#140 - Lamb Stew & Pea Purée Dip With Two Wines

Two wines might be a stretch.

We certainly gave the Thackrey a go and enjoyed its candied cherry mixed with ripe horse poop. Interesting stuff, that one.

It just didn't do much with and to the lamb stew, not like an old dog that inexplicably found a quality resembling its initial former self.

You can read about our 2003 Pirramimma past here: love at first drink for a couple years, stocked up on only to maddeningly see it rapidly dying and followed now by a second life.

We don't know if the wine was in an awkward phase or if it was the result of different batches at the winery or different importer/retail sources and warehousing/stockroom issues (three different orders are all mixed up), but this has been an interesting progression, regression and progression again over the years.

Outside of cheap and good Trader Joe's Muscadet, the 2003 Pirramimma is the wine we've drunk the most in the last five years and every revisit is more interesting than the last.

Food: Spanish lamb stew, pea purée dip, baguette and butter

A New Spanish Table recipe once again. Lamb stew with dried and fresh red peppers is the title (pages 248-249) but the beauty came from the use of San Marzano tomatoes in all their brightness and pearl onions bringing a perfect level of depth. Red bell peppers and ancho peppers with garlic, chicken stock, white wine, red wine vinegar and various stew-ish essentials with a pronounced black pepper presence.

Started out tasting like a simple lamb stew but as it came down in temperature just a bit, all the flavors gelled together oh-so beautifully. Some great balance here with a surprising lightness that left us feeling clean.

Mint pea purée served as a dip for the bread and serving as a traditional match with the lamb in ways that made the meal feel like it was more than just a bowl of stew. Brought a more complete "mealness" to the meal.

Mrs. Ney didn't expect much while cooking it up but we ate well, really well with this concoction and compilation of goodness.

Wine: 2003 Pirramimma Shiraz McLaren Vale ($40 - 20/20 Wines) & NV Thackrey Pleiades XVII Old Vines ($32 - Randolph Wine Cellars)

Some of what we got from the Pirramimma last night we found last February. But where the fruit last time was a jumble of macerated fruit with a port-like consistency, the fruit this time showed more distinction and definition with big blackberry and blueberry with a bit of cherry perking up and announcing itself while coming off only slightly cooked this time. Almost round and supple (!), as they say. The fruit showed up to the party in some surprising and tasty ways.

Iron-rich blood to start that gave way quickly to the shockingly bright-ish fruit with a black pepper edge. Halfway through the meal, a huge, cheap and fresh tobacco note wrapped in mint, like Virginia Slims in all their 'bum a smoke in my 20s' glory. Seemed as if it had just 20% more lively acid, this one would have been almost exactly like when it was first released.

It's a comparative thing. It's not the freshest of fresh shirazes right now but it's showing a rejuvenation of sorts and we kinda loved it for what it was relative to past tastings and even for what it is right now separate from that.

The NV Thackrey Pleiades XVII is a complex little number (a blend of sangiovese, syrah, viognier, mourvèdre, roussanne, barbera and carignane). It's our first in the Thackrey line and from what I can gather, this might not have been the place to start. Candied red fruits, mostly cherry, with solid, medium-bodied acid and something like soy sauce upfront. The background notes is where it got interesting. Ripe horse poop dropped on a pile of straw at times with a tobacco and leather note on occasion. Large milk chocolate shavings hit, like someone shaved up a Whatcamacallit bar. Almost light, which was a surprise.

We were intrigued by it at first (and interested enough to try another) but that intrigue never progressed to wanting more, especially since it didn't really pop with the food.

Pairing: 91 The Pirramimma fit like a jigsaw puzzle with the stew in many ways

With black pepper as a bridge between the Pirramimma and the lamb stew, both sung together. The wine brought more definition and lift to the San Marzano tomatoes and onions while the stew brought more edge and sharpness to the fruit in the wine, becoming one of those times where the joy of food and wine together is sitting right in front of us in all its delicious enhancement. Even a certain minty note in the wine was resurrected by the pea purée.

The Thackrey didn't get off the ground, though. Turned into a reasonably decent Chianti with the sangiovese really dominating, making it a bit one-dimensional and coming off thin with the lamb.

But thank all that is holy that the '03 Pirramimma seems to have a true-blue second life. Too many bottles in this house to think about that much wasted money.

#139 - Szechuan Tuna, Olive/Pepper Salsa & Saffron Risotto With '07 Evening Land

Check out the new (work in progress) drop-down menu.

It's pretty, turned out oodles better than I thought and I don't want to stare at HTML code ever again.

Now to today's offering as I brace for another Angels baseball season without a lineup that realistically competes with the Yankees and Red Sox. Oh, and watching the Iowa football team fall apart. That's been fun, too.

I must admit, I've always loved tuna with rosé so darn much that taking a swipe at tuna with pinot noir never entered my brain. It's what my brain does. It gets stuck on things.

But beef up the tuna with some szechuan peppercorns, add some green olive and shallot business and why not?

Especially when this Oregon bottle brought the twiggy mud.

Food: Szechuan peppercorn-crusted tuna with a olive-pepper salsa, saffron risotto and paprika mayoed asparagus

Beautiful dry low heat with a background bright, almost sweetness brought by the Szechuan peppercorns to the great rare tuna. Szechuan peppercorns tingle the tongue in a similar way to when you put your tongue to a nine-volt battery (we had a whole one as a parting shot at Bonsoirée a few years ago - wild stuff, a gimmick but fun). Mrs. Ney got that same sensation this time. I missed it, instead getting it in much lower doses.

A salsa/relish to accompany the tuna consisting of tangerine-marinated cerignola green olives (Puglia, Italy), peppadew (sweet picanté peppers), shallots and parsley made into a relish/salsa with lemon juice added (recipe from The New Spanish Table). Mingled nicely with the tuna, bringing a creamy nuttiness from the olives with a hint of sweetness from the peppers with an herbal note. Flavors jumped around in welcome ways.

Smoky glazed asparagus slathered with paprika and mayo with cumin, garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice. From a Nate Appleman (A16, SPQR in San Francisco) recipe in Food & Wine. Surprisingly tasty and might be better than mustardized asparagus.

Saffron-pistachio risotto to round things out. We had Five Guys for lunch so a starch seems superfluous. Always good (saffron risotto that is, but Five Guys, too) and this one was but after all the freshness packed with big flavors on the plate, the goopy comfort that comes from saffron risotto seemed almost out of place.

This was Great Food, surprising food, food layered and wonderful in so many ways.

Tuna and pinot noir? Yes, please. Doin' this again real soon.

Wine: 2007 Evening Land Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills ($33 - WDC)

Opened 20 minutes before pouring, which turned out to be a good thing as the tannins showed up in bunches about an hour and a half into the meal.

A pure, translucent medium red in the glass, mossy on the nose. On the palate, huge elements of earth and twigs, like a tree branch dragged through soupy mud. Didn't taste like it was from Oregon with less forward dark red fruits - mostly dark raspberry - or that distinctive rose petal/leafy quality we love in some Oregon labels. Tasted like Burgundy (at least in my limited experience with red Burgundy) with a good core of minerals and fine grains of earth in a medium body with a pleasing backbone of acid. Almost haunting and brooding. Almost. But distinctive and tasted like a specific place/plot/terroir-y type wine of significance for the price (which we got for dirt cheap at the time).

2007 vintage reports for Oregon initially reported disaster but we've had some good experiences with the 2007's. Lighter, yes, but still complex enough. This was no exception.

And it stood up to the food in solid and surprising ways.

Pairing: 89 Creamy earth explosion with the tuna

Like if you made a mud, twigs and raspberry creamsicle and drizzled it with a dusting of dried, crushed flower roots. Seemed like the pinot noir and tuna were made for each other.

The surprise of the night, though, probably came from how the asparagus matched up with it. The cumin and paprika jumped out with the wine. Both of us didn't expect the asparagus to do anything but pinot noir and cumin can do amazing things together and it did.

Dud with the saffron risotto (really awful stuff, actually - tasted like eating dirt with rust shavings in it) so I cracked a 2009 Crios Rosé of Malbec just to see if it performed better. Fine enough but didn't come close to what the Evening Land was doing with the tuna and asparagus.

Went into the meal with some level of trepidation over the wine and proved to be quite luscious and unique.

A quick note: A Sunday night meal of jerk chicken, plantain-sweet potato mash and mint snap peas as I gave away my shift due to the apocalyptic weather reports in Chicago. Served with NV Frey-Sohler Cremant d'Alsace Riesling Brüt ($16 - WDC), a cheapie from a label we've liked in the past for its price point. Nothing too spectacular here. Mostly fruit of lime peel/pith with respectable bubbles and a refreshing angle that made it merely tasty without ever breaking out of that box (read: forgettable). Could do worse in the sparkling category for $16 but could do better as well. Food on the plate = yummy and finger-lickin' jerk goodness but the wine didn't help things along or offer anything in the way of "wow" (pairing score: 84).

#138 - Seafood Sausage In Red Thai Curry Sauce With '07 Reichsrat Von Buhl

We're going to learn German wine label terms as we go today.

We've had probably three German wines in the last three years so when I look at wine labels from Germany, my head tilts and turns like my dog's head when I say something in a tone that sounds like something she wants but doesn't quite understand.

Last night's wine coupled with a soon to be discontinued favorite Trader Joe's product of ours - seafood sausages.

Good stuff, those. And frankly ridiculous with Crios torrontés.

We weren't in the mood for floral last night and with the spice level involved in the Thai curry sauce, something with a little sugar was warranted to balance things out.

Food: Seafood sausages with green beans and rice and red Thai curry sauce

Coming off asado negro and zinfandel two nights ago, a lighter meal with white wine seemed appropriate, if only for a juxtaposition. But in reality, it's freaking cold in Chicago right now so leaving the house brings an added nuisance and we should clean out some things in the freezer.

Asian all the way. Red Thai curry paste made into a spicy liquid sauce. Green beans sautéed in sesame oil and sesame seeds. White rice as a base. Seafood sausage done up with more sesame seeds.

Everything had what we wanted. Good balance, solid spice, clean flavors, typical Asian done on the cheap. Sort of a bamboo earthy note from the sesame seeds. Spice and a touch of sugar from the curry paste, something green and a crunch from the green beans, an almost umami from the sesame oil and starch from the rice.

Nothing fancy but we were happy.

And the wine played a role.

Wine: 2007 Reichsrat Von Buhl Riesling Deidesheimer Herrgottsacker Trocken Pfalz ($20 - WDC)

Estate: Reichsrat Von Buhl

Grape: Riesling

Vineyard: Deidesheimer Herrgottsacker (near the town of Deidesheim, hence the name)

Region: Pfalz (large region, warmest in Germany, more diverse grape varieties grown, just south of Rheinhessen and southeast of the Mosel)

Style: Trocken, meaning dry. More of a comparative thing. Some sugar will be present just not nearly as much as other classifications

Vintage (WS): 95 Classically proportioned, with ripe, complex fruit and mineral flavors; density with elegance

There. That wasn't so hard. The interwebs ARE good for something.

Some age showing with this one, something that could be detected from the canned peach juice note I got right away. Not unpleasantly, when I was six in the late 70s growing up in a small town in Iowa, canned peaches and its resulting juice was a treat.

But it found some youth quickly with tangy grapefruit mixed with very subtle sugar. Brightish and tasty with an almost graceful tailing sugar. Specifically, Mrs. Ney nailed it. It was white grapefruit peel. But at its core, and everywhere else really, minerals at every turn. Minerals on top of minerals on top of minerals with tangy grapefruit and grapefruit acid.

Probably would have been more pretty a year ago but we were happy with what it offered, a sufficient enough lift and contrast with the food.

Pairing: 89 Nice back and forth with the wine offering what was missing

The wine brought fruit, acid and sweetness to a meal offering earth, starch and spice with the touch of sugar in the Thai curry serving as a bridge. Couldn't ask for more than that. Specifically, the wine really found its stride with the sesame seeds when they were isolated into a sesame seed-dominated bite.

Again, nothing fancy here but for a meal offering nothing fancy, what resulted was a meal improved by the wine.

Nice intermingling, like a get-together with work people that goes much better than ever expected.

And we learned some German wine label terms. Productive day all around.

#137 - Asado Negro & Mashed Plantains With '07 Seghesio Zin

Or dark and deep brisket.

You choose. Land of the free, you know.

A Sam Sifton recipe, the restaurant critic at the New York Times who gave us this offering just a few days ago - Venezuelan Black Beef.

Here's the recipe and here's the article explaining such things.

We used brisket. I'm gonna blaspheme here but I find slow and low beef to be one of the most neutral food-type stuffs on the planet, right up there with stadium popcorn and, in another milieu, CSI:NY.

I can respect it, even like it at times, but I can't think of one time that I craved it.

But we got a good one last night. And it came from the balance offered along with the various accoutrements not hitting us over the head like a blunt hammer with its ever-present presence.

Food: Asado Negro with mashed plantains, jalapeño cheddar biscuits and sautéed spinach

Most certainly dark and deep, but with a caveat. When I took a bite of the beef, upfront was a pretty and bright balance of vinegar and sugar, not cloying, not overly acidic. Then that gave way to a subtle hit of the low and slow infusion of ingredients like the peppers, onions, garlic and soy-Worcestershire mix. But again, it was more of a lifting darkness as opposed to something that sticks in your throat. Finished with the brisket that wasn't fatty or tasting like a nap might be required posthaste.

Make no mistake. This IS dark and deep. Great depth here, just without the sticky-sweet sugar and stomach-scraping acid. Came off fancy due to the care the recipe takes to make sure a proper balance was struck. In place of the white sugar, we used piloncillo, unrefined whole cane sugar from Latin America (and mentioned in Sifton's article). Might have been the difference. Tons of sugar used in this recipe but it never came off candied. Everything came off...proper and oddly light.

Mashed plantains on the side, bringing more Latin-y goodness.

Jalapeño cheddar biscuits. Been way too long. I heart these things so much.

A fine and good meal with a recipe worth trying.

Wine: 2007 Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County ($22 - WDC)

It's been about two years since we had this one (same vintage). I remember thinking at the time that if someone didn't know what people mean by balance in a wine and wanted a cheap bottle that had it, this was the one to try. Big, sparkly, supple, round blueberry and dark cherry fruit last time followed by an appropriate and delicious herb hit and finishing with some very pretty acid. Fond memories.

The short drinking window given for this one by critics ( - 2012) made me curious but after last night, that seems right. The fruit isn't dying per se, just transforming into a macerated blueberry, blackberry and dark cherry mixture that maybe has been sitting out on the counter too long. Came off a touch flat, showing more a blue Sweet Tart quality, especially with the food, and later showed a bit of almond extract and some leather. I missed that sparkle, that liveliness, that balance that was oh so apparent last time.

Still serviceable stuff with a softer edge but it's time to drink this up. More air didn't really improve it.

But serviceable with the food.

Pairing: 88 Like a senior golfer who has a good front nine with the food

Nothing to dislike and the wine even had moments of (mere) goodness with brisket.

Never broke out though, staying in that middle of the road territory of "that ain't too bad, huh?"

Odd with the cheddar biscuits, showing more of its dying structure than anything. The Sweet Tart note really kicked up with the plantains but it settled into a nice place with the brisket.

We needed to bring some sugar with the asado negro recipe and zinfandel was right and proper. We had no regrets but something younger and more spritely may have rounded out the tasty food on the plate quite nicely.

Live and learn. Drink the zins with short windows and late teens/early 20s price tags very early.

#136 - Monday TK Chicken With A Value Chardonnay Tasting

Aging gracefully means possessing the requisite amount of humility to admit when you're wrong and then learning from it.

Among the laundry list of wrongs in my life, some smaller wrongs have smacked me right in the face as the most shocking.

But one must also possess the wisdom to know the difference between wrongs that can be studied and wrongs that are simply too stupid to warrant study.

Things like "This reality show craze has a short shelf life" and "Don't worry, Sarah Palin will go away soon enough" were very wrong wrongs.

So when Palin got her own reality show...and then did a crossover show with "Kate Plus 8"...

...Can't learn from that. That can only make me queasy. The Learning Channel indeed, guys.

But I digress.

I once proclaimed that I'd never like chardonnay. Boatloads of wrong, there. Just boatloads.

And here's yet another example why.

Food: TK chicken, pearl onions and chestnuts, Delice de Bourgogne cheese with baguette and mâche salad with lemon balm

Same Thomas Keller recipe as the ten times before. It's a Monday staple.

Delice de Bourgogne cheese. A staple with TK chicken, this one past its due date by a month. All sorts of crazy funk going on.

Pearl onions and chestnuts that were tasty but seemed superfluous to both of us.

A mâche salad with a mustard vinaigrette that was an afterthought and barely even wanted until we tasted it. The lemon balm added a drying, lemon/minty/soapy flower goodness that reminded me of secondary chenin blanc flavors. You know, the puzzling weirdness that makes chenin blanc so gosh darn good.

The entire TK chicken experience is in "last meal" territory for me. Yes. Chicken. Last meal. It's that good.

One quick note: A trick learned from Around My French Table. Place a few pieces of baguette under the chicken in the cast-iron pan to prevent sticking. What results is the most ridiculously decadent essence of chicken juice charred baguette tasty nugget you've ever had. Like chicken and bread on crack.

Wine: 2007 Domaine de Gandines Viré Clessé ($22 - In Fine Spirits) & 2008 Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay Napa Valley ($17 - Trader Joe's)

Sort of a bargain chardonnay tasting of wines with decent reviews.

Or Old World vs. New World, if that helps you. We'll be doing a few more of these in the near future as we sample chardonnays from Washington, Oregon and California regions not Napa. We're curious and open to the experience right now w/r/t American chardonnays.

Last night's head-to-head went as expected, though. White Burgundy is a perfect 5-0 so far in our house.

The Merryvale Starmont drew raves by Wine Spectator for its "complexity and intensity, always hanging on to its core fruitiness." Not what we got. A nectarine quality was present but we had to dig for it as it was buried under a thick, wooly blanket of vanilla extract. Like Cinnamon Toast Crunch drenched in vanilla extract. Wasn't thick or cloying and even tapered off quite nicely but wasn't in balance. Blunt and clunky upfront, had its moments on the mid-palate and seemed to desperately want to be a better wine overall but never got there.

The Domaine de Gandines was a different story, confirming again why white Burgundy rules the roost. All honey, creamy smoke and minerals wrapped in a medium body and a crisp touch of acidity on the back end. A touch of lemon rind and even a small hint of blood orange on occasion with something that resembles red pepper flakes and white pepper on the back end.

But the joy came from the mineral core, in particular what we've come to know from the Viré Clessé mineral quality that we've found in the three we've had recently. It's less refined than the Auxey Duresses stuff, tasting more rough and tumble like big polished river rock instead of fine, graceful, small and pretty. Almost serves the fruit like albariño's minerality serves its fruit. Comes off intentionally wild, making for a ton of surprises along the way.

And that's the rub. White Burgundy never beats you over the head with its chardonnay-ness. Last night's wine even, at times, on certain sips, resembled a Vouvray in ways. No butter core, no large oak core. Just a swirl of interesting changes all night.

Pairing: 92 Old World wins again

If we only had the Merryvale Starmont with this meal, I'm sure we would have found something to marginally like but it would have been a stretch. Just too much vanilla.

At times, it sufficed, offering something extra with the onions and chestnuts, coming off sort of like an autumn pairing with its darker, more brooding notes. With everything else though, it tasted ordinary and too much like itself - a vanilla bomb.

The white Burgundy was so familiar to us in the best way, playing right into the French-inspired preparation and product on the (coffee) table. Things just dance in the best way, right in step and never off key.

It's what we want. Always.

#135 - Shrimp And Quiche With Stift Göttweig Grüner Veltliner

Or quiche, garlic baguette and arugula salad with a side of shrimp.

The quiche was that good, taking all the focus off the shrimp.

More bald advertising for good cookbooks with today's offering.

Quiche maraîchère from Around My French Table, a cookbook given as a gift that's quickly turning out to be something needed and goshdarn great.

Shrimp from The New Portuguese Table, a cookbook that's proving to us over the last few months that Portuguese food can be a wee bit timid for what we want and like.

Food: Shrimp and quiche with garlic baguette and arugula and basil salad

Shrimp soaked in peri-peri sauce and quickly cast-ironed, seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with lemon juice squeezed on at the table. Fine shrimp, tasty to a point shrimp but we missed what shrimp has meant to us recently, like black garlic shrimp or Spanish shrimp with a big garlic hit or carrot juice/chipotle shrimp like in the recent past. Tasted...too simple...and just shrimp, really.

We aren't quiche people. But this wasn't eggy quiche. Only one whole egg, one egg yolk and supplemented with gouda cheese. Red pepper, carrot, celery and leek quiche that tasted buttery but light. Great balance and utterly delicious, especially once we got into it.

Arugula and basil salad to finish and garlic baguette on the side.

I'll return to an old favorite - movie comparisons. The meal was like Taken. I barely knew anything about the movie when I pushed play. By the time it was over, all I could think was, "That was kinda awesome!" Very little plot, no character development, stupid "American revenge in a post 9/11 world" overtones, but just 90 minutes of brutal and highly entertaining action.

Just a good time, like the meal. And the wine had a place, if only in a supporting actor way.

Wine: 2006 Stift Göttweig Gottschelle Grüner Veltliner ($21 - WDC)

It's simplified since we last had it. Less alive and jumpy, more settled and bordering on one-dimensional. Still exotic fruits floating around and a good acidity still lingers. A pronounced orange peel note shot up on occasion. Even creamy white peach. I've read people found a plum juice note with this one. Maybe. Right now, it tastes like some of the cheaper Hungarian whites we've had. Interesting to a point and exotic enough to be intriguing for a few minutes but definitely settling into the more simple vein.

Pairing: 85 Never offered anything other than being an acid component to the meal

The orange peel notes and cream kicked up with the quiche and garlic baguette but never offered enough to bring a complimentary/original element to the meal.

Served more as an acid counterplay with the quiche/baguette while falling fall with the shrimp, which already had lemon juice.

We needed a wine more guts, maybe a touch of sugar, possibly something more bone-dry, maybe an oily quality, to get it into a realm of a solid pairing. As it was, it was kinda boring.

But that quiche. I heartily endorse such things.

A quick note: Paprika on Lawrence just east of Rockwell pumps out some great Indian food. After Hema's earlier this year, we were hesitant to jump back on the Indian wagon, but this is great stuff, fresh and cheap as all get out. Various naans, chutneys, samosas and a chicken tikka masala eaten with a sparkling Vouvray favorite, NV Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau Demi-Sec Sparkling Vouvray ($18 - Binny's). The refreshment brought on by the sparkling aspect of the wine served as the primary goodness with the food but that was okay with us. Good enough. Check out Paprika. Along with Semiramis, it's a new great BYO option in the neighborhood.

#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.

#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)

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#127 - Chicken Breast, Anchovy Pasta & Kumatoes With '06 Guiberteau Saumur Rouge

Was it Sicilian?

Certainly Mediterranean but with an inland French bent.

Maybe Californian? That cuisine seems to co-opt anything that borders on the rustic and fresh.

To me, it tasted like Avec.

Food: Mustard-garlic chicken breasts with anchovy farro pasta and kumatoes with olives

Quick and easy Jacques Pepin mustard-garlic chicken breasts cooked under a brick à la Mark Bittman. Juicy, enough depth and stayed right smack dab in the same flavor range as the rest of the plate.

Winner of the night: Farro pasta mixed with anchovies, capers, aleppo pepper, toasted bread crumbs, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil and parsley. Stellar stuff. HUGE anchovy hit in the best way, never turning fishy and toned down by the bread crumb filler and lemon zest. Perfect heat with oodles of aleppo pepper added. To use an overused word, just freakin' fantastically balanced, the kind of stuff I could eat again today and tomorrow and be utterly satisfied.

Kumatoes (second time in 10 days and eaten with another from the Guiberteau family of wines) drizzled with white balsamic vinegar and gaeta black olives. New favorite weird hybrid food-style substance. Darker tomato deliciousness with an almost plummy flavor that turns bright and low-grade acidic.

Kind of a shock. Mrs. Ney thought little about this meal and turned out like a plate full of Mediterranean joy.

And the wine did its part.

Wine: 2006 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Rouge ($30 - Red & White)

Grape: 100% cabernet franc

SubRegion: Anjou-Saumur

Vintage (WS): 85 for cabernet franc - very rainy, leading to unripe grapes

Mostly indifferent to cab franc due to the few we've had that were rather ordinary, this one will force me to think about it in the future. Toss the vintage report out the window with this producer (see a two great write-ups over at Wicker Parker).

Dark and brooding raspberry pile here that tasted like a splash of cherry juice was spread over the top. Flowery (dried rose petals) with fine earth (kinda loamy) and herbs intermingling and an enormous amount of beautifully fine, twiggy, woody tannins dominating the entire background in the best possible sense. Made me truly understand the use of cabernet franc in a Bordeaux blend and what it offers w/r/t structure and finesse. Nice transitions that bordered on elegant. Given the little experience I have with cabernet franc, if asked, start here.

And it constantly changed in respectable ways with the food.

Pairing: 89 Enjoyed what it brought immensely

Had no real plan with this meal so we simply took the suggestion from the Jacques Pepin recipe on pairings. Loire red and we had one we didn't really care about.

No complaints in the least.

Stayed pretty much itself without food, which we liked, and kept in line with the chicken and its medium-depth of flavor with a touch of flavor punch (I'm practicing my Sandra Lee non-descriptive descriptiveness). Liked it.

But with the the anchovy-farro pasta, it sung. Intensified the aleppo pepper to a large extent, separating it out right away with everything popping up later. Got to explore the complexity of the tannins with the pasta as they changed and glommed onto different flavors in the wine with slightly different combinations of bites.

Nearly identical acid levels in the kumatoes and the wine made it compatible, if not spectacular (a bit too much one-dimensional earth and twigs) but with a bite of chicken and kumato, the wine tasted surprisingly like a handful of red apple peel.

Changed and surprised, those are the two words that kept coming back.

We'd do it again in a second.

#126 - Quail, Fava, Iberico & Soda Bread With '98 Heredia Rosado

Sometimes, you have to find the bottom of things to understand the spectrum of goodness.

At the very bottom of the wine and food spectrum of goodness for me is Iberico ham and the '98 Heredia Rosado. I truly can't describe how awful those two taste together. Best I can do is if you've ever accidentally mixed bathroom cleaners when cleaning the tub, like bleach and KaBoom!, and a wisp of something like the devil's brew of chemical vapors shoots up your nose.

Or like you washed your dog in a rusty basin and decided to see what the water tasted like.

Maybe people like that. People are into a lot of weird things. Just ask Brett Favre.

I pass.

As an overall meal, it tasted like really fancy picnic food. But pretty much a dud with the wine.

Food: Quail with pistachio sauce, fennel and fava salad, Iberico, coffee-crusted cheese and soda bread

Quail marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and smoked paprika and cooked medium-ish. Slightly gamey, a lil bit sweet, tasty meat. Two medium-sized quail each. I like quail, or I should say I have fond memories of the few quail meals I've had. And that's probably it. My memories might be better than the actual consumption of it. More of a diversion that satisfies just enough than savoring every bite.

Fine on its own but much better with a Moroccan pistachio sauce made with pistachios, parsley, mint, chilies, garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Fresh fava beans, nature's most well-packaged food, and sautéed fennel salad dressed with white balsamic vinegar, cilantro and mint. Sort of a seasonal transition salad between summer and fall bringing lightness and lift while serving as a bridge between the darker flavors on the plate.

Soda bread made with walnuts and dates, Barely Buzzed coffee-crusted cheese from Beehive Cheese Company in Utah and Iberico ham from Binny's.

Take out the Iberico and this meal could have been quite versatile with a huge range of wine. Pinot noir would have fit quite nicely. We were intrigued by the idea of a grüner veltliner just to see what would have happened. 2001 Heredia Bosconia worked well enough with Iberico in the past. Iberico isn't cheap so having it play a big role in the pairing seemed appropriate. With fennel involved as well coupled with the leafy orange peel notes that the Heredia rosado usually shows, the pairing seemed destined for, in the least, acceptableness to marginal goodness.

It wasn't.

Wine: 1998 López de Heredia Tondonia Gran Reserva Rosado ($23 - Binny's)

It's shown better in the past.

60% grenache, 30% tempranillo and 10% viura

Dusty old orange peels on the nose. Fading, old, mashed dried cherries, cashews, moldy wet leaves, some caramel and even a car battery acid component (and maybe some old milk) on the palate. A bit flat with, dare I say, somewhat muddled flavors. Came off boring. We've only had three of this one in the last year but, from memory, it seems like it's taking a very linear, incremental arc to an odd place. I could be totally wrong but it just hasn't excited me lately like it has in the past.

It's in the dust. It hasn't been evocative lately. Where before, it tasted and smelled like the dust of vivid childhood memories, like walking into an old house where something exciting feels like it's about to happen. This dust tastes and smells like you're an adult and you have to clean out a water-damaged attic that hasn't been touched for years. You're left with an immediate sense that you're going to get real sick of the taste and smell real quick. Because it tastes like work you don't want to do.

Nearly all of the same elements as in the past with this wine, they just came off much less interesting and alive. Tasted kinda tired and diluted, like an old man that just wants to sit in a chair and watch TV until he dies instead of an infinitely interesting, energetic old man with stories coming out of his wa-zoo. Missed that underlying freshness that perks up among all its beautifully dusty, musty, crusty, blustery fall wind notes.

Utterly drinkable but still must be compared to how it's shown in the past.

A 2000 is out there. May be time for us to switch vintages.

We'll try it again with tuna niçoise sometime. We know that's spectacular and will be a better gauge as to where it is.

Pairing: 82 as it was, 86 if it were a picnic

All that said about the wine, there were moments. The fennel with the wine was borderline delicious and tasted like the wine was attempting to find its former legs.

A bite of quail and pistachio sauce with the wine wandered into the world of tasty. And with the soda bread, it might have been best with the dates playing right into the wine's wheelhouse.

Unequivocally awful with the Iberico ham. Have I mentioned that?

We didn't love the food but certainly liked it. If we had all of it on a picnic (which we've never done - picnic, that is), we would have thought it fancy pants and having any wine with it would have upped the fancy pants factor even more.

Happy enough overall but with some grumbles.