#301 - Cleveland Followed By A Cleveland Meal

31 hours out our door and back through it.

That was our trip to Cleveland to stock up at West Side Market, eat at Lolita and see Louis C.K. kick off his current tour.

Big stock-up at West Side Market with all the Cleveland goodness now in our freezer. Pierogis, gnocchi, bacon, jerky, sausages, stuff that tastes like Cleveland and only Cleveland. We've tried Chicago pierogis. They're not Cleveland pierogis.

Meal at Lolita. Bruschetta and bone marrow to start. Chicken and duck confit as entrées. Bottle of 2008 McCrea Yakima Valley mourvèdre-forward blend to drink. I have a thing for Lolita - the atmosphere, the portions, the flavors, the Tremont neighborhood, our waitress, the lighting, how laid-back it is, how delicious the food is, the honesty of it all after all these years, the totality of the experience. It's just good in every way.

I won't give a review of Louis C.K.'s show. I'll just say it's the best thing I've seen on stage in my life (small batch, to be fair). I saw Carlin a couple of times. This was better. I've never laughed that hard, that long, that thoroughly.

So...took off at 7:30am on Wednesday, got into Cleveland at 2:30pm, went to West Side Market, dumped stuff at our hotel, got to Lolita at 5pm, ate, went to Severance Hall at 7:30 to see Louis C.K., done by 9:30, went to sleep and left the next morning, back by 2:30pm.

Seemingly tight schedule but it wasn't. Because everything in Cleveland is ten minutes away with no traffic. And from the time we sat down at Lolita to the time we left Severance Hall was the most entertaining "dinner and a show" I've ever had in my life.

Not too shabby.

So to celebrate the greatness and ease of such a Cleveland trip, a Cleveland meal to finish the day.

#232 - Spanish Niçoise-y Salad, Greek Feta & Carrot Purée With '09 Síria

Fancy stuff, in the food and in the wine.

The fancy came from the purity and abundance of flavors and the ability to taste every one of them in any given bite.

The tastes:  carrots, anchovies, parsley, honey, mint, harissa, thyme-infused olive oil, pickled onions, sesame seeded Syrian bread, feta, kumatoes, Greek black olives, caraway seeds, pink peppercorns, garlic, lemon juice, dill.

So Greeky, kinda Spanishy, bit of North African, all comprising a tapas-y type feel, a little dip here, a bite there and loving every bit of it.

Served with a wine made from a grape new to us as a 100% bottling and possessing a balance, vitality and Portuguese weirdness that slid right into the food in delicious and new ways.

Food:  Spanish-y Niçoise salad, greek feta in honey and pink peppercorns, carrot purée, thyme-infused olive oil and Syrian bread 

#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.

#28 - Two Meals & Three Wines

A little catch-up.

Two midweek meals.

First up was an attempt at a Greek-style wine can chicken with zucchini bread pudding and arugula.

The Greek aspect never really came through but it was the typical delicious wine can chicken with one difference. This time the thigh was the star with the breast coming in second. Juicy, dark and delicious. One of the best thighs I've ever had. Fig, honey and mustard glaze on the chicken led to some great skin.

It's been five days since we ate this meal and I still don't know if I liked the odd concoction that was zucchini bread pudding. I'm vexed! Ate it all but it was a tad weird.

Which led to our vexing wine experience.

The 2008 Babcock Identity Crisis ($20 In Fine Spirits) was our first wine pairing, bought because it sounded so darn interesting. 100% syrah but not a red wine. Not a white either. Not even a rosé. Skins touched the juice a little longer than a typical rosé and the result is a wine with sort of a copper hue. If I drank it blind (and room temperature), I wouldn't have guessed what it was in a 1000 years. Dry with a mixture of something like apricot and pomegranate. A little creamy spice like cinnamon whipped cream. Bit of a short finish but nothing unpleasant. A wee hint of alcohol in a good way. With the food, it was fine enough but nothing spectacular. Wasn't a good pairing but we could have plowed through and been okay with it.

We didn't plow through. Interested in seeing what the hell would go with the tomatoes in the zucchini bread pudding, I cracked one of our favorite bargain wines, the 2006 Domaine Des Tours Vin De Pays Vaucluse ($17 WDC). Bought on a recommendation from the Rhône lovers at WDC, we gave it a whirl with a fig tart a few months ago and were blown away by the pairing. It's still one of the better pairings of food and wine I've ever had.

A little light in the glass with red fruits of cherry and raspberry. Spice and earth serve as the subtle background with a silky medium finish that makes you want so much more. For $17, it's the best bargain Rhône we've ever had and serves, in my view, as the best introduction to Rhône wines out there. Perfect place to start in my experience with southern France.

But the pairing pretty much sucked. I can still taste the zucchini bread pudding with the wine. All gasoline. The wine completely separated into its component parts and the alcohol won the fight. Best with the arugula (actually pretty great) and good enough with the chicken.

So...we had strike two on us and decided to forfeit the rest of the at-bat.

Live and learn.

Dinner #2 came on the heels of a trip to Binny's in Lincoln Park.

The former Sam's has always been a thorn in our sides. For such a huge place, the selection and pricing was always so ungodly awful.

But when Binny's bought Sam's out three months, they were stuck with a ton of stock that come from suppliers that Binny's doesn't deal with or were in the last year of their drinking window.

Result = DEEEEEP discount extravaganza!

Spent $110. Saved $150 on 14 bottles of wine. Nearly all of the 14 bottles were under $10 marked down from $20-30.

It was a great chance to beef up the wine inventory of bottles we don't have to think about before cracking.

Dinner was leftover Spanish-style beef brisket sandwiches on baguette with mayo. A simple meal to clean out the refrigerator using the brisket from dinner a few days ago.

We drank the 2006 Bokisch Graciano ($8 down from $24) bought in the Binny's trip.

I don't want to get too ridiculous about this wine but if it were $6, we'd be buying this by the case. Something about the difference between $6 and $8 that makes me pause (still might buy a few more, though).

Graciano is mostly only grown in Rioja. It's quintessentially Spanish, all dark cherry and a bit of spice with solid structure and a big nose. Low-cost 100% graciano borders on the simple but nonetheless has a place.

I was leery of a California graciano, figuring it was be all big fruit with no complexity, but for $8, why not?

Wouldn't say the Bokisch was complex, but it was balanced and subtle with a nice layering, even some spice with a floral note and maybe some orange peel. Solid fruit with a wild red berry dominating. Never would have thought it was Californian. At the original price of $24, it's an iffy buy, but it drinks like a good Spanish wine priced in the high teens.

And the pairing was surprisingly good. Good, simple, Spanish-style meal with a good, simple Spanish-style wine.

I can still taste it.