Tuesday, November 30, 2010

#134 - Pistachio-Crusted Lamb Rack And Saffron Risotto With '08 Ponzi Pinot Noir


On a night when Mrs. Ney, due to a cold, could only taste about 40% of the flavors on the plate, it was unfortunate that we had on said plate the best lamb I've ever had.

And I've checked, thought about it and consulted the lamb gods.

I don't even think it's close.

Ferran Adria recipes will do that.

Food: Pistachio-crusted rack of lamb wrapped in pancetta with saffron risotto and mâche salad with mustard vinaigrette

Rare-to-medium-rare rack of lamb that looked pretty friggin' gorgeous.

But what made this lamb different from other pistachio/pancetta lamb was that the pistachio and pancetta fat actually dripped deep into the meat during the roasting process. Very deep.

So deep that a bite of lamb took on a pistachio-dripped succulence and ended with a unctuous pancetta fat pan drippings finish. All lamb at its core but the three flavors - along with rosemary, thyme and black pepper in the pistachio paste - vacillated back and forth, each alternately taking the stage but never overpowering any of the other flavors. Kaleidoscope-y is the best way to describe it and I've never had anything like it. In a different way, it reminded me of the first time I ate the sous-vide antelope at Schwa. Entirely new and entirely memorable. Might be the best bite of food I've had this year.

Coupled perfectly with saffron-pistachio risotto, a side dish that we've only had with Heredia white over the last year. Very al dente but the starch bled into the pistachio beautifully, picking up a nutty goopy quality that marched right in line with the pistachio lamb paste. Not too matchy-matchy in the least, different enough to serve as an advantage rather than dulling down the plate.

Mâche salad with mustard vinaigrette to finish.

Sucked balls that Mrs. Ney couldn't get the whole effect, especially as these flavors are very dear to her heart. Instead, we were left with me getting all orgasmic and proclamation-y and Mrs. Ney having to settle with the knowledge that it looked gorgeous and the 40% she could taste certainly satisfied.

Wine: 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($30 - Binny's)

Ponzi's estate bottling, just released in Chicago, from a spectacular vintage (WS - 95-100), culled from various Ponzi plots and generally serves as our default pinot noir. We love it. I remember visiting San Francisco a few years ago where Mrs. Ney had a glass of Ponzi at the Ferry Building. I took a sip and was in love with the glorious leafy quality wrapped in cherries from it. Never had anything like it. Personally, I've been chasing that first sip whenever we have Ponzi, which is my issue not Ponzi's, but it's always, every time, deliciousness in the glass.

The 2008 isn't ready. No decant. All cherry Dr. Pepper. All of it. Tasted like a cherry Dr. Pepper without the sappy sweetness. Cola, a bit of tea and cherry Dr. Pepper extract.

Reticent fruit showing much darker fruit than in the past, more blueberry, mulberry and blackberry dancing together with a large, darkish cherry note desperately wanting to take the stage.

Big core that's not showing any definition or delineation right now, no expression outside of an inkling that it's going to be a mammoth one compared to other recent Ponzi estate bottlings. A black tea quality wants to peak out as well but I only got a precursor of it.

Mostly, what did show was the beautifully bright and vibrant acid that's typical of Ponzi pinot noir. Gonna have to wait to see where it goes. We've only drank 2008 Oregon pinots on the lower-end of the quality scale to mixed results but the bottlings of the bigger names look like it's going to take a few years to see how they are.

People on the internets have had success with decanting. We'll probably be drinking a case of the 2008 Ponzi's so I started with no decant as a baseline and we'll go from there.

Pairing: 94 Just for the food! ... and having wine that didn't get in the way

I don't even know if our favorite Oregon pinot, the Angela, would have lived up to the lamb. Certainly would have most likely been great but this was stupid-good lamb. I don't know.

But the Ponzi showed best with the lamb, less so with the risotto and hollow and weird with the greens.

Mostly, the Ponzi didn't stop me from wanting wine after a bite. It complimented the food mostly by letting the lamb and risotto continue to be so darn good. It stayed out of the way while offering a little something extra with its pretty acidity.

Hold the '08 Ponzi for a year or decant the hell out of it. Even after being open for about two hours, it barely budged.


Friday, November 26, 2010

#133 - Two Cheap Meals With Two Bargain Wines


'99 Prager Smaragd Steinreigl's done!

Smelled like rotten milk left in dumpster juice last night. Or wet wool blankets that someone forgot about in the basement for 87 years. Didn't taste much better either.

Sad. Our first post here was describing that wine with Wine Can Chicken.

A sick Mrs. Ney meant no family visit for Thanksgiving.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with mustard asparagus, herb cheese, La Quercia prosciutto and Seeduction bread

Quick and easy meal, nothing out of the ordinary compared to other Thomas Keller chicken meals with a few notes.

$8 Whole Foods non-organic chicken isn't as good as $14 Trader Joe's organic chicken. We learned that. In an attempt to keep the meal cheap, that's what we got - a chicken that tasted cheap. If you told me a few years ago that I'd have strong opinions about chicken, I'd have said you be crazy, fool. We got sum opinions. Tasted boring and a tad chemical-y. Edible, just dull, dull, dull.

But...La Quercia and Seeduction bread can lift any meal out of the world of cheap and dull to something resembling goodness. Even cheap $5 herb cheese from Whole Foods has its complimentary and "good creamy quality" merits. Mustard asparagus = always good.

We counted our blessings on what we didn't experience yesterday, like the rest of the Prager...and other things.

Wine: 2006 Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Blanc Vieilles Vignes ($24 - WDC)

Got $100, don't know anything about white Burgundy and want to?

Go buy three bottles of anything by Jean-Philippe Fichet. The guy makes delicious wine from plots straddling the big names/plots and pumps out wines with balance, beauty and none of the boring butteriness that comes from chardonnay in the same price range.

Just tons of mineral character that makes you want tons more.

We recently had the 2005 and 2006 Auxey Duresses from Fichet, both with TK chicken and both were sublime. This one was less so, showing more typical character of solid white Burgundy but never really getting out of that box. Pineapple and white peach notes with a touch of cream that never overtook a pronounced and tasty minerality at its core. Structured and balanced with nice acidity. Tasted proper but never stretched its legs to show anything greatly distinct. Tasted more "beautifully representative" than particularly interesting. That's okay, though. At $24, we never felt cheated, but it's one of those situations where for $10 more, going up a notch would yield something twice as good from Fichet.

Pairing: 86 A meal that again informed us on exactly what we want

Like better quality chicken and a white Burgundy that's maybe a notch up the pole.

That said, I liked this wine. It's like buying a 10 year-old used Honda. Might not be shiny, sparkly, new, pretty or full of personality, but it's a Honda, damn it. It's gonna run just fine.

Best with the bread and cheese, bringing out some delicious Burgundy funk, itself with the chicken and not so great at all with the mustard asparagus. Which was expected. That's what the Prager was for. But mustard asparagus with rotten milk/old wet wool blankets isn't good in anybody's world.


A quick note: Wednesday night's meal needed cheap wine with a meatloaf and roasted potato meal as Mrs. Ney was just starting to get sick. Served with a bottle of 2007 Chateau Beauchêne Premier Terrior ($15 - Binny's), a wine highly recommended on a Chicago Frenchman's blog that chronicles French food and wine in the Chicago area. You go check out that blog now. Go! Get! It's good stuff - informative, exhaustive and downright interesting.

A lot to like with this wine. Black tea and black cherry intermingle with nice earth. Good minimum quality for the price that tasted like vacation in France where the table wine turns out to be something that defines the meal. The Domaine Des Tours Vaucluse in the same basic price range beats it but everyone's on that bandwagon, making it difficult to reliably find.

Tasted rather ordinary with the veal, beef and pork meatloaf (a recipe that will end your search for a good meatloaf, BTW) but turned into something that tasted well above $15 price tag with the rosemary potatoes, showing great structure and cherry and tea notes that sparkled and changed rather beautifully.

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. (Pairing Score: 87)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

#132 - Thomas Keller Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Wedge Salad and Biscuits With '07 Királyudvar Sparkling


Some special stuff here.

Made special by "Ad Hoc At Home", a recipe book bought on a whim that may end up being used over the next year to full effect (the pickling section alone!).

When we went to Ad Hoc in July, something happened. Something along the lines of a restaurant experience that trumped anything I'd had before. It was like I'd found a place that, in some ideal world, I wanted to live next door to so I could have it any damn time I pleased.

I think about our meal there that night way more than I probably should. It's just food, but for me, it was something else, something more. Might not have been the best meal I've ever had in my life (in the top five, though), but it was the best total restaurant experience I've ever had (with the first Moto visit, Blackbird always and Colburn Lane in Toronto all right behind).

The Monday we were there in July was Memphis BBQ night but a frequent Monday menu is buttermilk fried chicken and it's always intrigued us.

Got the book, the recipes are in the book, why not?

We've only been to Ad Hoc once (with another trip coming soon) but to us, last night's meal tasted specifically like a meal that could only have come from that kitchen.

I can't really describe such things, only to say that it tastes like American comfort food has been perfected.

Food: Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Iceberg Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing and Buttermilk Biscuits

Like the Thomas Keller chicken that's been chronicled a thousand times on this blog, Keller doesn't do anything fancy or use ingredients only found in the backroom of some restaurant in Chinatown. He uses ingredients anybody for the most part can get and he uses methods that may come off a bit fussy but the end result is worth every second.

Nothing about the fried chicken skin was exotic, it just tasted like the best fried chicken skin I've ever had. Evocative to nth degree, deeply seasoned but never came off heavy, crunchy and thick but never oily and a taste that kept changing in my mouth alternating between paprika, cayenne, salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powder in such a tremendous way. Never separated out, just changed beautifully.

The chicken itself proved original as well, which came from the brine (lemons, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, honey, garlic, black peppercorns and sea salt in a 12-hour brine). Became one of those times when you love something specific so much, like the chicken skin, and don't expect or even need the chicken itself to be anything great. You're good. But the chicken meat may have exceeded the skin. The breast meat in this recipe is the winner, sucking up the bay leaves and lemon perfectly and making for entirely original chicken goodness.

The iceberg wedge salad is a bit of a relic from the 70's steakhouse past in many people's eyes but I've always kinda loved it, finding value in the fresh crunch and good blue cheese/bacon/onion blend. We understandably took it off the menu of a restaurant I used to work at a few years ago (nobody ordered it) but it has a place. Done well, it can be a perfect compliment. Iceberg has few uses in this world except here.

With this one, it was in the blue cheese from the cookbook, substituting Greek yogurt for crème fraîche (buttermilk, onion and garlic powder, lemon juice, chives, parsley and mint). Mixed beautifully with the bacon, green onions and kumatoes along with oozing into the incredibly fresh iceberg with a spectacular crunch.

Buttermilk biscuits tasted like I was eight years old and our family got a bucket of Famous Recipe with all the sides, something I saw as fancy and special when I was eight. Loaded with butter but utterly delicious, they tasted like Love.

Tons of superlatives but all warranted. The book is worth every cent of the price tag.

Wine: 2007 Királyudvar Pezsgö Sparkling ($30 - Saratoga Wine Exchange) & 2007 Királyudvar Sec ($30 - Crush)

Along with Ad Hoc, I've rambled on about Királyudvar wines from Hungary on this here blog multiple times (site here).

The 2005 Sec was a bit of a revelation for us. The 2006 Sec less so but still wonderful.

Run by Gaston Huet from Domaine Huet in Vouvray, the wines are the definition of exotic yet familiar.

The 2007 Secs are starting to pop up around town (saw it at Howard's recently) but the Pezsgö is the first time the estate has bottled a sparkling and it's only available at Saratoga Wine Exchange in New York from what I can tell.

Alive, vibrant and loads of bubbles here with a nose of apricot fuzz, peach pit and grapefruit that followed onto the palate. Very little yeasty notes with this one and missing the signature orange blossom that comes with Királyudvar wines in our experience. What we found was a sparkling that was, structurally, very well put together, hitting all the right notes that one wants from a bubbly. Big body and solid acidity that tasted proper and delicious at every turn. May have wanted a bit more than the dominant grapefruit notes but utterly enjoyable nonetheless.

The 2007 Sec underwhelmed at the start, showing hidden fruit and something approaching a moldy water quality that quickly went away and opened up nicely. As it warmed up, solid and very supple citrus fruit basket notes and a wee hint of orange blossom water gave way to a pleasant nutmeg quality on the mid-palate and finish. Not as electric as the 2005 but better put together than the 2006, which has been a tad short and upfront for us recently. More depth with the 2007 compared to the 2006 but not as explosive as the 2005 with less vibrant acid.

Both were extraordinarily food-friendly.

Pairing: 92 The food was the star but the wines were great supporting actors

The sparkling, as expected, mixed and mingled with the chicken and chicken skin beautifully. Not a false note on the night, never turning strange and always bringing a tastiness, effervescence and refreshment to every bite.

Both wines were oddly delicious with a blue cheese bite, turning into a delicious taste of something I've never tasted before, like if somebody made a Maytag blue soda with some herbs and it turned out perfect.

The food was on the marquee but the wines allowed the food to shine.

Everything tasted like what people talk about when they talk about Home.

Gonna remember this one for a while.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

#131 - Harissa-Marinated Skirt Steak & Yuca Fries With '07 Santa Ema Merlot


Alrighty.

Last night's wine didn't really taste like wine.

Very little tannin, very little depth, didn't change much and was a bit of a one-trick pony.

It was more like a wine-type beverage.

And we were TOTALLY okay with that.

Food: Harissa-marinated skirt steak, chimichurri, yuca fries with whiskey piri-piri mayo for dipping and an arugula-pomegranate seed salad

Planned for Tuesday, it happened Wednesday because of what happened in the note below (ordered pizza).

Medium to medium-rare skirt steak marinated for two days in harissa paste (hot chilies, garlic, salt, etc.). Good meat. Solid meat. The two-day marinade may have took some of the verve away from its skirt steakiness but it was tasty and welcome nonetheless.

Yuca fries (house favorite) makes any meal, this time with a whiskey-piri piri mayo that left a perfect hint of whiskey and heat that didn't overwhelm.

An arugula and pomegranate seed salad with a chimichurri drizzle to top it off.

Tasted South American good with a little more finesse; one of those meals that falls into the world of 'just good food.'

So meat marinade from the Maghreb and yuca and chimichurri from the Southern Hemisphere. Wine?

Quinta do Vale Meão Meandro was in the discussion. Zinfandel? Wine Spectator's inexplicable and continued love affair with Schild Shiraz was revealed again this week (the 2008 is #7 on the 2010 top 100 list) and we still have the '04 and '05 hanging around.

But...South American flavors and South American wine worked in the past (particularly here and here) and we had a cheapie with a bit of a buzz around it.

Wine: 2007 Santa Ema Maipo Valley Reserve ($11 - WDC)

If blueberry Whoppers existed, that's exactly what this wine tasted like.

All malted milk and milk chocolate with a swirl of blueberry juice, a touch of vanilla that became much more pronounced as the bottle opened up, a touch of cherry, a bit of pepper, some sage and more blueberry Whoppers.

Mostly, the milk chocolate note showed right away and quickly dissipated, transforming into what milk chocolate offers in the way of texture, turning into all malted milk with a ton of vanilla extract in the flavor profile with black pepper and a very secondary cherry note popping up now and then along with sage kicking up towards the end of the meal.

Sure, it was one note, very simple and bordering on weird. But we had absolutely no complaints.

Reminded me of the Flor de Crasto and its Mounds bar domination, the Bogle Merlot that's basically sage milk and the Montes Alpha that was all BBQ sauce - cheap wines that are great one-offs that shouldn't be thought about or critiqued too much. Just drink it and enjoy the wine-type beverage-ness.

Pairing: 88 Like a CSI: episode. Enjoyed it for exactly what it was

Nothing fancy. Nothing trying to be more than it was or could be. Nothing clashed.

Parker gave the wine a 90 and the estate put that on the bottle neck. To that, we say, "you go, girl." It's ten freakin' bucks and Parker throws that in your lap? Use it and abuse it.

For $10, I'd buy more for meals similar to this - food where we're sorta indifferent about the wine pairing (mostly anything would have been fine enough) and food where we just want a little meat and whole lotta yuca with mayo.


A quick note: Monday's Greek feast deserved a big write-up but frankly, it would have been long and frankly (who's Frank?) after the third bottle, the details began to get blurry w/r/t the intimate pairing details. Had a former co-worker over and the wine did flow.

Food: Yellow split pea dip with pita bread, spicy marinated cerignola and Castelvetrano olives and spiced pumpkin seeds to start. Chicken and skordalia with artichokes and fava beans for the entrée. Ouzo-lemon tiramisu for dessert.

Wine: 2006 Raventos I Blanc "L'Hereu Reserva" Brut Cava ($18 - Binny's), 2009 Skouras Moschofilero ($14 - WDC), 2009 Flor de Crasto Branco ($15 - Binny's), 2008 Valtea Albariño Rias Baixas ($17 - Binny's) and homemade Limoncello

All of us couldn't have loved the food more, particularly the yellow split pea dip, which we gorged ourselves on, leaving us full before the great chicken and skordalia, which drew the short stick on being able to fully enjoy it. Tiramisu = yes, please. I don't love tiramisu but this is some good tiramisu.

The wines played their role. Raventos Brut Cava is a favorite, this one a touch less vibrant than previous drinkings but still pretty. The Skouras showed more bitter lemon peel this time around and less depth. Good enough but forgettable. The Flor de Crasto Branco was ALL Portugal with a kaleidoscope of melon, green fruits and wet stones. Mrs. Ney freakin' Loved it. The Valtea Albariño was my favorite with a finer minerality and subtle citrus edge.

Fun food night with good company.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

#130 - Roast Duck And Onions In Date-Tomato Compote With '04 Hacienda Monasterio


Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this blog.

So...bully for us.

130 posts consisting of about 180 wines (most listed, some not).

Not bad.

We learned a lot about food and wine pairings over the last year, about what works and, more importantly, what works for us.

And last night seems like another lesson along the way.

Food: Whole roasted duck with pearl onions and chorizo in a date-tomato compote, barley-daikon radish seed rice, micro-green salad and pomegranate seeds

Whole roasted duck done the Mark Bittman way. Easy work, great recipe and we didn't love it.

Perfect medium-rare on the breasts, good enough juice, pretty skin. Just didn't love it. We missed something that comes with good duck and came to the conclusion that it was the separation of moist duck meat and beautiful duck fat. A bite came off somewhat flat and a touch too gamey. It didn't jump out at us as being something we wanted to keep eating by itself.

With a forkful of micro-greens, pomegranate seeds and a bit of duck, it touched the world of good but the duck needed a ton of help to get to the point of "good".

Pearl onions with chorizo in a date-tomato compote was the star of the night. Slightly sweet, chorizo with duck innards mixed with dates and tomato to add some richness. Great stuff.

A Trader Joe's rice blend of barley and daikon radish seed added an interesting diversion from the standard rice blend with its rustic, earthy quality.

But here's the rub. Everything on the plate carried with it the same weight. Low in fat, dark in nature, earthy but light, similar acid and similar umami. Everything stayed in the same realm of brightness and fat level.

So, while we enjoyed all the flavors, we missed the ups and downs, the contrasts w/r/t each ingredient and the, I guess, surprise. Maybe we needed something more substantially raw in the meal. Maybe we needed more of a fruit presence. Maybe we needed more fat, more contrast, more something.

In an attempt to tie elements of a meal together, maybe we got too matchy-matchy.

Or probably it's just that we don't really enjoy roast duck. It was just kinda...there.

Live and learn.

Wine: 2004 Hacienda Monasterio Ribera Del Duero ($30 - WDC)

Grape: 80% tempranillo and 10% each of cabernet and merlot
Vintage (WS): 96 - Hold - Powerful yet balanced wines, with deep, pure fruit
Made by Peter Sisseck of Pingus fame, this is the non-reserva blend.

Purple in the glass and fig on the nose. On the palate, we didn't get much in the way of fruit.

Certainly a minimum level of quality winemaking with this one with a admirable balance, nice acidity and bordering on elegant. We just didn't get much distinction.

Bit of smoke, a possible hint of black tea, some tar/tobacco blend, some spice and sweet fruit. Medium-bodied with a feeling that the wine desperately wanted to be bigger/more expressive. We just couldn't pin down what the fruit was or even wanted to be. Maybe a black currant angle and I got some hints of strawberry later in the meal but it was subdued as all get out. This one might be closing up a bit right now. Maybe it was an odd bottle. Hiding more than it was showing and both of us didn't feel compelled to reach for it.

Pairing: 83 Everything was less than we felt it should have been

In the end, it was the Contrast that we missed, resulting in a meal that didn't offer those undulations and surprises, those rides and changes. There was a lot of sameness on the plate, in the glass and together.

We would have thought the pomegranate seeds would have offered sufficient brightness, the micro-greens a raw element, the pearl onions and the compote a sweet angle, but nothing offered enough to jettison the meal out of a flatlined box of sameness.

And this was good food! We were happy and full. It just didn't jump.

It was one of those meals that informs us as to the importance of such things.

And whole roasted duck isn't our bag. We need more personality from our duck.

Live and learn.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

#129 - TK Chicken, Leeks & Arugula With '06 Michel Gahier Arbois


Now that's more like it!

Nothing like Thomas Keller chicken to banish all the bad taste/thoughts that came with Tuesday's venison meal (and the election).

And there's nothing like wine that offers an explosion of creamy fruit that compliments the food while offering something extremely distinct and separate from what's on the plate.

All good pairings do that, but this one seemed to have that in spades.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with leeks, arugula, baguette, butter and Saint Aubin cheese

The usual TK chicken, this one with copious amounts of white pepper on the chicken and all over the plate. Carved at the (coffee) table as we wanted it (makes a difference), juicy meat all around and just great stuff.

Spectacular leeks: "melted" in bacon fat and muscadet with tarragon and a glop of green peppercorn mustard and last night's celery root pureé added. Creamy, deep flavors jumping everywhere and finishing with the celery root. Blended beautifully with the breast meat, both bright, delicious and seemed made for each other. But with the thigh, the contrast of the leek's creamy brightness and the darkness of the meat was the winner. More complex and tasted thoughtful.

Big, honkin' pile of arugula with tarragon and lemon balm, white balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to finish.

Baguette and butter on the side with Saint Aubin cheese. Given as a gift to expand our stinky cheese horizons, we respected what was being offered, even liked the idea of it and willingly swallowed it. But after a few bites, we were done.

Food is more than just food because of food like this food.

Wine: 2006 Michel Gahier Chardonnay "Les Crêts" Arbois Jura ($19 - WDC)

Picked up on a Wine Discount Center run more as a catalog wine that was cheap and highly recommended by our favorite wine person at the store. Didn't think much of it as it got lost in the shuffle a little bit.

We'll be buying more very soon.

Shockingly well composed. Starts and ends with pear custard. ALL pear custard with a hint of fine minerals and some sort of a wee touch of baking spice (nutmeg?). Changed but always stayed within the pear custard framework. Sometimes, it seemed like the pears became smoked and/or poached pears and, at times, especially by itself, the minerality and smoky notes exploded with the custard receding into the background.

Sufficient enough depth to offer so much and unbelievably cheap - thought if I spent $40-50 for this, I'd be thrilled.

May be the perfect place to start if you're interested in Jura whites.

Pairing: 93 It was like the pear custard was something solid on the plate

It offered that much.

With anything creamy - the butter, the leeks - so much pear custard that it tasted like it was part of the ingredients in the food as opposed to merely complimenting the flavors in liquid form.

Probably liked it best with a bite of breast meat and leeks. It made the wine taste like freshly-made custard and oh, so shiny. But it was more complex and kinda brooding, darker, deeper and luscious with a thigh and leeks bite.

Even solid with the arugula, showing a ton of minerals and smoky pears, though the finish was a tad short.

Tasted like old milk poured from a rusty bucket with the cheese...but...not...in a...bad way.

Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! Beauty everywhere.

Crap, this was good food and wine.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

#128 - Venison With Juniper, Celery Root & Farro With A 2000 Côte-Rôtie


Maybe should have had chicken.

Mrs. Ney's impression: "Tasted like what I imagine French food tastes like at a mediocre British restaurant: Depressing."

My impression: Tasted a bit too matchy-matchy. Like what a young chef would think is the most ingenious thing ever.

Dead-of-winter flavors all cooked well, light enough not to leave a gut-busting feeling, wine that cozied right up to everything and entirely enhanced the meal and a general sense that everything was right and proper.

Just not surprising or electric.

Tasted like 1994 fancy or flavors we might have liked in 2004.

Mrs. Ney voiced what I've felt for awhile now: Screw meat with sauce.

Food: Venison with juniper berries in a blueberry-red wine reduction, chestnut farro and celery root purée

Paulina venison crusted with juniper berries, thyme, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, cooked rare to medium-rare.

Venison has a Butterfinger quality. I had plenty of venison growing up in Iowa. Like a Butterfinger, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Then you buy one, eat it and think, "Yep. That's a Butterfinger. See you in two years, my friend."

Alternating levels of gaminess that mingled nicely with the juniper and thyme. The ginny, drying aspect of the juniper offered a nice diversion and the thyme enhanced the freshness and quality of the meat. But unlike lamb, venison offers gaminess without the luxurious richness. And unlike duck, venison offers gaminess without the beautiful fatty secondary flavors. It's just too lean and the flavor isn't exotic enough or unfamiliar enough to match the ostrich/bison world of crave-able and unusual gaminess.

Fine and good meat. Just not our bag. Kinda boring.

A blueberry-red wine reduction made with blueberry preserves, copious amounts of butter, shallot and beef stock. Subtle and mild yet offered a rich butteriness, tied in with the juniper and thyme in relevant and proper ways but...

Meat and sauce reminded both of us that sometimes sauce as a integral "tie-in" component for Everything (!) on the plate tastes like a crutch. There's a fine line here. Of course sauces are relevant, important and often freakin' delicious. But it depends on what side of the fence the sauce falls. I think it has to be something that delivers a spike of surprise that elevates the protein but sufficiently separates itself from the other ingredients on the plate while only tying together with them in a "meta" way. Get too into the same flavor profile and it becomes akin to a run-of-the-mill action flick. A little too Predictable. Even as the sauce wanders into the other ingredients and you take a bite, instead of possible surprise, you know exactly where it's going to go and you're left with seeing how it's going to get to an already known ending. Might have some familiar surprise, just not new surprise.

And you begin to question the inherent purpose of the entire genre and why the hell you're watching it. Sort of like mental masturbation where the only joy is seeing if you can correctly guess what predictable lane the director is going to take.

If that makes any sense.

AND WE WANTED SOMETHING RAW ON THE PLATE! Something about everything cooked to the same level of warmness contributed to our general sense of boredom.

But the chestnut farro satisfied a part of the soul that tasted like fall and the celery root purée mixed with crème fraiche tasted gloriously silky, like a whipped, light, flavor wonder.

A very good, fine meal but one of those meals that straddled so many lines that it made both of us think about what we really like when it comes to food.

And the weird thing is...the wine was kinda great with it.

Wine: 2000 Tardieu-Laurent Côte-Rôtie ($60 - Howard's)

Grape: 100% syrah
Vintage (WS): 88 Clean and pure with good structure, but without the depth of top years

I can't really defend this purchase. Perusing the selection at Howard's on a random wine shop run last week, I thought it prudent to explore northern Rhône, a region we haven't touched yet.

Choice was a bit thin - at least with names I knew - I wanted one ready to go, one from a name I at least heard of and one of sufficient quality to get a representative example of northern Rhône.

Ah, the perils of going in blind. I overspent and knew it the second I walked out of the store.

But that's not to say this one wasn't good and I think we got something fairly representative.

Decanted for about a half-hour. Oodles of peppered bacon fat right away mixed with smoked cherries. Dry, like sucking on a cherry pit at times. Some red licorice notes occasionally. Tons of acid in a medium-bodied profile with a tart-ish finish and changed as the meal progressed, becoming a bit more substantial and plump but never getting out of its medium-bodied core.

But without food, it tasted like someone took grape and cherry Sweet-Tarts and boiled them down in Lipton tea. Not...good.

But with food, decent stuff. Not $60 good but if I'd have paid $30, I would have been happy enough.

Pairing: 87 A technically solid match, just not what we wanted

On an election night like that, this was far from the worst taste in my mouth.

In fact, I liked the meal despite everything previously said. Not one element of the meal felt technically wrong. The wine matched up almost perfectly and brought much to the overall feeling of the meal.

Nice with the venison, pleasant with the farro, kinda great with the celery root purée, oddly, especially when a little sauce wandered into it.

But not...particularly...remarkable...overall.

Funny thing is, if we jammed lamb into this exact preparation and force-fitted a big and fat Oregon pinot noir into it, we probably would have liked it more. Something about the clumsiness of it all would have offered more of a shock.

As it was, we knew what was coming at every turn.


Quick note: Hot Spanish tapas! Monday night meal of linguiça, manchego, patatas bravas, dates, Sicilian green olives, saffron mayo and honey and sherry vinegar-marinated asparagus finished with Spanish sea salt. Served with 2001 Altún Reserva.

Always a great, quick, fallback meal that needs to be revisited once a month. Always love it and in fact need it. It has a valuable purpose to our food world and always will.

The 2001 Altún Reserva Rioja ($30) was a wine we had at Piperade in San Francisco two years ago and wanted to revisit. Tasted like everything Rioja is. Sort of a blend between new and old-style Rioja showing vibrant, bright cherry with plenty of cedar and background tobacco and orange peel notes, even a wee touch of leafiness. Typical Rioja but with more bouncy verve and jump to the intermingling of the flavors, like a 3-D spazzy version of Rioja and a bit volatile. Might be in an odd phase right now. Was all over the map at times and turned raspy and undrinkable towards the end. Only the second bottle we've had and don't know the winemaker but tasted very alive, maybe a bit too much. Enjoyable, fit with the food and may revisit in five years just to see what a settled down bottle might taste like.