Kauai Part 3; Venice

Kauai Part 3

We left the Marriott at  Lihue and moved to the Westin in Princeville. The Westin is a hotel/timeshare/condo resort in the planned resort of Princeville. Princeville is beautiful and has several top golf courses. It also has a St Regis hotel. The St Regis is an over the top place with a Jean Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant http://www.jean-georges.com/restaurants/united-states/princeville/kauai-grill/ . The hotel is on a cliff overlooking Hanelei Bay, think The Decendents. Westin guests have privileges at the St Regis, so we could use their beach. The Westin sort of overlooks the ocean but it high on a cliff. No beach.

Upon check-in we were offered all types of deals including an upgrade from our studio to a 1 bedroom. We paid $75 for this and we also signed up for a luau. The 1 bedroom unit was very nice and I had a full kitchen with granite countertops. It was the 5th anniversary of the hotel and they were having a special luau with some of the top talent on the island.

 

 

The luau was in a tent in the middle of the resort. We had a lightning storm in the middle and lost power for about 20 minutes. It was interesting. The food was good as the hotel chef created some Hawaiian food.

It was also the 100th anniversary of the Kilauea Lighthouse. Apparently the lighthouse was important because it is located at the westernmost part of the Hawaiian Islands and boats used it a marker for arriving in Honolulu. It is on a beautiful small peninsula. http://www.kilauealighthouse.org/

I finally relented and cooked a meal for us at the Westin. I found some nice steaks at the supermarket, Princeville has a great Foodland supermarket and then I found a small wine shop that had some excellent wines at reasonable prices. I bought Brancaia Tre Toscana IGT 2010 and 2009 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco. Both were about $20 and they were very good. The Westin had a number of very good outdoor grills for use and I grilled the steaks.

 

We had very poor weather in Princeville. We made reservations for our first  helicopter ride on the second day we arrived. We went to the airport and the weather was rainy and cloudy. The helicopter people told all would be well in the air. What else would they say. We used Sunshine Helicopters  since they were the only company to operate out of the Princeville airport. The copter was deluxe but the weather spoiled the experience. We were underwhelmed. We saw some spectacular spots but nothing blew us away. I took videos and some pictures. The pictures are through glass windows and rain and clouds.

On our last day on Kauai, we had a 5pm flight so we headed south to Poipu. We had been to Poipu earlier in our trip and had found a farmers market in fancy out door mall. WE found the PIe Lady stand and bought a slice of Mango/Passion fruit pie. It was great. A thick pie loaded with slices of mango. We also had a beer at Merriman's casual restaurant at the mall. http://www.merrimanshawaii.com/kauai.htm  Peter Merriman is a Hawaiian chef who I believe started a restaurant on the Big Island. We ate their years ago and it was very good and very expensive. He has since branched out and open a number of restaurants in Hawaii. He used local and organic ingredients. When we reached Poipu on the last day we went to the Marriott Vacation Club and had lunch at their place on the beach. We had a good fish sandwich. We then realized that we had made a mistake by not staying in Poipu. The weather is much better than Princeville and the beach is gorgeous. Poipu is also not that far from Lihue. The photo above is a local joke. Kauai has wild chickens everywhere. NY Theater We saw Venice at the NY Public Theater http://publictheater.org/  on Lafayette Street last weekend. It is a new musical by Matt Sax who also stars in the play. It is a Public Lab production so the tickets were $15. The play was very good. Some Shakespeare type plot with rap and other genres of music. The music was engaging and Matt Sax is great. The actors are top flight. It is only playing to the end of the month. Go see it! Recent wines:   2005 Vieux Château Champs de Mars Johanna Good Bordeaux; $18 I have stored this wine for several years. 2012 Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc $10. OK NZ wine. I have had better vintages of this wine. 2011 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Chardonnay Arthur $30 I love their wines. Excellent chardonnay with some oak. Good fruit. Expensive wine is the only negative. 2012 Tiefenbrunner Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT $9. Forgettable but drinkable Italian white. 1999 E. Guigal Châteauneuf-du-Pape $35 when released. My oldest stored bottle. Wine Spectator #1 wine of the year several years ago. The wine was great. It was at its peak. A touch of port-like flavor. I am really enjoying CDP's these days especially the 2010's. 2010 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Roussillon Villages Les Vignes de Bila-Haut $11. This wine always tastes different. I like this bottle. WA gave it a big score. Good value. 2012 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Édition Rosé $20. Great rose but not a light sipping wine. 14% alcohol. Apparently the 2012 vintage in the Willamette Valley is great. Hopefully this wine is leading the way. Pinot Noir grape is used for this wine. 2007 Mount Veeder Winery Cabernet Sauvignon . Surprised me. A good California cab. Not overly complex but good balance and not a fruit bomb. We liked the wine. My garden is beginning to grow. I have harvested lettuce. Looks like it may be a good growing season. Sour cherries should be coming to the local farmer's markets soon. Looking forward to them and the resulting cherry tart. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kauai Part 2; Far From Heaven

Lihue is a  real Hawaiian town, not a tourist town and we ate at Hamura Saimin for lunch. Saimin is soup with noodles. The restaurant has a few counters and you sit on stools. We met some people who had grown up on Kauai, moved and were visiting relatives. They gave us a great history lesson on the island.

The saimin was very good. We had dumplings in our soup in addition to the noodles. We also had skewered beef.We finished our meal with their famous lillikoi chiffon pie. Lillikoi is passion fruit. It was light and delicious. The cream on top was cool whip. Spam and cool whip- Hawaiian traditions! My lillikoi pie is more intense. If you need the recipe let me know. It is simple.

The mother of our Kauai friends who still lives on the island bought us some shaved ice. Shaved ice is another Hawaiian specialty. We had had it before and were not impressed. They take a huge scoop of crushed ice and pour flavored syrups on the ice. This shaved ice was great. It was strawberry and another flavor. The flavors are artificial so that may be why you need to find the right flavors at the right place. Lunch cost about $18 for 2.

Another great food spot in Lihue is Fish Express. BTW I found that Yelp and TripAdvisor were very good for finding small, local food places. We were looking for great fish on the island and generally found it in small places. I would generally avoid the fancy restaurants on the island. Fish Express is on the main road across from the Walmart (hiss). We had Ahi sandwiches for $8.99 with fries. The sandwich was great, the fries -soggy.

We did try 1 place which Trip Advisor has as the #1 place on the island. Hukilau Lanai.  http://hukilaukauai.com/   http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60616-d1390699-Reviews-Hukilau_Lanai-Kapaa_Kauai_Hawaii.htmlA reservation was hard to obtain but we  got one. The place is precious. It is in a time share hotel and is nicely situated -half indoors and half outdoors. The fish came with too many ingredients and the sauces were poor. I am not a sauce person. The Marriott knows how to prepare fish, not this place.  If you read the Trip Advisor reviews you will see why I don't recommend going to fancy places on the island.

 The wine list was cheap, eclectic and lousy. They have very interesting white wines that do not go well with the food and are not enticing. We originally ordered a white wine from Slovakia from Bastianich. http://bastianich.com/wines_adriatico_ribolla.cfm This winery make good wines but we did not like this wine. We returned the bottle and the waiter then told us that the manager, who buys the wines, told him that this wine was not very popular. Oh well, maybe he will tell the next person before they order the wine.

They accepted my rejection of the wine without issue and we then ordered a Wolfberger Pinot Blanc from Alsace. $25. The wine was good and basic, not complex but it was fine with the meal.

 

 

Miscellaneous

Had a chance to try the Silver Oak 2007 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at a friend's house. It was very good. It was light and had a nice nose. Flavor was good. Silver Oak is not a favorite of the critics and they have even stopped reviewing it. The WS gave it an 86. It is an expensive wine. Oh well.
Also had the Privada from the Norton winery in Argentina. $18 at Costco. Nooorton! No connection to the Honeymooners. The wine is a blend of Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. I am not usually a fan of this type of wine, but it was good. A little grapey but drank well.

We saw Far from Heaven in previews at Playwrights Horizon on 42nd street in NYC. Chttp://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/far-heaven/  .http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/06/02/theater/100000002258279/excerpt-far-from-heaven.html#100000002258279 The run for the play is almost completely sold out. It was not good. We love Kelli O'Hara http://kelliohara.com/  and she is always great when she has decent music to sing. The music was just dialogue set to music. It did not do anything for us. The play is based on the movie with Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid about Connecticut suburbs in the 50's. It deals with race and homosexuality. The director is Michael Greif. I recognized him from the website and he sat in front of us. About 30 minutes into the play he got up and had the house lights turned on and stopped the show in the middle of the song. He explained that their were props not on stage and  that the scene was not working without the props. There was break for 5 minutes and then the play resumed and the song was restarted. Never experienced this before. It had nothing to do with our lack of enthusiasm for the play. The play opens today and we will see what the critics say. The great thing about seeing a play in previews is that you are not biased by the reviews.

A good friend of mine died this week. Among other things he was a big Yankee fan and he loved puttanesca sauce. We would talk about my love for food and wine when we ate out. If he liked a food, he could eat it all the time.  He could eat puttanesca sauce on pasta for every meal. One day for lunch in NYC, unknown to me, he asked the waiter to bring out 3 glasses with different red wines and my friend asked me to identify the grapes of each wine. The pressure was on. I did it! I got each wine correct but I realized how difficult it is to taste wine doubly blind - meaning not knowing the wines you are tasting and not knowing what wine is in each glass. Most wine tastings are done with knowledge of which wines are in the tasting.

I will miss my friend immensely.

Washington, Philly, Priceline and Kauai

Washington DC

I have been to Washington, DC several times in the last 2 weeks. I really like the city. I had a a Jose Andres day last week. I went to Jaleo www.jaleo.com for lunch and Zeytinya for dinner. At Jaleo, which serves Spanish food,  I had their lamb sandwich. It was OK. A long crisp roll with small slices of lamb and then other stuff and sauce.It was presently poorly, basically it was thrown on a plate. The sandwich was not cut in half, there was no garnish or side. I had a small salad with the sandwich. Same thing. Small bowl, some tomatoes, lettuce and peppers, just given to me.

Restaurant pet peeve. Waiters in many restaurants just take orders. Food is delivered by others and the empty dishes are taken away by others. I find that this leads to a hap- hazard meal. For example, at Jaleo I sat at the bar. I ordered from the bartender. My salad was brought out by someone and then my sandwich showed up 2 minutes later. They were nice but presentation is important especially in a restaurant that wants to be taken seriously.

At Zeytinya we had assorted small plates. I had been there before and it is still very good. The fried mussels are great. We had a Lebanese wine that I had tasted the week before in a Lebanese restaurant in DC. The wine Chateau Ksara Reserve du Couvent is blend of cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and syrah from the Vallee du Bekaa, Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. I liked the wine. It is fruity without being grapey. It has some character and it was probably the cheapest wine on the wine list, $30. Try it if you see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Priceline

 

I have use Priceline name your price  twice in the last few weeks. I wanted a DC hotel midweek and I hit the Renaissance Mayflower for $170. The Marriott website price was $450. I also used Priceline in Philadelphia and for $90 hit the Loews hotel downtown near the Convention Center. The Loews website had the room for $220. I have had very good success with Priceline. I have used it in large cities where you can be precise about the area and can request 4 star or better hotels.

 

Amtrak

 

I have also been using Amtrak to travel to Philly and Washington. The trains have been on time and the prices have been very good. Can't complain. I also meet some fascinating people on the train.

 

Philadelphia

 

Friends have told me about the Reading Terminal Market www.readingterminalmarket.org/ for years but have never dragged me there. It is near the Convention Center in Philadelphia. I had the opportunity to check it out and was impressed. There are some good places to have a sandwich. Looked like some nice corned beef and pastrami was being hand sliced at one place and there are several Italian sandwich places that looked good. I found a Chinese place, Kee Peking Sang Duck that was great. I had wonton soup, sound mundane but it had great wontons, bok choy, roast pork and a pint container cost $3. It was truly a delight. Next time I will try the duck.

 

There are also bakeries and chocolate shops that looked good. The meat and vegetable stands were OK although a fresh chicken place had some nice local chickens and the some of the fruit and vegetables were bargains. A place to explore further.

 

Recent Wines

 

Domaine Drouhin has their 2012 Pinot Noir Rose for sale. Very small quantity made. I have ordered some but have not tried it yet. The 2011 is great. 2012 is supposed to be a great vintage in Oregon.

 

I also have tried the 2011 Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir. Oregon $40 Very good wine. Intense flavor, good terroir, and just drank nicely. I like their wines.

 

2010 Mouton Noir Wines Pinot Noir Oregogne  Oregon$45 This wine has flavor, complexity, bouquet and mouth feel and is only 13.4% alcohol. A very good to great wine. Enjoyed immensely. It is hard to find such intense flavor without being overly grapey. A real expression of the 2010 vintage in the Willamette Valley. Very expensive but worth the money.

 

2008 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva  Italy$15 Good chianti, more refined than more basic chiantis. Nice balance between tannin and fruit. This a dependable wine with a good price. No need to over analyze. Enjoyed the bottle with my pizza. Bought at Costco. I have enjoyed many vintages of this wine.
2010 Bodegas Borsao Garnacha Campo de Borja Tres Picos Spain $12 Good wine with intense flavor and nice nose. However it tastes a bit hot to me. This wine is always high in alcohol. The total effect is a wine with good flavor but a thin or light mouth feel. Would drink again. I have had this wine in many vintages and it can be hot. A darling of the critics. We like the basic Borsao more.

2009 Pelissero Pasquale Barbaresco Bricco San Giuliano  Italy $20 Interesting wine. I did not taste the potential in this wine shown by the WS review, which gave it a 93. Tannic, some fruit is coming thru but did not really enjoy the bottle. Price wise it is very reasonable for a Barbaresco but ultimately I need more in a wine to want to drink it more than once.

2011 Evergreen Vineyard Riesling Kungfu Girl  Washington $9 Decent riesling. Fruity but with a dry finish, which we like. Not much complexity. A good price at Costco. Charles Smith makes this wine. He makes very good and reasonably price wines from the state of Washington Try his Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

  2012 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand $13 A reliable NZ sauvignon blanc. Fruity and drinks easily. A good price at Costco makes it a better deal. Always one of the better NZ Sauvignon Blancs.

2010 Poderi Foglia Taburno Concabianco Galluccio Italy $9 Interesting white from Italy, fruity but with a nice finish; decent complexity, good mouth feel, enjoyed the bottle. Crazy price when walking through the Wine Library one day. Even their Cindy price was more.

2011 Domaine Lafage Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes Bastide Miraflors Vieilles Vignes France $12 OK wine. Lots of alcohol 15%, big wine, lots of fruit, glycerin, acid; I can see why Parker loved it. He gave it a 93, which for the price is insane. It sold out at the Wine Library quickly. However this is not a wine for drinking more than a glass; share it with 4 friends and everyone will enjoy a glass; not my cup of tea, I do not see it improving much over time, not a fun wine to drink; I have 2 more bottles so I will see how it drinks next time. Off to Kauai soon. Will have lots of pictures and other good stuff.

 







Wine discussions can make interesting reading

The Wine Spectator has a fascinating string on wine tasting and rating. http://www.winespectator.com/blogs/show/id/48125?icid=em_com They discuss blind wine tasting and other influences on tasting wine. One guy comments on how he believes that wineries are cheating and that they give wine publications rigged bottles to taste. He compares it to steroids in baseball. When there is so much money at stake people will do anything to get a 90 point review from some publication. The reactions from the WS writers is quite interesting.

I don't give point reviews so I shouldn't be surprised that my wine comments are not picked up by the wine industry. Apparently wineries supply bloggers  with wine if they give good reviews. Points are more easily advertised than words. My son gets me a bottle of wine for  my birthday every year and as long someone has given it a 90, he feels he has the perfect gift.

Lettie Teague has an interesting article on wine bloggers in this weekend's Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323419104578376630145206770.html I did not make her list. Oh well.

Drank Chateau Arnaud 2010 $20 a few nights ago. It is from St Estephe in Bordeaux. Wines from St Estephe usually have mostly cabernet sauvignon and this wine is 60% CS. The wine opened up after about 1/2 an hour. It had good mouth feel and good flavor. We enjoyed the bottle with a steak. Looks like  the 2010 Bordeaux's are quite good.

Last night I had another bottle of Domaine Drouhin Edition Rose $20 2011 . I love the wine,  great balance and complexity. It went well with fajitas and guacomole. The wine only available at the winery. If you need a good excuse to go to Oregon ...

Enjoy.

March Madness, Cayman Islands, Palm Springs

March Madness

Wine and basketball are not usually paired together. Maybe we need to start a tradition. Watch the NCAA basketball tournament and drink some wine. The tournament is all about parity and upsets this year. Louisville is looking good, so far.

Cayman Islands

I had a chance to visit the Grand Cayman Island again. I had a good time and stayed at a friend's house. The water sports are great. We had good weather. I had a chance to walk on seven mile beach again. It is beautiful, white sand and blue green water.There is also things to do on the beach from water sports to eating, drinking and people watching.

We brought some great wines to the island. As I have previously stated, it is easy to bring some good wines on a trip and enjoy them at restaurants or where you are staying. We brought:
Bordeaux's
Chateau Leoville Poyferre 2006 OK Bordeaux; have not had many 06's. This may be good for 06 but it does not hold up to 2010 and 2009 in general. Decent fruit but nothing special.
Chateau Villars 2010  VG 2010 Bordeaux, very smooth and balanced, really enjoyed, good fruit and tannin.
Chateau Haut Gardere 2003 Drank this wine docked on a boat in a marina in the Caymans. VG bottle. The fruit showed up. A nice sipping wine. We drank with no food and the wine disappeared. Glad I have more bottles. An 03 Bordeaux comes into its own, wow.

Rhones
2010 Domaine de la Côte de l'Ange Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes Liked this wine. Balanced, fruit, tannin and acid are all together. Parker is right on. Could drink this wine all night. Great stuff.
2010 Patrick Lesec Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Bargeton Young CDP, good fruit, a bit hollow in the middle but good finish, enjoyed the bottle with friends

Other bottle
2006 Joseph Phelps Insignia Great wine; balanced, complex; a joy to drink.

Bought on the island
2008 Vigneti del Vulture Aglianico del Vulture Piano del Cerro Riserva  Did not like this bottle.
Chakalaka 2009  We never drank this bottle but it is a favorite.

The wines were great. 2010 Chateauneuf du Pape's are getting great reviews and the 2 we drank were off the charts. My note on the Lesac wine is tough because we drank it after the l'Ange. The Insignia is too good for words. The Villars was a surprise as it was very smooth and balanced. I bought it at Costco for $18. It is a 2010 Bordeaux and I am getting more impressed with the 2010 Bordeaux's by the week.
   

Had some good food in the Caymans. Over the Edge  http://over-theedge.com/was very good. Lots of seafood in an over the water setting.
The Lighthouse  http://www.lighthouse.ky/home.html was also very good. We had Italian food and brought some of our wine to the restaurant. They charge $20 corkage per bottle which was reasonable. I had a  lobster tail with homemade spinach raviolis with goat cheese. Very good.

We visited Camana Bay. There is a wine shop there with wine tasting machines. I tried the
2010 Château de Saint-Cosme Gigondas. It was very good with nice balance and fruit.The 2010 Rhone wines are looking better and better. Michaels Genuine Food and Drink http://michaelsgenuine.com/grand-cayman/ at Camana Bay still looks good. Did not get a chance to eat there this time.

 

 

 

 Palm Springs

I also had a chance to visit Palm Springs California. Food was OK. The setting was beautiful. I had a glass of the 2011 Meiomi Pinot Noir again. It was very good.
Also had a Stolpman 2009 Syrah. Not sure which one but it was very good. I have been reading about Stolpman wines lately but had never seen one. Drank with pizza.
Also had chance to try the 2010 Chehalem Pinot Noir 3 Vineyard from Oregon's Willamette Valley. It was light but had some flavor. I would like more mouth feel and more intensity. I have had better 2010 from the Willamette Valley.

 

Recent wines

2009 Château de Pitray Côtes de Castillon $11 Good 09 Bordeaux with surprising texture, flavor and complexity. VG value.
NV Codorníu Cava "Anna de Cordoniu" $11 Good but different cava. The Chardonnay makes it a bit less fruity but it still an enjoyable wine. Drank with bake clams and tomatoes with bufalo mozzerella
2011 Domaine Lafage Chardonnay Novellum  $11 Interesting wine. Clean, good fruit and acid, however after the first glass you don't want any more of this wine. just not my style. It is a chardonnay but ... Can't agree with the WA review, which raved about the wine.
2009 Di Majo Norante Biferno Ramitello $12
Drinkable but very astringent. Not going to make excuses for a wine. Fruit but it is overwhelmed by the acid. Not for me.

2006 Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District  $40 Wine started out disjointed but it came together after about 20 minutes. Lots of tannin but the fruit came thru and we enjoyed the bottle. The wine needed food, we had steak, and it faded towards the end of the bottle. Not much complexity. Not a great value although I got it as a gift. Not sure if continued cellaring will help this wine. I would drink it now.

2009 L'Esprit de Chevalier $23 Not sure about this wine. It probably needs time. Good structure and flavor but tannins prevail. Will see how fruit develops. Will try again 2005 Château Larrivaux $10  My hopes are being dashed after holding this wine for a number of years. Previously thought that this wine was coming around but not this bottle. Still think it needs time but maybe it is wishful thinking. May never develop. I have a few more bottles. A trip to Kauai is coming up in the near future. I will stop in on Aunt Lillikoi. Enjoy.

Seen a Crocus Yet

Seen a Crocus yet

It is beginning to look like spring. I had withdrawal symptoms for veggies last weekend. I found an  H-Mart in Edison NJ. Apparently it is a chain of Korean grocery stores. This store was very modern and large. The produce department had all types of fruits and vegetables. I bought snow pea pods, sugar snap peas, Japanese eggplant, baby bok choy,persimmons, frozen dumplings and Vietnamese clear spring roll wraps. Everything was very reasonably priced and good quality.

H-Mart is down the road from one of the 2 NY Costcos that have wine. Of course I made my Costco wine stop. I found several interesting wines.

2010 Château Petit-Freylon Cuvée Sarah $7.99 - This is a good wine with nice fruit and structure. A really good bargain. Costco is great for cheap Bordeaux wines from good vintages. They sell out very fast.

Pio Cesare 2007 Barolo $54 - I had this in Barolo and it was great.
Monsanto Chianti Classico Reserva 2008 $15.99 This is a very good wine that I have had in other vintages.
Chateau Vilars 2010 Bordeaux $18.99 - Have not tried yet.

Friends came over for dinner the other night. I made slices of Italian bread with bufala mozzeralla. Costco sell the buffalo mozz very cheaply. The cheese comes from Italy and is made with buffalo milk. It is creamy and is packed in water. A pound plus package is $12, a real bargain.
I put  fresh tomato slices with salt, olive oil and vinegar over the cheese.

I then made the frozen Chinese pork and leek dumplings. I make the sauce of sherry, soy sauce and chopped ginger. I then made sauteed veggies of onions, snow peas, sugar snap peas and bok choy. I made fried rice with white rice, sauteed onions and mushrooms, soy sauce and an egg white. I seared some fresh tuna. I took a rice bowl and put in rice, then veggies and sliced tuna.

Also made 5 -flavor shrimp. Cooked shrimp in the shell but minus legs and vein and fried in oil quickly. Then drained and re cooked with salt, pepper and 5 flavor spice sprinkled on to lightly coat the shells. Chinese 5  flavor spice is a favorite and it is a combination of cinnamon, star anise, fennel, ginger, cloves, white pepper and licorice root. Gee, that is more than 5. This is the spice that gives Chinese ribs their distinct flavor.

I made citrus sorbet with orange juice, lemon and grapefruit juice. All fresh and I used meyer lemons, which I found in Costco. Meyer lemons are very juicy and have great flavor.

We drank Justin Justification 2003 -- a blend of cabernet franc and merlot and a 2007 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel Reserve Lyons Vineyard, Rust Ridge Vineyard Napa Valley.  The Justin was balanced  and complex and good. The Zin was great. It was 15.9% alcohol, OMG, but it was smooth with lots of fruit but not grapey. I am not a Zin lover but this wine rocked.

We also tried to drink a Sauterne, Chateau Filhot 2001. I opened 1 bottle and it was moldy and not good so I opened a second bottle and it too was moldy and corked. Oh well. Sauternes are nice dessert wines but I rarely drink them.

Recent Wines

2006 Nicolas Potel Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Hauts-Doix OK Burgundy but I make excuses for them. A Pinot Noir needing more fruit. Subtle.
2010 Viña Leyda Pinot Noir Las Brisas Really good Chile Pinot Noir. Earthy. I paid $13 but the price has gone up to $17.

2008 Aldo e Riccardo Seghesio Barolo $25 This is a very complex wine with flavors that are beautifully integrated, more than most wines. There is tannin, structure and fruit but one only notices a total taste of a very good wine. The wine is probably very young( I have not had many 08 Barolos) so I look forward to seeing how this wine develops. Will drink more. NV Champagne Lallier Champagne Brut Grand Cru - A good Champagne that  I bought on WTSO for $28 2000 Château de Reignac - Drinking great from my cellar. $10. 2010 Andrew Rich Pinot Noir Prelude - Oregon Pinot Noir that did not impress this time. I tried in Oregon and liked it better. Very light. 2008 Chalone Vineyard Chardonnay Estate Grown - One of my favs. 2010 Chateau Du Retout - A high % of cabernet sauvignon, this 2010 Bordeaux was good but not as good as the 09. It may take  - It may take   time to develop. $18. Pascal Jolivet Sancerre 2011 $16 - I like Pascal Jolivet wines. They appear to be widely distributed. This an austere Sancerre with decent fruit. A more traditional Sancerre than recent vintages. I have a few interesting trips coming up and we are headed to Kauai in May. Enjoy.

Super Bowl Day

Super Bowl Day

What do we call this day? Super Bowl Day or Game Day. What do you call it and what do you drink on this day? Beer, wine, tequila?
I am opting for wine today. Just a me and my wife party and we will be grazing on interesting food. Wings, must have wings.

Yesterday, I was feeling down and my wife reminded me that the NJ fishguy from the Summit Farmers market is in Montclair on Saturdays. I have been having fish withdrawal symptoms lately as the farmers market ended around Thanksgiving. So I went off to Montclair, about 8 miles away and lo and behold they actually have a small outdoor farmers market on Saturday mornings. The fishguy was there, and the pickleguy and a couple of meatguys. They had ostrich eggs and all kinds of meat. It was around 25 degrees so all the meat was out and still frozen. To sell meat a farmers market, it must be frozen.

There was also a farmer with fruit and some vegetables and apple cider.

I ended up buying tuna, scallops, flounder, apples, pears, pickles, garlic, apple cider and kale. It is very hard to find good pickles and this pickleguy has good stuff. I bought new pickles, crisp and delicious. $5 for a pint.  When I was a kid we found a local pickleguy who sold them from his house. Great stuff. I guess the secret is in the pickling spices.

I then went a few blocks away and found 2 very good bakeries. Montclair Bread and Ginas. I  bought apricot oat bread and ancient grains bread at Montclair Bread. Both were good. I also bought a chocolate cupcake with Mexican spices including some hot spiced. The cupcake was so-so. It did not do much for me. I think I need to go to Montclair on Saturday mornings more often.

BTW the Wall Street Journal this weekend had a recipe for what they claimed to  be an amazing chocolate cake. The cake called for 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter, the butter cream called for 3 sticks of butter and the chocolate on top of the buttercream called for another 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter. OMG. Why not eat chocolate flavored butter.

I made the flounder and the kale last night. The kale was remarkable. Apparently frost makes kale sweet and this kale had the most remarkable flavor. It was great raw although I sauteed it with olive oil, salt and some chicken stock. The flounder was excellent and I simply breaded and fried it. I like flounder this way. I also made cous cous with raisins and pomegranate seeds.

We had a bottle of Anne Amie Pinot Blanc 2010. This was the last bottle that I had brought home from Oregon this summer. I had more shipped from Domaine Drouhin. The wine was a surprise. It had great flavor and mouth feel. It was not a light wine. 14% alcohol. There was good oak that did not overpower the wine. The color was beautiful. Oregon produces lots of Pinot Gris which is lighter and not much to it. The Pinot Blancs are harder to find but I like them more. I bought this one at the winery and it was around $15. Anne Amie is a good sized winery but I have never seen their wines in wine shop.

We have been drinking lots of white wine lately.

2011 Badenhorst Family Wines Chenin Blanc Swartland A good wine, at first taste needed to adjust to a chenin blanc. As we drank it the wine opened and our palettes adjusted. Not my favorite wine but a good white wine. A touch unbalanced

2010 Guilhem et Jean-Hughes Goisot Bourgogne-Aligoté  Light white wine with a clean taste and nice balance. Enjoyed. Aligote is an interesting grape used in Burgundy.

2011 Bodegas La Cana Albariño Rías Baixas Good balance. Drank with pasta with white clam sauce. I have had this wine in other vintages and 2011 is OK. Would try again.

The Anne Amie Pinot Blanc 2010 see above .

NV Scharffenberger  Brut Mendocino County $17  Drank this with lobster.It was very good. This wine got a great review from the WS

Other wines I have tasted lately include
 
2007 Tenuta Serradenari Barolo La Morra Nebbiolo Drank at a restaurant. Decent value at $75. We had 3 bottles with good consistency. The wine is approachable now with good fruit showing and nice balance. Our group really enjoyed the wine. Not the most complex Barolo but a good wine
2006 Terlato Vineyards Cardinals' Peak  --Decent Bordeaux blend from California. Mouth feel was watery, wine had a sour fruit taste but all in all the wine drank well and we enjoyed. Not a fav but OK.
Hall 09 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Drank at a restaurant. It was $78. Good balance. Nice Napa cab. Decent structure. We drank after a Cote du Rhone Bila Haut and the Hall made the Rhone dull and boring. I am not a Napa cab fan but this wine was good.

Bila Haut 2010 -Drank in a restaurant for $48. The wine was dull and had no flavor. The table agreed that the wine was not very good, not bad but not good. I have enjoyed this wine on other occasions. Is this another case of bottle inconsistency. I find that this is an issue not often discussed. Or is my palette inconsistent.

06 Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre Good reliable red. Fruity with some tannin. The 06 held up well. Enjoyed the bottle but not a complex wine. Still a very good value.

2011 Jean Ernest Descombes Morgon $13 OK Beaujolais, good mouth feel as it is not a light wine,tannic with some fruit, enjoyed the bottle.
Chalone 2006 Pinot Noir again. Love this wine.

Back to the menu today. The wings grilled, scallops lightly seared, interesting cheeses, chips, guacamole, kiwi, fingerling potatoes and other miscellaneous food. Will see how it all comes together. Planning to drink Andrew Rich Pinot Noir Prelude Oregon Willamette Valley $20. Just bought it and I had a glass in Oregon. The WS just gave it a 91, wow.

BTW I just read an article in the WS about the wines they reviewed in 2012. 88% of the wines they reviewed in 2012 received a score of 85 or higher and 37% of wines reviewed received a score of 90 or above. I find this remarkable. They reviewed over 17,000 wines. I think that the scores may be biased because they may not print reviews of bad wines but still talk about grade inflation. What do you think?

Anyway go Ravens and Ray Rice.

Enjoy.