#183 - Sake-Soaked Wagyu Beef & Sweet Potato Fries With '05 Yalumba HP Shiraz-Viognier

We eat meat, love meat and crave meat.

But this year, we've eaten much less meat, more lean meat and mostly mini versions of meat with each meal.

Under the auspices of 'you can have too much of a good thing,' we started to experience the fact that bigger portions of meat, even six ounces of meat, on the plate detracts from the after-burn from and basking in the enjoyment of a good meal.

We've been wanting our veggies more, our greens more and a well-prepared starch more with a smaller portion of meat at the center of the meal to complement instead of bullying such things.

We've always eaten well-balanced meals but being from the Midwest, we haven't completely shed the upbringing of meat and meat with a side of meat.

Eight ounces of wagyu beef, a slab of dead animal that tasted like a delicious grilled stick of butter, will force anyone to reconsider the peculiar details of an upbringing.  Sort of like eating the Meat Monster.

Mrs. Ney was prudent and stopped at four ounces of meat-butter consumption.  I did not.

Food:  Sake-soy soaked wagyu beef, sweet potato fries with red thai curry mayo and watercress

The Fish Guy on Elston wagyu beef ($36 for 16 oz.) cooked rare.  Not cheap but it's wagyu.  Oddly though, it left us wanting a bit.  This was the first time we cooked up wagyu at home.  Had it and loved it in various forms out in the world but never at home.  Dunked in salt, then sake, then soy sauce, then finished with a crusting of szechuan peppercorns; from a Saveur recipe and the same recipe used in the superlative #143 Asian beef filet with 2007 Quinta do Vale Meão in December.  Quality stuff but begged the question:  If you're going to buy one of the best cuts of meat on the planet, should you go whole-hog and buy the best cut of one of the best cut of meat on the planet?  Both of us weren't driving down to Fox & Obel and probably drop $20 more to get the same amount but we ended up wondering if he should have.  If done again, that would feel right and proper.

Beautiful taste, great marbling but we both felt like eating eight ounces of anything that tastes like a grilled stick of butter needs in its most basic form to be much...less.  Three to four ounces would have been prudent and even necessary.  Something about taking that first bite and seeing the task before you with so much more meat on the plate forces the meat to loudly star.  Stop halfway through?  Again, I grew up in the Midwest in a big family.  You clean your plate.  Still haven't shed some of that upbringing.

But the Asian preparation of the wagyu was delicious stuff and it's versatile with so many other cuts of beef.  Sake and soy come through beautifully, imparting a deep but bright and lifting quality that lingers nicely with a popping and bright szechuan peppercorn hit backing it up.

That played right into the sweet potato fries and Thai red curry mayo for dipping.  We like our mayo and this one sits in the top five.  With the meat prep and sweet potato-mayo-Asian goodness, we were happy.

Uplands Cress watercress bag from Jewel, roots and all in the bag, stemmed and then wilted in the meat pan.  A better watercress by every measure.  Planty and raw with a punch of something that tastes like the white bits in potting soil in the best possible way.  No other watercress will most likely ever hit the plate in this house.

Tasty food galore.  Asian-y, delicious and played right into one of our favorite wines.  But four ounces of beef filet offering something less of a "LOOK AT ME, I'M WAGYU!" might have been better.  We needed more low-key beefy goodness to allow every element of the meal to alternately take the stage and belch out to the rafters.  We needed a meat that would shut up and let others show their acting chops.

It was like watching Nicolas Cage chewing scenery with his bloated Nic Cage-ness at every possible turn.

Wine:  2005 Yalumba Hand-Picked Shiraz Viognier ($30 - Winerz)

Probably the fourth bottle we've had of this vintage.  Used to be available in town but sadly has gone away.

Biggest impression of the night was how little it's budged since we first had it.  Still chugging along, longer life here and cheap, cheap, cheap for what you get.  More dark cherry and wild berry with an underlying darker fruit note and a small creamy edge but plenty of dark, meaty fruit skin.  The fruit since our last experience seems to have became a bit more tight and focused.  Some nice grip.

Secondary flavors of herby sage, a touch of pencil and even something similar to sweet paprika with mature, paced transitions leading to a finish that kept going.  Viognier still lending a juicy acid feel to it, lifting it out of the ordinary Australian shiraz world and into something more pretty and friendly.

Followed a great arc throughout the meal, becoming more open and delicious halfway through and ending on an irony sanguine note that was utterly delicious.  Not fruit bomby, this is graceful stuff.

Again, shocked how little age this one has shown over the years.  Falls into the 2003 Pirramimma world for us - a wine that we'd buy a case of just to watch it die a fun death.      

Pairing:  89  Enough basic goodness but the world, like the meal, needs less of Nic Cage being Nic Cage

If we cooked up four ounces of beef filet with the same preparation, this one could have been great.

Good stuff paired the wagyu with the Asian preparation playing its part more than the meat.  Szechuan peppercorns continue to shine with Australian shiraz for us.

Nice with the sweet potato fries and Thai red curry dip and strangely good at times with the watercress, especially as the wine hit its later, irony stage.

We liked this meal but expected more, though.

And as Mrs. Ney says, "People that bitch about Australian fruits bombs can kiss my butt!"

Good ones are Great Stuff in our world.

#63 - Blackbird

We love Blackbird because it's delicious.

We love Blackbird because the staff is spectacular.

We love Blackbird because it always surprises the hell out of us.

For us, when discussing the best restaurants in Chicago, it begins and ends with Blackbird.

Last night reaffirmed those notions and may have even upped the ante. Best experience yet.

Starter bubbly: French brut rosé

A gift. Weren't told the specific wine. Strawberry notes with a nice delicacy and vibrant bubbles. Not on the list.

Amuse Bouche: Asian carp with black garlic

I'm guessing Asian carp (from Google searches). Didn't hear what it was and didn't ask. Very soft fish with a refined punch of black garlic. Tasty.

Appetizers: Crab tail and duck sausage with mortadella

Alaskan king crab tail with ricotta mayo, sunchokes, smoked paprika and pickled parsley paired witha glass of 2007 Regis Cruchet Demi-Sec Vouvray

Charcuterie plate of duck sausage and mortadella with lobster roe vinaigrette and almond yogurt (?) paired with a glass of 2008 Domaine Ostertag Alsace Riesling

The Vouvray was different than other demi-secs we've had. Solid fruit with very pleasing dried flowers but it seemed to enter and finish in the opposite order than other demi-secs in my experience, starting with dried flowers and finishing with an expanding fruit and honey note. Good stuff and a solid pairing. But freakin' genius with a parsley bite.

The Alsatian Riesling had a stylish and elegant purity to it that felt almost ethereal. Flowery with candied stone fruit notes and only a wee hint of sugar. Minerals and a hint of herbs. Loved it. And liked it well enough with the duck sausage (which was spectacular) and mortadella (which was the best I've ever had - can't beat fancy bologna).

Intermezzo: Half-order of crispy black bass with green papaya, dandelion greens, walnuts and charred beef vinaigrette

A gift. Great browning on the fish and terrific, julienned green papaya. We were hesitant to order it as an entrée, mainly due to the dandelion greens, which we had a few times during a very brief phase about a year ago and went "those are awful!" These were hidden. Iffy to say if we would have loved it as an entrée but both of us thought it was insanely balanced and infinitely tasty. The sort of glazed walnut clusters really elevated it as well.

Paired with a Napa Chardonnay that our server - who shall remain nameless but is our favorite server in the city by far, always gives us interesting recommendations, lets us try stuff, gives us way too much free stuff and is just overall 50% of the reason Blackbird rules - was trying at the bar and gave to us in a futile attempt to get us to open up to Chardonnay. Nope. Still don't get the allure.

Entrées: Lamb Saddle and Wagyu Flat Iron

Roasted colorado lamb saddle with white asparagus, vermouth, fromage blanc and spring pea falafel

Grilled wagyu flat iron and warm bone marrow with pickled cippolini onions, caraway crumble, chickweed and pomegranate molasses

Lovely lamb, mild and sweet and gamey and lovely. Beautifully-prepared piece of tender meat and the best quenelle-ish falafel Mrs. Ney has EVER had (and the second time in a week we've had sweet pea in some modified form). We prefer the bone-in, more gnarly lamb incarnation but it was tasty nonetheless.

Different preparation of wagyu than I've had. A smokiness reminiscent of spectacular BBQ by itself and more dense, less buttery style. But eaten with the shockingly wonderful caraway crumble (I wanted to have its babies), some onion and a little green, I'd probably put it in the top 20 of the best bites ever (that list now has about 72 things on it). The bone marrow was a tad superfluous (and didn't have a chance after Lola's bone marrow appetizer).

Entrée Wine Pairing: 2005 Domaine Gourt de Mautens Rasteau

We're relative Rhône novices and had never drunk a Rasteau before. Recommended by our server to pair with the entrées, it's predominantly Grenache with a touch of Mourvèdre. Small producer, impossible to find.

Rasteau mainly grows Grenache and is located just east of Carianne and north of Gigondas in the Rhône valley.

Purple in the glass with blue edges. Medium-bodied. Meat and pepper right away but after ten minutes or so, this exploded with huge blueberries and a quality background of violets, some earthy grit and a hint of sweet herbs. Kept subtly changing with the intensity of the blueberries fading in and out, changing over to red fruits at times. In its blueberry phase, I would have thought it was strange, wonderful and less dense Syrah. Overall, it was delicious and liked it even more after the bottle was finished and had some time to process it.

If this is Rasteau, I want more Rasteau. It wasn't great with the lamb due to the fact that the lamb preparation was more on the delicate side with softer flavors that didn't match up with the earth and herbs in the wine. Fell just on the other side of the fence of being too big for the dish. With the wagyu, it fell right in line with nearly every note. Heck, the wine could even had been a bit bigger with this preparation of wagyu. Mrs. Ney thought the exact opposite with the lamb being a much better pairing than the wagyu.

Pre-dessert: Rhubarb sorbet with quinoa

A gift. Quinoa and sorbet? Yes. And it's good.

Dessert: Hazelnut and chocolate

Hazelnut dacquoise with espresso, crispy chicory caramel and apricot kernel sherbet

Criollo chocolate with cupuaçu, milk meringue and tonka bean ice cream

The dacquoise (funny word to say) was the better of the two but the chocolate dish had elements like the tonka bean and cupuaçu that I've never had before with everything having a pleasant wild grittiness to it.

But that dacquoise. Wow! Like butter.

The hazelnut dessert was paired with a 2006 Francis Tannahill "Passito" Oregon Gewürztraminer while the chocolate was paired with a darker sparkling rosé, probably a French bubbly left on the skins a bit longer, that wasn't on the list. Both gifts. Had them before and liked them enough.

Everything topped off with double espressos and a Grappa made from Barolo. See you in five years, Grappa. Still don't get you.

But Blackbird, oh Blackbird! See you very soon. Much sooner than the six months in between the last two visits.

And the window seat on a slow night made it that much better.

#100 - San Francisco

A little over two years ago, we had what was the best restaurant food day of our lives.

Lunch at Chez Panisse Café and dinner at French Laundry.

That was a good day.

After the last Cleveland trip in April "didn't take," another trip out of the increasingly wearisome Chicago was needed tout suite. How about a cheap enough two-day trip back to San Francisco and its 60-degree weather when it's 95 crotch-sweatingly hot degrees in Chicago? Yeah...that'll do.

And in many ways, the great restaurant day from two years was duplicated right down to the owners of the two restaurants.

Ad Hoc Restaurant - Yountville

Right down the street from the French Laundry, Ad Hoc is the third Thomas Keller restaurant within a stone's throw of each other in Yountville, ten miles north of the city of Napa.

Opened in 2006, the place was originally a place holder for an inevitable burgers and 1/2 bottles restaurant Keller was planning, but the response he got from the comfort-food joint led him to keep the concept going.

And for that, we thank him. It was spectacular.

$49 four-course meal served family-style in a small, 14 table space that nonetheless feels airy while having a laid-back comfort and sparkle to it. Completely casual. Wear what you like.

We caught Memphis BBQ night:

Frisee & Bitter Greens Salad

Sungold cherry tomato, pickled pearl onion, hush puppy crouton, spiced tillamook cheddar

Memphis Style Barbeque

Wagyu beef brisket, grilled fatted calf andouille sausage, pulled pork sliders, savoy cabbage slaw, yellow corn and rancho gordo pinquito beans

Panteleo

Marshall's Farm wildflower honey, suncrest peaches

Chocolate Swiss Roll

Hazelnut crunch, vanilla ice cream

Wines:

Two glasses of NV (?) Schramsberg Blanc de Noir to start

1/2 bottle of 2007 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner with the frisee salad

1/2 bottle of 2007 Domaine des Pallieres "Les Racines" Gigondas with the BBQ

One Tokaji Aszu and one Quinto Do Noval Port with dessert

As always, it was in the little things. The hush puppy croutons were ridiculously delicious, especially with a smear of spiced cheddar. The wagyu beef brisket was the best preparation of wagyu I've ever had, beating even the Blackbird version from last October. The sausage...what can I say...great stuff. Something about the spice level. Some of the best honey I've ever had and the freshness of the vegetables was off the charts.

It seemed like we caught a menu (as the menu changes daily) that everyone working at the restaurant was quite fond of and what resulted on the plate told us why. I'll remember those flavors for years.

But what both of us will remember the most about the Ad Hoc meal will be the wine pairing. The grüner was quite good and performed well with the salad. The sparkling rosé was all creamy raspberry with loads of lively bubbles and pinot noir goodness.

But we immediately fell silly in love with the 2007 Domaine des Pallieres "Les Racines Vieilles Vignes" Gigondas. Seems almost wrong how good it was. Mostly Grenache with Syrah, Cinsault and Clairette as well. It was pure silk showing dark red berries and fruit cake notes that on the mid-palate just exploded with red licorice juice. Bright yet brooding at the same time with an almost velvety finish. Wanna get to know Gigondas and what good Grenache can taste like from the Rhône? This one's $30-40. Buy it and find out. Nearly perfect with the BBQ and absolutely perfect with the corn and bean salad. Ab-sol-utely perfect.

A great meal that will be long remembered with a new favorite wine.

Chez Panisse Restaurant - Berkeley

The first time we ate at Chez Panisse two years ago, it was upstairs in the a la carte café and had some great food, even realizing the joys of superlatively-prepared chicken. We always liked chicken enough but that was Chicken.

Always somewhat curious about the downstairs and its set four-course menu, we gave it a go with the caveat that we might cancel if the menu didn't look particularly great to us. After seeing it two days before (they release the menus for the week on Sunday), it sounded good enough with the added prospect that it's Chez Panisse. We'll probably be just fine.

And we were in spades.

Menu:

King salmon carpaccio with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and basil

Hand-cut pasta with summer chantrelles, squash blossoms and arugula

Becker Lane Farm pork loin alla toscana with fennel sausage, green beans and cranberry beans

Almond nougat and strawberry ice cream cassata

I can take or leave salmon but I could eat this salmon once a week. Bright tomatoes, beautifully light touch with the aioli and generous hits of basil. But the salmon was the star. Terrifically fresh and just so damn tasty. A fine enough pasta, if a tad unmemorable, cooked the definition of al dente. But the pork loin! Oh, the pork loin! Almost didn't want to eat it because it was so pretty with a gentle pink center that faded to the edges with an almost grace. Mixed with the fennel sausage, it was a sumptuous bite of food. Solid dessert and a good capper with French press.

But with the salmon and pork loin, we had one beautiful meal.

Wines:

Two glasses of Cava with the salmon carpaccio = a beautiful pairing.

Two interesting glasses with the pasta, a Corbières Blanc and a white from the Canary Islands. The Corbières showed elegant fruit and the Canary Islands white had a subtle touch of oil mixed with almonds (?) and smoked peach.

1/2 bottle of Domaine des Pallieres "Les Racines" Gigondas. The same wine from Ad Hoc because it was on the menu for $32 freakin' dollars and we loved it. Great again with the pork loin.

A glass of Hüet Demi-Sec Vouvray dessert wine which fell flat with the dessert. I figured it might but wanted to try it.

Two great meals again from Thomas Keller and Alice Waters. For that, we thank them profusely. A special mention should go out to Gianni, our server at Chez Panisse who was an utter joy all night. We wanted to hug him.

I would mention the lunch at Slanted Door if it was worth mentioning. Someone in the kitchen limed the beef carpaccio twice, turning it into a sloppy mess and the tuna tartare and spring rolls were merely fine enough with everything arriving at the table within three minutes of ordering it. We felt a bit rushed, which was a complete departure from the last time we were there and had a fantastic dinner/experience. The bottle of NV Tissot Crément du Jura was quite tasty though with a smoky creaminess and subtle hits of apple and lime.

Gott's Roadside in the Ferry Building, the inspiration for the marinade for fish tacos written about here on a few occasions? Skip it.

But if you're in Berkeley and looking for a quick lunch, run don't walk to Gioia Pizzeria on Hopkins. It's New York-style pizza with a Berkeley bent that made us curse the gods that Chicago refuses to do New York-style pizza right or at all. Crackerbox space, cheap as dirt and freakin' delicious.

All in all, a good trip, a needed trip, a trip that offered oceans breezes and 55-60 degree weather when it was hot as hell in Chicago. People were in sweaters and fleeces in July. I can support that.

I can recommend: Ad Hoc, Chez Panisse, the BART ($19 from Berkeley to SFO), the casual, seemingly normal and generally happy people of San Francisco and the Kia Sportage as a rental (nice little car. Wouldn't own one but nice little car).

Things that I can't: Slanted Door at lunch, Gott's Roadside, mothers flying with four screaming kids in tow, middle-aged women with too much money and a fanny pack that have no internal dialogue, taxi from SFO to Berkeley ($75), the person who thought it was smart to carpet and upholster the BART and the punch of heat in the face upon returning to Chicago (made worse by the fact that I was still in a fleece).

We'll see you soon, Northern California. You're nice.

#97 - Blackbird

I've blathered on about Blackbird on numerous occasions. Our last visit in April (#63) was the best experience we'd ever had there.

Last night fell somewhere in the middle of the pack.

To plagarize myself and put it into context:

"Blackbird is consistently innovative, always right on in preparation, never stuffy and always filling. As with every great meal, you remember the little things. The French toast on the sweet corn bourvois, the sesame gnocchi on the short rib, the wine pairing with the pork collar and the fact that the octopus confit made us reconsider octopus, period."

While we had a good meal last night and our waiter (half the reason we go there) was his usual great with some fantastic recommendations and conversation, it was the little touches that we missed, if only the slightest bit.

Both of us thought that in our experience at Blackbird, it's always been the fall menus that made us wet our pants. In the fall, a chef is allowed to mess around with bolder, more intricate and layered flavors instead of making sure to first keep it light, which usually leads to a lot of in-season fruit and veggie play with only accents of darker, more brooding flavors. It's about the freshness; that's nice and welcome and this was. It just wasn't as memorable as other times (and seasons), something that has translated to other restaurants in town as well for us.

Summer seems to box in even the best chefs in our food world, at least with regards to what we typically want, which usually is a surprising freshness popping up instead of 'fresh and bright' being the obvious, overarching and immediate theme.

That said, great meal, great service, good time. Blackbird will always be something we look forward to with a giddy intensity.

Started with two glasses of NV Marguet Pere & Fils Grand Cru Rosé Ambonnay. Mouth-wateringly delicious and is becoming an anticipated flavor from the restaurant. Just beautiful with an elegant touch of rose petals and strawberry skin. 65% Chardonnay/35% Pinot Noir and the pinot essence really shows up for the party.

Appetizers:

Glazed veal sweetbreads with with lime onions, tamarind, bee pollen and fried chocolate

Swan creek farm suckling pig with lillet-stewed apricots, snow peas, water chestnuts and beer vinaigrette

Succulent sweetbreads and not so succulent suckling pig. Fell a touch flat. The accompaniments to the sweetbreads sounded great but the bee pollen may have been too subtle and the fried chocolate was maybe too delicate to offer something darker. Both were delicious enough but I honestly had to pause and think of the sweetbreads' party friends as I wrote this.

Intermezzo of pork loin with beets and apricots.

Tasty pork and the thinly-sliced swirled beets added a bright earth and textural contrast. Darn good stuff with the wine, which I'll get to.

Entrées:

Stuffed bobwhite quail with black cumin sausage, charred avocado and house-made giardiniera

Grilled wagyu tri tip with artichoke, figs, sprouting granola and cassia bud

The stuffed quail balls were the star of the night. Perfectly cooked and just danced. The charred avocado purée with the quail = freaky great. A bite of everything came off like the one of the best taco fillings I'd ever had. Quail tacos? Seems like a lot of work but bet they'd be delicious.

Both of us wouldn't have known the tri-tip was wagyu if we hadn't read it on the menu. Wasn't great. Good, just wasn't great. The sprouting granola and cassia was inspired but couldn't lift the beef out of the ordinary.

Desserts:

Pre-dessert of cherry sorbet with cocoa nib and bruléed banana

Fried polenta with klug farms blueberries, lemon verbena and smoked brown sugar ice cream

Dark chocolate gateau with cocoa nib crumble and caramel schmear

Dessert heaven in many ways. Served with two glasses of Barros 1977 Colheita Tawny Port which...23 year-old port...come on...that's decadent. All subtle caramel and fig with a delicately syrupy texture with a kick of alcohol at the end that gently and gracefully disappeared.

Wine:

2006 Domaine de Marcoux Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah and Cinsault. Grenache-heavy and dominant. Great pure fruit here showing the typical Grenache red raspberry flavors with a hint of cherry serving as a consistent supporting actor throughout. Pleasing spice with cinnamon/nutmeg and a fruitcake note (which I realized, "that was it!" after reading a description). Medium-bodied with a incredibly long finish that constantly changed throughout the meal.

As a pairing, it served admirably with virtually everything. Oddly, the wagyu tri-tip might have been the best. For a medium-weight meal, a wine showing a medium weight and pure juiciness really couldn't have been better. Added a lot to the overall experience and even picked up some elements by the back of their pants to help it along. Seek it out. $50 retail right now for a pretty great Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Can't beat that.

It was a good meal, a fine meal, a meal I would probably eat next week and be entirely happy and full.

I just don't know if I'll remember much of it a month from now.

Expect for the wine...and stuffed quail balls...which is fun to say.

#218 - Blackbird

We saw the beginnings of a chef transition back in December at Blackbird and it was right on script for a place of the quality of the restaurant.

David Posey, Mike Sheerin's sous chef for I believe a couple of years (and an Alinea/Trio vet), had just taken the reins.  The impression of a definitive change in the preparation and flavor came in the small details then.

The transition was gradual - at least through one seasonal menu, we only visit Blackbird a couple of times a year - with echoes of an overarching Sheerin molecular style still present but it tasted more back to basics in the best way possible, like it was preparing for an exploration into a broader, more elemental scope down the road.

#29 - Asian Beef Filet & '05 Yalumba Shiraz-Viognier +1

Easily one of the best meals we've had in months.

Months, I tell you!

Food: Asian-tinged beef filet with rice cakes, basil and mâche

Bright and beautiful beef filet from Paulina Meat Market (expensive but worth every bite) marinated in soy and sake on top of cut basil, Trader Joe's rice cakes and mâche with a ponzu and sake dressing while fresh ginger and ponzu on the side.

Meat of this quality is so damn rare. Rivals the dry-aged beef from Fox & Obel and is probably better. Wait...yep. It's better. It's real meat in the most glorious way. Not prime rib. Not New York Strip. Those simply evoke childhood memories of what quality steak should be. Bullocks!

THIS is real meat. Bright, yet deep. Beautiful sanguine quality yet a lifting finish. Wagyu may be gold but, for the price, I'd happily take this any day over it.

Mrs. Ney cooked it so wonderfully, only a picture in the right light would do it justice. I'm not taking pictures of our food because that's stupid.

Trader's Joes rice cakes claimed to be overdone and maybe they were but nothing detracted.

Mâche done with a sesame oil and ponzu dressing that proved again that I'm starting to really like wine with greens.

Wine: 2005 Yalumba Hand-Picked Shiraz-Viognier - $35 Binny's (?)

First bottle corked. Only the second time we've had a corked bottle (can't for the life of me remember the first one). Second bottle gorgeous.

This is one that might be a perfect wine in a couple of years but it's still drinking great right now. A teeny bit of oak makes me think that a little time will allow that to integrate in the most wonderful way.

But that might be a great thing about slightly young Shiraz. You can tell a bit of time would reward the wine but it's still absolutely fine to cork and pour. You'll still love it.

No decant. Might have helped.

Big dark cherry with some sort of wild berry (mulberry in the WS description - yes, probably) with a bit of graphite and a nice minerality throughout. Don't really drink Left Bank Bordeaux for the most part so that whole graphite thing mystifies me a bit but yes, a pencil-like note was present and quite delicious. Blended with the fruit and took it to a new, much more complex level.

Definitely creamy and an herbal sage-like background. Not overripe in fruit. Played like a well-crafted syrah with only a hint of big, obvious Australian-ness. Graphite and berry with cream and sage. Wonderful.

A pretty great wine and something we need to buy more of soon.

Pairing: Perfect by the most pure definition in our world

First, the wine played off everything. As a great food and wine pairing should, this one enhanced the food to a level nearly unprecedented.

I can't state this more emphatically. This was a truly spectacular meal. Mrs. Ney put it perfectly. The medium body of the wine really allowed the bright, medium weight of the filets to play off each other. It was as if all the formal introductions were bypassed and they went straight to the conversation.

And what made that possible was the subtle touch with the Asian flavors. All of them served as a baseline foundation but nothing peaked its head past that. Everything stayed in its proper place. The brightness of the beef was the star with a little Asian flair peeking its head around the corner.

It took me hours to get the flavor of this pairing out of my mouth.

Best meal in months...and we've had some good ones.

I would be remiss without mentioning the next night's food and wine dud.

But some context should be applied. On a night when we were supposed to go out for dinner, I was called for jury duty and it went WAY over the time promised (and, of course, I got picked).

So...a bit of rushed planning job overall.

Food: Herbes de Provence-crusted New York Strip, farro and pomegranate seeds with pea shoots in olive oil and balsamic

Nothing wrong with the food at all. New York Strip from Paulina Meat Market, bought after Mrs. Ney saw the previous beef filet and decided to get both (while simultaneously not trying to rile the surly Paulina guys - a bit of "we'll do something wth that as well"- kind of thing).

They know her well.

Crust on the beef was gorgeous, done exactly like she does duck, a true joy in this house.

Something about New York Strip, though. Like I said previously, prime rib and NY strip simply evokes childhood memories of "fancy" steak and that's really it. Cooked beautifully and certainly delicious, but right after the filet, it didn't stand a chance.

Solid farro and pomegranate. Always good. Pea shoots with olive oil and balsamic served as a good palate cleanser.

Wine: 2007 Andezon Côtes de Rhône & 2006 Regis Bouvier Bourgogne En Montre Cul (both in the $12-18 range at WDC)

The meal was good. The wine is where we went wrong. Something about missing a night out and having jury duty screwed with everything.

I wanted to try the Andezon because so many restaurants in town have it on their wine list by the glass.

I may as well combine the descriptions because both followed the same evolutionary path. For about four minutes, both wines were mildly interesting, though initially closed.

The Andezon at its peak was zingy and full of red fruit. Not really that great (passable) but it showed a bit more personality. The Bouvier showed a bit more pure fruit with a tinge of funk in the background. Kind of what we've experienced with cheap Burgundy but I'm not interested in that, at least not yet. It'll take a few years for us to get into Burgundy because good expressions are so damn expensive.

After their ever-so-brief peaks, both turned flabby and boring.

Here's a lesson. If Robert Parker raves about a wine, talking about it in flowery prose with superlatives belched all over the place while only giving it 90 points, he didn't love it. Just pass.

Pairing: Awful

And we weren't cracking a third bottle for this meal.

We wanted to go out!

#9 - Dry-Aged New York Strip & 1962 Clos Fourtet

I've been waiting for this one for about two months.

After getting seriously cheap deal on a 47 year-old wine from one of my favorite vineyards, it was Christmas tree and '62 Clos Fourtet night here at the Ney house.

Clos Fourtet is probably why I like wine. Before going to Schwa a few years ago, we stopped at Wine Discount Center to pick up some wine for the BYO spot. We didn't really know French wine at all but a 375 ml of the 2003 Clos Fourtet came highly recommended by one of the clerks. We had no expectations at all.

While it was still too young, something we also didn't really know at the time, it was a bit of a revelation for me. For the first time, I got a glimpse into how good wine can become a memorable moment. There was a earthiness and spice with pure creamy fruit that tasted...exquisite, I guess. Or fancy. It had a complexity I never experienced up to that point.

While it has a solid and historical reputation, I'll never have any illusions that Clos Fourtet is some sort of paragon of great wine, but I'll always remember it for opening me up to good wine and, in a lot of ways, for allowing my brain to not being afraid of wine. It was at that meal where the cost of a wine hobby became worth it. Honestly, I still remember everything about that wine. And I'll always follow it.

So, for $90, I ordered a 1962 Clos Fourtet. It came from a retailer in California through a recent private collection sell-off with assurances that it was kept in a temperature-controlled environment. Also, it had a high shoulder fill which, for the age of the wine, is considered to be a good thing. Anything lower and it might not have been worth it. Still, there was a 50-50 chance the wine was undrinkable.

But hey, it's a wine made 10 years before I was born. Why not?

What food do you serve with such things? We didn't really know so we went with a typical Right Bank Bordeaux pairing: Simply-prepared beef with potatoes.

Food: Dry-Aged NY Strip with Gruyere Scalloped Potatoes on a bed of Raw Spinach

We're new the dry-aged beef world. Mrs. Ney heard that Fox & Obel did it right so we took a trip to the overpriced specialty of specialty stores to give it a try. Two quite beautifully marbled strips were cast-iron skilleted in bacon fat with salt, pepper and oil.

Outside of wagyu, it's the best beef I've ever had. The flavor is so distinctive it makes it difficult to describe. Extraordinarily tender, almost buttery with a taste both mellow and a bit intense.

Basically, it sits in its own juices for a period of time (this was 21 days) in a temperature and humidity-controlled cooler with air circulating around it. For me, it almost tastes like it's been sitting in salt for months yet it doesn't taste salty. Every natural beef flavor is drawn out.

Hats off as usual to Mrs. Ney for getting these babies a perfect medium-rare. They looked freakin' gorgeous.

Gruyere pairs with merlot by most cheese pairing charts so she did a gruyere scalloped potatoes as a side.

Wine: 1962 Clos Fourtet Saint-Emilion - $90 K&L Wine Merchants

In the bottle, it smelled like black olives.

Right after pouring, it was all faint cherry and a lot of dust on the nose. In the glass, I expected some orange around the edges for a wine this old but it wasn't there. Some fading red but it looked like a wine that had held up well over the years.

First sip brought a bit of a surprise with the amount of heat it showed. After that, all musty basement with tart cherry. That was the story for the first 30 minutes. Not unpleasant in the least. Just one-dimensional while we waited for the dust to blow off. After 30-40 minutes, the plummy characteristics of merlot began to open up with earth, a little cinnamon and maybe a bit of mushroom, making for a wine that tasted almost balanced. After 60-70 minutes, it became a bit thin and was done.

For the actual merlot time window, the plum/earth/cinnamon tasted faintly creamy, like the wine might have been really good 25 -30 years ago.

Mostly though, it was for the experience of drinking a wine that old. 1978 Heredia was the oldest wine we've had until this one. On pure taste, there were many comparisons to the Heredia. While the Heredia was better, held up longer and never seemed to stop changing, the Clos Fourtet showed many of the same flavors (cherry, mushroom, cinnamon, dust) even if its progress throughout the meal was a bit more predictable and much shorter.

Pairing: Nothing clashed but nothing was enhanced

And I think that's the best we could ask for given the age and the good, but not great vintage of the wine. Wine Spectator gave the vintage an 88 coming off a 1961 year that's considered by many to be one of the top three vintages of the century.

The dry-aged beef was the undisputed star of the meal.

As for the wine, I wouldn't buy this particular year again but another year...for under $100...heck yeah.

#38 - Dry-Aged Filet With 1964 López de Heredia Tondonia Gran Reserva

Last night, I had the most ethereal moment of my wine and food life.

So much so that I fear my words will become too precious for, well, words.

As you grow older, it becomes tougher to be surprised. Tougher to not take a moment or experience and not immediately categorize it. Immediately place it into a box and watch the sensation of the moment slowly wither. And slowly feel it fall into the scattered jumble of life's moments.

Last night's meal was akin to a seemingly meaningless moment I saw or felt when I was seven years old yet it never failed to exit my brain. The kind of experience that will most likely become one of those imprints.

It was a meal that felt like a lace curtain blowing in a hot, late summer breeze.

Precious enough for you?

Oh so precious but these were some of the thoughts rummaging around my head as we ate last night.

Food: 21 day dry-aged beef filet, roasted potatoes and pearl onions with mâche

Better than the antelope from Schwa

Better than the duck from French Laundry

Better than the wagyu from Blackbird

We're still new to the dry-aged beef world, having it only once before three months ago. Here I'll plagarize myself:

Basically, it sits in its own juices for a period of time (this was 21 days) in a temperature and humidity-controlled cooler with air circulating around it. For me, it almost tastes like it's been sitting in salt for months yet it doesn't taste salty. Every natural beef flavor is drawn out.

With one change. We had New York strip then. Last night was filet. Both were from Fox & Obel.

Cut into 4 oz.-ish medallions and rubbed with salt, pepper and oil - seared then quickly roasted, they turned into something extraordinary. Better than the NY strip. While the strip sprinted directly for the beefy butter realm, the filet brought a perfect balance of meaty butter and beefy structural integrity.

I've eaten good beef. This isn't beef in the traditional sense. This is something else, something more, something...Other.

Mrs. Ney made a cherry-red wine reduction to accompany the meat and go with the wine. A gorgeous sauce that had the right hints of everything but we wouldn't let it touch the meat. Seemed wrong.

The medium heft of the potatoes, pearl onions and mâche worked perfectly with the beef.

Wine: 1964 López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva ($350 - K&L Wines)

This was a Christmas gift to Mrs. Ney (and me). K & L had it for $100 off, it's our favorite winery and the '64 is considered one of the top two wines ever made by Heredia (with the '47) so there wasn't really a question over the purchase price.

Virtually no loss of wine in the bottle (top shoulder fill). Great cork. Broke 3/4 of the way down but didn't crumble at all. Let out a wisp of air when opened, a sign of good things to come.

Now the good stuff. Since ordering it, I've read what seemed like 500 reviews of the wine, getting into how the wine shows in the glass to the evolution over the time opened. Everything about how to serve it came with oodles of uncertainty, wanting it to peak at the right time, most of my thoughts being informed by the 1962 Clos Fourtet experience and its small prime drinking window. Even knowing these were two entirely different wines from different vintages in different styles with different drinking windows, I eventually settled on opening it about 20 minutes before the meal. Kind of winged it.

None of the fuss was warranted.

In the glass, there wasn't one sign that this was a 46 year-old wine. No orangish hue on the edges, no thinning out in the least. Pure medium red from middle to edge with only the ever-so slight tinge at the very edge. If I wasn't looking for it, I wouldn't have even seen that. We got a great bottling with a spectacular cork.

On the nose: Cherry, some berry, a bit of plum and a hint of vanilla and cedar. Maybe a background truffle. Very little basement dust. Blew off extraordinarily quick.

On the palate. OH, on the palate. If I knew more about prime Burgundies at their prime drinking age, that's the only thing I would have guessed if I drank it blind. Such a beautiful, silky texture brought on by something resembling creamy plum. Seamless in the most pure way. Cherry notes - alive, vibrant cherry notes, not dried - with some cedar and vanilla playing on the mid palate. Not big. Not small. The definition of a perfect medium-body with an elegance and grace I've never experienced in a wine ever before.

And what made it was the liveliness of the acid, an acidity bringing about the perfect balance, awakening something so old in the most beautiful and odd way. I never expected even a scintilla of that. Tannins weren't fully resolved either. Almost gone but not yet (five more years?).

There were moments of basement funk on a couple of sips toward the end of the meal (about 1 1/2 hours) but the wine itself never stopped, never began to close, never changed dramatically. Just evolved with such a generous and open grace. Washed over us and stopped us in our tracks. Almost too pretty for us in our current wine world.

The finish at its peak lasted two minutes, hanging mostly at the upper part of the throat and gradually seeping down.

After reading so much about the wine, especially from reviews of Rioja verticals and horizontals, I almost pitied people that drank this wine up against so many others, thinking the beauty of this '64 would be lost in the crowd. Mrs. Ney put it perfectly. If you meet the Queen of England, that's pretty great. But if you meet her alongside the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Japan, Elvis, etc., well, the Queen of England might draw a "meh."

There's just too much finesse and haunting, underlying tone to find in this one when there are 15 more glasses are in the queue.

We love the 1978 López de Heredia Viña Bosconia (Bordeaux style). All mushroom, truffle, basement and rustic cherry. The 1964 Tondonia (Burgundy style) is in a different stratosphere.  A bottle mix-up years ago led to the bigger Bosconias being put in the Burgundy-style bottles and vice versa.  They just stuck with it.

Best wine I've ever had and it's not even close.

Pairing: Best Ever

That's all I can say. I've never experienced anything like this. On the technical side, the unexpected acidity and the medium weight of the meal and wine helped everything along in the most perfect way. Mostly though, when you have the best beef you've ever had paired the best wine you've ever had, the result is most likely going to be the best ever pairing if the heft of everything matches and some acid is brought to the party.

This was that.

Recently, Mrs. Ney and I were talking about how we don't seem to really enjoy rich food. We like rustic food with hints of richness, but once it approaches the gates of rich, we're turned off a bit.

Mostly, I think we like foods that approximate richness in new and original ways. Like the butter quality of dry-aged beef without the butter. Or the subtle creaminess of Spanish wine that doesn't wander into a Shiraz-like fruit-cream bomb. We enjoy the creaminess of leeks and the subdued richness of a properly made reduction.

This meal was like a fastball of that placed right down the middle of the plate.

We're still learning, but last night was about the prettiest thing we have ever experienced.