Archive for July, 2010

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The wines that followed me home. I’m going to keep them.

July 24, 2010

While taking time to walk part of the Napa to Sonoma half marathon,  the Negress amassed wine for shipping back to the boiling East. She ate at Cyrus (much more about that later) and went to some places she doesn’t usually go and discovered one-stop shopping for some less prominent but delicious vintners. She mentioned Cellars of Sonoma in a previous post. Some 11 bottles of wine — from Bonneau, Gann Family Cellars and a few other spots are finding their way to the usual undisclosed location from this store in Santa Rosa. They recently hosted winemaker Heidi Barrett (La Sirena Syrah) for one of their weekly live video streams. The Negress also ran into fellow wine blogger Mike Madigan (read his blog here and it’s being added to the newly trimmed and update blogroll) at Cellars and pouring at St. Francis. She capped her stay in wine country by touring the caves at Schramsberg and buying and shipping back some more bubbly. With the candles and bottles, the tasting was amazing but the Negress is doing a little test.

Where bubbly goes to live and die

Occasionally some of these explode. Inside Schramsberg's caves.

Rather than make notes during this tour and tasting (she got some vintage bubbly at Gloria Ferrer too), she’ll do all that when she opens the wines in the future near or far. Frankly, a lot of wine tastes glorious on a sunny terrace relaxing with friends. But once you’re back home with some usual and unusual stressors, how does the wine hold up? The Negress isn’t too worried about the wines she bought (she is of the mind that there is little wrong with Petit Sirah) but it will be interesting.

Also, it’s appropriate to add here that while she took advantage of trade discounts and courtesies at various places, the Negress took no samples. Part of her travel was paid for by CCFA Team Challenge (or some of it will be. Stay tuned. The DC chapter has to meet its fund-raising goal by Sept. 1 and we need some serious help). No junketing or sampling here. To be blunt, she thinks not paying for wine makes you too forgiving in your assessments. The Negress is well aware she doesn’t fit in with the prevailing winds in wine blogging, but she was raised a print journalist and like to hold on to some shred of that dignity.

Also, with the Tour de France ending tomorrow, bring out the bubbly, no? With Contador’s victory all but certain, it would have been nice to have some cava on hand, but Lamarca  Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene NV will do the trick.

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Taylor’s/Gott’s, Rick Bakas and some more wine of Sonoma

July 15, 2010
I stop for cones

Better than a traffic cone, no?

In the past three days, the Negress has scarfed down handmade ice cream at Screaming Mimi‘s in Sebastopol, renewed her love for the sweet potato fries at what was once Taylor’s Refresher but is now Gott’s, meet wine social media guru Rick Bakas and bought a bunch of Petit Sirah to take back East since these people out here don’t share. Oh, and she made it to St. Francis and Gloria Ferrer for some drinking and balcony sitting.

And she spent sometime in downtown Santa Rosa at Cellars of Sonoma where store president Scott Jordan did a live UStream feed with Rick Bakas. Bakas is Mr. Wine Social Media for St. Supery vineyard in Napa. Bakas has just done a book of tips for social media newbies called Quick Bites, which will soon be available on Amazon. The Negress got him to sign hers. She also found out he is as fond of Petit Sirah as she is. Jordan and his son Kevin, plus Ron, the affable man behind the bar, hung out, quaffed some Petit Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon and some Zinfandel. After the nuances of the Dooniverse, a little big fruit was in order.

Seven bottles were bought and made their way over to my hotel with some assistance from the store. Jordan’s spot has live music on Fridays and features boutique wines without you having to drive all over the counties to seek them out. Cellars sells nibbles and is on a block in Santa Rosa with good eats at every turn.

Social media people being social

Rick Bakas of St. Supery (right) and Scott Jordan of Cellars of Sonoma

The view from the balcony

Nice while sipping bubbly. The Gloria Ferrer balcony view

The Negress is hoping a special occasion is coming soon, so she headed out to Gloria Ferrer to sit on their gorgeous terrace and drink some bubbly with smoky spiced almonds. She ended up buying their 2006  Brut Rose, which is crisp and fabulous. The 1999 Carneros Cuvee was deliciously toasty so I bought a cooler and iced those puppies down for transport back to the hotel.

Many years ago when I was in California after a Jeopardy! tournament, I discovered the St. Francis vineyard in Santa Rosa and fell for its Merlot. I decided to go back since, when in Sonoma, I usually look for old vine Zinfandel and theirs is usually worth seeking out. I tasted the 2006 Giovanetti Zin, the 2007 Bacchi Zin, plus a port with 5 percent residual sugar (interesting but not a keeper), their 2007 Dry Creek Petit Sirah, 2006 McCoy Cabernet Franc and the 2007 Tres Viejos Zinfandel. Giovanetti and Bacchi are headed home along with the Cabernet Franc, which was fresh enough to make me rethink my commitment to the Cab Francs of the North Fork of Long Island. I also got the Petit Sirah and hope Rick goes by to check it out when he gets a chance.

The view from the St. Francis vineyard patio

St. Francis patio view

Anyway, the mojito sorbet, the coconut galaxy, praline, strawberry  and pistachio ice creams were fabulous and the Negress may head back just for the Chocolate Chocolate Almond. Even with the new name, Gott’s was as it should be — bacon cheeseburger perfect and drippy, sweet potato fries enhanced by the yummy dipping sauce (not sure what’s in it but you have to try it if you can). My  pals from Team Challenge DC will get here tomorrow so I will go walking with them a bit. But this has all been too much fun to keep to myself.

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Tasting through the Dooniverse: Contra, Syrah, and Cigare Volante

July 14, 2010

Anyone who is at all familiar with Bonny Doon wines knows that Randall Grahm made his bones with red Rhones. There is probably a place in  biodynamism for bones but the Negress will admit she didn’t ask brand manager Barbara Smith when she tasted at the Santa Cruz tasting room. The 2009 Contra features a blend of Carignane, Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah. Grahm calls it his rocks and raspberry wine, which is cute but doesn’t do justice to its balance and well-mannered tannins. The wine comes from Contra Costa grapes and the label features a picture of a couch found in the vineyard, which is something of a dumping ground for the locals. Unlike some throbbing fruit bombs around, the 09 Contra is harmonious like a house meeting in a commune full of nice people; not those unruly patchouli-drenched martinets that dominate group homes everywhere.

The Bonny Doon tasting temple

More fun than the law allows

Anyway, the 2007 Pousseur Syrah is made from grapes from Paso Robles on the cooler, western side across Templeton Gap. If you know Australian shiraz and like it, this is not your wine. There are elements of smoke, blueberry and bacon here and the wine has some bite to it. However, it’s more like a colt finding the confidence to run than those crazy, testosterone-fueled stallions from Down Under.

Next up was the 2006 Cigare Volante, which is probably the Dooniverse’s best known wine. When the 2008 is released, it will be the 25th vintage and festivities are planned. Grahm was inspired by the Chateauneuf-du-Pape blends. The 06 is 45 precent Syrah, 43 percent Grenache with some Mourvedre and Cinsault for grins. This wine spends a bit if time in French oak and features Grahm’s acknowledgement of the French local ordinance forbidding flying saucers for landing in the vineyards. Grahm uses screwcaps on all his wines and has been doing so since 2001. Smith said a recent tasting of the 1984 Volant was “eyepopping.” Grahm has been playing with oxygen and vessels, storing some wines upright, some in puncheons and some in five gallon glass carboys which are airtight. You can see the lees in the carboys and they are agitated every now and then.

The 2009 Clos de Gilroy does not feature garlic notes (you can smell Gilroy from 20 minutes away even when the Garlic Festival is not going on), but has some candied cherry and pepper from a blend of Grenache and Cinsault. The grapes come from the Alta Loma and Ca’ del Sol vineyards. This wine is cool and could be served with just about anything.

The 2008 Cunning also comes from Contra Costa head trained old vines in the Enea and Gonsalves vineyards. The wine blends 61 percent Carignane and 39 percent Mourvedre. There are few notes here but the Negress remembers red fruit with some raspberry and cherry. Right now the Cunning is listed for members of the Bonny Doon wine club. If you live somewhere direct shipping is legal, join up.

The 2007 Le Vol des Anges achieved botrytis and is 100 percent Rousanne. This dessert wine is apricot and honey-driven (the Negress has always wanted to see honey drive). This would be excellent with cheese and biscotti. These angels only fly when the conditions are right so this is worth seeking out.

The Negress did taste one wine that is only available by order and at the tasting room.  The 2009 Paso Robles Viognier is from the Chiquera vineyard is definitely age-worthy and is lighter and less floral than some Viogniers. It is crisp and has some light melon on the palate and some notes of floral blossoms. This one was great fun so I bought 2 bottles.

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Tasting through the Dooniverse: Bonny Doon’s delicious downsizing

July 13, 2010

Before going to Boony Doon’s cozy tasting room in Santa Cruz, the Negress went to Aldo’s, a waterfront seafood temple in town. I had been advised by a second-generation Californian that the Pacific snapper was first-rate as was the clam chowder. The meal was a 50-50 split. The snapper was delicious, lightly spiced and augmented by lemon and a pleasant tartar sauce. The clam chowder was not up to the East Coast standard, and featured celery and no bacon fat. Not bad for what it was but not what it should be.

the barrel stave transporter

Bonny Doon wines can take you out of this world

Anyway I met up with Barbara Smith, the brand manager for Bonny Doon Vineyards, at the tasting room and cafe. We tasted through the wines they sell in 50 states and 15 countries. The winery production is down from about 450,000 cases to 30,000.  Doon’s founder Randall Grahm has sold the Big House vineyard, and so there isn’t going to be any more Muscat. Grahm  produces wine that’s Demeter-certified biodynamic. The 2009 Albarino and Muscat are gorgeous wines that are like summer print fabrics, light and relaxed. They come from the Ca’ del Sol vineyard, which is on the Western, fog-cooled side of Paso Robles. The wines have less than 13 percent alcohol. First of all, the Albarino is luscious,  slightly salt-touched and is best if it’s a little warmer than most Yanks like their whites. Grahm doesn’t acidulate this wine, and he doesn’t need to. This wine can be intimate with food. If you’re used to wines that throb with big fruit, you might miss the train here. The Muscat has some sweetness in its smell and could easily pair with grilled stone fruit and sushi. Smith says it’s a summer wine and she’s not wrong.

Grahm continues to dally with Rhone grapes and the 2008 Cigare Blanc blends 57 percent Rousanne and 43 percent Grenache. It comes from the Beeswax vineyard and smells of linens in a summer beach cottage. There’s some honeysuckle in the mix, lighter and less viscous than actual honey, and a touch of vanilla. Grahm doesn’t use new oak and what he does use is French. The Negress immediately wanted roast pork with this.

Smith was a little unnerved by the tasting room’s easy cacophony so naturally the Negress started talking about a personal wine issue. She has some friends who love steak but have nasty reactions to red wine. Smith agreed with her assessment that white Rhones are the way to go in this unusual situation. The Cigare Blanc could easily fill this bill.

The next wine was somewhat familiar to me. Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post has written about the 2009 Vin Gris de Cigare, a grenache based blush wine. The gris is an accurate description since the wine is a very pale pink. The wine is high-minded and versatile. The Negress usually doesn’t ascribe mental faculties to wine, but the Vin Gris rises to sentience.

Next the reds.

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Anchor and Hope: The eating begins

July 13, 2010

The Negress perused the menu at Anchor and Hope with an eye to her future. This wasn’t her first time at the place, but it was the first time she had dined alone. Previous dinners featured lively conversation with friends and some oohing and aaahing over the food. Tonight she could concentrate on flavors and interplay and wine selections without intrusion. It seemed best to kick things off with some soup. As much as she had made fun of the bundled-up Californians swaddled in fleece and down when the temps were in the low 60s, she was chilly. Lobster bisque was in order and not just any lobster bisque. “Lobster Bisque Tomato Concasse Chives” is the exact menu description. You receive a bowl with a small mound of lobster in the middle. The server pours the burnt orange soup over that mound and the temperature is perfect. Add the Simmonet-Febvre Brut Rose Cremant de Bourgogne NV and the meal was off to an extremely promising start. Also, Anchor and Hope delivers great bread with a pat of butter lightly sprinkled with sea salt. The Negress used some of the bread to mop up the last of the soup.

Some amazing scallops at Anchor and Hope

I didn't order these this time but I wasn't sorry

Although the Negress had loved the scallops in previous visits, she decided to branch out and try something different. This description caught her eye: Alaskan Halibut white corn puree chantarelles fingerling potatoes and truffled Hollandaise. Would the corn and potatoes be too starchy? Would the state that gave us Sarah Palin do right by halibut? Would the hollandaise be too much? These all seemed like questions worth answering so I ordered.

What wine then? There was a pure Semillon on the list, but the Negress was skeptical. Why not our pal Muscadet? So she ordered the 2008 Claude Branger Muscadet Loire Valley France Terroir les Gras Moutons.

Rarely in the food and wine universe does a gobbler hit upon a moment of perfect pitch. The muscadet and halibut pairing was one of those moments. The fish was ethereal but grounded by the surrounding starches and sauces plus some snap peas and the chanterelles.

The muscadet alone was an intriguing blend of steely and floral, thus making it a wine born for food. The Negress finished the last of the glass and contemplated dessert.

Why not chocolate? Why not cherries? Why not indeed? Enter the Valrhona chocolate brownie with Bing cherry ice cream and almond brittle. The Negress is becoming increasingly fond of darker chocolates (ironic note intended). The Valrhona was lighter than she expected and complemented the cherries well. The almond brittle added a surprising crunch and intermittent bursts of deeply sweet, smoky flavors. A decaf cappuccino finished everything off.

Now, it’s onto to taste the wines of Bonny Doon.

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Anchor and Hope: the atmosphere for food and wine

July 13, 2010

The Negress had dinner at Anchor and Hope in San Francisco recently and there is much to tell. First of all, it is to be hoped that her blog posts will not rival the saga of Gilgamesh in length so she’s addressing this meal and the wines in two parts. You have to have a sense of the place before you can feel how it felt to eat there. So let’s catalog what the Negress saw from her perch at the metal bar.

First of all, from where she sat, there’s a great view of the kitchen and the line cooks deftly plopping hot pans onto raging fire. The cooks are all young and sensitive looking; the kind of guys who listen intently to their girl’s description of her tough day. However, their minds are wandering to the beer splashed on cod in the routine athletics of kitchen work.

The bar staff has one member who is pleasant and seriously bearded. There’s a compact, slightly swarthy guy in charge who seems nonplussed that the music stopped for no reason. He fiddles with a device from Apple and the Kings of Leon start their insistent melancholy. The Negress looks around and sees a couple next to her sharing their food. The male half is wearing a NYSE hat, which is like putting a target on your back. The hat does not seem to be ironic.

The facade of Anchor and Hope

The theatre of food needs a cast

At the tables, a pair of women are tucking into sea urchin. One large table seems to be a mother-daughter gathering with the younger women all blinged out while the presumed Moms looks sensible and funny. Another slinky, blinged-out group comes in, and one pair of shoes in notable for its breathtaking series of design miscalculations. The woman looks like her ankles are wearing leather neckerchiefs, and the toes are impossibly pointy. These shoes say, “I just reduced my hourly rates” and we’re not talking fashion consulting.

The servers are watchful and attentive without helicoptering over the tables. There are some young women in their numbers, wearing ponytails and flowers in their hair. I’m in the hands of the bearded barkeep, who hands me the beer menu and the food menu. He pours me some cold water from a brown glass bottle into a tall glass. The Negress takes a breath. The adventure is about to begin.

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A’s baseball, Red Hook ESB, Fat Tire Amber and cinnamon bun overload

July 11, 2010

Some philosopher said every journey begins with a single step. For the Negress, every journey must include more than one cinnamon bun. As a child while prowling some park in Alberta with the family, I ate five cinnamon buns with raisins and nearly puked my way through various awesome natural wonders of Canada and Montana. Now, I just skip the raisins and reduce my intake.

Banner of shame

Just wince baby

But when flying West on Southwest, all the puddle jumping works up an appetite. So cinnamon bun No. 1 was consumed in the Baltimore airport, which was a good thing since I was confined to the plane in Chicago and would have been ravenous if I had just eaten those crackers and stuff they have, not to mention the skim latte. I also had a Heineken between San Diego and San Francisco. With about 8 hours of flying behind me, I settled in with the Uruguay-Germany replay and then got lip gloss (unflavored as there is wine tasting in my future). Then I walked from 3rd and Market to 12th and Folsom to eat at Manora, a fabulous Thai place. While the Negress has found some lovely wines to go with Thai food, she hasn’t found any of them at Thai restaurants. So Singha it was with  a beef and spinach and basil and peanuts and chili thing over rice, plus a soft-shell crab. I returned to my hotel and slept soundly.

The Negress took BART to Oakland Coliseum, home to the Raiders I alternately root for and mourn. I went to see the A’s continue to rip the Angels a new one and they willingly obliged me. However, it was scary to note that no one with all their hair was keeping score. My Jeopardy! pal Leslie Frates got us great seats five rows from the field. I had another cinnamon bun at Peet’s that morning so Polish sausage and beer were the obvious next steps. A little Fat Tire Amber ale and Red Hoook ESB hit the spot. The Negress got BBQ tools and had an uneventful round trip on BART so much was good. Leslie also tipped her to an Impressionist exhibit at the DeYoung so she’s going to hit that after she talks to Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon on Tuesday morning. She’s going to drink his wines tomorrow so tonight it’s seafood and early bed.

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Alice Feiring and Robert Parker: Can we be saved from both?

July 9, 2010
2008 Trimbach Riesling

It's getting better all the time

The Negress has been busy clearing her heart and her calendar.  She’s off to northern California for ball games, good food, good friends and some wine. Heck, probably as much wine as she can consume without injury or driving issues. She had been laying off the grape while sorting out some diagnostics that ended happily. To celebrate she went with an old reliable 2007 Trimbach Riesling, which tasted like summer and stone with a touch of fruit. With a lot of waiting rooms and sleepless nights in the mix, she also did some reading. The Negress polished off  “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Theo Fleury’s “Playing with Fire” (learned a lot of Canadian expressions for being wasted and laughed out loud in some places where I probably shouldn’t have) and Alice Feiring‘s “The Battle for Wine and Love, or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.” I’m not a huge fan of the Bobster, mostly because he smokes cigars. The Negress suspects his preference for throbbing Frankenwines is due in large part to his cigar habit. A lot of the Bobster’s fave wines are great for drinking after you’ve burned your tongue on a hot beverage and if you don’t plan to eat with them.  Sometimes this is an experience I crave, though I could do without burning my tongue (I had to give up caffeine for some of this diagnostic work so I plowed through Starbuck’s and Tetley British Blend tea with a vengeance after the ban was lifted). Anyway there’s not much to add to the endless spew of verbiage about Parker, so let’s move on.

The Negress wanted to  like this Feiring woman’s book, but upon finding out she was a pescetarian who eschews various kosher no-nos, I was instantly bored.  She also seems like one of those “always” and “never” people.  She craves wines with terroir, which seem like the right things to crave but she’s so, well, evangelistic about it that my skin crawled. She likes Nicolas Joly’s wines, which are biodynamic. I’m fond of Joly’s wines too but they are above my pay grade right now. She also seems to think that “natural” wine making is always superior to any manipulation. The Negress’s limited sampling of a variety of wines doesn’t bear this out.

There’s a lot of arable land between Feiring and Parker’s countries. The Negress thinks she’s living there nicely, buying wines that are sometimes interesting, sometimes serviceable and sometimes devoutly to be avoided if she encounters them again. Her first stop in Cali will be Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz. At the very least, that should be fun.

In the interests of full disclosure, the Negress is a medicated omnivore who takes about 25 prescriptions and supplements a day. She has not burned her tongue recently.

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