Archive for the Tasting Notes from the Underground Category

(L) Chef David Gilbert, Gianni Abate and Brian Polcyn - click to enlarge

A few weeks ago, we had the good fortune and great pleasure to attend a strolling dinner party at Birmingham’s Forest Grill, featuring selected wines from Morgan Winery, located in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands. On hand was Morgan winemaker Gianni Abate to pour and talk about the wines, and Chef Brian Polcyn and Executive Chef David Gilbert prepared a brilliant array of finger foods to enjoy along with the wines. We’ve made no secret of our great pleasure in past visits to the Forest Grill, and are especially pleased that our dear friend, Master Sommelier Claudia Tyagi is now directing the wine program there. Claudia made sure that we knew about the event in advance, and having some experience both tasting and selling Morgan wines in the past, this was one we weren’t going to miss. Read the rest of this entry »

Jarred Gild

There was a sports-related saying back in the day that went something like this: “I went to the fights and a hockey game broke out.” This of course refers to activities that are no longer nearly as prevalent in the game as they once were, but be that as it may, Kim and I recently attended what might be considered the oenological equivalent of that old statement. Our buddies Jarred Gild (@jarred_) and Dawn Astrop invited some fellow Twitter-types over to sample and survey a selection of late model, mid-priced Bordeaux, which of course, we were only too happy to join in on. There were a number of local hipsters in attendance, people with names like @HerrBrain, @simmer_down, @perfectlaughtr and @amberto, not to mention our old friend and colleague, Putnam Weekley. Jarred fired up the grill and served up a variety of all natural, grass fed organic meats from C. Roy Meats that paired perfectly with the wines. The Bordeaux selections ranged from good to very good, but nothing among their number really stood out. The true star of this show was a plainly labeled Austrian Gruner Veltliner in a green 1 Liter bottle enclosed with a bottle cap. I had been very much impressed with the 2008 version of this wine when I tried it last summer, and this one is every bit as good, if not better. Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Haas

The idea of producing wines from Rhone grape varieties in California was by no means new when Tablas Creek released their initial offerings more than 10 years ago. People like Steve Edmunds and Randall Grahm, to name only two, had already been doing so for years before that, but one had to think that something good would result from a collaboration between the Haas and Perrin families, given their many years of involvement in the wine trade and production. To be honest, I didn’t much care for what I tasted from that inaugural 1997 vintage, but they got it right very soon after that, and by the time I first met Tablas Creek General Manager Jason Haas in the fall of 2006, they were hitting on all cylinders. Read the rest of this entry »

George Heritier and Rhonda Riebow, sales director at Chateau Grand Traverse - Click to enlarge

Riesling may be king on Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula, but the more wines that we taste from that neck of the woods, the more inescapable becomes the conclusion that some really good white Pinot varieties are being produced there as well. This was brought home to me again on three different occasions recently, including the Michigan Food and Wine Showcase, a visit to Left Foot Charley in Traverse City and the latest MichiganByTheBottle Tweet & Taste Michigan. I had thought at first to focus only on the three Pinot Grigios noted in this report, but, happily, a couple of other little numbers showed up and I thought, “Why not?”

While attending the aforementioned Michigan Food and Wine Showcase, I happened upon my friend Rhonda Riebow, sales director at Chateau Grand Traverse, who poured me a taste of the latest releases of both their Pinot Grigio and Ship of Fools White Table Wine. I was mucho impressed with both, but wasn’t taking notes that day, which is unfortunate, because the PG would have been perfect for inclusion in this report, and I haven’t run into any since. I DID get to retaste Ship of Fools as part of the June Tweet & Taste, a wine which Vice President of Trade Relations and Specialty Winemaker Sean O’Keefe refers to as “my reverse engineered Sauv Blanc.” This wine is always welcome at Gang Central, as we’ve enjoyed several vintages previously; the last one we reviewed, the 2006, was a blend of Pinots Blanc and Gris, along with Chardonnay. The Chardonnay has been replaced by Pinot Noir in the current model, and it’s very tasty indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

Ridge Lytton Springs ~ April 27, 2010

Ridge VP and Winemaker, John Olney

During our first visit to California wine country back in 1997, our very first stop was (quite appropriately, given our love for all things Ridge) the Ridge Lytton Springs facility, which was then still housed in the old Lytton Springs Winery building.  In 1999, a new eco-friendly facility was built, and Kim and I had yet to visit the place, although we read Allan Bree’s report about it in his impressive “Homage Lytton Springs” some years back.  So, upon our recent return to Sonapanoma for the first time in eight years, we thought it quite fitting that our first site visit should be at the “new” Lytton Springs winery, and, as previously reported, arrangements were made to do so with the help of our friend Christina Donley. Read the rest of this entry »

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The more we drink the wines from France’s Loire Valley, be they red, white, pink or bubbly, the more we like them and the more we WANT to drink them. Despite the diversity of regions (there are 87 appellations and sub-appellations), there is usually a common thread that runs through them, and, at least for us, it’s based on the minerality that almost all seem to show. Our friends at Vineyard Brands sent us three samples for review recently, and each showed varying degrees of that stony quality that we’ve come to crave when we pour ourselves a glass of wine. We started out with a specimen of unlikely, but not-unheard-of, Loire Chardonnay. Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s nothing quite like drinking good French rosé in Napa Valley in the springtime. I don’t mean that in a smarmy thumb-your-nose-at-Napa-because-the-French-make-better-rosé-than-the-locals-do kind o’ way, because that’s not necessarily true. It’s just that there’s something amusingly ironic about going to the heart of California wine country, only to drink French wine as the weather warms and the growing season starts to get into full swing. It also bears pointing out that these three cost less than anything made locally that we happened to run into, not that we searched every nook and cranny in a quest to price comparatively. These three are simply the ones that looked the best to us in our travels, so they’re the ones we bought, and as it turns out, all were quite satisfying, starting with a producer that’s new to us. Read the rest of this entry »

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On our last night in Napa, we took Allan Bree to dinner at Bistro Jeanty, a delightful restaurant in Yountville that he had introduced us to during our last trip out. Allan brought along two equally delightful wines from one of our very favorite producers, Domaine Tempier in Bandol, which we proceeded to enjoy with a succession of delicious appetizers and entrees, including Chef Jeanty’s famous cream of tomato soup, deep fried Great Lakes smelt, a marvelous artichoke heart terrine with lemon pesto, Epaule De Porc (slow roasted pork shoulder), steak tartare and a lovely little duck tart. Read the rest of this entry »