Thursday, July 29, 2010

#104 - Grilled Chicken Thigh & Skordalia With A Ribera Cava


An excursion to Wine Discount Center that was supposed to be a "we're not buying a ton of wine!" trip turned into the exact opposite.

We went to get the wine chronicled today but we couldn't turn down the 2006 Királyudvar reduced to $7 (!). Finding the big brother of Domaine des Pallières "Les Racines" didn't hurt either along with one of Jean-Phillipe Fichet's wines just sitting there, begging to be bought.

It was like reviewing and expanding on wines we very recently drunk and loved. Good trip. Not cheap...but good trip.

Food: Marinated and grilled boneless chicken thighs, skordalia, mâche salad with pomegranate seeds and baguette

Boneless chicken thighs marinated in lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, dry white wine, garlic, onion and black pepper, then grilled.

Eerily good. It was just chicken thighs but a great and plentiful char mixed with a generous garlic/onion juiciness made it a "why is this so good?" protein night.

The skordalia was just as good. Lighter than we thought it would be when thinking about what is essentially a potato purée. 1/2 lb. of potatoes, boiled and peeled and blended with almonds, breadcrumbs, garlic, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Great Greek-style Goodness.

A mâche and parsley salad undressed with pomegranate seeds to clean and lighten things up.

I would have thought this might have ended up feeling like a heavier meal but it wasn't even close. We wiped everything up - all the plentifully prepared chicken and skordalia - and still felt clean and good after the meal. Some of it might have had to do the lemon juice in both main components along with the pomegranate seeds bringing some acid to give everything some lift.

And some of it have to do with bringing some bubbles to the table.

Wine: NV Peñalba López Finca Torremilanos Cava Brut Nature ($14 - WDC)

Grape: Blend of Viura and white Tempranillo
Region: Ribera Del Duero

I've never heard of a Ribera Cava, you? And we couldn't turn down our curiosity for $14.

Straw-colored in the glass, huge green apple peel on the nose that followed through on the palate but mixed beautifully with a pleasing yeasty character that didn't stand up and pronounce its presence like some sparklers. A very distinctive note of peach pit or unsalted sunflower seeds played in the background in a great way and something that made us kind of love it. Very dry and crisp with a short finish, which was our only complaint, making us feel like it was 3/4 of the way from being something that could have contended with a good Champagne. It's $14. Not as good as the Raventós i Blanc "L'Hereu Reserva" Brut Cava for $18 but it's a crowd pleaser on the cheap from a region not known for sparklers at all.

And infinitely better than some of the off-region Italian sparklers we've tried recently. Just much better composed.

Pairing: 92 An example of the wine playing an integral role in balancing the meal

We had a Muscadet in the fridge ready to go. A Muscadet isn't something thought of as a wine that makes a meal heavier in the least, but that could have been the case with this meal if we drank that instead.

It needed the bubbles.

With a potato purée and copious amounts of chicken pieces, the Ribera Cava took everything on the plate and made sure it accented all the brighter notes in the preparation and minimize any heaviness present in the food.

I just don't think a still wine, even a Muscadet, could have done that.

Probably best with the chicken, providing a nice balance with the garlic-onion-lemon juice marinade, making it taste light and savory. It lifted the skordalia, taking a potato purée and making it taste like a light brandade without the fish. Oddly, it was freakin' delicious with the pomegranate seeds, causing the wine to taste like a Blanc de Noirs in many ways and opening up an unexpected and great flavor component towards the end of the meal.

Mostly though, about halfway through the meal, it was when we paused during the meal and took a break for a minute of two and realize the wonderful taste that was marinating in our mouth and throat. It was light but substantial, chockablock with flavors going everywhere but still, and oddly, beautifully balanced.

And the entire meal probably cost $25.


A quick note on another meal. We had a "clean out the fridge" stew-type concoction of leftover chicken, linguiça, tomatoes, garlic, onions, figs, pistachios, paprika, olives and some other refrigerator components served with dipping bread that turned out delicious and tasted like a fancy sloppy Joe. Eaten with a 2005 Alonso del Yerro Ribera Del Duero ($25 (?) - WDC). Showed tons of blackberry, dark cherry and grilled meat notes with a stewed fruit element from the age of the wine. Had to drink it because it was at the closing of its drinking window. Some nice moments, perfectly fine with the food and seemed to get a bit better with some time open, turning into something very representative of what's good about Ribera with some nice wild dark berry fruit but not anything special.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

#103 - Figgy Duck, Brussels Sprouts & Farro With '06 Domaine Des Tours


Another example of "good luck finding it" but if you should, it's a fine example of an entry-level Rhône red, even as the price has steadily increased around town since we first bought it.

Nobody can seem to get their hands on any of the Domaine Des Tours, the third-level bottling from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape winery Chateau Rayas, though it's grown at a different site.

The wine director at Blackbird even said recently it's become impossible to score any lately.

We've never had a Rayas. But the Domaine Des Tours has served us well. Its big brother, the Chateau Des Tours, is the flagship wine at the separate site owned by Reynaud of Rayas with the Domaine Des Tours being the second bottling at that vineyard.

We had the Chateau Des Tours just a month ago with bison flank steak and mushroom tart. We were pleased with the pairing, not perfect but entirely happy and would do it again. The Chateau Des Tours is better crafted and usually about $10 more but the Domaine Des Tours has a place in our heart.

Heck, where before Rhône reds were more of a dalliance with us, they're quickly becoming something quite needed and loved in our world.

Food: Duck with fig sauce, Brussels sprouts and chestnut farro

Whole Foods duck breast glazed with a brandy-garlic reduction, cooked medium rare in rosemary. Black mission figs sauce on the side. Brussels sprouts salad with red onions and mahon cheese cooked in pancetta fat with pancetta chips on top. Big mound of chestnut farro.

Hadn't had duck in a long time and had only had medium-rare duck a couple of times this year. That's odd. And having it last night wasn't something both of us especially craved or needed. It was more of a "we haven't had it in a long time" kind of thing.

And then we ate it. It's funny how you forget how satisfying and stupid delicious something can be.

The duck and duck fat with the brandy, garlic and rosemary stuck in my cheeks and I rued the time when it was going to go away. Just seeped into the cheek lining in such a beautiful way.

The Brussels sprouts salad was nearly as good. Usually made with shallots and parmigiano-reggiano, the red onion and mahon brightened it up and, touched with the pancetta fat, surpassed the previous preparations completely in deliciousness. Might have to change. Always loved it (surprisingly as Brussels sprouts weren't even on my tasty rader three years ago) but we might be changing.

Farro is natural with duck but a better bite was the Brussels sprouts salad with some farro. Something about the brightness of the salad and the darker, earthy quality in the chestnut farro that made for a meal in itself.

Great stuff that put duck dinner right back on the docket.

Wine: 2006 Domaine Des Tours Vin De Pays Vaucluse ($17 - WDC)

Grape: Grenache, Counoise, Syrah, Cinsault, Merlot, Dious
Appellation: Vaucluse, the large, mostly bulk wine-growing area east of CDP
Vintage (WS): 93 Ripe, pure and balanced reds, with fresh flavors and bright finishes. In the mold of 2004/1999 but slightly more concentrated; whites superb

Showed similar to how it did in the past, with a brighter edge, losing the cherry fruit note and gaining a more integrated and deeper raspberry fruit. Somewhat similar to a pinot noir, like, as Mrs. Ney said, a cross between a California and Oregon pinot noir. Still undoubtedly a Rhône but it had a similar acidity mixing with the raspberry fruit at times. Played light with less of a alcohol hit upfront than it showed in the past. Some earth and brush. Slowly going but in a great place right now.

Pairing: 90 Didn't miss Pinot Noir with duck one bit.

Well...maybe a tea note but that's it.

With the duck, it showed a purity of fruit on the mid-palate with a perfectly delicate amount of acid that was delicious. Just as this wine might have been perfect with fig tart late last year, the fig sauce and the wine marched to the same drummer all night. Figs and Rhône = happy campers.

Maybe better with the farro. Became a little darker with fine tannins perking up. And it was shocking acceptable, even nice, with the Brussels sprouts salad. Never know with greens and occasionally finicky Rhône reds, as the Domaine Des Tours has been for us.

Not good in the least with the delicious pancetta chips, though. The alcohol showed up and dramatically shortened the finish.

It was a complete meal with a great bargain wine.

Missed ya, duck. You're good stuff.

Monday, July 26, 2010

#102 - Two Meals With Two Cheapies


A quickie today.

Two quick meals over the weekend with two cheap wines.

#1 - Beef tacos with pico de gallo, white cheddar (?), sour cream and lettuce in corn tortillas with 2006 Bokisch Graciano ($8 - Binny's)

Trader Joe's beef taco mix with homemade pico de gallo. Surprisingly good stuff. Tasted a bit like prepared mix but still satisfying. Very satisfying, actually.

The meal is worth noting due to the bargain wine drank with it. The 2006 Bokisch Graciano showed a bit different than it did six months ago. This time, the fruit was darker with gobs of plum and black cherry. Not sticky. Bigger and dark with a lean mid-palate, still plenty of fine tannin with nice earth and dark spice. Wouldn't pay for the original $24 price tag but at $8, it's one of the top four or five best bargain we've had in that price range. 100% Californian Graciano. Kinda rare. Pairing score: 87


#2 - Seafood sausage, white rice, sesame seed asparagus and a coconut-red curry dipping sauce with 2009 Pircas Negras Torrontés ($14 - Red & White)

What was thought of as being a quick dinner turned into something much more...and made us realize that we probably should have drunk the Crios Torrontés with it instead.

The price of seafood sausage has risen to a still wildly cheap $5.50 for four links at Trader Joe's. Just four months ago, there were, along with the Crios, was the most surprising wine pairing we had had in a long time. All delicious flowers.

This dinner was nearly as tasty as that one in many ways, made great by the superlative coconut milk-red curry paste sauce poured over the rice and used to dip the seafood sausage in.

But the wine, while pleasant enough, didn't come close to measuring up to the Crios. All pineapple cream soda with a touch of almond, somewhat crisp with a tiny hint of a floral element but nothing particularly pronounced. Fine enough, but wouldn't buy it again, even if it was $5 cheaper than the $14 we paid. Pairing score: 83

Saturday, July 24, 2010

#101 - Thomas Keller Chicken & Burgundian Cheese with a Burgundian White


Now over 100 posts!

Never would have guessed. It's served us well as a reference.

Thomas Keller chicken seemed appropriate after a Thomas Keller Ad Hoc visit four days before. He was at Ad Hoc the night we were there, sitting next to a guy who had the four-course Memphis BBQ dinner at 5pm and came back for it again at 9pm. Gotta say, it was that good. I'd do it.

And Burgundy was something we were going to delve deeper into instead of the recent surface play after we exhausted our love for other regions. I just never would have thought it would start with white Burgundy. But it has. And we love it.

We love Pinot Noir and have thought in the past that Chardonnay can rot on the vine (wine humor and recycled at that!) for all we cared. But something happened with the Viré Clessé from last month.

A place has been found for Chardonnay in our world rather quickly and nearly completely. So the retort from some was true. We just didn't have a good one. I expect our prejudice for California Chardonnay to linger for years but white Burgundy, welcome to our world. You're good stuff.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with mâche and parsley salad and Burgundian cheese and baguette

It was a near identical match to the Chardonnay tasting last month. Same chicken, this time with a more dark chicken and a slightly higher salt level and definitely higher pepper level. Juicy with great skin with better dark meat than the breast this time. It's the best chicken on the planet. Here's the recipe.

The Burgundian cheese, delice de Bourgogne, nearly matched the chicken. Like brie without the brie-ness. Intensely creamy without choking you with its creaminess and just enough funkiness that knows when to go away. Served with LaBriola baguette. No baguette is better and it's not every close. If you don't agree, put 'em up, sport.

Mrs. Ney wasn't thrilled about the prospect of chicken. She craved it a few days before but wasn't as she was making it. But like tuna Niçoise, fish tacos, bahn mi and scores of other meals, it always turns into something delicious, absolutely wanted and always a meal that wildly exceeds every expectation. It was another "Hot Mother Damn, this is good!"

And the wine certainly helped.

Wine: 2006 Jean-Phillipe Fichet Auxey Duresses ($45 - Randolph Wine Cellars)

Grape: 100% Chardonnay
Appellation: Auxey Duresses, just west of Meursault and seemingly carved out of the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune hillside
Vintage (WS): 91 - Drink or hold - Best are pure, elegant and balanced, with plenty of mineral character

the Auxey Duresses AOC has only been around since 1970. Before that, grapes grown there sold under the Meursault and Volnay appellation labels and some mixed Villages labels. Quality and distinction has steadily increased and vineyards are using the Auxey Duresses name on the bottle more frequently.

Jean-Phillipe Fichet is a strict winemaker using slow growing and mostly organic techniques, even studying the micro-climates of micro-climates to find the true expression of the grape from the true expression of the land. He has vines all over Burgundy. This is his Auxey Duresses vines.


Tons of smoky pear on the palate with a hint of maybe (baked?) apple and chockablock with a chalky minerality on the mid-palate. In fact, that's all that was on the mid-palate. Unique, balanced and open, it just sung and was worth every bit of the $45 price tag. Beautifully subdued touch of underlying butter that left at the right time for the minerality to transition in. Nice finish with more smoky pear perking up. Layered and wonderful. More lively and refreshing than the Domaine de Roally with less funk. Two different styles, two pretty great wines.

We'll be following Mr. Fichet after this one.

Pairing: 94 Good chicken and good Chardonnay = Yes, please!

We've messed around with other whites with wine can chicken and some worked, some fell flat and many were as fair-to-middling as it gets, if pleasant enough to have around.

Many times, those average ones were wines we liked already and simply wanted to drink. They turned out fine enough, mostly because we already liked the wine.

But as a roast chicken pairing, I would venture to guess that white Burgundy wins out 80% of the time from here on out.

Probably best with the cheese and bread as the subtle funkiness in the cheese danced with the butter and minerality of the wine. Seemed made for each other and actually were. Rarely can you go wrong when you stay within the same region for food and wine. It's what they do and why they do it.

But the chicken with the wine was a close second, especially with the pepper. There was a point very early in the meal when we felt like we had to start rationing the wine as we kept grabbing for the glass after every bite. It was that good together. We constantly wanted to get that taste in our mouth back.

Friday, July 23, 2010

#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.

#99 - Two Favorites With Two Wines


Tons of catch-up to do. A messed up left hand and vacation (forthcoming and our 100th post!) has set me back a few days.

It's funny to constantly be reminded what wine can do for a meal.

The first one was an example of one of our favorite meals - so clean, fresh and filling - that once again informed us that rosé is really the only way to go with it.

The second one was an example of a fair-to-middling meal utterly taken over and elevated to such great heights by the wine, stupefying us as to how such a thing could have even happened.

#1 Tuna Niçoise with 2009 Domaine Collotte Marsannay Rosé ($17 - WDC)

I'll just plagarize myself as typing is a process right now.

Tuna Niçoise will Clean you out!

Seared rare tuna with cherry tomatoes, black olives, capers, green beans, potatoes on arugula and parsley with (lemon-infused?) olive oil drizzled everywhere and two hard-boiled eggs for me.

Just a big abundance of food that never gets old. Acid from tomatoes, bitterness from arugula, brininess and earthiness from the capers and olives, carb hit from the potatoes with great, fresh Whole Foods tuna - a bit less of it this time, which was prudent.

We have it six to twelve times a year. Kind of resets the food clock with its mountain of fresh goodness.

Paired this time with a 2009 Domaine Collotte Marsannay Rosé made from pinot noir. The Saintsbury Vin Gris of Pinot Noir might be the best we've ever had with tuna Niçoise but this one performed admirably. Softer, bright and pure, showing mostly strawberry cream. Enough backbone to stand up to mostly anything on the plate but not tannic or aggressive in the least.

A pleasing rosé for a reasonable price offering something a bit more distinctive than a run-of-the-mill pink. We might like a rosé to bring a bit more in a darker, more complex vein but it was light and fresh in an Ugly Betty sort of way.

A solid 88 pairing score. No complaints at all and just reassured the notion that there's not much better than tuna Niçoise and rosé is the only way to go in our world.


#2 Falafel, pita, tomato salad and cucumber yogurt with 2006 Villa Creek Mas De Maha ($22 - Binny's)

Lots of tasty flavors with the meal. Everything represented but the falafel came out a little toasty and the pita a little crispy. It was a quick dinner right before vacation with our minds more on that. Some parts were delicious and the falafel was kinda great, if a bit overcooked.

But something happened on the way to the forum. I've written about our love for Villa Creek Mas De Maha (60% tempranillo, 20% each of grenache and mourvèdre) in the past. It's awfully great with Latin food, especially anything with a Cuban bent. When we had it with hanger, plantains and tomato salad, it was pretty revelatory, like we found one of the perfect pairings that exist in the world. Something happens to the Mas De Maha with spice and tomatoes. It takes the entire plate of food with those elements by the hand and leads it to the promised land.

In the past, it's been with meals that were good on thier own. With this one, it picked up the plate by the back of its pants and said, "get your ass to the land of goodness!" I can't ever recall a meal so lifted to such a better place by the wine.

A 95 pairing score due to what was an archetypal example of what wine can do to and with food.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

#98 - Dry-Aged Bone-In Ribeye With '06 Velvet Glove


Best meal in months.

And it was just so much! So much food and so much decadence.

The superlatives certainly flew as we were eating. I settled on 'hedonistic' as the best descriptor.

Kinda went over the top last night, made better by the fact we feel like we're finally are at a place where some of our first big purchases of wine are starting to get to the point where it's not stupid to crack them.

So we did.

Food: 21-day, dry-aged, bone-in ribeye with five-spice tostones, wilted spinach and Oregon blue cheese

Fox & Obel 21-day, dry-aged, bone-in ribeye.

We've had New York strip and beef filet in the dry-aged vein. We enjoy the beef filet the most but there's just nothing wrong with the ribeye at all.

When I say hedonistic, most of it came from the unbelievably rich and gorgeous flavors, but some of it came from the size of the ribeye. Over a pound each and at least 12 ounces of meat for each of us. We've come to the conclusion that nobody needs more than six ounces (maybe even less) of meat. That's the point of diminishing returns but we didn't care last night.

Beautifully cooked to a medium-rare in the cast-iron skillet with salt, pepper and olive oil and then rested on the cutting board to finish off with its own juices on top. Had the wondrous dry-aged flavor that is something other than beef. Something else. Something...

This one had a sausage filling quality to it. Less buttery than the filet and more rough and wild.

And there was just so much! Did I mention that?

Halfway through, I assessed my place in the meal as I approached full and realized I wasn't even half-done. What I thought was an extension of the bone mixed with fat was more meat. Didn't care. It would have been a crime to leave it.

Settled on five-spice tostones after screwing around with paprika and thinking about potatoes. The five-spice performed the best with the wine when we sampled it before the decant, bringing out the big blackberry notes instead of accentuating the oak as the paprika seemed to do.

Now...we loved the ribeye. But the star of the food night was the tostones smeared with the Oregon Rogue River Smokey Blue Cheese. First, the tostones with five-spice couldn't have been a better match with the wine and brought perfect elements of crispiness and subtle sweetness to the meal. But topped with this Oregon blue cheese, something entirely new to us, was simply stunning.

Smoked over hazelnut shells, many on the internet have described the cheese as having a cheddar quality. I thought the particular creaminess may have approximated that but mostly, it tasted like a better, brighter, more delicate and streamlined Roquefort. Where Roquefort (and blue cheese in general) tends to dominate any meal, becoming more a blue cheese experience no matter how judiciously incorporated, this one is just the bee's knees; strong enough to unfortunately drown out the meat with a bite but delicate enough to line up perfectly with the sweetness of the tostones and all five elements of taste that five-spice offers. Never went off the grid as blue cheese can. Never took over. It integrated and ingratiated itself into the rest of the meal with the elegance of an Englishman with white gloves and a top hat. And just couldn't have been better with the wine.

The wilted spinach wasn't touched because when you're this knee-deep in fat, why ruin it. Just go all-in.

Topped off with Smith Island chocolate cake, which brought new definition to "all-in".

Wine: 2006 Mollydooker Shiraz McLaren Vale Velvet Glove ($180 - Berkeley Wine ?)

Bought during the height of our Shiraz love two years ago, that love waned for a bit and has started to kick back up recently. We're starting to think the "fruit bomb" has a place in our world.

It was a ridiculous purchase, a vanity desire, a highly-rated wine (97 - WS, 99 - RP) insanely priced at the height of the world's love for Australian Shiraz with a simply ridiculous packaging (came with a velvet bag). I wanted it because I wanted it, something I rarely do. Usually, it takes me three weeks to buy new tennis shoes. So Mrs. Ney bought it for me.

Just monstrous. 1 1/2 hour decant. Initially, I worried about the oak after reading reviews of people that drank it recently and some showed up on the first sip before the decant. Never really showed up after that, though. Lil bit but nothing distracting and became integrated rather quickly.

Grilled meat, herbs and huge juicy blackberry on the nose. DEEP purple/black in the glass with dark red edges. Massive on the palate, tons of dark berries dominated by blackberry and plum, a wee hint of black cherry mixed in and oodles of black pepper/spice and meat with a touch of bitter dark chocolate. Thick (!) but never approaching sappy. Underlying vanilla throughout and hides the over-the-top 16.5% alcohol beautifully. The joy is in the structure and constantly changing layers. Each sip was slightly different, with the food and on its own, and the finish never stopped. Toward the end, a port-like quality with a bit of caramel/brown sugar that lingered forever.

Could have cut this wine with a knife in the best possible way and is probably the best Shiraz we've ever had.

Pairing: 95 Oh, The Extravagance!

It was our version of a foie gras, truffles, caviar and lobster meal.

Perfect with tostones and blue cheese and one of those pairings I'll remember for years. Less so but still stunning with the dry-aged ribeye.

This meal was different for us in a sense that we're usually astute about getting acid into the meal. This one had none from a food standpoint except for the sort that black pepper tries to bring. The wine was the acid bearer with this one, which put a bigger burden on the wine than we typically want but it delivered.

So much lift, so much matchy-matchy wonderfulness, everything fit like a jigsaw puzzle.

We're going to need some recovery time after last night's fat-feast but we don't care.

That was...something else...something more...just Something...Freakin'...Fantastic.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

#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.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

#96 - Thomas Keller Chicken With A Pinot Blanc Tasting


We weren't sure we even wanted chicken.

And we weren't sure we even wanted Pinot Blanc.

So...kinda two strikes against it out of the gate.

In the end, the chicken sufficed and even made us want something other than was in the glass to pair with it.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with mâche, Port Salut cheese and bread

Solid chicken, salted with a mixture of kosher and gray sea salt this time, making for a less-intense saltiness that was different and tasty. Don't know if it's better than the combination of crispy skin and bigger salt but certainly delicious.

Mrs. Ney went searching for Münster cheese to pair with the Alsatian Pinot Blanc and was left wanting. So she went with something similar in a Port Salut cheese from northwest France. Semi-soft, thick and creamy, nicely spreadable and worked with the wine.

Mâche with balsamic and olive oil to finish things out.

Everything was cooked properly with a nice variation in flavor but it needed something to lift it into the realm of something that would have made us love it and these wines weren't it.

Wine: 2007 Ken Wright Pinot Blanc ($28 - Randolph Wine Cellars) & 2008 Meyer-Fonné Pinot Blanc Vielles Vignes ($16 - WDC)

First, get to Randolph Wine Cellars before the end of the month if you liked what they offered. They're closing. We respected the effort but not never quite got the focus (or the pricing).

We had a couple of Pinot Blancs sitting around that we recently bought - with the Ken Wright probably approaching the end of its life - so we gave a Pinot Blanc tasting a go. You know...Old World vs. New World and all that crap.

Oddly, what resulted was something that wasn't that at all.

Pinot Blanc is essentially a genetic mutation of Pinot Noir. If Pinot Noir clusters were to grow unfettered, one white bunch will show up. That's Pinot Blanc. It's mostly grown in Alsace but some winegrowers everywhere mess around with it a bit. And it's somewhat rare to see a 100% Pinot Blanc bottling.

The Meyer-Fonné is a Pinot Blanc blend of the all the Pinots in the Pinot world - Blanc, Gris, Auxerrois and even Noir with Blanc leading the charge.

Mostly peach and minerals here with a nice expression of both. The minerality really kicked up after it was almost all the way down but it kicked wildly in a great way. A slightly oily texture that brought a hint of smoke. Nice enough wine that nonetheless made us both think we didn't need it again.

The Ken Wright (100% Pinot Blanc) fell into the same boat. Never would have thought this was an Oregon wine. Tasted French. Or maybe Spanish. And if tasted blind and at room temperature, I would have thought someone accidentally dropped a little Pinot Noir into the glass to mix with the Pinot Blanc. The best description we could come up to describe the indescribable here was something like a cocoa nib broth mixed with maybe raisins. To describe the describable, all well water blended with an occasional kick of orange blossom. Didn't love it but had some unique qualities that were intriguing and occasionally dumbfounding.

Less acidity with the Ken Wright (probably due to the age) compared to the Meyer-Fonné, which was brighter with more pure and delineated notes.

Both didn't bring much to the table.

Pairing: 82 Fell flat with both wines struggling to offer much in the way of personality

Ever go out for drinks with co-workers and realize after about ten minutes that it probably wasn't the best idea?

You knew when it was planned that it's a weird hodgepodge of people to begin with, then you sit down, get your drinks and for about five minutes, it seems that everything is going to be okay. Then a lull in conversation hits way too early and one of the more loud people in the group immediately launches into work talk. You feel the momentum swing and no effort to divert things back to life outside the petty stupidity of work stories succeeds.

So the gathering becomes a calculation of how long do you have to put in your time before you can get the hell out of there. An hour and fifteen minutes or two drinks seems apt for conversation that just isn't that interesting.

Last night felt like that with the wines. It took us about five minutes to realize the wines were going to offer something akin to work talk outside of work. In other words, kinda boring with the food. Some nice individual pairings here and there but nothing too exciting.

In the end, we just wanted something else.


But I can recommend our lunch wine, the 2009 Weingut Berger Grüner Veltliner Kremstal ($11 - WDC), drank with spinach pie. Apparently it's a thing. And it will probably now be a thing for us because it's tasty and cheap. One liter bottle, soda bottle cap on top, a Thierry Theise selection. Bright and light with tons of stone fruit and minerals with a great balance. Kinda ridiculous in its cheap goodness.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

#95 - Sea Bass On White Bean & Garlic Purée With '08 Orballo


We should eat more fish.

So we did.

And I told you that the Orballo Albariño is a great wine to have around and pop anytime.

We did and we did.

Food: Greek-style sea bass and marinated tomatoes with a white bean and baby garlic purée, watercress and parsley with bread and butter

Whole Foods Chilean sea bass stuffed with garlic, lemon, thyme sprigs, salt and pepper and pan-seared to a golden brown. Great fish flavor, better than expected. Not cheap ($22) but it has an oiliness and fleshy quality that stands up to bigger flavors, better than tilapia or something of that ilk. We should eat more fish.

Marinated tomatoes done in olive oil, vinegar, chili, oregano, minced onion and salt and pepper. The tomatoes informed the wine pairing. With a white fish flavored a little more aggressively and tomatoes, we went back and forth, settling on something with a bigger acidity and more rough and tumble. We're glad we did but the fish and tomato combo turned out to be a bit more versatile than we originally thought. Could have gone in a bunch of directions and been fine (except maybe a sweet riesling).

A very recent Mark Bittman recipe from the New York Times.

Mrs. Ney bought some baby garlic scapes. Originally, she was going with a sort of potato salad but switched up to a white bean and baby garlic purée (another very recent New York Times recipe) to serve under the fish. Charred garlic scapes, cannellini beans, olive oil, lemon juice, coarse sea salt and pepper thrown in the food processor. Turned out to be the thing that made the meal. A bite of fish, purée and tomato was flat-out delicious. We should eat more fish.

A watercress and parsley salad that tasted like geraniums, weeds and menthol Red Man had a baby. In a good way. Maybe too much on the plate but good stuff.

It was a meal that will make us eat more fish. Even this exact recipe.

Wine: 2008 Orballo Albariño Rías Baixas ($18 - WDC)

Showed the same as three months ago.

Nice minerals with tons of lemon rind and big, big acidity. Not a simple wine. Some depth here with maybe a pear core (and a little canned pineapple juice) hiding underneath with something like a creamy almond. Not fine minerals here either. More like Mrs. Ney's description of the roots sitting on a big, sulfurous rock. It's exactly what we like about albariño. Big, bold and a little raw with a few surprises along the way.

Estate-bottled, which is relatively rare for Rías Baixas, worth the few extra dollars and our favorite albariño right now.

Pairing: 90 Surprisingly, it was the garlic and not the tomatoes that brought the pairing goodness

With a fish-purée-tomato bite, the wine showed beautifully, mostly by remaining to be itself and offering a lift and cleansing of the food in the mouth and down the throat.

But with a bigger bite of the garlic purée, the top coat of lemon rind was stripped away, revealing more on that pear and canned pineapple juice core with tons of minerals while maintaining its acidity. I like the overt lemon quality in this one, but with it gone, the Orballo became even more intriguing, offering some previously unseen finesse.

We could have had a rosé of sangiovese, which might have been interesting. We thought about a more oily wine like a Jurançon which, upon reflection, might have been iffy.

In the end, bringing a ton of acidity was essential. But that's about it. This meal seemed to be more versatile than we originally thought.

But when we eat more fish, which we should, it's going to be tough to not drink Orballo with it.

It's that good.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

#94 - Lamb Loin Roast & Gazpacho With '08 Hamacher Pinot Noir


Nothing was technically wrong with last night's meal.

Farmer's Market lamb loin roast seemed like something we should try, especially for $12. And it's Try New Things Summer, so why not?

But we won't be doing it again.

It was fatty and fatty with a side of fat. And a bitch to make.

Food: Lamb loin roast with mâche and pomegranate seeds topped off with a green grape, cucumber and almond gazpacho and Syrian bread with za'atar-infused olive oil for dipping.

Lamb loin roast crusted with a World Market chimichurri dried spice blend that looked kinda sad as a chimichurri spice blend but worked for this. It was fine meat, cooked well, brighter than most lamb and satisfied a lamb craving. But that's about it in its barest form. It was sort of like craving a soda on a brutally hot day after seeing a fast food commercial with its soda in the value meal crammed with ice and little bubbles jumping out of the glass. Then someone gives you a lukewarm Mark IV "cola" and says, "Try this." Sure, it'll do but...not really. It's the only fast food ad that works on me. Well...that and new products at Taco Bell on occasion.

But I digress. The lamb was a little better than that and probably a little more than a little. It was only that for about one pound of lamb, we each got about four ounces (if that) of meat. It was a fat fest. Sure, who really needs more than that but we're not talking about need. We wanted more.

The winner of the night was the za'atar-infused olive oil with Syrian bread for dipping paired with the wine. Mrs. Ney made a run at making her own za'atar but came to the conclusion that, with a Middle Eastern market three blocks away and a container of the stuff costing $2, we're good. Falls under the "Should I change the oil in the car myself or just give Jiffy Lube $30 to do it?" category. At Jiffy Lube, it takes ten minutes. Plus, they vacuum the car and everyone there is nice. We're good.

Green grape, cucumber and marcona almond gazpacho with a tiny bit of Greek yogurt (yes, yes - we jumped off the "authentic" train - shove it) for consistency was freakin' delicious and paired with a verdejo-vuira blend hardly worth mentioning (all ruby-red grapefruit). Fresh as all get out with a subtle white pepper hit. Ended the meal with it instead of starting as Mrs. Ney wasn't going to eat, drink wine, enjoy herself and then have to get up and wrestle with a bony, fatty lamb.

Everything with the meal was set up for the wine. Lamb, pomegranate seeds, a solid, understated spice base, even sesame seed bread. Should have been in the pinot noir wheelhouse.

And it was. It just wasn't anything inspiring.

Wine: 2008 Hamacher Pinot Noir "H Series" ($23 - WDC)

No complaints. Right out of the shoot, it tasted like someone had dropped a roasted quail with a cinnamon-raspberry glaze on the ground about five feet from a pile of fertilizer and...you know...you picked it up and sucked on it.

And it's a Luisa Ponzi collaboration...of the Ponzi Ponzi's.

Great stuff, almost haunting with nicely defined layers. It was that gamey funk that made it something pretty great at first. Unfortunately, it blew off rather quickly and settled into a run-of-the-mill pinot. Nice in the entry-level sense and certainly worth the money, playing above the Castle Rocks of the world. But it was sort of the Bizarro A to Z Pinot Noir. Big, flashy opening act that settled into your standard caper offering little outside of a few chuckles. Kinda blew its wad right out of the box. Who knows? Maybe a year on it will give it more of a spine.

Completely drinkable and almost pleasant. We just felt like we were chasing Act I all night.

Pairing: 82 Everything was present but felt a little hollow

It was like watching Tropic Thunder. The first twenty minutes were spectacular and you adjust your seat on the couch in anticipation for a raucous good time. And then the rest of the movie happens. Sure, there were a few laughs along the way and it wasn't too long, it never felt like you wasted your time but you could feel the point where the pot buzz wore off on the writers and they spent the next two months chasing the unique high that wrote the first twenty minutes.

The za'atar-infused olive oil became the time portal back into goodness, though. All that delicious funk in the wine magically reappeared with anything that had the za'atar-infused olive oil on it.

I'm sending Ben Stiller some za'atar olive oil in the mail as we speak.

Monday, July 5, 2010

#93 - Thomas Keller Chicken & Lyonnaise Salad With Two Whites


Another winner-winner chicken dinner.

This time coupled with the Ravenswood fireworks show. We like our neighborhood. It's quiet, easy and friendly enough.

But one day a year, the entire neighborhood converges in Winnemac Park for the best fireworks show we've ever seen.

Totally illegal, completely unsanctioned and barely a cop around with the ones that are looking the other way. It seems around 20 groups of people spend the entire year shopping, hoarding and stashing away huge fireworks nearly as big as the ones used at Navy Pier, set up and space out around the park at dusk and just start firing away for four hours. The entire neighborhood packs the park, line the fences surrounding the park, bring their dogs, bring some booze, sit down and enjoy the hell out of it.

"Oh, it's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore it. They think it's a righteous scene."

And it's all very self-regulated. By the next morning every year, the park is magically cleaned of all the firework refuse. And every year, it gives us hope that people aren't so nuts.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with Lyonnaise salad and Seeduction bread with Irish butter

Same chicken as before. Better (and easier) than Wine Can Chicken. This time with a little more salt and thyme. Moist, moist, moist with the extra salt drawing out tons of chicken skin flavor and the thyme bringing more of an herbal skin deliciousness. Probably the best of the three Thomas Keller chickens so far.

Lyonnaise salad consisting of frisee, thicker-cut bacon, poached egg, salt, pepper and white wine vinegar. It's one of my personal favorites. Not like the frisee offers much outside of a textural quality but something about egg yolk running into it and bacon that gets me.

Whole Foods Seeduction bread. Hearty bread with sunflower seeds, poppyseed, millet and what seems like a thousand other grains. It's the only bread at Whole Foods that ever really delivers the bready goodness when you're stuck in a pinch and have to buy bread there.

THAT was a great meal. Simple and freakin' delicious.

We kept it light and went with two whites.

Wine: 2004 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Rotes Tor ($19 - WDC) & 2006 Királyudvar Tokaji Sec ($15 - Berkeley Wine)

Recommended by our favorite wine person at WDC, the Hirtzberger's been sitting around for a bit, waiting to be drunk. Looked great in the glass. Had a shimmer to it. On the palate, it's definitely transitioned into middle age. A huge, acidic brightness upfront with tangerine/Sunny D notes that immediately changed over to a smoky cooked/old peach, iron and white pepper core, finishing with a delicate touch of sweetness and white pepper again. In fact, the subtle hint of sugar mixed with a solid acidity played a graceful song throughout. Like listening to an older man who might smell a bit tell funny stories. The bottle went quickly because it was delicious. Worth the price and might even play above its price tag a bit.

I never loved grüner veltliner until I had a good one last year. This is a good one.

The 2005 Királvudvar Sec might be our favorite white wine. Probably is, actually. Yeah...it is.

Last night was the first time we dived into the 2006. We've enjoyed the hell out of watching the 2005 age as it's wandered beautifully into old age. The 2006 might end up having a much longer life. Vibrant and lively in the mouth, it's chockablock with orange blossom, a touch of cream and even a wee touch of sugar (more demi-sec than sec). Felt like more herbs and oil were hidden underneath its bright fruit core with a huge minerality and creamy orange dominating.

I only know Hungarian grapes from the Királyudvars we've had. This is a slightly different blend consisting of 70% Furmint and 30% Hárslevelu compared to the 80/20 split the year before. Might have been the reason this is showing a bit different than the 2005 along with the vintage upping the acidity compared to 2005. It's brighter and more vibrant, though maybe more straightforward right now compared to when we had the 2005 at the same time out from the vintage. Great stuff. Big fan.

Pairing: 89 Fine Fourth of July stuff

Nothing went wrong with any bite. Even with the dense, hearty bread, the grüner became something oddly delicious, offering some sort of smoky lentil note that we read about in a review of the Hirtzberger.

Each wine offered a different incarnation, a different place. With the grüner and its smoky notes, it became something darker and almost brooding, more introverted and thoughtful yet offering just enough acidic lift. With the Királyudvar, everything was more bright and youthful, more vibrant and light on its feet - all of it a distinction we might not have seen without comparing two whites against each other with the food.

And the addition of more salt and thyme seemed to really help everything along, bringing out everything that probably could have been.

We'll be following the Hirtzberger in some form and it's going to be nice to watch the 2006 Királyudvar evolve.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

#92 - Hanger Steak, Zucchini Jam & Fried Egg With Two Duds


Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Or maybe not.

A few wines exist in the cellar that have to be drunk quite soon as they approach the end of their drinking window. Some of them aren't going to be good. Some might be interesting. Some might surprise.

Last night was the first one.

To quote a Score caller, "Some stuff sucks."

In an attempt to salvage a pretty tasty meal with another wine, we opened another bottle in the cheap vein and, while it performed marginally better, it stayed in the same realm of boring, especially with the food.

Both were like the Pirates and Orioles this year. Everything was true and they tasted like this was their intent, but bad is bad and that's that.

Food: Hanger steak with a zucchini, pepper and onion jam, arugula and a fried egg for me

Simply prepared hanger steak (salt, pepper and olive oil) with a little more char on the outside. A zucchini, bell pepper and onion jam from the New Spanish Table (pg. 29) that smelled like ratatouille and tasted quite good. More finely chopped with just a wee hint of sweetness. Went great with the hanger and the egg yolk as it bled into the medley. In fact, a bite of hanger, egg and jam was simply awesome.

A nice meal, a satisfying meal. A solid mid-week meal. Nothing transcendent but I was full and happy.

Topped off with blueberry pie with blueberries from Harvestime on sale for a ridiculous $1.50 a carton. Would have been a crime to not buy them.

The entire meal could have been lifted to different heights with better wine.

Our choices for the night weren't. Bad and bad with a side of bad.

Wine: 2003 Domaine de Baron'arques Limoux ($15 - Binny's) And Loios J. Portugal Ramos Tinto Alentejano ($8 - WDC)

Went with cheaper side projects from good producers for the night.

The Domaine de Baron'arques is made in the Limoux appellation in the Languedoc in southern France by the family company running the Mouton-Rothschild estate, currently run by Phillipe's daughter and her two sons since his death in 1988 (Lafite is run by Eric de Rothschild). The story of Mouton and its ascendency to First-Growth status is a bit fascinating. Check out Noble Rot by William Eckikson, a nice little popcorn read that follows the development of the 2000 Bordeaux vintage and touches on some of the First-Growth details. And Mouton is a global brand with collaborative projects in Napa with Mondavi making the esteemed Opus One, and in Chile with Concha y Toro making the Almaviva. Last night's wine is much closer to home.

The 2003 vintage was the first for the Domaine de Baron'arques estate under the Rothschilds' control. A blend of 50% merlot and 10% each of cabernet, cab france, grenache, syrah and malbec, it received solid reviews upon release but the drinking window ended in 2010, which hey! That's this year!

And it showed.

Odd mixture of slightly stewed fruit with an occasional tannic grip. Tasted like nothing above a cheap, supermarket French blend that says "French wine" on the front. Occasionally, some fruit that resembled something distinctive popped with a little cherry showing through but mostly only bland, boring and past-its-window merlot with its cooked plums showed through. Came off flat, disjointed and done with some odd tannins hanging around. Sometimes, you can catch a heavily discounted wine at a good spot. The early 2000s Pragers have served us well. This one, $15 down from $35, stayed true to the reason for the discount. Nothing to recommend here. Move on (though I'll give it a shot to see what happens the next day after being opened for a bit).

The 2008 Loios João Portugal Ramos Tinto (a blend of Aragonês, Trincadeira and Castelão), by contrast, was just released and comes from...well...Mr. João Portugal Ramos, a superstar consultant at many of Portugal's best wineries for years who is now doing his own thing in southern Portugal's Alentejo region. Also, would someone please sell his 2007 Duorum Reserva on the North American continent so I can buy it. Geesh! It's been a failed quest since having it in Toronto.

The Loios, while it certainly performed better than the Domaine de Baron'arques, wasn't anything distinctive or really that tasty. Tons of butterscotch and vegetal notes, very soft and never got out of the fair-to-middling table wine world. It was $8 but never played above its price. Might have needed some decanting to get the party started.

Pairing: 65 Brutal

Can't say much. As a pairing....awful. A lot of blandness with a side of blandness.

Might have been interesting to see what a Heredia red would have done with the food but we weren't opening a third bottle.