I'm preparing a ton of material for my class at Columbia which I begin teaching next week. How did it get here so soon? Also, returning from Colorado after 2 months means cleaning house, and buying new plants since many died, and cleaning the aquarium (last night), and catching up with friends and going out for food and wine in New York (god we missed it), etc. So I'm back and have multiple posts to catch up on. Also, we took a five day road trip from Colorado to New York and did our best to make it last. We first drove from Vail down to Santa Fe instead of making that long straight shot through Kansas to the East Coast. For some reason we thought driving through the south of this country in August was a good idea. ??
To start the trip off right we booked a dinner at arguably one of the best restaurants in Santa Fe, The Pink Adobe (this coming from someone who's never even been to Santa Fe before). After readings reviews, I had no choice but to go for the signature house steak, the Steak Dunigan, served with sauteed mushrooms and of course, green chilis. Naturally, we started with the clam dish. Supposedly voted best appetizer in Santa Fe. I did have a struggle with the wine list, however. It was smaller than I expected, at least for the cheap stuff, and Keely wanted a bolognese spaghetti dish and my meat all meant affordable red. So we began by looking for a Pinot Noir. And cheap Pinot at that because the end of summer and final trip back to NYC also meant the end of the budget. Totally shot. Thank god for a fabulous waitress and no rush. She let us taste from 3 different bottles they had open. I wanted the Shug Pinot from Carneros, which we both know we like. Not knock your socks off Pinot, but good dinner accompaniment. They were out. So next we tried things we didn't know. A local Pinot, the 2002, Cuvee Gilbert Gruet from New Mexico. I like to try local things, and the waitress brought this one out of her own volition. So why not drink a free glass? Local typically means different. And this was different. But not good. Definitely not worth the $44/bottle. Next we went down the list to the Estancia from Monterey and sorry, but I just couldn't do a full bottle of that. I realized it was time to broaden our horizons.
Without asking for a taste, since this bottle was unlikely to be sitting open, I ordered the 2002 Ridge Three Valleys Zinfandel blend from Sonoma. I had overlooked the Ridge on the list because of price, but there's no sense spending $35 for a bad bottle. Might as well up it a bit and enjoy the wine. This red was a blend of Zinfandel, Granache, Petite Sirah, Mourvedre and Carignane. Excellent, excellent, excellent. How does Ridge always do it? The most expensive wine in my collection, and arguably the best, is from Ridge. I'm sitting on it for awhile I think. This blend was expensive at the table, $46, but we figured what the hell. We're here aren't we? You can find it in a store I'm told for $18. Find it and buy it. I'm on the lookout now. Ridge makes Zinfandel that rivals some of the best Cabernets in terms of quality and age-worthiness. My personal opinion is if you find an affordable Ridge anything, buy it and drink it. If you love it, buy more and age them. Then buy more and drink. You see where this is going.So, the waitress, still impressing me, didn't even bat an eye when I asked for a wine cooler to chill it down a bit since everything in the restaurant was a little warm, the wine included. I love people who like their wine. They love it that you do too, and it makes the whole dinner experience comfortable instead of making me feel like a wine snob (which I don't consider myself to be. A wine lover, yes).
This bottle was smooth and fruity with good spice. I didn't have a pen to take notes, but I can't forget what a great dinner we had and the Ridge Zin did its part. The food also came out right. Keely and I had stoppped in a wine bar, 315, just before our dinner reservations and in comparison we would just go back to The Pink Adobe for drinks given another chance. I'm not sure how dinner was at 315, but the service and wine was strange. The wine bar leaves something to be desired since the wait staff uses it as their work area. Also, they measure the wine out in little cuvees before pouring into your glass. Strange because they don't rinse between pouring different wines (how do they call themselves a wine bar?) and because the wine has more contact with dirty glassware, etc. Also, what kind of impression is that, having your wine measured out for you? It's not a shot. 315 wine bar = Terrible.
In any case, Santa Fe is beautiful and is the first town I've ever seen that wasn't ugly. Ok, villages in Tuscany and parts of Spain also weren't ugly, on the contrary. But in the U.S., this adobe thing is amazing. Blends right into the landscape. I want one. After dinner we went up into the hills to camp. Really a perfect evening. Walk in the old town,
pre-dinner Rose and Chardonnay, Ridge Zin blend and good dinner, then camping under the trees. Next, we drove through Oklahoma and Texas, all across Arkansas, and up through the Blue Ridge mountains to NY. What a strange part of the country and an amazing place to drive through, provided you stop a lot and look at the locals.
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