Steaks and wine in Chicago

Went to the annual INTA (International Trademark Association) conference earlier this week. This year was in Chicago. My buddy Frank Duffin and I, as per tradition, hit the steak houses for a couple of nice dinners. First was Gene and Georgetti's. Not the most refined setting, and the wine list wasn't so hot, but the prime, dry-aged T-bone was tremendous. Had a 2004 St. Hallet Shiraz from Australia with it. The wine was not as jammy as many Aussie Shirazes, with somewhat higher acidity and tighter than I expected. Not bad, but not great.


The next night Frank and I, along with our friend Alex from Madrid, hit the Chicago Chop House, one of my favorite steak houses in the country. Their daily "off the menu" special, which I've had several times, is the Chop House Prime Rib. It's a prime, dry-aged ribeye cooked a special way: first it's roasted on the entire rib rack until just bloody, bloody rare, then sliced into individual ribeye steaks and seared to order. Even though I usually order a Strip, T-bone, or Porterhouse everywhere else, here, this cut is amazing. The wine was a 2004 J. Rochioli Russian River Valley Estate Pinot Noir -- a perfumed, concentrated, extraordinary PN whose ethereally light mouthfeel was hard to believe given its concentration of sappy, fragrant Pinot fruit and its length.








For dessert, we walked over to oENOlogy, a nearby wine, cheese, and chocolate joint in the Intercontinental Hotel. Amazingly, they had three different half bottles of Alois Kracher Austrian dessert wines on their list. We ordered a 1999 Alois Kracher #6 - Grande Cuvee Nouvelle Vague Trockenbeerenauslese. This wine was tremendously honeyed and rich, with lots of apricot and date fruit, and high enough acidity to buoy it all up. A great way to end the evening.