Franco-American Wine
Date: Wed, Dec 5, 2007 Wine Tasting
Despite the best efforts of some Americans to add Freedom Wine to Freedom Fries, most Americans are sane enough to continue enjoying French wine and the fruits of Franco-American cooperation. In Washington state, we have such great French winemakers as Serge Laville and Christophe Baron making some of the best Washingtonian wines. In Oregon, we have the Burgundian Drouhin family making some of the best Pinot Noir. And in California we have fabulous values in sparkling wine thanks to the French Champagne houses Roederer, Mumm, and Chandon. One of the earliest collaborations was that of Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild in the 1980s. The result? Opus One - one of the most highly praised and maligned wines in the world. In recent years, some have taken to putting down Opus One as an example of an overpriced, over-hyped wine living on its laurels. But it has also become the ultimate gift among Japanese businessmen. Recently, son-in-law, Laurent, shared a bottle of the 1999 vintage with us. If anything, at least in this vintage, the wine is under-hyped. The perfect blend of ripe California fruit with the backbone and structure of a French wine that makes a wine taster sit up and pay attention. If you didn't know the origin, you would have thought you were tasting one of the great so-called superseconds comparable to the great first growths such as Chateau Lafite. Let us be grateful for the fruits of Franco/American cross-fertilization.
Ten "New" Woodinville Wineries
Date: Mon, Dec 3, 2007 Wine Tasting
Braving sleet, snow and rain, yours truly drove all the way to Woodinville and braved hoards of merrymakers to bring you the latest news from the Eastside of the Puget Sound AVA. Some thirty odd wineries participated in Saint Nicholas Day, a Woodinville Wine Country event initiated by DeLille cellars several years ago. DeLille was a total madhouse and Columbia Winery wouldn't pour me any wine, so I moved on to ten "new" smaller wineries. They are listed in the order visited.
1) Adams Bench - Tim and Erica Blue checked out California and Walla Walla before settling on Woodinville. This winery is so new that all of the wines available for tasting were barrel samples and had not even been bottled yet. They were poured from decanters, but weren't in the decanters long enough to develop. All deep purple with the fruit, acid and tannin not quite integrated yet, just as one might expect from barrel samples. My favorite was the least expensive ( $30 pre-sale) 2005 Adams Bench Horse Heaven Hills Red Wine which had a soft, subtle nose of cherry vanilla and great berry fruit notes. Great fruit in the mouth with a nice mocha touch and a slightly rough finish which should smooth out with six to twelve months in the bottle. Perhaps I liked this the best, since as a 2005 it is the most advanced in development to say nothing of the fact that 2005 was a great year in Washington. The 2006 "Reckoning" and "Vibrance" both seemed a little flat to me, but then wine is a living thing and we all know how quickly children change, so these babies will undoubtedly evolve in the barrel and the bottle.
2) Hollywood Hills Vineyards - Just across the lane from Adams Bench, winemaker Steve Snyder is growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Part of the Puget Sound underground grapevine of Western Washington grape-growers, Steve is either engaged in folly or starting a new trend. Why not grow Pinot Noir in Puget Sound if they can do it in the Willamette Valley. Steve claims that he has just the right clones to pull it off. Unfortunately, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were not available for tasting. Instead we tasted a 2005 Syrah and a 2005 Cabernet Franc both made primarily from Portteus Vineyard grapes. These "Eastside Winery" wines function somewhat like a "day job" supporting the exciting Pinot adventure just outside in the vineyards. These wines were a little light in style for my taste, but very similar to the style of Paul Portteus, himself.
3) Northwest Totem - Mike and Kate Sharadin have good connections in Woodinvile and have put them to good use. Their reds were good, but best of all was a Late Harvest Viognier with an enticing nose of apricots and honeysuckle, flavors of apricots and pears, and twenty per cent residual sugar, but not too sweet. Yum!
4) Efeste - Efeste! Sounds celebratory, doesn't it! Italian for celebrate? Nah, made up from the initial of the three owners. Off to a good start on a fairly big scale - 6000 cases! Speaking of big, my favorite was the "Big Papa" blend. And I met Big Papa, Daniel Ferrelli who follows in the footsteps of his grandfather and father as Big Papa. Big Papa's wife is certainly no Big Mama, but rather a svelte, petite Greek woman, so perhaps we should say, Efcharisto, Efeste! E Buona Fortuna!
5) Gorman Winery -Chris Gorman's "Evil Twin" put him up to it! Chris has been open for a few years, but this is the first time I've been able to taste his wine. Gorman joins other hip/fun wineries such as Sleight of Hand and Mark Ryan in giving his wines fanciful dramatic names. This is the fourth wave in wine naming. First wine was named by place, then by grape, then by names made up by marketers and now by winemakers having fun with names wanting us to have fun with their wine. The message is no pretense here, but, IMO, winemakers sometimes overshoot by giving very serious, or shall we say, great, wines very "unserious" names. Anyway, Chris's wine are serious, from one of the best regions in Washington, Red Mountain. I tasted the Evil Twin 2005 and The Bully 2005. Despite the best efforts of the school conflict resolution team, The Bully won. Perhaps, as in life, the all Cab Bully is the King of the Mountain.
6) Sparkman Cellars - Veteran winemaker Mark Ryan helped his buddy Chris Sparkman get his winery off the ground and Chris is off to a good start. Chris has worked in the hospitality industry for a number of years and finally decided he would rather make wine than just serve it. We taste the 2006 Lumiere Chardonnay which was good in a light tart, almost Chablis style, but seemed overpriced at $35. The 2005 Wilderness Red Blend is made from Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Malbec and Syrah from Horse Heaven Hills and Red Mountain. This melange is a definite winner.
7) Darby Winery - I have to confess! The 2006 Le Duece white and the 2005 Destiny Ridge Syrah really grabbed me. Both are elegant wines with perfect balance. Le Duece is a blend of 60% Roussanne and 40% Viognier. The Roussanne was aged in stainless steel while the Viognier rested in neutral oak barrels. The combination is spectacular with the "minerality" I love so much. The Syrah is smooth and seamless with a structure more like that of a refined Bordeaux style blend than a Syrah.
8) Washington Wine Company - Washington Wine Company has existed in Monroe, Washington for a number of years, but just recently moved to Woodinville, perhaps to be where the action is. Among several good wines the 2006 Volterra Chardonnay from Minick Vineyard stood out for me. The best Chardonnay of the day.
9) Pomum - Javiar from Spain, made a Bordeaux style blend from Yakima Valley fruit that was totally elegant and immediately reminded me that the winemaker was from Europe. Javiar told me that Pomum means fruit in Latin and that he intends to make good use of the fruit of the vine to make Spanish style wines from grapes such as Tempranillo. Can't wait to see what he comes up with.
10) Ross Andrew - Last year I wrote that Ross Andrew wines could be the next "cult wine" in Washington. This year I met Ross and had a chance to taste his Pinot Gris and his Bordeaux style blend. Both were excellent.
One recommendation to new winemakers. I totally understand all the demands of starting a new winery - the economic worry and the desire to make great wine, but a good website and tasting notes or at least a price list are necessities. Most people have trouble remembering wines and wine names, especially when tasting numerous wines. Even I have trouble keeping track, so at least put out some sort of list of wines as a reminder and an opportunity for people to easily keep track of which wines they liked. I wish all of these new winemakers good fortune and urge you to try their wines.
2007 Unofficial Classifcation Of Washington State Wines
Date: Mon, Nov 19, 2007 Wine Tasting
Harvest is over and wines and winemakers can finally rest after a frenetic two months. This is the second annual Unofficial Classification of Washington State wines, or more accurately, of Washington State wineries. The 2007 Unofficial Classification of Washington State Wines represents my personal, perhaps, idiosyncratic or eccentric, opinions of the quality of Washington State wineries. Out of approximately 500 wineries there are at least a hundred producing great wine. About half of the wine produced in Washington comes from wineries owned by Chateau Ste Michelle, thus the other 490 some odd wineries are mostly small artisanal family enterprises typically producing 2000-3000 cases, in some cases up to 20,000 cases. The emphasis is on quality rather than quantity. In contrast to other classifications of wine such as the 1855 classification of Bordeaux, the Unofficial Classification of Washington wines is not set in stone and changes every year. Since it is retrospective, it does not necessarily predict future rankings or as they say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The Washington State wine scene continues to be exciting. New wineries are cropping up everywhere and established wineries are moving on to new frontiers. Several top Puget Sound wineries have invested in their own vineyards in Eastern Washington and you can sense the excitement this is generating among winemakers. Exclusion from this classification, in no way represents a commentary on the quality of a winery. In most cases, it simply means that I am not familiar enough with the wines or winemaker to form an opinion. On the other hand , not all Washington wines and wineries are great, so only the best that I am familiar with are listed here. Wineries listed as new are new to me and may have been around for several years.
Premier Grand Cru ( Extraordinary)
Quilceda Creek
Leonetti
Deuxieme Grand Cru (Outstanding)
Betz
Cadence
DeLille
Januik
Long Shadow
Pepper Bridge
Terra Blanca - Onyx
Spring Valley - Uriah
Troisieme Grand Cru ( Exceptional)
Abeja
Amaurice
Amavi
Andrew Will
Beresan
Boudreaux
Brian Carter
Buty
Canon de Sol
Columbia Crest Reserve
Dunham
Fall Line
Hightower
Isenhauer
Lattitude 46 N
McCrea
Northstar
Note Bene
O-S
Palouse
Ross Andrew
Sheridan
Sleight Of Hand
Spring Valley
Terra Blanca
Walla Walla Vineyards
Willis Hall
Woodward Canyon
Quatrieme Grand Cru ( Excellent)
Animale
Agate Field
Apex
Bergevin
Camaraderie
Canoe Ridge
Cougar Crest
Desert Wind
Dusted Valley
Five Star
Forgeron
Gifford Hirlinger
Glacial Lake Missoula
Hedges
Kiona
L'Ecole
Mark Ryan
Masset
McKinley Springs
Mountain Dome
Nicolas Cole
Novelty Hill
Red Sky
Reininger
Saint Laurent
Sandidge
Sandhill
Saviah
Soos Creek
Syncline
Syzygy
Thurston Wolfe
Three Rivers
Two Mountains
Walter Dacon
Whitman
Wineglass
Yellowhawk
Cinqieme Cru ( Very Good)
14 Hands
Balboa
Barnard Griffin
Cascade Cliffs
Chinook
Columbia Crest "Two Vines"
Gordon Bros
Hogue
Red Diamond
Ryan Patrick
Sagelands
New
Adament
Balsamroot
Bloom
Charles Smith
Dama
Hence
Ludmell
Sparkman
Tertulia
Tildio
Trio
Trust
Tsillan
Deferred
Andrake
Cayuse
Chatter Creek
Gorman
K Vintners
Rulo
Seven Hills
Zefina
Thanksgiving Wine
Date: Sun, Nov 18, 2007 Wine Tasting
We've been teaching wine classes lately and did one on Holiday wine. We tasted fourteen wines altogether and had a lot of fun. The NV Mumm Napa Brut goes well with everything - turkey, ham, roast beef. Great way to start off a holiday meal. Chandon Brut is a little drier. Both are great buys on sale at about $13. Although Riesling, goes great with turkey, we were somewhat disappointed by the 2006 Ch. Ste Michelle "Eroica", Dr. Loosen at $18 from Costco. Instead we preferred an inexpensive Riesling from Safeway for five bucks - 2005 Peisporter Michelsberg Spatlese - light easy slightly sweet, floral character. Our 2005 MacMurray Pinot Gris was off - volatile acidity and what else? For those who prefer drier whites, King Estate, Erath, and Luna Pinot Gris would all work with Turkey and Ham. Finally,2005 Merryvale "Starmont" Napa Chardonnay is available once agin at a reasonable price ( about $15 at Costco) The Starmont tastes almost French in its relative fullness with great balance and a hint of that stony quality I like so much. Edna Valley Chardonnay is also a good bet at less than $15. Glenn Ellen Chardonnay can be had for $6 on sale for a 1.5 liter bottle and Columbia Crest "Two Vines" Chard also a great buy at $7 or less and is widely available. Rose and pink wines work with Turkey and ham. We tasted 2006 Chinook Cabernet Franc from the Yakima Valley. As usual, it was excellent and went well with ham or turkey. BTW, for all you vegetarians and vegans out there, these all work with Tofurkey, too.
Okay, so you hate whites or you can't drink them. Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais and light Pinot Noirs work with turkey and ham. But if you don't like Turkey ( how UnAmerican!), why not just serve roast beef? Then you can enjoy any red you want. We sampled 2004 Beringer "Alluvium", Knights Valley ( about $30 at Costco) - good , but not that exciting. We preferred the 2004 Hedges Three Vineyards, from Red Mountain, Washington (about $18 at Costco), a blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot which is structured like a French Bordeaux with considerable tannin at the end. A "masculine" wine, great with beef. The 2005 Reserve des Remparts, St. Emilion, Calvet ( about $15 at Trader Joe) is softer , but would go equally well with roast beef.
We finished with a great dessert wine from Paso Robles - 2006 Eos "Tears of Dew" Late Harvest Moscato (about $20 at Costco [no, I'm not on commission]). With over 20% residual sugar, this sweetie is great with blue cheese and pears. Finally settle down in front of the fireplace with some walnuts and Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny Port ( about $25 at Costco). It's really very simple. Drink what you like. IMO, the best match with Turkey is Riesling or Chenin Blanc ( try Walla Voila from L'Ecole winery in Washington, if you can find it) or the French Vouvray, but, alas, they are not to my gout, so I drink Chardonnay.
An Exception To The Rule?
Date: Wed, Oct 31, 2007 Wine Tasting
We just opened a 2001 Reininger Merlot. Wow! "That tastes like Bordeaux!" Right bank, of course. Complex berry flavors with balancing tannin and acid to give it structure. Will this wine continue to improve with age. Only the shadow knows. The 2002 Walla Walla Vintners Cabernet Franc we recently tasted proved the rule - the fruit had turned prune-like and the acid and tannin were dominant. This is what happens to most American wines with a few exceptions. They taste great when they are released because of the upfront fruit and relative lack of tannin and acid which help a wine to age well. They are made for immediate appeal and are great the day you bring them home which is how most wine in America is drunk, relatively few people having a cellar or temperature- controlled unit in which to age wine. The 2001 Reininger was an exception to the rule. I'd like to say Reininger rules, but recent vintages have been disappointing and seem unlikely to age as well as the 2001 or 2002 vintages.
Sophie's Wine
Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2007 Wine Tasting
I really did get lost and diverted, but I'm back. My first stop in Paso Robles, with Steve and Carole, was Anglim. We first encountered Anglim at a wine bar last year. The 2004 Roussanne was spectacular. When I knew I would be driving down the coast, I emailed Steffanie and she graciously agreed to meet us on a Tuesday. Anglim is a small startup much like the wineries at the airport in Walla Walla with a downtown tasting room and husband /winemaker Steve making wine in a shared facility similar to the Carlton wine studio in Oregon. Steffanie had little Sophie with her and was a little distracted from the wine. Carole was even more distracted by Sophie. Carol is the quintessential "mom", "grandmother-in-waiting." Thank goodness Steffanie and Steve Anglim had the good sense not to name the winery after children, but they definitely should name a wine after Sophie - maybe a bright, fresh, ebullient wine with a big dollop of exuberance.
This time around the the 2005 Starr Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles fruit was the standout. Aged in 100% French oak, this medium bodied wine has an appealing nose of berries, earth and mushrooms with rich complex flavors and hints of spice. Carole came up with the best descriptors - fuzzy, chewy, dirt. Her mind has not been tainted by years of read ing the same old stale wine notes - cassis, lead pencil, and forest floor. The 2005 Viognier from Bien Nacido Vineyard was fresh, clean, round and fruity. The fresh 2005 Roussanne was too green apple for me this time around. The 2006 Rose tasted of strawberry and rhubarb. The ruby red 2005 Grenanche had a lovely nose and tasted of rhubarb pie. The 2004 Syrah tasted of berries and mocha. The 2005 Zin tasted too tart and green to me. The Reserve wines seem more subdued or shall we say, reserved. In addition to the 2005 Cab, our favorites were the 2005 Grenacheand the 2004 Syrah. Next year we hope to taste Sophie's wine!
Washington Merlot Wins!
Date: Thu, Oct 25, 2007 Wine Tasting
Several years ago I went to a tasting of Bordeaux style blends organized by the Washington State Wine Commission. This tasting had been taken on the road to New York and Tokyo and I got to sample it at the Society of Wine Educators meeting in Bellevue, Washington. There were eight wines - 4 Washington, two California and 2 French Bordeaux. In New York and Tokyo mostly wine writers had been invited to the tasting. In all the tastings, the tasters were asked to rank the wines according to simple hedonistic pleasure, in other words, "which is your favorite wine." The leader, actually a P.R. person, had the scores (rankings) of the wines tabulated and announced that the four Washington wines were the winners. Even though they had the highest absolute scores there really were no meaningful differences among the scores of seven of the wines. This person had no concept of variability, variation, distribution, variance, standard deviation, statististics, whatever you want to call it. The tasters scores were all over the place, a real mishmash. The real result was that seven of the wines were excellent, flavorful Bordeaux blends, indistinguishable in terms of overall quality. I would have been happy to take any of them home with me.
A few days ago, ten of us, tasted three inexpensive American Merlots blind. The result? A statistical rarity - every taster ranked the wines the same way. The winner? 2004 Columbia Crest Merlot, available at almost every gas station in Washington state for $7 a bottle. The other two wines - Two Buck Chuck($2-$3) and Searidge Merlot (4$ -Safeway's answer to Two Buck Chuck). The Columbia Crest seems round balanced, easy with good fruit. The Charles Shaw had off, chemical smells (volatile acidity?) and tasted thin and tart. Probably a spoiled bottle, although around here, the distributors seem to hold wine too long in hot conditions. The Searidge seemed ordinary. Any of these would work better with food. If we had had a better bottle of Two Buck Chuck, it probably would have been softer, fruitier with a sweet feel to it, but the Columbia Crest still would have been better. Finally, price is related to quality!
So Many Wines, So Little Time!
Date: Mon, Oct 15, 2007 Wine Tasting
I seem to have gotten lost in Paso Robles. Perhaps it was intentional! After all with 170 wineries who has time to check them all out. In total, I only managed to visit eight. That leaves 162 wineries. Even though I had a day and a half, my record was worse than at, say, Taste Washington, where I typically only have two hours to taste 800 wines from 200 wineries or Taste Walla Walla where you are expected to taste through close to a hundred wineries in two hours. Speaking of Walla Walla, I found myself wondering in a wild sort of way, whether I was in Paso Walla or Walla Robles. The resemblances are so strong even down to former Washington Wine Commission Maestro, Steve Burns who just took over the helm in Paso Robles. You know you can expect to find Paso Robles doing some kind of Taste Paso and taking it on the road to all of our good fortune.
Paso was known for olives for many years and it is only recently that the wine world there has bloomed. Just like Walla Walla, known for onions, the number of wineries has exploded in the past five to ten years. Paso even has its eccentric Frenchman at L'Aventure making world class wine . It has its incubator wineries similar to those at the Walla Walla airport such as Anglim which has a tasting room downtown and makes wine in a shared facility. Winemakers help each other out. The winemaker at Tablas Creek trained with the winemaker at Adelaida and Tablas Creek in partnership with Chateau Beaucastel imported Rhone varietal vines that pretty much launched the Rhone Rangers and many of the wineries in Paso Robles. It even has it's superstars such as Helen Turley who can hide out in Paso from the advocats and barristers in Napa while turning out great wines in pastoral bliss just west of downtown.
Paso is split into two very distinct regions - east and west of downtown. To the west, the wines are the antithesis of the stereotypic California fruitbomb. No tropical fruit and oak here. The wines are almost all somewhat acidic and thin in a style very similar to their French counterparts. They are definitely food wines. To Robert Parker's credit many of these limestone based wines have scored in the 90s showing that Parker is not stuck on the gout Parker, even though winemakers all over the world are still striving for the Enologix numbers that paint a wine big with lots of fruit and chocolate. Wines from the east side are valley wines with more fruit and soft structure, more typical of the California prototype. With so many wines and so little time we spent what little we had on the west side among the limestone slopes between the town and the glorious 1700 foot hills lurking majestically above the Pacific.
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La Reve Californie
Date: Thu, Oct 11, 2007 Wine Tasting
French children somehow (Babar?) learn about California and San Francisco and start dreaming about it early. Many of them end up in San Francisco as adults. For me La Reve Californie is to be found outside of San Francisco in the wine country - Sonoma, Amador, the Central Coast. Of course, this may just be be a variant of my Reve Francaise. Other pastures always look greener.
Driving down the backside of Silicon Valley on I-280 (not in the rush hour), the tawny hills show no evidence of the frenetic activity just over the hill, creating a precursor, an illusion perhaps, of pastoral peace and beauty to come - the smell of eucalyptus, cattle grazing beside the road, vines showing their colors on gradual slopes - who could ask for more?
For me, La Reve Californie is the wine country, not the Napa Valley with its trophy and tourist wineries, but the the wine country - Paso Robles, Los Olivos, Solvang, Lampoc, Santa Barbara. Lucky me, I got to stay with my friends, Steve and Carole, in Morro Bay where the surf hits the sand, the sun sets are pink, the views are spectacular, you can still buy locally caught fish and the wineries are just a short drive away. Steven, BTW, makes the best poached eggs in the world. So tempting, they call out for red wine!
On the way to Morro Bay, I stopped at Hahn and Scheid wineries near Arroyo Seco. The Hahn wines were okay, but nothing to write home about. Carole tells me I tasted the wrong wines. Hahn had pulled out 30 year old Cab and Merlot vines to replace them with Pinot Noir. Why? Terroir? Winemaker preference? Money! The Bordeaux grapes went for about $2000 a ton, the Pinot sells for $4500. Thanks a lot, Miles! Oh well, so much for pastoral beauty, nothing is what it appears to be.
Scheid on the other hand continues to supply their grapes to many prominent wineries, but decided to make some wine of their own. Their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc is an exquisite example of the Sauv Blanc prototype in the "New Zealand style" although I found it pleasantly lighter. Elegant, light, crisp, tart with just the right amount of grassiness, lemon and grapefruit in both the nose and the mouth. Great with fish, seafood, and oysters, but quite good on it's own, too, since is so nicely balanced and not too acidic. If I were handing out ratings it would definitely rate at least a "90."
Check back to read about my visit to Paso Robles wimeries with Steve and Carole.
BevMo!
Date: Mon, Oct 8, 2007 Wine Tasting
San Francisco is a great place to buy wine. Beverage & More is a greater place to buy wine. You can get anything you want at BevMo, but twice a year they have their "5c sale." If you buy a bottle, you get a second bottle of the same wine for five cents, in effect, 50% off. This is one of those months. You can order online and have it shipped depending on where you live. Here are my recommendations:
Whites
1. 2006 Trinchero Chardonnay, California - fresh, dry, fruity, great value, drink now - $6
2. 2006 Hogue Fume Blanc, Washington - dry, but balanced, Sauvignon Blanc, drink now $4
3. 2006 Moulin Ferrand Entre Deux Mers, France - Dry, crisp, tart, with good body, great oyster wine, drink now - $6
Reds
1. 2006 Osborne Solaz, Merlot/Tempranillo, Spain - Delicious, fruity, Tempranillo with "training wheels," drink now - $5
2. 2006 Terra Brisa, Malbec, Argentina - excellent, good fruit, interesting Malbec flavors, drink now - $5
3. 2006 Serabel, Cotes du Rhones, France - light, fruity, easy, like Beaujolais, drink now -$5
4. 2005 Segonzac, Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux, France - Fantastic value, a full-fledged 2005 Bordeaux with great black fruit flavors and lots of tannin just as a good Bordeaux should be at this stage , definitely need to be laid down for several years. Buy a case and see how this wine develops over time. Start to drink 2009 - $10
Our Home Away From Home
Date: Sun, Oct 7, 2007 Wine Tasting
Every time we drive from Seattle to San Francisco we stop at our favorite cafe - Witham's Truck Stop at exit 30 on I-5 in Medford, Oregon. It is getting trickier to get to, but it is worth it. After you exit the freeway, turn left, then turn off onto the first loop to the right, go under the bridge, Witham's is on the right. Even though modern time have come to Witham's (a no smoking section, Egg Beaters and no more land lines on the table for customer's use), Gladys still serves us steak and eggs, huge omelettes, with pancakes, hash browns and toast. A carafe of coffee completes the meal. Okay, so we can't eat all those carbs, but we try and we feel we are back in the America we knew, before the era of corporate restaurants and bad wars. For dinner, you can have steak - rare: red and cold in the center, medium rare: red and warm in the center, medium: pink: medium well: hint of pink in the center, well done: no pink! Oh , yes, the wine - Cribari White Zinfandel, Merlot and Chardonnay! It's a cafe, I didn't say it was a gourmet palace!
Funky Eugene
Date: Sat, Oct 6, 2007 Wine Tasting
On the road, along the West Coast, we stopped at Eugene, Oregon, funkier and more radical that Berkeley. The "Fish Market" is a trip! A great fish market in West Eugene with a huge selection of fresh seafood and fish to take home and cook. They also have ten beat up old tables where you can indulge in all kinds of delights starting with Gumbo and Cioppino and lots of variants of fish and chips. We ordered from a wonderfully long "fresh board" The clams in butter and wine were extraordinary! The sturgeon and salmon plates were excellent, if slightly overdone. The wine? King Estate Pinot Gris, the King of Oregon Pinot Gris! Just right with our fish - dry but slightly fruity. What a pleasure! Sort of the anti- corporate restaurant straight out of the 1960s
Almost Just Right - Enotria!
Date: Thu, Oct 4, 2007 Wine Tasting
What a relief! No small plates! Although I must admit, I miss the Veal Tartare. Things went a lot more smoothly this time around. Very friendly service, interesting dishes, a very friendly corkage fee ($15), but a few problems remain. We brought a bottle of 1995 Barolo and asked the waiter to decant it because it had considerable sediment. Even though there was a candle on the table rather than using it to stop at the sediment, he just poured the whole bottle, sediment and all, into the decanter. Fortunately the wine was still drinkable, but not the smooth elegant modern style Barolo it could have been had it been properly decanted. The service, while very friendly( perhaps too familiar), was also very slow. We waited an hour before our first courses arrived. The cod cakes were uninteresting, the sweetbreads quite good, the rabbit loin excellent. The pheasant tagliatelle was very tasty, the wild boar gnocchi good, the duck breast quite good. Even though I am a low sodium kind of guy, all of the food lacked salt or spice or zest. This is not Minnesota! Enotria appears to be developing a local following and the prices seem right. About $50 per person including wine. You will not starve to death at Enotria. The portions are just right. It looks like Enotria will be a success.
