Pomerol 2009 $50 in a restaurant.

Chateau Les Eyquems 2009 $13

Chalone Chardonnay 2008- A regular wine which we enjoyed as usual. Brought to Jacala. Good fruit and oak integration.

Gilbert Picq Chablis 2010 $20 - Drank with Geraud's food in our room. It was a decent Chablis but I expected more. It a slight alcohol finish. Good fruit and mineral Chablis taste.

Codorniu Cava $7. A favorite for us. Crisp, fruity but dry. Great bargain.

Les Vignes De Bila Haut Cotes di Rousillon France Michel Chapoutier- white 2011.$11 The red is great. See last posting. The white is good but something did not click. A blend of different grapes. Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris and Macabeu. Try it. Nice fruit and interesting flavor. Definitely not a chardonnay.

Local Produce
Farmer's markets are in full bloom and my garden is doing great. Blueberries are in season in NJ. My Kale and lettuce have been great. I have an eggplant ready to pick and we picked our first cherry tomato the other day. I just bought the first sour cherries of the season. I am salivating over the thought my cherry tart.

Good eating and drinking. Enjoy.

09 Bordeaux; Baltimore; Atlantic City; Gardening

09 Bordeaux

I have been on an 09 Bordeaux tasting spree. Check out my notes.
In the last 2  weeks I have tasted:

Chateau Devise D' Ardilley
Chateau Retout
Chateau Ferret Lambert
Chateau Tour St Bonnet
Chateau L Argenteyre
Chateau Coudraire
Chateau Les Grand Marechaux
Chateau La Cardonne
https://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&iUserOverride=215105&HideNullNote=0&T=1000
All are under $20. All were good, several excellent.

Dallas

Had the opportunity to eat at Bob's Steak and Chophouse www.bobs-steakandchop.com The food was very good. They have pickles in a jar on the table and they have a cooked carrot on your plate with steak. We had Ruffino Modus 2006, a sangiovese blend and a Chateau St Jean Belle Terre chardonnay. Both wines were very good.

Baltimore

I was down in Baltimore for the Preakness and had the opportunity to have some crab cakes and drink some interesting wine. I set up a tasting and we drank Chateau D' Ardilley, Chateau Retout and the Mondavi Oakville cabernet sauvignon. All wines of from 2009. I enjoyed all of the wines and being able to compare them was a treat. The 2 Bordeaux wines were mostly cabernet so the comparison was interesting. I found the Boredeaux wines to have more complexity. A shoutout to the Renaissance Hotel at the inner harbour. We tasted our wines in their bar overlooking the harbor.

Had lunch at the Baltimore Lexington Market at a place that specializes in crab cakes. Faidley's Seafood. It was good but not great. The ambiance at the market made the meal. faidleyscrabcakes.com

For dinner had a Barbaresco and the Conn Anthology 2007. The Conn was OK. It is a cabernet blend. The Barbaresco was a Marchesi D Barolo 2007. It too was OK. Maybe I wasn't in the mood after the wine tasting.

Atlantic City

The Borgata beckoned again so off we went for a  night at the Water Club. We actually did not lose money gambling. We went over to the Revel and ate dinner at Amada, the new top of the line restaurant Jose Garces the Philly chef and restauranteur.http://www.revelresorts.com/dining/signature/amada  The restaurant had been open for 6 weeks so it should have been up to speed. It is a Spanish themed place with Tapas as the main feature. We ordered the typical tapas. The potatos, clams and chorizo, black cod, chickpeas and spinach and ham croquettes. The wine list is very expensive even by AC standards as the cheapest bottle was $38. We ordered wine by the glass. My wine was a Spanish mencia grape blend and I sent it back. My wife had a Ribuera Del Duoro and then I ordered it as well. It was Ok and about $10 a glass.
The service was very slow and our cod did not seem to want to appear. After asking several times it was brought out and it was not good. It did not seem freshly cooked. We did not eat it. The manager came over and did not charge us; also bought us a dessert. It was a very nice gesture. The restaurant was beautiful as it overlooks the boardwalk about 6 stories up. It was a weirdly foggy evening and our view was fascinating.
I have been to the original Amada in Philly and was not overally impressed there. For tapas try Seville or there are a few places in NYC that are very good.Tia Pol tiapol.com
The Revel has improved a little since it first day but I think it still has a long way to go. The other fancy restaurants look to have boring menus. Marc Forgione has a steakhouse, oh well.

Restaurant Alert

If you live near White Plains, NY try Grace's Table graces-table.com My friend has opened up this restaurant and he is the chef. It has already received excellent reviews. I have not tried it yet.

Anguilla

I am off to Anguilla again. Will report back.

Wine of the week

Bila Haut 2010 $12 Southwest FranceM. Chapoutier Côtes du Roussillon Villages Les Vignes de Bila-Haut (France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Côtes du Roussillon Villages). Great Rhone like blend. Parker went bonkers over it and it is a very good and reasonably priced wine. Check it out.

Gardening

My garden is starting out nicely. I keep adding plants.

I have been harvesting kale, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce and mesclun lettuce.

BTW the Summit, NJ farmers market is open again. I bought sugar snap peas, shitake mushrooms, spinach, radishes, cucumbers, clams, flounder, scallops, strawberries and peas. Peas were the big bargain at $2 per pound. Summer is here and my fish withdrawal pains are over.

Enjoy June. Drink wine, enjoy  food and travel!

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.

Fort Wayne, Atlantic City, Nice Work If You Can Get It and the Flowers That Bloom In the Spring Tra La

Fort Wayne

Had a great meal at a friend's house in Fort Wayne. The menu was lobster salad, steaks, fingerling potatoes, string beans and key lime pie and citrus sorbet for dessert. I cooked everything except the steaks. We had beautiful night. It was warm enough to eat outside in March.

The wines were outstanding.

We drank:
Chalone 2007 Pinot Noir, California -- Year in and year out, I love this wine. The 07 is not the best but it a good fruity, spicy and complex Pinot Noir.
Chalone 2008 Chardonnay, California-- Same about this wine. The 07 and 08 vintages are great. The oak is beautifully integrated with the fruit. I usually do not like oaky wines.
Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir 2008, California --OK Pinot Noir. A little too fruity  for me.
BV Georges De Latour 2008 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, California-- An austere cabernet with nice fruit and structure. However a very expensive wine; not worth the price.
Nickel and Nickel Branding Iron 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, California. This wine was a winner. The
BV did not compare. Fruit, complexity and fun to drink.
Damilano Barolo, 2006 Piemonte. Don't drink Barolos with California Cabernet Sauvignons. Barolos are tannic and reflect the terroir of Piemonte. This wine was good but the fruit of the California wines made it hard to appreciate.

We finished the meal with Debrand chocolates. Perfection.

Atlantic City

 We went for a long weekend in Atlantic City. Stayed at the Borgata's Water Club. Very nice room with great view of Atlantic City. They have 2 indoor pools and I used the the one in the Spa on the 32nd floor. Swimming with a view!

We ate in Fornelletto, the Italian restaurant at the Borgata. http://www.theborgata.com/dine/fine-dining We shared a mixed salad, chicken breast Milanese with salad on top and fried calimari. Everything was freshly prepared and reasonably priced.

The wine list is good with many wines under $50. While $50 is cheap for a good restaurant, it still is alot of money to me. We ordered the cheapest red wine of the list, a Dolcetto d'Alba for $33. It was fruity and light. Perfect for the meal.

The next night, Monday, we ate at Izakaya, the Asian fusion restaurant at the Borgata.They have a special deal on Mondays with many small dishes for $7. Beer is $3.50 and wine by the glass for $7. We ordered small plates of salmon skewers, shrimp roll, mushroom dumplings, fried rice and baby back ribs. The food was yummy and we ordered the cheapest white wine on the list. $23. It was a Spanish white wine.

Again the wine was light and fruity.

We have always had very good meals at the Borgata. They seem to run lots of specials and the wine lists in the restaurants are huge and the typically have 50 wines under $50.

The Revel, a new casino on the Boardwalk, opened on one of the days we were at AC. It was a "soft opening". A very soft opening! The casino was open. Some restaurants were scheduled to open but the only food available was a taco truck in the hotel and a Belgian pizza restaurant with a limited menu. Go figure.

We left the Revel around lunch time because we were hungry. The hotel is beautiful and faces the ocean. It is the first AC hotel to actually try to incorporate the oceanfront into an advantage. Our first impression was not good. We did not feel welcome or any feeling of hospitality. Cold, sterile and no one really seemed to care except the guys making sure you paid $5 to park. Can't we have free parking for a "soft opening".

One of the stores at the Water Club is a wine shop with machines to allow wine tastings. For $3 I tried the Hall California Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. It tasted good. Fruit and structure. It sold for $40 a bottle ,which seemed reasonable. My wife tried another 09 Bordeaux, which we liked.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

A new/ old musical on Broadway, Nice Work If You Can Get It is in previews at the Imperial Theater. We saw it and enjoyed it. Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Broderick star. She is fabulous and he fits the role perfectly. The play is new but the songs are vintage Gershwin. Lots of dance numbers as the director Kathleen Marshall is also the choreographer. The play is funny; the music great. Let's see what the critics say.

We ate at Don Antonio on 50st between 8th and 9th Avenues. A new, small, trendy pizza spot with fried pizza dough as an option. Prices were reasonable, service good and we enjoyed the pizza. The fried pizza is a bit greasy but we also had a pizza stuffed with prosciutto, artichokes and warm salad.They had good wines by the glass. We had a Montipulicano d'Abruzzi and a Piemonte Nebbiolo. The Montipulciano was better.

Wines of the Week

Di Majo Norante Aglinico Molise Conterno Reserva 2009 $13 - Good southern Italian red wine. Mostly merlot and very good.

Pinot Blanc 2007 Chalone  $5 (great deal)- Another Chalone wine that I like alot. Oak and fruit well integrated. This wine has a little age to it which made it even better.

Orvieto La Carraia 2010 $8 Italy-- Nice light white wine with some structure.

Chateau Mylord 2009 Bordeaux $11. Another good merlot predominate 09 Bordeaux. Enjoyed.

Farming

I have started my garden in March due to the early spring. Started with Kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, sage, Japanese eggplant, carrots, cantaloupes, zucchini, cabbage and walla walla onions.I have started about 2 months early. Will see what happens.

Enjoy!