peju napa valley cabernet savignon 2003

This wine from the Rutherford soils of Napa Valley is well blended with 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot. It is aged in 37% French oak for 18 months and bottled unrefined.


Color: Deeply purpled blood.

Nose: A big full-bodied aroma of black cherries, roasted plums, and hints of chocolate.

Taste: A layered mouthful of Rutherford clay Cabernet with a special focus on black cherry. Not super complex, yet deeply satisfying with a relatively light body and silky mouth feel. Four years seemed to be enough time to let this bottle mellow. A couple more years would also be fine. I have another bottle I'll save and see how it develops. Plump round tannins coated all sides of my mouth well. Pleasant even if the acid could be slightly better balanced. Spicy notes include hints of vanilla and alittle caramel from the oak, which brings out the natural sweetness from the fruit. Had amazing legs. Overall a fairly sexy bottle with a gentleness not always expressed in a young Cabernet. This likely from the Petit Verdot and Merlot rounding out those tight Cabernet tannins. The taste lingers in your mouth and then turns a bit dark, like roasted walnuts miraculously appeared on your palette. My wife called this wine "dirty" on the back of her palette. Apparently the walnuts had been rolled down the slopes first.

After 30 minutes or so and a bowl full of harvest pasta (butternut squash, shitakes, sage, fresh parpadella, and shaved parmesan) the wine opened up to a fuller medium body with a thicker mouthfeel and stronger, fuller, riper fruit giving it a more complex developed taste. Certainly better either decanted or let to sit for a bit before drinking.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: I found a place getting rid of these bottles for $29. Not bad.

beringer private reserve 1991

I had a four day proposal writing meeting at NASA-Ames outside San Francisco last week. Let's just say it was a lot of work. Late nights and early mornings. When Saturday rolled around and we were still working at 2pm, I couldn't wait for the moment when my little interdisciplinary team parted ways so that I could visit my good friend from graduate school. Lisa and her husband Jeff have a gorgeous home in Menlo Park and treated me to one of the best evening respites in my life.

I walked in to see Jeff sauteeing porcini mushrooms for a pizza appetizer complete with taleggio cheese, fresh sage, and shallots, a little truffle oil on top (why not?). Instantly a glass of white Rochioli appeared in my hand, before the official home tour. FYI: I love Rochioli wines.

I haven't mentioned the best part though, dinner and more wine. Before we sampled the crunchy perfect pizza, we switched to a black market Napa Valley cabernet blend. When I say "black market", what I mean is that the bottle had no label. These bottles come from the "extra" wine not legally sold by wineries. Wineries are only allowed to sell a certain amount of wine, if they make too much, they may happen to bottle it, but can't market or legally sell it. Now, you know someone at the winery has to know which bottles are the good ones and which come from the cheaper blends. Apparently, as Jeff can attest, there is the occasional case or two of unmarked high end wine which a friend of a friend might tip you off to. This bottle was excellent, rare, and fun. We thought it was likely dominated by Cabernet Franc, though it had enough body and roundness to likely also have some Cabernet Savignon and who knows exactly what else.
After the red, we went back to another white (I think it was Australian since we needed something to open for cooking) for the pizza and traditional Venetian salad of asparagus, hard boiled eggs, fresh parsley and hot and sweet peppers from the back yard garden.

Fro the main course Jeff prepared an outstanding Saltimbocca, which literally means "to jump in the mouth". Whoa, I can't wait to try this out in my own kitchen. Just imagine prosciutto wrapped around aged cheese, fresh sage leaves, and a pounded veal tenderloin, lightly seared then served quickly.

And, as if I hadn't been overwhelmed by hospitality at this point, Jeff allowed me to decant the 1991 Beringer Private Reserve. Old enough to have half the cork quite mushy, but we were able to retrieve all the cork bits before a slow decant to keep the sediment out of our glasses. This 16 year old Napa Valley Cabernet was so beautifully smooth and layered with complexity that I had to just admit I was satiated with food wine pleasure. (It's worth noting that not all Beringers are amazing. But the Private Reserve is world class). The wine opened up a bit more while we tore through the saltimbocca, and remained the highlight for me. But let's not forget the pears baked in brandy wine, or was it something else. By this point I was loosing track. I couldn't take notes on the wine, sometimes the experience is so good you don't want to mar it with tasting notes. Let's just say we enjoyed ourselves and the wine immensely. I'm sure there won't be a repeat evening this good in a long while. I'll probably have to go back to Jeff and Lisa to have such a perfect wine and food evening again.

Some pics from the beautifully landscaped backyard:

Where we had a candle lit dinner by the fire.

lynmar rrv pinot noir 2002

I'm still opening bottles from a 2006 trip to Sonoma's Russian River Valley. The other night I opened this RRV Pinot from Lynmar Winery. It's a vineyard specific wine, from Lynmar's Quail Hill vineyard made from 100% sustainably estate grown Pinot Noir. When we tasted at the winery later in the afternoon of a full day of wine touring, I think Keel and I had already begun to lose a little of our objectivity, if you know what I mean. I remember enjoying their Rose, and this Pinot Noir tasty. On the other hand, I do remember being a little toasted by the time we made it to Lynmar, so I could have been had. In any case, drinking it now a couple years later turned out a fine glass. Being in New York and finding as many ways to avoid buying too much new wine, I'm drinking up some of this California collection. The new Burgundy and Bordeaux bottles need shelf space.


Color: Pale garnet, starting to brown on the edges as color remained thin and light.

Nose: Fully fruity nose of dark cherry, pecans, pomegranate, and cinnamon

Taste: Cherry fruit was rounded by a bouquet of floral notes. Good acidity and predictable smooth tannins make for a light bodied wine with a bit of clove and earth coming through. At five years old this wine is likely peaking. You can taste the age on it, which isn't a bad thing. Funny, even the Lynmar tasting notes recommend drinking it by 2007. The nose is excellent and a beautiful compliment to the smooth flavors.

Alcohol: 14.4%

Price: $50 (a little much for this bottle)

ch. penin bordeaux superior 2003

Chateau Penin is your standard if you are searching for a good Bordeaux but are not sure where to start. It is one of the older wine houses in France and the best wines from here show distinct terroir. The estate is situated on very localised gravel soils, between a limestone plateau and the marshland on the left bank of the Dordogne river facing Saint Emilion in the Bordeaux region.

A little history: The estate has been family-owned since its beginnings in 1854 when it was bought by Louis Carteyron and his son, Jacques, where the production was initially divided between fruit and wine. Hubert Carteyron began selling Ch. Penin in bottles with the 1964 vintage. Now, his son Patrick, the 5th generation Carteyron, overseas the estate.

Ok, so how did this 2003 bottle measure up?

Price: $35

Color: Blood red cherries

Nose: Alive and fresh red fruit made me want to keep inhaling, over and over. Also hints of coconut from French oak and mineral notes of wet slate and earth.

Taste: Ch. Penin delivered a delicate, balanced and complex wine. A smooth and dark flavor with a bit of cherry fruit though not dominant to the earth and gentle acidity. The black cherry, earth, and wet stone combination in my mouth left a gentle feeling all over my palette. Serving this at ~60 degrees (F) was perfect for a pre-dinner bottle. The tannins were there but they seemed to have had enough time (since 2003) to soften. You won't pucker up on this wine from the acidity or the tannins, but rather note how gentle the dryness is on the sides of your mouth. So, I found pleasant tannins and overall little taste up front since most of the taste is concentrated in the middle to back of the palette and lingers for a bit. A real pleasure to drink. My wife and I finished this bottle before dinner was ready.

Thinking about food: This wine remains very light bodied and would be heavily overshadowed if you drank it for dinner with a dark, musky steak. I'd stick with fish or a buttery pasta of herbs, shitakes, capers, and wine. If you get the chance to serve this Bordeaux with friends (it deserves an audience) make sure it is the first bottle opened.

Finally, if you are comparing this Bordeaux with the Ch. Caronne St. Gemme, this bottle wins hands down.

ch. caronne st. gemme 2003

This complex bordeaux from Haut-Medoc is dry with a distinct lack of fruit forwardness found in your more California-styled reds. And thank god. I love California wine but when you find a good deal on Bordeaux, well, you just wish you'd bought more. This 2003 vintage had round, supple tannins - not pronounced in any way. Still had somewhat of a green flavor to the tannins implying a need for a bit more age. Of course, the youth in this bottle also makes it more affordable. Nonetheless, here was a light-bodied wine with a bit of resident bitterness from the acid, making your mouth water after every glass. It's not the best Bordeaux I've had but certainly quaffable. I even allowed myself to give this bottle for a holiday gift to good friends who are living in Liberia (I met them in Brooklyn), which basically means I stand by your average wine drinker liking this bottle. It also means that I'm cheap enough to wait for them to visit to gift a bottle of wine rather than pay the million dollars or so it costs to ship something like this to Liberia (where it will most likely be "confiscated").

Price: $30

Color: Deep ruby

Nose: Rich pepper, dark ripe blackberry, and vanilla with a little vegetal coming through

Taste: Blackberry fruit predominates with again, vegetal characteristics, perhaps because it is still young for a Bordeaux. I would imagine this bottle would gain complexity with age since the acidity and tannins are still there. We probably should have decanted this bottle before drinking since allowing it to breathe a bit would no doubt open it up. It had a bit of an austereness to it (otherwise known as a tight pucker); a little harshness that probably would stick around anyway for another year or so regardless. Might as well drink it unless you've got a case. Overall this wine tastes better with food so pick a nice rich French dish or even Italian (don't tell anyone) and enjoy!

dutton-goldfield zinfandel 2004

Only 8 barrels wer produced from this small block on a ridge just north of the little town of Occidental in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California. This is a dry farmed vineyard specific wine from the Morelli Lane Vineyard and tasted excellent from start to finish. This bottle was made from only one and a half acres of old vine Zinfandel from the turn of the century (20th). When Keel and I were tasting at the Dutton-Goldfield tasting room at about 11am during a visit last summer to Sonoma, we went through a nice flight from Davis Bynum (whom D-G shares a tasting room with) but when we got to the D-Gs we knew we had found the good stuff. Bynum was nice for a warm up but the quality comes from bottles such as this one. We had to bring one home and unfortunately this is all we have left. Time for more.

Color: Black plum

Nose: Ripe plum, black cherry, and with, frankly, a big fruity nose that was rich and layered

Taste: This is Russian River Zinfandel done well with a rich, full, fruit forward expression from the grapes. Earthy with a bit of smoke and pleasant mild pepper. Suprisingly there were hints of leather notes on this early 2004 vintage. Truly excellent all the way through. A bit of tannins remain but well rounded and gentle. The fruit isn't too big for this Cali style. I mean, yes it's big, but not a punch in the face which can sometimes happen with Zin. Ripe, pleasant and perfect for pre-dinner drinking. I wish we had more of this because I could open this bottle day after day. Spices come out the more it breathes so if you happen to get a bottle don't pound it. After about 20 minutes (we were putting a rosemary roasted chicken, stock, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and celery into a pot for chicken noodle soup) I noticed the fruit sweeten and a fuller body develop. If you get a chance, check out the D-G website for available wines.

saison des vins syrah l'hiver

This is Wells Guthrie's interpretation of a St.-Joseph or Crozes-Hermitage. The grapes for this Syrah are grown on organically-farmed vineyards in Mendocino County, California. They are planted with, according to Copain Wines, good clonal selections, expositions and unique soil compositions. About 15% whole clusters were used along with native yeasts and malolactic fermentation. (Malo conversion is the process of turning malolactic acid into lactic acid, which generally makes for a fuller mouthfeel and a richer more buttery flavor.) New oak was kept to a minimum (thank you) and the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered allowing the natural aromatics and flavors to come out on their own. As far as organic wines produced with such little intervention, this is the gem. This delicious, fun Syrah should drink well for 3-4 years and certainly makes one of the best syrah values around.

Price: ~20

Color: Purple plums with clarity

Nose: Ripe fruit, heady aromas, with a lite mushroom scent

Taste: Bright and full, fleshy tannins, balanced and pleasurable, really a beautiful wine for the price. Good acidity allows the flavors to linger on the palate. Red cherry dominates but also red rasberry in this young full fruit wine. It has adequate complexity but it would likely age for a couple years quite fine if I could keep from drinking it (but why?, I've kept it a full year already and I like drinking it). This 2004 opened up nicely and showed increased complexity after twenty minutes or so. After a little air the varietal nuances characteristic to syrah began to come through. Made in the Rhone valley tradition, it isn't going to compete with France, but at this price point I'm very pleased. I make a point of buying this each year when we see it, the same for the Saisons des Vins Pinot Noir L'Automne.

'na vota ruche

This 'Na Vota 2005 Ruche' di Castagnole Monferrato makes my first bottle of wine made from the Ruche' grape, which is an obscure indigenous variety from the Piedmont (Italy of course). 'Na Vota means "Olden Time" and these grapes are from the old times for sure as they are from now ancient hills around the village of Castagnole Monferrato. This bottle was also a birthday gift from my good friend Allen and I've been waiting for the right night to give it a try. The short summation is: A very nice drinking wine. Thanks Al.

Price: Unknown

Color: Dark cherry (thin)

Nose: Blackberry, smoked cherry and vegetal overtones

Taste: The spicy vegetal taste was fun with ripe cherries and a smooth finish. Good acidity lingered a bit in the mouth though overall a very light mouth feel. Definitely worth trying for the exotic grape and since I'm always up for something new.

Note to self: I learned an often mentioned but rarely heeded lesson the hard way with this bottle. Basically, it is common sense to rinse your wine glass well, but sometimes the dishwasher can, well, rinse too quickly. The first glass of this wine tasted like soap, and you could really tell why because of the soap suds on the sides of the glass. Rule #1, always rinse your glass with good clean water about 4 times more than you think you should, finish with filtered water if possible, and dry it most of the way with a clean towel, allowing the last bit to air dry. Then you want to keep them in a place not known for rank odors (which I do). Finally, given the moral of the story first, we of course had to dump the first two glasses of soapy 'Na Vota and promptly wash all our glasses and start over. Sorry Al. But the rest of the bottle was a treat!

arrowood syrah

On a trip to the Russian River Valley last summer Keely and I were fortunate enough to make our way to Arrowood winery and taste through a number of excellent wines. Our favorite were the Syrahs and we came home with as many as we could afford, which wasn't much since we ended up buying about 3 cases of RRV wine in just a few days. I saved this bottle for a night when we really wanted to drink an excellent full-bodied, decadent wine. A dinner to celebrate ending the semester seemed good enough to open this wonderful Syrah.

Syrah from California has begun to attract wine fans that appreciate the heady aromatics, voluptuous flavors and its ability to age. Having kept this at home for over a year, moving the wine multiple times from room to room and even to a new home, the year of uneven aging only deepened the characteristics we first appreciated in the tasting room. It's nice to do this, age your wine a bit, since only the 2002 is available now and we are still able to taste an older slightly aged wine instead. It also means you get to look forward to tasting it again over an entire year.

Arrowood has a friendship with Saralee and Richard Kunde, owners of Saralee's Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. Richard and Alis Arrowood have purchased fruit from the Kundes for over ten years and the 2001 Saralee's Vineyard Syrah is one of the excellent products of this collaboration. The grapes for the 2001 Syrah were hand harvested and sorted in the vineyard. After crushing, Arrowood's winemaker notes show that they fermented the fruit in small stainless steel tanks. In a Rôhne tradition, the Syrah was co-fermented with a small amount of Viognier (4%) to intensify its color and enhance the exotic, complex aromas of the wine. It was then barrel aged for 16 months in French oak, and, in keeping with the non-interventionist philosophy of Arrowood, it was neither fined nor filtered. Which means all the sediment is in there giving a full fleshy wine that needs decanting before pouring. The unfiltered process makes this wine great and full but you certainly don't want to drink the sediment. Robert Parker called this wine "a full-bodied, layered, hedonistic as well as intellectual turn-on." I thought so too.

Price: $40-50 (depending on where you find it)

Color: Intense deep purple

Nose: Deep plum and cherry, complex and vibrant, even heady

Taste: Dense ripe fruit of blackened plum, black cherry, chocolate overtones, fleshy but supple tannins, and a note of licorice worked together to produce an intense looking wine, full, silky with a smooth finish. This is fruit-forward Syrah, thick, juicy, balanced and complex. It is distinctive and on the dramatic side. It had excellent structure and depth, and you can imagine the vineyard it comes from given the winemaker's focus on expressing its true varietal character and the terroir of Saralee's Vineyard. Really a brilliant wine. I wish I had more.

cahors malbec

The 2003 French Cahors is pleasant, consistent Malbec from Georges Vigouroux that is hard to beat for $12. The region is an ancient wine region renowned for it's dark black wines in the Southwest of France. It is a blended wine made primarily with Malbec. Wines from this area have rustic, dark, full flavors that are perfect for the coming winter. Imagine drinking this beautiful bottle in front of a wood fire with a dinner of steak and potatoes. That's my approach anyway.

I love this wine. Even though 2003 was an extremely hot vintange in Europe, the heat wave did good things for many wines. In this wine you get deep color, aromas of blackberry and wood. Still young, this is a big wine with an acidic tightness. I've had it before and will again. Aging wouldn't hurt it either.

marti fabra grenache

Marti Fabra Seleccio 2002 is one of the great Spanish reds made with hand selected grapes from old estate vines (50-80 yrs old) in the Carignan area. The soils are poor like you want them to be on weathered shale and Jorge Ordonez and company blend this wine to excellence.

70% Grenache
10% Carignan
10% Tempranillo
5% Syrah
5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Aging for 8 months in Allier French oak barrels in the cellar of the country house doesn't just make for a nice story, the wine shows the care it is given by the Carreras family.

Nose: Big aromas of sweet black cherry, rose perfume, clean with pronounced spiciness

Color: Deep garnet like a dark red lipstick, almost opaque

Taste: Developed smooth velvet mouth, round tannins, light mineral tasting, with burnt cherry fruit on the back of the palette, and medium acid. The French oak comes out in the bright vanilla overtones, good length with a lingering pleasant acid and fruit that reminds you to take another drink.

ch. st. andre chateauneuf-du-pape

My apologies for the harsh flash on this bottle of Chateauneuf-Du-Pape. We picked this up in what at first might seem the most unlikely of places, a deli grocery in Murren, Switzerland. Murren is only accessible by cable car. However, given stone's throw proximity to France it no wonder I was picking up French wines in the grocery to try out. This bottle managed to escape our drinking and made it home to New York where we tested it out for dinner. As far as CDP goes, this was not what I was expecting. But then again, before this $12 bottle, I hadn't had a CDP under $30, so maybe that should tell me something. All I can say is, you get what you pay for, even on the French border. Maybe my impression of overpriced CDP in New York is changing. Maybe they really are worth the high dollar.

swiss wine

My apologies for not posting recently, as the lack of posting definitely does not reflect any lack of wine consumption. Rather, I've been in Switzerland for the last 10 days and spent quite of bit of it diligently tasting Swiss wines in the Southern French speaking regions. In particular, Keely and I were lucky enough to stumble across a once a year wine tasting event in the Vaud canton of Switzerland called the Route Gourmand. It is held in the wine fields of Vevey-Montreaux surrounding Lake Geneva looking across to France. The experience was the most incredible wine tasting event of my life, and I do not write that lightly. I'll explain more in subsequent posts.

I have notes from all the wines I tasted, that is until I couldn't reasonably taste anymore. There will be many details coming in the next week, once I recover from the backlog of work I left myself with this mini working vacation. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the fun and I'll return soon with more Swiss wine tasting notes than you can likely handle.

nepenthe sauvignon blanc

When you are headed over to early drinks on a warm autumn day in New York, or better yet, a hot summer day, and need a great bottle of wine that doesn't cost $30, Nepenthe is your standard. You can depend on this Australian winemaker to deliver quality. This particular 2004 Sauvignon Blanc from the hills of Adelaide has all the goodness those Aussie's pour so well into their wines. This one does not disappoint.

Color: Clear pale lemon

Nose: Steel and wet stone with a light grapefruit perfume

Taste: Pungent grapefruit and lemon juice with hints of apple and pear. The acid is predicatably strong and bubbliness lingers on the tongue.

le belles vignes sancerre and muga rose

My sister and her husband came over for dinner. We were making a wine, cream, and herb clam linguini. I'd left most of our wine in the in-law's cool basement for the summer and still hadn't picked it up yet. So, off to the local wine store. They are pretty nice people down the hill at Rockwood and Perry Wine Merchant. I picked out this Loire Valley Sancerre and a Muga Rose from Rioja.
Pretty standard Sancerre. And by that I mean good. Not the best Sancerre I've ever had but definitely right up there with good whites for a warm evening.

Color: Pale white gold
Nose: Subtle floral notes
Taste: Steely, smooth and silky. Nice lemon fresh acidity but no overpowering citrus flavors. A good clean complement to the dish. I'd drink this 2004 again for $18.99.


I wanted to pick us something that if my sister liked it, she could find nearly everywhere and which is pretty cheap, ~$12. So, a Spanish Rose from Muga it was. Not bad, but then again you don't normally think Spanish when you think Rose. It is a Grenache and Tempranillo based blend. The Muga was drinkable, in that no one protested. But fairly simple overall. For this price, there is probably a cheap out-of-the-way French Rose that will pull off a stronger finish for $12. I'd shop around before picking this one up again. But if you pop into a wine shop in a hurry and want to try something different from the normal Rose round-up, Muga is going to treat you fine.

Color: Muted glowing coral
Nose: Light cherry, also subtle
Taste: Fun ripe red cherry cola bliss without the color. Good, easy to drink with a little bite on the back of the palate and a gentle vanilla from this blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Tempranillo, & 10% Viura. Citrus lingers on the tongue. A very dry rose and overall pleasant.

dom. michel colin-déléger santenay

Sometimes you get a phone call that just makes the day better. Keely and I were trying to decide where we wanted to have dinner to celebrate our first year wedding anniversary. We wanted something nice, naturally, but needed to keep it reasonable. Going through the list of our favorite restaurants was difficult since so many of them came up "too expensive." We'd basically decided on something less than perfect when the in-laws phoned up and said "Happy anniversary, dinner's on us!"

We knew what to do. Call up Barbuto and reserve a table that very instant. Somehow we managed to score a table on the sidewalk at the perfect dinner hour and after a long debate I finally managed to pick out a wine. I was determined to pick a top quality Italian red, but nothing quite fit our food choices. The Barolos were too expensive, as usual. Other Nebbiolos didn't make the cut either. I finally settled on what we really needed. Not Italian, regardless of the pressure to order Italian at an Italian eatery. Instead I found this perfect French Santenay. Not bad to have my first 1er Cru be a Santenay. There's something about the good stuff that makes you savor every drop. I can say this, the Pinot Noir did full justice to the excellent whole fish and lamb, and various sides we ordered.

A few things I didn't know when I ordered: It seems the family entered into viticulture in the 1870's when Emile Colin began cultivating vines. In Chassagne-Montrachet and other villages as well, you can find this incredible expression of Pinot Noir. I've had some but not enough. Obviously, I'm a total fan of quality Russian River and Oregon Pinot Noir, as you can read in past blogs, but when you have a glass of a premier cru Santenay like this one, you know you've reached elegance in wine, not just something good to drink. Thanks for the elegance John and Polly.

lynmar chardonnay

Lynmar Chardonnay Russian River 2004

Color: Unripe banana skin
Nose: Pear and apple abound
Taste: Balanced light acidity with a little bit of alcohol on the back of the palate. Still, silky smooth from front to back. Enjoyable, quaffable. We had to drink this one as soon as we returned from our road trip from Colorado. I let it get too hot in the trunk driving through th esouthern states and it overheated, causing the corked to be pushed up (a tell-tale sign). That may have accounted for the bit of alcohol bite. But still, this was quite drinkable since we opened it within days of the problem. This way I avoided more significant deteriation of the wine. It wasn't as good as it tasted originally at the Lynmar winery, which is too bad since this is the good Chardonnay they make.

rochioli sauvignon blanc

Rochioli Russian River Sauvignon Blanc, Estate Grown 2005

Color: Pale lemon juice
Nose: Citrus through and through
Taste: A citrus bomb, but in a good way. Lemon fresh zing. The excellent full body is a suprise. Not lean like you'd expect with a Sauvignon Blanc. A really nice, thick mouth feel. Nutty warmth in the flavor leaning towards leachy nuts but not overpowering. I've probably overstated it, but it's the citrus that comes through. So fresh and light, makes your mouth water for oysters. I hope we can find more of this great wine, which we brought home from Sonoma on a recent trip. This is definitely one of the best Sauv. Blancs I've had in recent memory and I'm still salivating for another.

Very nice with the pasta and fresh arugula, tomatoes, shallots, and shaved pecorino we enjoyed for dinner.

texas tasting

You have to wonder about wine in Texas. We didn't have the guts or time to stop and take the "free tasting" tour while driving through the top of the Lone Star state. We should have though. The add campaign along the highway ran a series of billboards with catch phrases like "Like France But Without The Attitude" or "Like California But Not As Fruity." It's probably more like New Mexico, but without the class. Priceless billboard reading while driving 85 through no man's land.

ridge zinfandel / road trip

Up front I should apologize for the long time seperating this post and the last. Here we go on my excuses, starting backwards:

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.