CORSICA AND PATRIMONIO; A REGION WORTH A TRY
In a recent Friday night tasting of randomly brought blinded bottles, a 1998 version of the above displayed label stood out. It was a high extraction dark wine, with hints of coffee and dark berries on the nose, and a smoky, beefy flavor on the palate that I loved. We all guessed it as a Southern Rhone wine, most likely Chateauneuf du Pape, most likely a 2005 or 2006. We were surprised when it was unveiled and it turned out considerably older than we thought. It was actually the flagship wine of a well known winemaker from Northern Corsica, located[...]
THE JOYS OF OFF YEAR BORDEAUX
Browsing through the shelves of K&L, a wine shop in San Francisco, I noticed that the 2009 vintage of Bordeaux was already there. I stumbled upon a shelf of large format '09's with eye popping prices. The vintage is a much ballyhooed one, and the prices reflected the hype. A Pichon Lallande magnum was over $400, Ch d'Armaillac near $200, and so on. Nestled among these I came across the bottle you see in the picture and was surprised. It was a 1999, an unknown Cru Bourgeois label. It was also a magnum and the asking price was a mere[...]
A PURE EXAMPLE IN TERROIR VARIATION
In a recent tasting of Vacqueras and appellations alike I came across the above 2 wines. These are all from the Southern Rhone in France, one of my favorite areas. They can be a combination of 6 to 8 different varietals but mostly syrah, grenache, cinsault,and mouvedre.Located a short distance from Avignon, these two appellations are very close to each other, easily amenable to visit by car in a same afternoon.Their relationship couldn't be much different in distance than say, Carneros versus Calistoga in the Napa area. As you can see from the photos the wines were both young and[...]
GAMBLING IN VEGAS; $8000 FOR 80 YEAR OLD PINOT
I have turned mining restaurant wine lists for ultra-expensive wines into a sport. As the years go by the lists keep upping the ante with new record prices. My first experience with this was about 10 years ago at The Sardine Factory, a Monterey restaurant near the famed Aquarium. There I spotted a 1945 First Growth Bordeaux (I no longer remember the label) for $10,000. About four years ago I wrote a blog about two different Las Vegas restaurants, across the Strip from each other charging $12,000 and $14,500 for the same bottle of wine, a 1982 Chateau Petrus. Yesterday, in yet[...]
FRIULANO: A WONDERFUL “ALTERNATE WHITE”
Are you tired of the chardonnay, sauvignon blanc rut when it comes to white wine? Well I am, and have been for quite a while. While I still drink massive amounts of chardonnay in the form of Chablis and other white Burgundies, and New Zealand sauvignon blanc, not to mention white Bordeaux, I have found refuge in lesser known whites which are not only refreshingly unique in their tastes, but also food friendly and, most important, cheap. Most come from Italy and Spain. If you've followed my blogs for a while you know by now that I like to view[...]
CREATIVITY IN FOOD & WINE VS ART
I recently had dinner at a swank French restaurant in the SOMA district of San Francisco called Chez Spencer. Among the appetizers bouillabaisse was listed; so I ordered it. To my surprise what they brought was a red broth with some fish flavor. I had never encountered bouillabaisse devoid of "stuff" in it, and I was taken aback. This classic French dish, analogous to the Italian cioppino probably started out as a basic fisherman's dinner, where they threw in whatever seafood was available into a broth, and made a sort of seafood stew. It has now become elevated to high cuisine status.[...]