Speaking of Zins . . .

Had two very good and very different Zins at Abe & Louie's in Boston last week. The 2007 Storybook Mountain "Mayacamas Range" was more forward than I expect from this winery, which made its reputation making crisp, tight Zins that needed bottle age to round out. It had very bright, focused, and pure Zinfandel fruit (ripe cherry and blackberry), but was very soft and drinkable, with a bit of residual sugar noticeable. The 2007 Ridge Geyserville was more subdued and low-toned, with more complexity and a no residual sugar by contrast. Both very good. Not sure which I preferred. I would probably rate both in the upper 80s.

My strip steak was just a bit beyond the medium rare I asked for, but was still flavorful and juicy.

Excellent restaurant in Dallas; very good one in Miami's South Beach

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I were visiting the Dallas/Forth Worth area and were lucky enough to score a late Monday night reservation at a terrific new (but small) Italian restaurant called NONNA. This is definitely in the "Top 5" of Italian restaurants I've eaten at in the US. The freshness and quality of the ingredients was superb, and the cooking was authentic, flavorful, and--best of all--not drowned in cooking fat to stretch the flavors. The pasta dishes and sauces were unique and well-executed, and the wood oven pizzas were true Neapolitan style, light and flavorful. And I could have made a meal of the astoundingly fresh olives brought to the table when we sat down.

Here are my daughter Rebecca's comments:

Nonna is such a fantastic restaurant. The food is outstanding and the service is good. I especially enjoyed the olives and the fried artichokes.

Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive
Dallas
214-521-1800

And two nights ago in South Beach, Miami, I had a terrific Latin American fish meal at OLA. The seafood here is remarkably fresh, and they offer about a dozen different kinds of ceviche!

OLA (at Sanctuary Hotel)
1745 James Ave.
South Beach, Miami, FL
(305) 695-9125

Foley 2005 Rancho Santa Rosa PINOT NOIR (Santa Rita Hills, Santa Barbara County)

I had this at America's restaurant, so these notes are from memory.

And my memory is that this was very, very good.

It had very focused, precise, and persistent cherry/pomegranate fruit, with very nice balancing acidity and a long, pure finish. Reminded me of an elegant Volnay or Pommard.

As to the food, my seared "Chilean Sea Bass" was immersed in too much of the clarified butter (or other fat) that the fish was sauteed in, but otherwise it was fresh and flavorful. Either as a result of my getting more sensitive to this as I get older, or because this is a trick that cooks use to get more flavor our of a dish, I notice more and more that fancy restaurants seem to leave way too much of the cooking fat in their finished dishes. Enough already!

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.

Great dinner & wine in Newport Beach

I was out in Orange County Monday for a hearing, and was able to catch up with my friends, the Sedigh's, while I was out there. They took me to a really cool place called Mastro's Ocean Club Fish House, which is located right on the scenic Pacific Coast Highway in a relatively undeveloped area between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. The food was excellent (I had the blackened sesame seed-crusted seared "Big Eye" tuna -- it was amazing!), and we had a bottle of the 2004 Patz and Hall Sonoma Coast PINOT NOIR, which, too, was excellent. It was a deep, saturated (for a Pinot Noir) ruby-purple color, and had an intense, if youthfully undeveloped, nose of ripe cherries, with hints of earthy, cola-y scents in the background. Very concentrated, with depth and balance that would augur well for 3-4 years of cellaring. Try the butter cake for dessert if you go -- it's like a Frenchified version of "tres leches."

Toronto Trip

Just got back from the annual International Trademark Association (INTA) spring conference, which this year was in Toronto. Apart from official stuff, I was able to sneak in two very good meals with my Connecticut buddy Frank Duffin. We walked a good 45 minutes from the Convention Center at lunch time to a section of Toronto called "Portugal Village." Not knowing anything about where the good restaurants were, we stopped into a small Portuguese shop, and asked the woman proprietress, who obviously was from Portugal, where we could get good Portuguese food. She directed us to a place called "First Choice Restaurant," located at 1102 Dundas St. W, (416-588-3851), where I had a bowl of "caldo verde" -- potato and kale soup -- and we split a huge order of Pork Alentejana -- pork and clams. Sounds weird, but it was really good. We were the only non-Portuguese speaking customers in the place.

For dinner, we had our traditional Tuesday night steakhouse trek. Each year, Frank and I "stake" out, as best we can determine, the best steakhouse in whatever city the INTA conference is in, and this year our research led us to Barberian's Steak House, 7 Elm Street, (416) 597-0335. While wicked expensive, the steaks were excellent. The wine list had pages upon pages of great wines from everywhere, but the prices were outrageous -- which I think has to do with the Ontario government-run distribution system. It was hard to find anything first rate that was under $100. Although these were Canadian dollars, the poor exchange rate meant that we were only getting $1.05 Canadian dollars for each U.S. dollar.

Anyway, we settled on the 2000 Dessilani Fara "Lochera," a full-bodied Nebbiolo-based wine from the Novara region west of Milan (the most famous wine from this region is Gattinara; Fara is less well-known but can be just as good, in my view). This wine was deep in color, very fragrant of cherry liqueur, leather, and earth, with lots of body and concentration. It had some tannin, but they were ripe and smooth. This wine will improve over the next five years. For dessert, we tried two glasses of 2004 Henry of Pelham Winery Ontario Peninsula Riesling Icewine. My expectations were not that high -- Canadian Riesling Icewine??? -- but this wine was amazing. Intense, rich, honeyed peachy nose, with bracing acidity to balance the intense richness. Absolutely classic Icewine, which I would happily compare to the Germans'. It was so good I made sure to find a state wine shop (the "LLBO") before I left so I could buy a half bottle ($54!) to bring back. State-run wine distribution, with its attendant high wine prices, have got to be the single biggest negative about living in Toronto, which really otherwise impressed me as a sophisticated, diverse, HUGE, and very interesting city.

Some thoughts on Australian Shiraz (and a note on the 2000 Turkey Flat Barossa Valley Shiraz)

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm just not THAT big a fan of Australian Shiraz. Whether the inexpensive, modest ones, or the more expensive, high fallutin' ones. My issue is a flavor component I call "salty jamminess." It's almost always there, and it's the one thing that makes it easy to differentiate most Aussie Shirazes from the French ones.

Not that I don't like them. I do, but I REALLY have to be in the mood for it.

I actually WAS in the mood for it the other night at The Palm. Had the 2000 Turkey Flat Barossa Valley Shiraz (the wine list listed it as the 2002, but I didn't mind trading the depth of the Aussie 2002 vintage for 2 extra years of bottle age). It's a really nice wine, and although that salty jamminess was there, it also has an overlay of oak, and some Bordeaux-like cigar box and pencil lead flavors as well. And great depth and serious length too (which I would expect from a vineyard reputedly of some of the oldest Shiraz vines in Australia). The only downside was a slight tingle of obviously winemaker-added acidity at the end. (Why add acidity to a wine whose ripeness and depth is its strong suit? It's like blowing a police whistle at the end of a great symphony.) Anyway, the wine went very nicely with a flavorful, crusty aged NY Strip.

And at some point in the future, I'm going to ramble a bit about what the heck ever happened to REAL Nebbiolo?

Wines from the New Orleans trip

My wife Liz and I just returned from a 2-day trip to New Orleans. It was the first time either of us had visited N'Awlins. Since I didn't bring my laptop, I'm going to blog from memory, so these notes will be a little less detailed than usual. And no scores, either.

2003 Domaine William Fevre Chablis -- Had this at The Gumbo Shop with a cup of gumbo and a bowl of jambalaya for lunch the first day. I remember it being a good example of the Chablis style of Chardonnay: steely, apply, straw-like elements on the nose; crisp minerals, apples, and a hint of peach in the mouth. Nice finish.

2002 Qupé Santa Barbara County 75% Marsanne, 25% Roussanne -- This one we drank with dinner the first night. Intense, brooding nose, with floral and minerally notes. Intense and full-bodied on the palate; not a show-off, but very deep. Had a flavor component that reminded me of dry essence of pears. A good choice with the intense food we had at Bacco, which is a phenomenal Italian restaurant.

2003 Talley Arroyo Vista Vineyard San Luis Obispo County Chardonnay -- A very Meursault-like Chardonnay. Toasty minerals on the nose, with great depth, balance, and length. I'm normally not a great fan of California chardonnay, but this was excellent. No sweet butterscotchy cheap oak; no watery overcropped finish. Had this one with excellent braised rabbit (Liz and her friend Flo had seafood, hence I went with a white) at Mr. B's Bistro.

2002 Martinelli Zio Tony Ranch Pinot Noir

95. WOW. Double WOW! The best Pinot Noir I can ever remember drinking. Intensely penetrating blueberry-cherry, mineral, and spice nose. Large-framed, intense, yet silky in the mouth, with a ridiculously long finish of fruit and spice gently waving good-bye as it sails slowly into the sunset of your tummy. Enjoyed this one with a phenomenal bone-in strip steak at Donovan's in La Jolla. Pretty amazing dinner.