January 2010 Archives

Terrific citrus nose, orchard tropical fruits, Mandarin oranges, tangerines, and some melon. There was no oak, and no apparent alcohol. The mouth and taste were full and rich, great acidity, and the tropical fruit was there in spades. The finish lasted a while, and it was excellent. I liked this wine a lot, and it's a great deal at about $20.

The winery site isn't easy to navigate to the varietal (they have Pinot Noir, and White Wines as their categories), but there is a PDF with notes: http://langewinery.com/mercantool/product_images/chkout/33.pdf

Bright, light straw colored, malo readily apparent, and interesting oak, with nutmeg, allspice, and other baking spices on the nose, as well as a few floral notes. It had a good mouth weight, light to medium bodied, low in alcohol, a bit of acidit and nice flavor in the mid-palate. It lasted a while, and was mouth watering. It would go well with a fish in a butter sauce, or something a bit fatty. About $30, tasted January 2010.

Cellar Tracker page at http://www.cellartracker.com/editnote.asp?iWine=602014 and Stephen Ross site at http://www.stephenrosswine.com/wines.html

I liked this Chardonnay a lot, because there was no malo and no oak on the nose (though of course the nose had some coconut from the toasted oak). The wine was bright, light white/straw in color, and the nose had, in addition to the coconut, some bread and yeast notes, and then in the taste it had some oak on the back end with allspice and clove notes. Great balance, nice acidity, and no apparent alcohol. This winery does great things, and it's one of my favorite Chards from California. About $40. Tasted January 2010.

Cellar Tracker page at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=586011

ZD Wines page for this wine at http://www.zdwines.com/products/2007-zd-wines-chardonnay-california.htm

This is a terrific Pinot from Oregon, bright ruby/cherry and translucent. It has white pepper and cocoa on the nose, and its taste is spicy, peppery, with dark fruits, not cherry or jammy. It's medium body, and has a relatively short finish, maybe 20 seconds. It's about $30, tasted January 2010.

Cellar Tracker page at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=681543

This is an interesting Cabernet from a grower who used to sell most of their fruit to terrific wineries before deciding to make their own. It's dark garnet, somewhat opaque, and the nose had dark cherries and cassis, along with fresh mint. It's an elegant wine with finesse, not heavy. About $45. Tasted January 2010.

The winery is at http://www.titusvineyards.com/titus/index.jsp and the wine is on their product catalog page - I really wish wineries would create permanent pages for their wines that aren't just in their catalogs, because I suspect many descriptions will just disappear. Their description:

Wine Profile
Bright, complex, and intense, our 2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon displays concentrated aromas of black currant, cherry, blackberry, dried apricot, violet, tarragon, coriander and dark cocoa mingling with undertones of baking spices and sweet tobacco. The palate is juicy and mouth-filling with well balanced structure and complexity. Vibrant flavors of bing cherries, pomegranate, raspberry, cranberry and blueberry are enveloped with layers of baking and pepper spices, chocolate, and hints of cigar wrapping leaf. The finish is smooth with lasting round tannins, toasty oak, and coffee. Recommended drinking time is three to five years from vintage, with about one hour of decanting prior to drinking. Maximum suggested aging is thirteen years from vintage.

They share that the wine is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 6% Malbec, 5% Merlot.

Titus has a terrific About Us page at http://www.titusvineyards.com/titus/page/family.jsp that recounts the history of the vineyards and winery. Great family operation.

Cellar Tracker's page for this wine is at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=655692

Dark purple red Syrah, and the color is emphasized in the dark, inky nose. Great black fruit, very fruit forward, but also some other complex notes, lead, earth. It's a big, spicy, alcoholic wine with lots of tannins, thick, unctuous, and mouthwatering. With all that it's amazingly balanced, and drinkable now. I imagine it will age well, and I've had it decanted for a few hours, and opened for just a few minutes, great either way. Went well with salami, olives, and some hard cheeses. About $40, it's a steal, but not widely available (read, sold out everywhere!). Tasted January 2010.

Winery at http://www.tensleywines.com/index.html

Cellar Tracker's page for this wine is at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=492435

Chocolate covered cherries, with vanilla cream, and caramel, made in Uruguay by an Italian family who moved there in the late 1940s. Terrific dessert wine at about $29. Tasted January 2010. http://www.tedwardwines.com/Assets/ProductDocs/TechSheet-UR102B.pdf for the spec sheet from the distributor.

Cellar Tracker review notes at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=144589

Flavorful food, well presented, by very good wait staff. We arrived at opening and were the second couple seated, and it filled up quickly over the next hour (a Saturday night).

Tableside guacamole en molcajete was very flavorful, we had them add juice from two extra lime slices and that really made it come alive. The sopa Azteca was very good, interesting tomato flavors in a Mexican soup was new to me - and the soup was poured into the bowl with the fresh ingredients at the table. The braised pork enchilada was served with Mexican rice that was seasoned very well, not to dry and not too wet and refried or mashed black beans.Topped with crema fresca and pico de gallo the dish was complete. I thought the enchilada shell was cooked very nicely, just on the edge of crisp. Another side was a corn tamale. It had great texture, but needed a sauce to go with it as it was dry otherwise, and a bit too bland.

We skipped dessert, though they looked good. I'd go back because everything was well prepared, with excellent flavors.

Darker red than most Pinot, semi-opaque, nice nose, red berries and cherries. Mouthweight is medium bodied, it has bright acidity, strawberry, no noticeable tannins, and a nice, long finish.  It paired well with a cashew chicken dish. The website for the wine is at http://www.riverbench.com/wines.php?id=2. Nice wine at about $25.

Jeannie and I were in Boston over the weekend and had the opportunity to have brunch at Miel in the Intercontinental Boston.

Brunch was about $32 per person, and included a fruit smoothie or a mimosa. Both were excellent. They also have a selection of eggs, bacon, sausages, pastries, mini desserts, cereals, and such, but the highlight was absolutely the fresh fruit. The berries (blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries) were fresh, flavorful, and plentiful. There were assorted cheeses (soft and hard) as well.

The highlight, however, are the small plates. We had a leisurely brunch and tried several of them. Depending on your tastes some are outstanding, and all are well prepared, innovative dishes.

First up, the Bacon Wrapped Sea Scallops. They have endive but that's appearance as far as I'm concerned. The pine nuts were fine but the rosemary honey dressing was too sweet for me. The scallops though were fresh, well cooked, and very flavorful. Second was the Crab Cake Benedict - it's a traditional poached egg but that's where it stops. It has spinach, and shallots, and a roasted red pepper hollandaise. But the real innovation is that it rests not on an English muffin, but on a crabcake. A bit over the top, but interesting.

The best of the small plates was the Steak and Eggs - it was a nice slice of steak, well seasoned, resting on truffled hash Browns, spinach and on top was a sunny side up egg. It was innovative, flavorful, but still captured steak and eggs as a dish. It looked like an eggs benedict with steak but absent hollandaise at first.It was very pretty on the plate as well.

The Sausage Omelet is just that, but it was well done with sausage, onions and cheddar cheese. The Croque Monsieur had Béchamel, honey ham and Swiss cheese, nice enough. The Toasted Baguette with goat cheese and tomatoes was more similar to a bruschetta, but good. The Crêpe aux Fruits Rouge had sautéed mixed red and black berries and white chocolate shavings and the crêpe was nicely done. Very good flavors, great mix of berries and the white chocolate.

Service was very good, the view was nice (though winter is less exciting to look at on that segment of the river in winter than in summer). The manager stopped and chatted when we engaged with him, and remembered us the next day when we stopped for the regular hotel breakfast. Excellent food, good prices, excellent service, I'd recommend it.

One of the things my wife and I love to do is travel, though we haven't done as much lately as we'd like. We took advantage of a three day weekend to go to Boston, and enjoyed several great restaurants, as well as a few sights. The New England Aquarium was great, as was the Boston Museum of Fine Art. I'll review the restaurants separately, but they included Ole, Oceannaire, Miel, and Sushi-Teq. I had a glass of wine in one, but otherwise no wine to review this trip, sorry!

I booked online through Hotwire because my normal chain was booked fully and I hate to bump people for no reason. After booking I read all the reviews everywhere as we were taking a weekend in Boston to celebrate my wife's birthday and our upcoming anniversary and I wanted to know what to expect in the hotel and surrounding area. Some reviews made mention of bookings not being honored so I was worried and called ahead, no problem, they had the reservation. Asked for a king bed, and was told "arrive early" so I was again concerned. But, on arrival they had the request noted in the system, asked if the standard king was fine, and gave us a city-view on the 11th floor.

The room was beautiful, well appointed with modern luxury touches. The bedside lighting is sophisticated and adjustable - three types of bedside lights. The first are standard table lamps, the second are led spotlights on flexible arms, and the third is a dim lighting in the headboard side panels to either side of the sliding windows between the soaking tub and the room. Additionally there are switches on both sides of the bed to turn on the hall light and not trip over something in the middle of the night. The bed was exceptionally comfortable, with four pillows plus a longer body pillow with nice cover.

The bathroom is well done, marble, granite, tile, wood, ceramic and chrome fixtures, and lots of shelves. There are good photos on this and some of the travel sites. But, beautiful, well done bathrooms.

The room had a chaise at the foot of the bed, a nice chair and ottoman, dedicated office space in the room I was in (it said King Deluxe on the check in slip, but the room map on the door made some rooms look smaller, and the Deluxe was supposed to be the smallest I thought). I can't find a great room layout on any of the sites. Other furnishings were dark wood night tables and dresser/TV console, and desk. There were adequate plug-ins where needed. A nice touch was the iPhone/iPod compatible clock radio - we plugged one in and had our own music in the room.

I was ecstatic because of the rate I paid on Hotwire, and the hotel service backed it up. We tried two of the hotel restaurants, to be reviewed separately, Miel and Sushi-Teq, and had great service in each. The restaurant manager for Miel stopped and had a nice conversation when we engaged with him. Talked about the food, chefs, and local area with us.

This was also an interesting experiment because I've been doing a lot with social media and public interaction recently. So, I posted comments about the trip on Twitter, before, during, and after. I also found the InterContinental's Twitter feed, followed them, and interestingly not one, not two, but three of their Twitter accounts are now following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jschmeling) too. I posted one concern about the service, and then that concern was addressed fully at the hotel (as per above, re: room type). But I also posted about my reservation at Miel, and the manager took time to interact, knew my name, and remembered it the next day when my wife had breakfast there again. I don't know definitively that they reacted to my tweets, but I think it's likely.

Cherry, cherry, cherry. Wait, there's some tart, but still cherry. This is a fruit forward, new world, cherry nose Pinot Noir. Ruby red, beautiful bright wine. The mouth is a medium weight, which may be full bodied for a Pinot. It's fully fruit filled, again, lots of cherry, with good structure and acidity. Soft, rounded tannins are there, but they're a great part of the structure. The fruit lingers for a minute or more, and the mouth waters even longer. I loved this Pinot, and would open it again and again. I think it was around $40. Tasted January 2010.

PS: http://www.peayvineyards.com/index.shtml is their website. A couple of good pics, good wine notes, and information about them is there. And it was the SF Chronicle winery of the year. http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-12-27/food/17461661_1_sonoma-coast-vineyard-winemakers

Opened the 2006 Cadence Camerata with friends. Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, some Cab Franc. Purple, deep color. First note was raw bread dough - it was an excellent nose, though unexpected. The second note was cherries, and my friend said crushed, split cherries with cherry liqueur over it. It had a great presence in the mouth, not a heavy mouth weight, good, lengthy red fruit, but a bit of menthol as well, well balanced, nice tannins, and after a little while some dark fruits came out in the nose and taste. In the mouth the tannins were dusty, like a mocha coffee Matt suggested. It was outstanding, and along with their Ciel du Cheval, is a great Cadence, and I'll seek them out regularly. About $65. Tasted January 2010.

From Jumilla, Spain, the El Nido Clio is 70% Monastrell, 30% Cab. Dark color, dark fruit, inky, tarry. Something offputting on the nose, maybe petroleum, but once you get past that it's an opulent dark cherry, dark raspberry, and cola. In the taste the dark fruits predominate, but a bit of regular cherry and some oakiness is there too, a bit toasty. The mouthweight is very thick, viscous, coats the whole mouth, a bit chewy. The fruit and alcohol are both high, tannins well integrated, and since it's all put together well there's nothing bad about the taste of components that might be overwhelming if not balanced. It's a good bottle, but I echo some of the thoughts of others that compare it to Aussie dark fruit Shiraz. Maybe that's a Chris Ringland trait, and since I like some of his wines, maybe explains liking this one. About $45. Tasted January, 2010.

The Guidalberto from Tenuta San Guido is a terrific Tuscan second wine from Sassicaia's producer. Different sites suggest different ratios of Cab, Merlot and Sangiovese, from 40/40/20 to 45/45/10, and I have no idea which it is. Dark purple, opaque, ring is very clear. Nose is aromatic, dark fruits, some cigar box, a bit of spice. The taste is a bit more Sangiovese than I expected, but quite good. It's not a heavy wine despite the significant Cab component. It went well with Italian red sauce and meatballs. I would have liked more weight, but the flavors were intense and lasting. Good balance, nice acidity to go with the food. The tannins were a bit hard at first, and after half an hour decanted they softened a bit, this wine could use a few years of aging and will improve I think. Around $65. Tasted January 2010.