Nancy on Wine

It's Fourth of July, and the livin' is easy

2009-07-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Earlier this week I celebrated Canada Day on Wednesday July 1st - Canada is the nation of my citizenship and where my immediate family resides - I celebrated with a simple semi-day off which ended up rich in work on the phone and a local visit to a nearby account. It ended up being a very productive day.

Yesterday, Friday July 3, a holiday for many folks, I spent the day working at a couple of different Whole Foods stores helping out on the retail floor, a skill I am not unfamiliar with.... Whole Foods was and is having a big wine sale this weekend - 20% off all wines when you purchase 6 bottles or more.

Today, July 4, I'll also be out at Whole Foods, the Torrance location, where my friend and former co-worker Yvonne is the Wine Specialist... I'll be pouring some of my German wines, namely 2007 Becker Pinot Noir, 2007 Schnaitmann Evoe Rose, 2007 Rhein River Riesling, and 2007 Pfeffingen Dry Riesling.

And to celebrate the Fourth, the national holiday of my chosen land, provider of great opportunities to individuals of all colors, shapes, sizes, and origins, where even a gal like me born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, can march right in (well, drive down the I-5 interstate) and work in the hospital business for almost a decade then eck out a living in the wine biz...... tonight we celebrate with a bottle of American wine!

The chosen wine is pictured above: 2007 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc - a Rhone-style, or specifically Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc-style wine from Paso Robles. Sure, its history suggests something of half-French origins, but this wine's chosen home is 100% California. Maybe a little like me. :)

So while we drink it tonight, I'll think about what I love about the United States of America:

* It's fun here

* I like the people

* People here love running and wine

* People are friendly, open, and generous

* It's a big and interesting and beautiful geography (did you know that the Chinese translation for the name America is "Beautiful Country"? Now you do!

* You can have fun, exciting careers here

* There's so much to do!

* There is diversity and complexity, and always more things to learn

* I met my hubby here!

* It's close to Canada!

Want a food and wine pairing this week?

2009-06-30T22:35:00.001-07:00

Check this out - The Wine Country's weekly Wine and Food pairing suggestion - in a blog!

http://thewinecountry.wordpress.com/

This week, there's a terrific farmer's market recipe for salad rolls and dipping sauce, to be paired with one of the wines I have been selling like hotcakes: 2003 Von Hovel Oberemmeler Hutte Riesling Spatlese ($19.99).

Check it out!

German winemakers: Bert Selbach, Eberhard von Kunow, & Fritz Becker in Los Angeles

2009-06-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

I had one of those busy weeks last week, where every moment was packed with something. Much of that had to do with hosting 3 German winemakers who were in town: Bert Selbach of Dr. F. Weins-Prum, Eberhard von Kunow from Von Hovel, and Fritz Becker from Friedrich Becker Estate.

When one has winemakers in town to do what some people call "work-withs," the standard procedure is to schedule interesting accounts for them to visit. This has the purpose of improving relationships both ways - for our customers, it is very fun to meet the actual people and see the actual hands that make the wines they know and love. It is also a bit of an honor, I think, to have the winemakers personally visit their establishment, be it a restaurant or a retail store, to establish the relationship all the way around the world.

And for the winemaker, it is a bonus also, to meet the customers that buy their wine, to get their reactions to the end products of their vines, to see how German wines are received in the marketplace, and get first hand what people really think. Its the feel that they can't get just looking at a spreadsheet. My hope is that first hand information actually helps them know what people want from wine.

While the winemakers were in town, we had quite a few consumer tastings as well, where the real end users had direct contact with the winemakers, such as at this tasting pictured below at The Wine Country:

On the left is the very humorous and extroverted Eberhard von Kunow (who likes to be called "Adt" for short), and the more reserved, introverted Bert Selbach, both who make incredible Rieslings from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer.

Adt's Rieslings at Von Hovel express that beautiful Saar acidity, along with plenty of beautiful plump ripe fruit, a delicious salinity, and satiny gorgeous body, from his basic 2007 Von Hovel Balduin Estate Riesling up to his 2007 Von Hovel Oberemmeler Hutte Riesling Auslese One Star. Though for many tasters, his 2003 Von Hovel Oberemmeler Hutte Riesling Spatlese stole the show, because 2003 is such a maligned vintage, and this wine, six years after the vintage, is showing the uniqueness of German Riesling with time in the bottle - succulent peach cobbler fruit with a dash of petrol and a length that goes on forever - honey, but Eberhard says no botrytis in this wine, just clean ripe fruit and ripe acids - this is a wine that can age for decades, and is tasting really good right now, putting into serious question the naysayers of the 2003 vintage. This is a wine that has to be tasted!

Bert Selbach is a genius with the Dr. F. Weins-Prum Estate. With only a 4,000 case annual production, Bert is a one-man show. That means he is the owner of the estate, the cellar-master, the vineyard manager, the bottler, and the guy who loads the labels onto the labelling machine that labels the bottles. He is a quiet, reserved winemaker, but his wines speak volumes. From the humble feinherb (medium-dry, in German) 2007 Dr. F. Weins-Prum Estate Riesling through his many different single vineyard Kabinetts and Spatleses (he's got Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Domprobst, Urzig Wurzgarten, and Erdener Pralat), his wines are the embodiment of class Mosel refinement. With Dr. F. Weins-Prum wines, you know these things - first, you're going to get great acidity, great minerality that shows off the individual terroir of each of these single vineyards, ie. feminine and graceful Wehlener Sonnenuhr is going to taste totally different from rocky, masculine Graacher Domprobst, which will be different from spicy, red-slaty Urzig Wurzgarten; second, you are going to great wine for a fantastic price - these wines are bargains at twice the price, genuine, real wines made in small, small production, for half the price of the more famous next-door neighbor and cousin Joh. Jos. Prum.

More than 50 people attended the Thursday afternoon tasting at The Wine Country, and it was a very enthused crowd that enjoyed a taste of these wines poured by the winemakers themselves.

Fritz Becker Jr. was also in town from his family's winery Friedrich Becker Estate in the Pfalz. This estate is known for their Pinot Noir and also its drier style white wines. It was Fritz Becker's father, Friedrich Becker Sr. who first began making his own wine from his family's estate, which was selling its grapes to the cooperative after the Second World War. The town of Schweigen where their winery and home is situated, was completely demolished after the end of the war, so all the local wine growers had to completely rebuild and replant and set up cooperatives to help one another recover their vineyards. So that was going back to Fritz's grandfather's generation. Fritz's father in the 70s began making his own wine in the family's winery, and began to develop a reputation for his fantastic Pinot Noirs, many of which are made from the family's vineyards which are now on the French side of the border, in Alsace. But because the Becker family has owned these lands for over 100 years, they are allowed to make German wine from much of their grapes which are French.

The telltale fox on the label of Becker wines is from the fable "Sour grapes" wherein the fox cannot reach the grapes, gives up and says to the crow, "Pffff - those grapes are sour anyway." The connection to the wines is that when Fritz's father was first making dry wines (such as Pinot Noir) in the 70s, many customers complained that the wines were sour, because they were used to sweet wines. And so the cute, catchy label was designed.

Above, Fritz is showing his wines to Bart Miali, owner of Elvino Wines on the very cool Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice Beach.

Next, we headed over to a very hidden location - you must drive up beautiful Pacific Coast Highway then turn right on Topanga Canyon, drive 4 miles up the windy canyon, and then you reach a restaurant that has been there over 30 years: Inn of the 7th Ray.

I told Fritz that when I go and visit this account, I really like my job! It is a gorgeous drive, and when you get to this oasis, it is a beautiful outdoor setting for a wine tasting - right by the little creek, practically in the woods. They don't call it L.A.'s most romantic restaurant for nothing!

Here, we got to taste with sommelier Travis Brazil, former soccer player for Mannheim in Germany. Travis can speak fluent German, went to university at Heidelberg, one of the oldest Universities in the world, and he is a huge fan of German wines, in particular those in the Rudi Wiest portfolio.

The featured wines we took out with Fritz were, of the reds: 2007 Becker Estate Pinot Noir, 2006 Becker "B" Pinot Noir, and 2005 Becker Kammerberg Grosses Gewachs Pinot Noir. Each Pinot Noir was from a different tier, the first is the entry level and is an unoaked Pinot Noir (though there is oak, it is just a huge giant fudre, so no oak influence is more accurate), the second is the middle tier wine aged in old barriques (smaller barrels, more oak influence but all old oak), and the third, or top tier is the Kammerberg single vineyard, where the vines are 42 years old (planted in 1967), and the wine is aged in 80% new German oak barrels.

Of the whites, they were the 2008 Becker Estate Pinot Blanc (in German, the Schweigener Weisser Burgunder), the 2006 Becker Limestone Pinot Blanc (in German, the Kalgestein Weisser Burgunder), the 2007 Becker Laisser Faire Riesling, and the 2007 Becker Gewurztraminer Auslese. The white wines were impressive, my favorites being the 2006 Limestone Pinot Blanc, and the Laisser Faire Riesling.

Pretty cool huh? All in a day's work.

June 2009: A big month for German winemakers visiting!

2009-06-22T06:38:00.001-07:00

Just last week, I spent some time at a charity wine and food function called Manhattan Wine Auction, where three German growers came with me to promote their wines to a very wine-saavy crowd. There we were in the intense afternoon sun: Johannes Hasselbach of Gunderloch Estate in the Rheinhessen (son of the famous Fritz and Agnes Hasselbach of Gunderloch fame); Dorothee Zilliken of Zillken Estate (daughter of the famous Hanno Zilliken, who makes the great Saar Rieslings); and Thomas Chaffin of the flagship Rheingau estate Robert Weil.

This week, three more German winemakers are scheduled to be here: Bert Selbach of Dr. F. Weins-Prum in the Mosel; Eberhard von Kunow of Von Hovel Estate in the Saar, and Fritz Becker Jr. of Friedrich Becker Estate in the Pfalz. The former two will be showing their amazing Mosel and Saar Rieslings, while the latter will be showing his Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc wines. Cannot wait!

Scenes from Rudipalooza 2009 in Beverly Hills (Los Angeles)

2009-06-11T19:17:00.001-07:00

Rudipalooza is the annual Rudi Wiest vintage tasting for the trade. This year, 12 producers were represented, by their owners and/or winemakers, or their international sales representatives. The event was well attended by restaurant and retail wine buyers alike, and the 2008 German Rieslings and other newly released German wines (think Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Rose, sparkling wine) were very well received!

The 2008 vintage is a classic vintage, cooler than some other recent vintages, giving the wines crisp acidity, while providing ample lush but not overly fat fruit. The wines, in a word, are delicious. This vintage in Germany is more about the Kabinetts and Spatleses, and less about Ausleses and noble sweets. Which is great, because our market wants great, classic Kabinetts and Spatleses!

Below here see Tim Frohlich, winemaker and owner of Schafer-Frohlich, and Christophe Graf, international sales director from Von Buhl.

Here we are have some of our guests tasting and discussing the wines in full wine-geekiness, which is the best thing that can happen at a wine tasting:

Over 100 different wines were being poured, including those of producers who did not attend. These were poured by the Rudi Wiest Selections representatives:

The Rudi Wiest vintage tasting at Lawry's is famous for their German spread...... a real German feast put on by Lawry's chef, who is German, and creates an authentic lunch with all sorts of delicious German food, including smoked fish, potato salads, wurst, saurbraten, and all sorts of other things I don't know the names of:

Below, Robert Eymael of Monchhof, Tom Driesberg of Wegeler Estate:

All in all, a very successful event, and very well attended. I was working so didn't get to taste as much as I would have if I had been an attendee (which I was the last three of these tastings!). But I'm sure in the coming months, I'll get to revisit these wines, and they will taste way more put together than when I tasted the tank and barrel samples back in February on the Germany trip.

Where can I find Rudi Wiest wines?

2009-06-11T17:11:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know all my dear readers want to know where they can find Rudi Wiest wines. Well! I have created a google map and made it public. It is entitled Where can I find Rudi Wiest German Wines?

Now, Blogger won't seem to let me put a link here, otherwise I would put a link up:

http://google.com/maps/mm

When you get there you still have to do a search - I recommend the following key word sequence:

nancy deprez rudi wiest wines

My map should come up. So if you want to find out where my map is, please try to google Where can I find Rudi Wiest German wine? and you will find my map somewhere there.

Thanks for tuning in!

A Run for Jane

2009-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

It's an odd thing: death is a natural part of life, but it always strikes me as highly surprising, almost unnatural, and deeply disturbing. When I hear about a friend who has passed away, I immediately personalize the situation and feel a deep sense of guilt about not spending enough time with the person, especially immediately before he or she died. It's odd. A pattern that has repeated itself with me: I hear the news, I immediately am in disbelief, then I sink into regret about not having been closer to the person, not having put aside my own small silly schedule to spend more time with those who I will never see alive again.

It was the same when I heard about Jane's passing yesterday. Jane is a friend I have not seen in over six years. The first thing that comes to mind is that we were very close, then had a bit of a falling out. It was one of those friendships that was strong, but had its place and time, and then it went into decline. But she is a person I have very distinct memories of to this day. In other words, we grew apart and stayed apart, but her influence on me stuck around.

She was, if you had to define her in one word, a runner. Through and through, long distance running was her thing. She is the only friend I have ever had that ran a 100 mile race, the Vermont 100, and for that I am proud, because when people talk about marathons (a mere 26.2 mile race) and ultra-marathons (events over 26.2 miles), I tell them about a friend I used to have who ran 100 miles. That's a race through forest, on single-track trails, through river crossings, and through the night - yes, more than 24 hours long, so you run without sleep. That's an extreme endurance event very few people can finish. And I knew someone, trained with someone, who finished. I believe her time was about 27 hours.

I met Jane in Griffith Park one Saturday morning when I was there with my friend Richard, getting ready to go for a run. Jane was in a small group of runners, and they were starting about where we were planning to start, and Jane, being the friendly, outgoing personality that she was, struck up a conversation with us, and that's when we learned that her group was planning to run a 20-miler that day, followed by something like a 30-miler the next morning. This was a hard-core group! They had to be hard-core - they were training for a 100 mile race, so there was no holding back, no time for rest between two extremely long distance runs.

Shortly after that fateful meeting, and learning that we both lived in West Hollywood, Jane and I became friends, running often together, weekends, weekdays, mornings and evenings. Her running enthusiasm was wildly contageous. She mapped out running routes on trails that showed me the beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains. She planned races that took us on gorgeous trips to Paso Robles (Wine Country Half Marathon), Humbolt County (Avenue of the Giants Marathon), and San Diego (Rock n Roll Marathon). She introduced me to running groups that specialized in trail running - groups such as the Mountain Goats, which exposed me to wonderful trails through the mountains that made me love Los Angeles more than ever. With Jane, I trained and ran some of the most challenging races ever: the Bulldog Trail Run comes to mind. Through running together, over those many miles, we bonded. It was all great fun.

Toward the end of our friendship, we even took a trip together that didn't involve a race: we went to Cabo San Lucas for a long weekend. I still remember that she chatted up strangers and locals alike and asked about where to go that was unique and interesting, and on our way to the Hotel California, we stopped at a roadside outdoor bar called "Arts and Beer," a place recommended to her, and we had delicious fresh fruit drinks and beer and succulent raw clams harvested on the nearby beach, split open by the owner with a small jack knife and doused with Worchestershire sauce and lime and a dash of soy sauce - awesome - and it was as idyllic a scene as you could imagine.

Jane was one of the first foodies I had as a friend - she would insist we eat at quirky, interesting and unique restaurants she had researched when we were out of town, and that made trips fun and not just about physical exertion, but also about enjoyment and reward. She told me that on a date, she ordered sweetbreads as an appetizer, and a huge steak for dinner - she burned tons of calories running the high mileage that she did - and that freaked out her date.

Of course, toward the end of our friendship, negative feelings got in the way. People are not just one dimensional, all good or all evil - they are multi-faceted, and Jane certainly was. But in spite of what negative things I did remember about her, she possessed a rich spirit and a joie de vivre or passion for life that was unstoppable, and she wasted no part of it doing dull things or being afraid or not pushing herself to be the best. She travelled constantly. One trip she did by herself because no one else would go, and that would probably be me included, declining maybe because it was "too far" was Portugal to run the Lisbon Marathon. She came back with great stories to tell, how she stayed in hostel-like accommodations, went out every night and listened to the local music, and met new people.

Like I said, she lived.

It was hard to hear that she died at the young age of 58, succumbing to cancer. She was someone who I thought would live until at least 95.

I heard this news from my running friend Paul last evening. I didn't even know she was sick. I was that out of touch from her world.

This morning I had running plans with my friend Linda. We had a 5 mile run ahead of us and after I shared with her that I heard an old friend had died, Linda exclaimed that she knew Jane also. I never knew that.

We spent 5 miles talking about and remembering Jane Wasserman, runner, adventurer, friend.

Rest in peace.

Impressions of the Pass of the Oaks - El Paso de Robles, California

2009-05-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

Back from Paso Robles.... there three days and three nights, took in 2 wineries, 3 restaurants, 1 run through town, and a wedding at a winery.

First, let's talk about the two wineries visited:

Tablas Creek

Located on the west side of Paso Robles, tucked in the hills, this not-so-large property has rolling vineyards many planted 15 to 20 years ago, so the vines are by Paso standards older than others. The winery sports a cute sign pointing to Domaine de Beaucastel in Chateauneuf du Pape in the Southern Rhone.

We had an extensive, guided tour of the Tablas Creek estate, which produces wines only from estate grown fruit. There are a great deal of varieties planted here, including all 13 varieties allowed in Chateauneuf du Pape, as well as some Northern Rhone varieties, such as Viognier, as well as some Spanish and Italian varieties.

After the extensive tour, an extensive tasting:

2007 Cotes de Tablas Blanc

Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc

This is a blend of white wine grapes from the Rhone, though Viognier is from the Northern Rhone and the other three are from the Southern Rhone. The Viognier dominates here, with a rich aromatic nose, and a palate that is full-bodied, pleasant, 13.5% alcohol.

2007 Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc

This is a blend of white grapes allowed in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation, and this is where I learned that Viognier is not one of them! As for the Picpoul variety, I also didn't know this is from the Southern Rhone; I only know Picpoul de Pinet..... which the tour guide had not heard of (Pinet that is). This is an expressive, interesting white wine, with nuances of poached pear, creamy oak and malolactic fermentation, though not overly oaky.

2007 Roussanne

100% Roussanne

Rich wine with some neutral oak, savory peach/pear, but not fruity. Great roast chicken wine, in my mind.

2006 Grenache Blanc

100% Grenache Blanc

Lemon/citrus nose, reminiscent of Riesling, bright acidity on the palate, and doesn't taste anything like its 15.3% alcohol.

2008 Vermentino

100% Vermentino

An Italian white variety. Fresh aroma, floral. Fresh and zippy with good acidity, citrus, orange, and lower alcohol. Refreshing.

2008 Rose

Mourvedre, Grenache Noir, Counoise

A deep red colored Rose made from 48 hours on the skins - juicy, full of red berries and watermelon, a touch of pepper. Very ripe fruit flavors. A good wine for cured salmon

2006 Cotes de Tablas

Grenache Noir, Syrah, Mourvedre, Counoise

Fashioned after a Cotes du Rhone, this wine shows more tannin than I'm used to in Cotes du Rhone, more body and fruit and power, but a pleasant red wine nonetheless.

2005 Syrah

90% Syrah, 10% Grenache Noir

Nice depth, spice, a little tannin, dark berry fruit, and some complexity from aging. A solid Syrah.

2006 Grenache

90% Grenache, 10% Syrah

Fruity nose; on the palate, tea, berries, and some sweetness. 15.3% alcohol.

2006 Esprit de Beaucastel

Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah, Counoise

Their signature wine, their version of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This vintage is sweet, fruity, showing some alcohol, but mostly fresh red berries.

2005 Esprit de Beaucastel

This vintage is rustique, with animal/brettanomeyces/barnyard nose reminiscent of a French wine. Not so much that it is a negative, just an interesting point with this vintage.

2004 Esprit de Beaucastel

This vintage shows nice development in the wine, no barnyard flavors, very nice.

Halter Ranch

Halter Ranch is a neighboring estate that is much larger than Tablas Creek. The estate is younger, and most vines were planted around 2000. The wines made here are also all estate-grown, and in fact, the estate grows so many grapes, that it sells some to neighbors, such as Justin.

California sales manager Jim Witt gave us a private tour of the property in his truck, and we drove around the vast site which boasts 250 acres under vine, and a total property area of 1000 acres.

At certain points he had to get out of the truck to open and close gates which were part of the fence system that allowed the local deer to migrate through the area without having access to the vineyard.

At one point in the tour, we got out to visit what Jim told us was the largest oak tree in the world. This oak tree on the Halter Ranch property gives its Bordeaux-style blend Ancestor its name.

Of the wines we tasted at Paso, I most enjoyed their Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

My favorite restaurant in Paso turned out to be Villa Creek.

We had a nice meal with Villa Creek's 2006 Avenger:

The Sheppard's plate

Below, the Cassoulet:

And roast lamb:

Off to Paso we go, we go

2009-05-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

I have been to Paso Robles once, long time ago, almost 10 years ago. I went with a friend, and we drove up to run a half marathon through wine country, and I remember we did some wine tasting also, and that was before the days I knew to spit when tasting..... I remember being somewhat inebriated after some tasting. I'm sure though, that I wasn't the only one...

I also remember Paso Robles being very small town, and we couldn't really find a restaurant to eat at except for one small Italian place, and because a whole lot of out-of-towners were there, the place was packed, and we had to wait a couple of hours to have a seat for dinner, and then when we did eat, the food was non-descript.

I have heard that since my last visit, things have changed. A plethora of new wineries have been established. Restaurants have opened. And of course, I have changed. I will be looking at the wineries and vineyards with different eyes, and I will be tasting the wines with different taste buds. For since that last visit, I will have had 4 years of being "in the business," plus have visited wine regions in France and Germany, not just California wine regions!

With three restaurant recommendations from friend and former coworker Bennett, hubby and I made reservations at all three establishments. We will be dining at Artisan, Bistro Laurent, and Villa Creek. And that's just in Paso Robles! On our way up, we'll be stopping in Santa Barbara to lunch at Hungry Cat and after a quick lunch, I'll actually be doing a presentation of some Rudi Wiest wines for them, since our wines do so well at seafood restaurants.

As for wineries, my plan is to visit Halter Ranch, Tablas Creek, and Justin. I look forward to reporting on these.

Finally, the original reason for our trip, we will be attending a wedding of a good friend on Sunday evening at a winery called Meridian.

I hope you all have a very lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Stefanie Hasselbach from Gunderloch Estate, Rheinhessen Germany

2009-05-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

A great evening yesterday with winemaker Stefanie Hasselbach, 6th generation of family-owned winery Gunderloch Estate in the Rheinhessen. Her older sister just recently had a baby, making Stefanie's niece the 7th generation of this family to own Gunderloch. Amazing isn't it??

I met Stefanie at The Wine Country at 4:30 for a consumer tasting, which was off the charts in attendance and enthusiasm! Wow! I don't have the official count but it seemed like we had between 40 and 50 people attend the tasting, and they were an enthused group who asked all sorts of pertinent, wine-geek questions about the wines and the estate. The wines tasted included the 2006 Gunderloch Gewurztraminer, 2007 Gunderloch Dry Riesling, 2007 Gunderloch Jean-Baptiste Riesling Kabinett, 2007 Gunderloch Diva Riesling Spatlese, and 2007 Gunderloch Nackenheimer Rothenberg Riesling Spatlese. What a line-up! The tasters gushed over how great the wines were, starting with the Gewurztraminer, which blew a lot of people away because it normally isn't everyone's favorite variety. But the Gunderloch Gewurz has restraint and focus and some great minerality that a lot of people picked up on. And at about 8 or 9 grams of residual sugar, it was perfectly balanced and not too sweet, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Of the Rieslings, people seemed to gravitate toward how perfectly balanced and likeable the Jean-Baptiste Kabinett was. And they marvelled at how divine and sublime the Nackenheimer Rothenberg Spatlese was - pretty much a perfect Spatlese if there ever could be one!

After the tasting, we had to dash off to visit Wine House, another wine store that is well known for being big supporters of German wine. A brief little tasting here had the wine buyer also falling for the Gewurztraminer and the Rothenberg Spatlese, this time, the 2005 Rothenberg Spatlese was shown in all its youthful glory, its superb long length, its complex body that wraps around your tongue. Yum.

Two restaurant visits followed, during which time we enjoyed some of the restaurant offerings as well: The Lobster and Gjelina. Both restaurants, on a Monday night in May, were packed to the gills, giving me all the evidence that I need that the recession is over. At The Lobster, we were treated to a beautiful table with a view overlooking the ocean and the Santa Monica Pier as we dined on delicious shellfish - Stefanie's seafood pasta heaped with colorful mussels, clams, lobster, and crab; my 5 plump and generous diver scallops perfectly seared and perched in a gorgous buttery sauce.....we drank Alsacian Riesling by the glass: 2007 Domaine Ostertag Dry Riesling. We talked with the wine director/manager, but unfortunately he was too busy to taste - he would re-visit the Gunderloch Rieslings another time.

After that, it was to Gjelina in Venice, a restaurant open for less than a year, but always packed, every night of the week, and selling tons of interesting wine. Here, we had some dessert and tasted the wine buyer on the Gunderloch wines - his favorite was the Gewurz! Though of course he also loved the Rothenberg Spatlese........

A successful evening with Stefanie, and most enjoyable! Winemakers rule!

Running, Eating, Drinking and Gambling in the "Biggest Little City in the World"

2009-05-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

So guess where we were last weekend?

Circumstances brought us to this small Nevada city, which I had been to maybe 20 years ago on a family driving trip down from Vancouver to San Francisco and over to Reno. Johan had never been, and when we heard that friends would be there that same weekend we were thinking of going, AND that there would be a road race on, we got pretty excited!

Initially, we were going to run a humble 10-K, but when we went to the web to sign up, we saw that a half-marathon was available, for only another $10 to register, and we thought to ourselves, why not?

We flew into Reno on Southwest Airlines, checked into our hotel, and set out to find ourselves lunch before our friends were going to arrive. Since we had to pick up our race packets in downtown Reno's Harrah's casino, we headed that way - by foot. The air was clean and it wasn't too hot, so instead of taking the bus, we just found ourselves walking the 2.8 miles into town. It was a nice way to orient ourselves to the city.

After picking up our race numbers and new t-shirts, lunch was the plan. We found a pub called Brew Brothers in the El Dorado hotel in downtown Reno. The place had big screens showing the upcoming Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, which looked pretty exciting!

The brews weren't bad either!

After lunch, it was our mission to walk off the heavy meal (burgers and beer). We headed back to our hotel, relaxed a bit in the room, and managed to catch the replay of Mine that Bird beating all the other horses at the Derby by passing almost every one of them. Wow! What a horse and jockey team!!

Soon, it was time to meet our friends for dinner. An early dinner was planned by our friends, who would meet us at our hotel, the Peppermill, where a number of good restaurants were located. The plan was to dine Italian before our race. The restaurant was called Romanza.

The menu ended up having a whole lot of enticing dishes that lured me away from my original plan of having pasta. What was I thinking??? I ordered one of my favorite Italian dishes, veal ossobucco. I urged Johan to order one of his favorites, veal chop. Before a race? I have no idea why I didn't settle for a nice simple pasta dish - ah.... live and learn.

Our friends ordered a favorite wine of theirs, 1998 Merryvale, a meritage (Bordeaux-style) blend. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wine that had good developed aromas, and on the palate, an interesting wine, definitely still fresh, tasty, though in my mind not the best aged Napa Cabernet that I had ever had - that would be one that I had at 555 with Randy Kemner, Robert Eymael, Allie Mitchell and Johan maybe a year ago.... something I blogged about, but the name now escapes me. That had been more of a mind-blowing experience, same with a 1994 Justin Isosceles I had at a wine dinner. The Merryvale was more of a pleasant wine than a mind-blower, for me.

Dinner was great - my veal ossobucco was fabulous, and after dinner we had a little nightcap at the VIP bar in the hotel... saw our friends off, then went to place a few little bets at the sports book (hockey - Anaheim to win, and Boston to win), then it was off to sleep so we could be up early to run!

The weather was a bit cold and rainy, but we got out there. I channelled Mine that Bird during the race and ended up passing a bunch of people, and did a very respectable time!

A shower, then clean clothes, then a seafood lunch in one of the hotel's other restaurants, Oceano, where we enjoyed raw oysters, then oysters Rockefeller, and some clam chowda.

Dinner was scheduled with some other friends - at a local Thai restaurant called Bangkok Cuisine. It was sort of a wine dinner, with folks bringing all sorts of wines, mostly of the Riesling variety. I tasted a bunch of wine but the most notable was a wine from a state I had never tasted a wine from before: Idaho!

A very sound Riesling from Idaho - 2005 Ste. Chapelle Winemaker's Series Riesling. To be honest, I didn't know Idaho made wine! But here it was, a pleasant, easy-drinking Riesling about a medium-dry, slightly fruity, not too high acid wine.

In all, my experience in Reno was a fun one. The town has fresh mountain air, is much greener than I thought it would be (I thought it was desert), and the people are nice, active, and fun. The neighborhoods are not bad either! We ran through some nice ones. The gambling was okay - didn't do a lot of winning, but the Ducks did win against the Red Wings, but the Bruins didn't win so that was a bit of a wash. But what can you do? At least the stock market is doing well these days! And I got to experience eating, drinking, running and gambling with some fun people in a new town. Life is good!

Check her out! Samantha Sans Dosage gets interviewed by Tom Wark!

2009-04-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, this morning I have to give a shout-out to Tom Wark's blog Fermentation, that just posted a great interview on my friend Samantha Dugan, who writes the blog Samantha Sans Dosage. This is a fantastic blog that I read regularly for its unique voice and style, the personal touch to a story about life in and around wine.

Samantha is a long time wine professional who has personally taught me a great deal about wine and passion for wine, wine regions, wine makers, wine culture, and wine and food pairing. She is funny, she is a great writer, and I think you should check out her blog!

Here's the link to the interview:

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/

And here's the link to her blog:

http://sansdosage.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

A Successful German Wine Dinner at Da Vinci

2009-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I helped to host a very successful wine dinner, if I say so myself!

Not sure why I felt so surprised - generally speaking, though they take of bit of dancing to plan with a restaurant and a store, they always seem to turn out just fine.

Last evening, the event was at Da Vinci restaurant, a place local to me and close to The Wine Country. The restaurant is beautifully laid out and situated next to the Long Beach airport, and has large floor to ceiling windows through which natural light shines through, and you can watch small planes land and take off. The decor in the restaurant is Italian in flavor, but very modern, with high ceilings, a circular layout, and a visually appealing wine cellar high above the bar. The setting is really impressive, and paves the way for a good evening. Last evening, it happend to be perfect in that at the start time of 6:30 pm, there was still so much daylight that made a primarily white wine dinner feel like a natural ode to spring.

The 40 or so participants were each greeted with a glass of sparkling Kir, the wine I didn't supply. It was a nice touch, though, something sparkling and pretty to greet people as they arrived, something to take their mood from the traffic and their jobs to something fun and relaxing. With this, people enjoyed a small amuse-bouche which was a blend of cheese and something else - I don't remember since at this point I was too busy saying hi to everyone and introducing myself as the importer representative.

The first course was a grilled shrimp salad with fennel, to be paired with 2007 Rhein River Riesling, a basic Riesling made from grapes grown in the Rheinhessen region. Everyone seemed to love this wine and love its very reasonable price, and I too was impressed at how crisp and refreshing it was. It was really a look at how great the 2007 vintage in Germany was, because even this humble little wine could be so clean and inviting. The wine paired well with the salad, and gave me the opportunity to talk about how versatile fruity Rieslings can be, especially in the summer when salads and shellfish grace the dinner table more often.

The second course was lobster raviolis. We were served three plump house-made raviolis filled to the brim with sweet lobster meat, and instead of sitting in a rich creamy sauce, they were in a clear liquid that might have been simple warm water, garnished with herbs. Though I had never before seen such a presentation, I enjoyed it very much, and the raviolis were light, fresh, and delicious. Paired with this course was the 2005 Rebholz Muller-Thurgau, which is a delightful bone dry white wine with freshness (in spite of its age!) and excellent minerality. This is a great wine with white fish or even seafood pasta like we had, and its bone dryness cut through through the richness of the dish quite well. I thoroughly enjoyed the pairing, and enjoyed the opportunity to talk about how Germany produces excellent dry wines, as well as sweet.

The third and main course was a delectably prepared braised pork belly. I have had pork belly in restaurants such as Lucques and Cut, but last evening's pork belly was surprisingly excellent and impressive. It was served perched above mushroom risotto which was rich and creamy and actually just the thing we needed since we were drinking wine. This course was served with two wines, an idea from The Wine Country's owner, Randy Kemner - first, a red: 2005 Kunstler Pinot Noir and then a white later harvest Riesling: 2006 Dr. F. Weins-Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese. This turned out to be a fun exercise in wine pairing with food, and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it - two very different wines - a dry red with a touch of age on it, compared to a rich, sweet white.

Diners were urged to try the red first, since it was drier, and people really liked it - the Pinot Noir showed gorgeous cherry fruit along with smokey bacon and a touch of earth. It went very well with the rich mushroom risotto and the pork. But there was a bit of a red berry sauce served with the pork, though thankfully not too much - when one took pork plus sauce together, the dish went much better with the Riesling Spatlese, and once one started with the Riesling, it was hard to drink anything else - this wine is rich and long in the mouth with just a certain something that tells you that Dr. F. Weins-Prum makes great wine out the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard!! This was a wine that people could not get enough of, almost the wine of the night you might say, though many people also loved the other wines.

That ended the wine portion of the meal; we were served a palate cleansing pannicotta afterwards, which was nice, and some folks got extra pours of the Spatlese to enjoy with the dessert. Others ordered coffee. But everyone was happy and totally enjoying the evening it seemed. People began filling out their order forms to purchase the wines. All was good.

Can't wait for the next wine dinner!

Review of the movie Mondovino

2009-04-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

It's been years since this movie has been out, and years since I have known about it, but I finally watched it. My friend Samantha is a fan of the movie, and so I already had heard good things. But I also read negative reviews of the movie, which suggested it was like a rough draft more than a good documentary, and that the camera work was shoddy. So, it was with treppidation that I went into viewing it.

The upshot is that I loved it! It was rough and tumble and quirky and decidedly un-smooth, but I think the director wanted it that way. He wanted it to be not all perfect and tight, like something that Steven Spielberg would make. This was not meant to be flawless. It was full of quirkiness, like him asking Hubert de Montille "What is this chair of mystery?" and Hubert answering, "This is not a chair of mystery, it's just a chair sitting out here, can you help me move it back into the living room where it belong? Thanks. Oh damn I forgot my keys, we have to go back down and get them." And him interviewing this guy who started Ornellaia and his housekeeper keeps walking into the shoot by accident, she claims, and director Jonathan Nossiter just keeping that part in instead of editing it out.

The film is great because he is just letting wine people talk, and letting their true personalities come out, be they vibrant, passionate so-called peasants that work the land in Sardinia or Languedoc, or be they vibrant, totalitarian, egotistical flying makers like Michel Rolland. The film lets you make your own decision, while clearly showing what the director thinks, not by narrating to you like you are a moron that can't tell what he thinks, but by showing you what the regular folk thinks, and then what the aristocracy thinks, what big business thinks, and how arrogant critics think (ie. James Suckling of the Wine Spectator). He's just getting what comes out of the mouth of babes - you be the judge.

I like how by the end of the movie, you really get how he ends up focusing on the winery dogs, because maybe he too is getting tired of hearing what everyone thinks of everything. This really resonates with me because after I visit like 30 estate, I start also focusing heavily on the winery dogs and stop listening as much to winemakers and estate owners. It gets to be more and more about the dogs.

But the absolute best part is the interaction between Hubert de Montille and his daughter Alix de Montille. Hubert has given his winery, his life's work, his estate and its 8 hectares to his son, Etienne de Montille. His daughter Alix works for a large company that makes wine in Burgundy. He goes to visit her and to taste wine. Alix asks him, "What would you like to taste?" He answers, "Something good. If there is anything here that is good." She gives him a pipette/thief's worth of wine. He comments, "Look, here they have so much money they buy a thief." Implying that at his small estate, they don't have such luxuries.

Alix says, "My wine style is similar to my dad's; our palates are similar. We like wines that have an edge to them, not wimpy wines. Just like we like people who have an edge. We don't like wimpy people. That makes it a bit difficult to like. For example, my father is acerbic. Hard to like." Hubert says, "Wines take time. 15 years in the bottle, the wines are excellent. But you can't rush them." Alix says, "Just like you dad, it takes time to like you." Hubert: "Yes, but after some time, you drink me."

Priceless.

German Sparkling Wine

2009-04-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

After a most delicious day, mid-week to boot, I tasted some of my own samples, and decided, Germany makes some mean sparklers.

I tasted three: Wegeler Brut Sekt (Non-vintage), Raumland Marie-Luise Brut Blanc de Noirs, amd Raumland Weissburgunder Prestige 2002. My favorite was the Raumland Marie-Luise Blanc de Noirs, named after winemaker and owner Volker Raumland's daughter, Marie-Luise.

Simply Refreshing - Raumland "Organic Grape Juice with Bubbles"

2009-04-14T21:39:00.001-07:00

Non-alcoholic, but delicious - how many adult beverages can say that? Not that many, certainly not those awful de-alcoholized wines.....

Enter: Raumland's Organic Grape Juice with Bubbles. The name is compliments of Rudi Wiest, who designed the label after he rejected the normal Raumland label, which looks like the sekt house's regular sparkling wine label. It's a beverage that is:

* organic 100%

* made from white wine grapes - Riesling, Bacchus, Muller-Thurgau

* sparkling - injected with fine bubbles from a local German mineral water producer

* picked early - hand-harvested grapes were picked early for less sugar and more acidity, so the beverage is balanced and fresh and zippy, not cloying

* non-alcoholic - great for pregnant moms and others not drinking for whatever reason, but still want to celebrate and don't want Diet Coke!

I'm drinking some right now - what a delicious beverage!

Great Barolo last evening!

2009-04-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Great little dinner party last evening with a couple of friends that enjoy food and wine as much as we do. The wines showed well, in particular, for me, a 2004 Luigi Pira Barolo. Balanced, rich, a little spice - perfect! Tastes how I think a Barolo should taste, and reminds me that I do like this producer (I had a mental note that I liked this producer from a couple of Barolo tastings that I have attended). And I had heard that 2004 was a good vintage, so this wine supports that.

Week of Extreme Indulgences Leads to Week of Salads Part II

2009-03-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, now going back to where I was a few weeks ago.... I was visiting family in Vancouver, and we took what was supposed to be a 3-hour drive down to beautiful Seattle. Unfortunately, the ride took closer to 6 hours as we were fighting with a 2-hour wait at the border crossing, and some freeway road work of all things - on the I-5!

But after all that, we arrived in Seattle and made our way to the downtown area for a light lunch and a beer at Pyramid Alehouse.

Didn't know it till we got there, but this is the same Pyramid that makes Pyramid Hefeweissen, which I have seen before.

After a quick lunch, we went walking around the Pike Place Market, because you have to go there when you go to Seattle, it is a must-go place to go! Even though it was terribly windy and cold on the day we went, we still went. The market provides some shelter, and there, while I didn't get to see any fish guys throwing fish, I did get to see some of the most massive lobster tails and scallops I had ever laid eyes on. We're talking lobster tails that weighed what looked like 4 pounds a piece (without the head and torso!) and scallops the size of chicken breasts. Massive.

Canlis

After a quick walk and a coffee, it was off to an early dinner at Canlis, a restaurant that is a bit of an institution in Seattle, about 60 years old and one of the restaurants that established Pacific Northwest cuisine. It was my Seattle friend E's suggestion to go to this restaurant after she enjoyed it some time back and thought I would also enjoy it because it is such a wine-friendly restaurant, with a huge cellar and a text-book sized wine list to cater to the geekiest of wine geeks.

We arrived to the restaurant and were seated with the most courteous of service. Our friend was to join us, and shortly after we were seated, she arrived. We got a great table by the window, with a beautiful view of trees and Lake Union spreading before us. It was a great sight indeed, and though the sun wasn't shining of this particular day, we could imagine how this great northwestern view would be like in the glistening sun. It was cloudy, but still magnificent.

We ordered a great bottle of wine for dinner, something somewhat local - we were looking for a Pinot Noir, but Washington State does not make Pinot Noirs - at least there were none on the massive wine list, and I have never heard of one - so we did the next best thing - an Oregon Pinot Noir. I recommended a 2007 Bethel Heights Estate Pinot Noir and it turned out to be quite delicious. I remember Bethel Heights making a great Pinot from back in the day when Tim was the domestic wine buyer at The Wine Country, and he was a big fan of their wine, though I haven't seen the wine anywhere in the Los Angeles area as of late. So I was happy they had this, and happy that it was a good wine.

As for the food, I found the fare at Canlis to be traditional. It was probably innovative back in the day, but today, the food was very traditional Euro-American fare, with familiar high-end items on the menu. For my appetizer, I chose the foie gras, which was a cold dish, that family coin-shaped rich goose liver served with some white and green asparagus spears. For my main dish, I had the seared duck breast, which was - seared duck breast. I gave half of my duck breast to Johan, who had ordered a fish dish off the tasting menu, and was given exactly the teeny tiny tasting portion of the dish - a noticeable faux pas on the part of the server. Our friend D had the lobster, which looked lovely, and E had the salmon dish, which also looked like a very good choice.

We enjoyed a variety of desserts, of which I recall that mine was a tropical mango and passion fruit creme brulee that was very nice; E had the donuts - actual fresh miniature donuts fried to order; D had a souffle; and Johan had an interesting concoction of which I cannot completely recall.

In all, the service got a B+ from me, the food a B+, the company, an A+, the wine, an A, and the night as a whole, an A.

Not such good wine news

2009-03-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Alcohol-induced flushing is a risk factor for esophageal cancer from alcohol consumption

Press release from PLoS Medicine

There is growing evidence, say researchers in this week's PLoS Medicine, that people who experience facial flushing after drinking alcohol are at much higher risk of esophageal cancer from alcohol consumption than those who do not.

About a third of East Asians (Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans) show a characteristic physiological response to drinking alcohol that includes facial flushing, nausea, and an increased heart rate. This so-called "alcohol flushing response" is predominantly due to an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). Although clinicians and the East Asian public generally know about the alcohol flushing response, few are aware of the accumulating evidence that ALDH2-deficient individuals are at much higher risk of esophageal cancer (specifically squamous cell carcinoma) from alcohol consumption than individuals with fully active ALDH2.

Dr Philip Brooks and colleagues from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA, along with Dr. Akira Yokoyama from the Kurihama Alcohol Center in Japan, say that this lack of awareness is "unfortunate as esophageal cancer is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide, with five-year survival rates of 15.6% in the United States, 12.3% in Europe, and 31.6% in Japan."

"Our goal in writing this article," say the researchers, "is to inform doctors firstly that their ALDH2- deficient patients have an increased risk for esophageal cancer if they drink moderate amounts of alcohol, and secondly that the alcohol flushing response is a biomarker for ALDH2 deficiency."

Clinicians, they say, can determine ALDH2 deficiency simply by asking about previous episodes of alcohol-induced flushing.

"As a result," say Dr Brooks and colleagues, "ALDH2-deficient patients can then be counseled to reduce alcohol consumption, and high-risk patients can be assessed for endoscopic cancer screening."

In view of the approximately 540 million ALDH2-deficient individuals in the world, many of whom now live in Western societies, even a small percent reduction in esophageal cancers due to a reduction in alcohol drinking would translate into a substantial number of lives saved.

Wolfgang Puck's CUT the very next day, after Spago

2009-03-23T21:21:00.001-07:00

As if it were not enough, I had plans the very next day after the Spago dinner to go to Wolfgang Puck's CUT Restaurant in Beverly Hills. I was enjoying a couple of days of sheer indulgence.

It was not my restaurant pick per se, as I don't tend to pick steakhouses for dinner, but our friend Derek was in town, and he had chosen this restaurant, and invited another friend, so there we were headed. If it had been my choice, I think I would have chosen one of the high end sushi places, such as Urasawa or Sushi Zo to indulge in, given my rich dinner the night before, and my series of rich meals that I had enjoyed both in Canada and in Germany as of late.

When 8:30 pm rolled around, we were ready. The service at the front desk of Cut was courteous and expedient. The roar of voices coming from the starkly modern room gave an exciting aura of anticipation. This restaurant that has been around on the scene for what feels like an awfully long time was still holding on to that exciting, exhilarating new restaurant feel about it, which I found impressive. It felt like going to a movie opening, or a party, or a gallery opening.

When we were shown to our table, I had a chance to say hi to the sommelier.

Shortly after being seated, we ordered the 1994 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese, a blatant show of German Riesling appreciation. That's what is in our glass in the picture above, which we had with our appetizers. Needless to say, it was an awesome aged Mosel Riesling!

The waiter was a charming, funny gent who deftly explained to us all the steak options that we had. They specialized in Kobe beef, which was flown in from Japan, a very fatty breed. They also had good old American beef which for them was the Angus. And they had a hybrid, which was American Wagyu, a cross between the American Angus and the Japanese Kobe beef, which gave the rich fatty marbling found in Japanese Wagyu along with the beef rich flavor of American Angus.

He also recommended the New York tasting plate, which gave a 4 oz serving of Angus, a 4 oz serving of American Wagyu, and a 2 oz serving of Kobe.

So armed with that knowledge, we ordered our appetizers.

For me, though it did not seem wise to order fatty pork to preceed fatty beef, I went for the Asian spiced and cured pork belly. I dunno, I think I wanted to taste it with the German Riesling.

Beautifully presented, the pork belly was delicious, but rather rich. It would have been smarter to order a salad, a soup, or a seafood appetizer of some kind. But I do believe the appetizers were not really light in any way.

Johan ordered one of his favorite dishes - steak tartare - minced raw beef served with a quail egg and various fine condiments. I had a taste of it - it was sublime.

Derek's friend ordered what appeared to be a Caprese salad, but in looking at the picture, it looks like burrata cheese, proscuitto, and greens, which I'm not sure is a real Caprese salad. Looks great though.

Now, onto the steaks.

The guys all ordered the NY steak sampler, which I mentioned above. This is a 3-way sampler of New Yorks featuring Angus, American Wagyu, and Kobe. This is a like a wine tasting flight of all Pinot Noirs, but a California Pinot, an Oregon Pinot, and a Burgundy. It seemed very cerebral. It was also $135.

On the side are some mushrooms, which was ordered as a side dish, for sharing.

I was the only one who did something different. I ordered an American Wagyu rib-eye steak, as rib-eye has been my favorite steak cut for some time. I ended up with a 16 oz rib-eye at a fraction of the price of the NY sampler - $66.

I actually loved my steak. It was so lovely in its char on the outside, fantastically crispy, though a bit rich in fat on the outside as though melted butter were smothering it. Though hey at the time, I didn't complain! Inside, the meat was tender and juicy and full of rich fat and rich beefy flavor. I think I chose right when it came to the American Wagyu - it was the best of both worlds, beef fusion at its zenith.

I did have a taste of Johan's Kobe, and it was melt-in-your-mouth good, but at the same time, I think it caters to an Asian concept of beef, which is a much milder concept of beef, ie. not so beefy in its flavor nor its texture - it is almost like ingesting sausage at some level with its rich, rich, RICH fat marbling. I have had this thought about Kobe before - it is over-the-top fat in its marbled structure, and is almost too fatty, if that is possible. I almost feel that beef shouldn't be that marbled, that it is almost like pork when it is like that. And when you couple in the cost of Kobe, it makes me feel like I'd rather have good ol' fashioned American beef, and if could be aged a few days or weeks, all the better.

We washed the great meat down with a 2001 Barbaresco from a producer I could not remember the name of. The wine had grippy tannins and a delicate body, and was a good pairing with the rich meat we were consuming.

I couldn't finish my steak, though I made a good effort. I got through half of it (hey, that's 8 oz!), and the guys did a noble effort and finished their 10 oz of New Yorks. After that, we shared a couple of desserts that I'm sure were excellent, but I don't recall much of, as I didn't have much of a palate left.

For some good ol'fashioned fun, Wolfgang Puck happened to be making the rounds in the room, and as I saw him the day before, I made a point of telling him so, and he said I sure knew where to eat! He did some posing with the guys, and unfortunately, I didn't point the camera well enough here to catch everyone in the picture, but here you have it.......

A great time was had by all. This is a very fun and exciting restaurant to go to. It is somewhat loud and rambunctious and full of partying and group energy - I would not really go for a romantic dinner for two.... it is more of a group event, a chance to go out and hit the town and be in the moment with one of the best marketing geniuses in Los Angeles culinary history. The food is above par but is steakhouse food, so if steaks don't excite you, then don't go. If they are one of your favorite foods, then indeed make this one of your top spots to visit. The service is attentive at the same time casual, which makes it relaxing and non-demanding, which I like. All in all, the experience is positive, the food is rich, and the vibe is still very happening.

My work day did NOT suck yesterday! Dry Wine Tour 2009 a success

2009-03-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was one of those days yesterdays, days that reminded me so importantly of why I am in the wine business, and not, say, in the hospital business, or the nutrition business. Yesterday was one of those Perfect Wine Industry Days.

Funny, those days also seem to involve great wine and great winemakers. Great wine and great winemakers just have that tendency to melt away all the frustrations that come with the business of selling wine. Just ask anyone in the wine business.

Great wine and great winemakers make up the art side of the industry, the passion side, the human side. They are why people like me move cases of wine from point a to point b like in that Dire Straits song say "We got to move these microwave ovens..... custom kitchen deliveri-i-i-ies! We got to move these refriger-a-tors! We got to move these color TVs!"

Yes, spending a day like yesterday is like getting money for nothing and chicks for free!

Okay, let me tell you what happened:

Yesterday was the day of the Dry Wine Tour 2009. It was billed as a Pinot Noir Seminar featuring 6 German winemakers that specialize in Pinot varieties - they were coming out to New York City to do a Pinot Trio event, which featured not just Rudi Wiest growers, but others from Germany that specialized in Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. So 6 winemakers, Fritz Becker, Conrad Salwey, Meike Nakel, Sebastian Furst, Jaochim Heger, and Hansjorg Rebholz came across the pond to spend a week doing a tour across the country - Washington DC on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday, NYC on Wednesday (the Pinot Trio event), Los Angeles on Thursday, and San Francisco on Friday.

The Dry Wine seminar was fully packed, with about 30 people in attendance to taste 45 wines, 30 of which were presented by the growers who had flown here, and 15 more wines by other growers who did not come. The wines were impressive. Some older vintages, such as a vertical of Gunderloch 3 Star's 1996, 2000 and 2007 vintages. Stunning. Some lovely 2002s also, and Pinot Noir from 1997.

The event took a full 3 hours, and tasters were good enough to spend the time to thoughtfully consider some of the most painstakingly made wines on the planet! Wines that are more about grace, elegance, and balance.

But after that was when the fun really started!

Together with Joachim Heger, Conrad Salwey, and Hansjorg Rebholz, we did a mini-tour of Beverly Hills. The day was less than perfect in terms of weather - it was hazy, not sunny - but the temperature was right and we did get to see some sights. These weathered travelers enjoyed driving by the Beverly Hills Police Station, scene where the movie Beverly Hills Cop was shot years ago..... while we didn't drive on Rodeo Drive per se, we drove near the area and saw the shops and the residential areas. We visited the wine director at Crustacean Restaurant in Beverly Hills, where everyone got a chance to do a fun presentation with the wines, and have a tour of several wine rooms.

After that, we drove up the hills to the Hotel Bel-Air where we met with the wine director there, a young French sommelier with a passion for German wines. Again, a beautiful tour of the facility and gardens, where Hansjorg Rebholz in particular displayed his intellectual and sensual affection for the various aromas emminating from blooming spring flowers both in the dining room and in the garden. Hansjorg has been to me normally a quieter winemaker, but I really got to know him better on this trip, as he shared more of his thoughts, and I appreciated his intellectual and focused approach to all things - aromas of plants, subtle tastes in food (which I will share later), tunes in music, and observation of cars. Oh yes, we saw lots of cars in Beverly Hills, many good German one in particular, and the whole group seemed very into cars!

I had scheduled an early dinner for us at Spago, and that ended up being a very good decision. The travelers were weary. I have learned that when working with a winemaker, especially one who has traveled a great distance, less is more. Wearing them out bringing them to 10 or more accounts, some of them lesser accounts, accomplishes nothing other than to wear them out. Better to focus on some good accounts, not waste anyone's time, reduce stress for myself, and have a good time.

So at 6:15 pm we were seated in the courtyard patio at Spago, and it was starting to look like everyone was relaxing. The winemakers enjoyed themselves people watching, listening to music piping out into the courtyard that was a mix of classic rock, tunes that Hansjorg mentioned would never be played in a Michelin 2 star restaurant in Germany. He seemed to like the relaxed and casual vibe of the restaurant. Everyone seemed to.

Joachim Heger, one of the two Baden producers I had with me (the other is Salwey - they are both in the subregion known as the Kaiserstuhl, which is a volcano, and the region is full of volcanic soil) - he was a very happy jovial person on this trip - very social, and really enjoying the traveling aspect of this work journey - he suggested we do the tasting menu at Spago, and invited me to join them. Perhaps all of them had decided on the tasting menu - I'm not sure! But we ended up doing the tasting menu, with wine pairings suggested by the wine director, who we were also there to see. When they asked for regional wines to be paired, "but with not too much alcohol please," implored Conrad, the Spago somm cleverly replied, "But I thought you said you wanted regional wines!" LOL wine geeks would understand this means California wines are through the roof in their alcohol content, no possibility of having a moderate alcohol wine here.....

We went through a number of lovely courses, including sweetbreads, risotto with black truffles, skate in a lemon sauce, rack of lamb with a berry sauce. An interesting observation again by Hansjorg was that the food is sweet - the sauces are sweet - and he felt that maybe his wines would not go with many of these sweet dishes. Also observed by everyone at the table were that the wines were sweet - aha!!!!! to all those non-believers who do not agree with me when I tell them that California Pinot Noirs are sweet sweet sweet!

Of course I am not the first to say that wines made in the U.S. are sweet but there are so many denyers that occasionally I have to say it again!

I am a seller of German wines (and a lover of them) so I am the last person that would say sweetness in a wine is not good, but I think the denial of sweetness in a wine is what bugs me! Of course, there are other qualities one should appreciate in a wine - if all it has is overwhelming sweetness, there is something lacking!

The wines we went through included a rose Champagne from Ruinart (not a local wine, but something they added for fun). The German winemakers said that Ruinart is dominating the Champagne scene in Germany with their promotions and sponsorship of large events such as sommelier competitions. It didn't sound like a good thing to me! I have not been very much exposed to Ruinart before - and given what I was hearing about the producer, it sounds like it is a big house, and I have more been bred by The Wine Country to go for the small house Champagnes...... at any rate, the Ruinart Rose we were tasting was not fantastic to be honest. It was very dark red, soft, lacking in acidity and structure. Others at the table said this was a sweeter version than what they have in Germany and questioned whether it was made for the American market. One also mentioned that Rose was the worst thing that has happened to Champagne (!!) because it is made by the addition of red wine, but the saignee method of lightly pressing red grapes, but simply adding red wine to sparkling white...

Quite the fun discussion there!

After that, in terms of wine, we moved on to a Californian produced Viognier called Cold Heaven. I didn't catch the vintage, but it was a pleasant, not over-the-top viognier which I actually liked. After that was a Chardonnay, the name of which I did not catch - it was oaky and toasty and vanilla and toffee - the winemakers said this was from a heavy barrel toast - I didn't much go for it and with my food chose to go back to the cleaner Viognier.

We moved on to reds. We received an Oregon Pinot Noir which I am familiar with - Belle Pente from the Willamette Valley (again I didn't catch the vintage). Joachim said this reminded him of a German wine in its nose and palate. At first, the nose was full of sulfur reduction, but it did blow off and improved in the glass. The palate was light and fruit driven, not oaky, so that did make the wine easy to drink, definitely. Most at the table liked it, but found it simple, lacking in tannin structure. Conrad said it was good in its fruit and acidity, but lacked tannin backbone. Hansjorg found it lacking in everything but fruit, that it was all fruit, a bit sweet (he should taste a California Pinot!!), but lacking in acidity, tannin, and balance. I agreed with all of them, that it was a easy enough to drink wine, but probably not one that would make me want to choose it over a German Pinot Noir or Burgundy.

The second red was to go with our rack of lamb dish - a Cabernet France from the Napa Valley, the name of which escapes me. Black-red in the glass, staining, and smelling of an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, those were my first impressions. Literally, sticking my nose into the glass, I would have guessed Aussie Cab, it was that full of eucalyptus and mint and all that Aussie-ness. On the palate, it was dense, oaky, and overpoweringly alcoholic. I didn't take more than 2 sips of the wine and decided I don't need to drink all of that, and I went back to the Belle Pente Pinot Noir to go with my delicate lamb dish. That, I did finish.

Finally, dessert came, and it was a layered flourless chocolate torte (dobostorte from the Hungarian), and with it, they served something from Europe - this time, Moscato d'Asti, and it was refreshingly delicious, even with chocolate. Perfect. As Joachim noted, with Moscato, there is also natural acidity. This grape is called Gelber Muskateller in the Germanic world. Everyone seemed to like its lively freshness and its balance of fruit, sugar, and acidity, even in its simplicity. No wonder Randy of The Wine Country always wins customers over with Moscato d'Asti!

The evening was coming to a close. Everyone was happy. The three generous winemakers did not let me pay. They treated me to their company as well as to an evening of great food and interesting wine. I also got to listen in as they analyzed wines much like a chef would analyze a dish to see how it was prepared. They did this wint the wines which was so much fun to listen to.

I flagged down the wine director to leave him with about 10 bottles of these winemaker's wines so he could taste them later. He was happy to take them. I hope he gets a chance to enjoy these and brings some of these wines in!

Finally, we left the restaurant, had the valet take a picture of us outside the restaurant, and it was back to the hotel for all the winemakers. A perfect finish to a very long and successful day.

Here's to winemakers who make genuine real wine of the earth, and show their passion in everything they do. Thank you!

Pretty pictures of Vancouver

2009-03-16T20:40:00.001-07:00

We had some days of blue skies and crisp, nippy weather, which was nice, because the place looked fabulous - the mountains in Vancouver are amazing. Not so visible when grey and rainy, but when you get the occasional sun, the outdoors are stunning.

A bit cold, but what can you do...

Here are some pics taken in the neighborhood of Deep Cove over on the North Shore.

Week of Extreme Indulgences Leads to Week of Salads Part I

2009-03-16T19:44:00.001-07:00

Wow! Just came back from a week of extreme indulgence - Johan and I were up visiting family in Vancouver.... we ended up visiting relatives and friends as well, and eating up a storm!

Highlights included:

La Quercia

This is a restaurant that is new to Vancouver as well as new to us - an Italian place in Kitsilano. A small restaurant, so small we drove right by it. Our friend Derek suggested it, and the three of us trekked to this establishment on a humble Tuesday, but the place was packed as though it were Friday. We started off with a bottle of Prosecco, which was lovely, delicious and perfect in all its bubbliness..... while not a Champagne, it was a tasty and dry and fun starter that got the party started.

The menu intrigued us - rabbit terrine, Portugese cod cakes, eggplant gelee with seared scallops, beef cheeks, onion tart, Cornish game hen with spatzle.... the menu seemed to suggest northern Italian fare, so far north it might touch the Germanic areas. Finally, we settled on the BIG tasting menu which featured chef selections in 8 to 10 courses....... for a humble sum. Maybe it was the Prosecco talking, but we all decided to go for that one - the "Alla Familia" - especially when the server assured us that we could choose a few favorites off the menu to be included in the tasting menu. That sealed the deal for us because it seemed like we were all wary of tasting menus that might be too boring. And we three were not a bunch of boring eaters!

The dishes came, one by one, sometimes 2 by 2 or three by three. There was the rabbit terrine, which we specially requested, followed by the eggplant gelee with seared scallop, then followed by the cod cakes. After that, three pasta dishes came at once - all housemade pastas - 2 filled ones, and one rotini - all were great! And I seldom say that about pastas in restaurants.

After that there was a fish dish served with some tender cooked vegetables....

We then ordered a red wine, a 2005 Travaglini Nebbiolo, which was very nice:

This wine went exceedingly well with the meat course, which was a braised beef cheeks....... delicious!

After that, they summed up with a selection of three desserts...... they were good but at this point, I was very full and could no longer process information......

In all, a fantastic meal with great wine - I had too much actually - I am a lightweight - but it was a fabulous time, we closed down the place as we forgot it was Tuesday. The food was lovely, the service was excellent and unobtrusive, the company was grand, and all was great in the world..... isn't dining out awesome?

Positive Moments in Recent Germany Trip

2009-03-05T06:35:00.001-08:00

In my recent trip to Germany, in February, I had a completely different experience from the first time I went there. First off, it was February, compared to September; the countryside was barren, the color of brown dominating, compared to the lush green leafiness of the early fall. Second, I was on a Rudi Wiest company trip, as opposed to a customer trip - I can't put my finger on the difference, really - it was not that I was not pampered or something on this trip; it was just a different feel.

Third, it was also my second time there, not the first, so very little was new, per se... I already knew the Mosel was gorgeous and enchanting, I knew that castles dotted the landscape, I knew that beautiful old buildings along the Mosel houses wineries with ancient cellars that houses wines older that I that aged better that I...

So much of the magic and mystery was not present on this trip, which should not take me as by surprise, as this has happened with other places I have been - the first time I laid eyes on Hawaii, the island of Oahu, I could not really believe there was such a place as stunningly beautiful as that on earth..... by the third time to Hawaii, the turquoise ocean and the lush island were old hat.

Same with Paris - of course, the first time was magical, the second and third and fourth time there I found the city overcrowded with tourists, boring, overhyped, and no longer a fascinating place.

Funny thing is, back when I was younger and had not been to these places before, I used to hate it when people would say these thing about the places I longed to visit - I felt like they were being snobby.... funny that 20 years later I would say the very same things.

But I digress. Germany this time around was a different experience. Things didn't have that magical grasp on me that they did the first time around, when I actually fell in love with the place and wanted to work there - right there in Germany. This time, the countryside was asleep, beer gardens by the river closed for the winter, wineries taking a little breather while their wines slept. The cold weather threatened often to snow, so people stayed inside as much as possible.

So, not every moment I spent in Germany this time around was infused with magic. But there were still moments I enjoyed very much, and infused me with a love for the place. These are some of them:

1. Staying at Steinheuer in Heppingen, Ahr

Steinheuer is a luxury inn and restaurant in the Ahr Valley, in the town of Heppingen. Funny that I should list staying in a hotel as one of my high points, but it was. This was such a lovely treat. First off, the establishment is a 2 star Michelin restaurant. Now, my restaurant experience was just okay, again because it was my second time there - I had been there on my first Germany trip. But we had not stayed in the hotel.

The hotel has everything I would want in a hotel - modern amenities and comfortable furniture, all done in such a way that I actually thought "I could live here!" The attention to detail made me wish that I had such attention to detail in my own home. Everything was perfect, down to the walk-in shower in a room almost separate from the bathroom, a glass vanity, soft lighting, fresh flowers, a desk, magazines, fresh fruit and cutlery. The room wasn't huge, but every bit of space was well utilized to provide comfort. I could have stayed in this hotel all through the trip! And best of all, it was upstairs from the 2 star dining room, so after dinner I could just stagger upstairs, which is a little thing I love about these places in Europe!

Rudi Wiest had already warned us it would be a great place to stay, and my expectations were exceeded!

Oh, and aside from the dinner we had at Steinheuer (which was excellent, but a bit rich for me for that evening), we had a sumptuous breakfast the next day, where they cook your eggs to order and have such a spread....... like I said, if only I could have spent 10 days staying at this hotel! When my husband and I go to Germany on a trip, we will definitely stay and eat at Steinheuer!

Info: Gabrielle and Hans Stefan Steinheuer (proprietors - she is the front of the house manager, and he is the chef)

http://www.steinheuers.de/

Phone: (0 26 41) 9 48 60

Note: the photo above is a photo I took of the Steinheuer sign in front of the hotel and restaurant when I was there in September of 2007. Note the lush green hill in the background. I didn't have a photo from this winter...... it was not green in the background.

2. Vineyard walk in Bodenheim

In the town of Bodenheim at the end of our trip, we didn't stay at a nice hotel. It was "just okay." Which is perfectly fine, really, after all, I am very appreciative that on these trips we all get our own room and don't have to share, because I really love my personal time! Anyway, Bodenheim is a town near Nackenheim, and for some reason on this trip, we were not able to stay in Nackenheim a few steps away from the Gunderloch winery, but instead we stayed in the next town over. Bodenheim is also a wine town, but nowhere that I had heard of, so I am assuming it doesn't have any international renown.

At any rate, this was towards the end of our trip, and I had been doing a lot of sitting and eating. My body had been aching for a walk, and though I had taken a small couple of walks in the Mosel, they were not nearly enough. So one morning, I got up relatively early, and decided to take off into town.

Town was not that attractive, not super quaint, though it was old. That's why I was so happy to find that I had reached the edge of town rather quickly, and, after looking this way and that, to make sure it was okay for me to walk into the vineyard, I started trekking up. And up and up! The ground was a bit frozen but was defrosting in the rising sun. Bits of snow were still left over from the previous night's light dusting. The vines were bare, quiet, knobby. A few people were working on them still, pruning them more it seemed.

I kept walking and walking, up the hillside, feeling the blood returning to my dormant legs. The sun kept rising, and the image of that sunrise over the mist, bathing the brown vineyard and the town below, with its church steeple the highest point among the buildings - it made Bodenheim so much more attractive to me than initially. No longer was this just another poor wine village with no particular fame that serves substandard bar food that gives German food a bad name. It was now a pretty jumble of rooftops nestled in the hills like something out of a movie.

I don't know if it was the endorphins from a bit of physical activity, or what, but that put me in a good mood for a while.

3. Walking through Mainz in the cold evening

It seems like all my really positive memories came near the end of my trip! Perhaps I was starting to feel happy that I would be home soon.

Mainz is where I believe all Rudi Wiest trips end - after all the work is done, the work of visiting all 26 plus estates in 9 or so days, there is one day left to relax and go shopping in the old town of Mainz. I don't know that much of Mainz other than the man Gutenberg was born here, and he was responsible for inventing the printing press. If you wish to know more, please Google!

My experience with Mainz is a positive one, probably also because I get to walk. On this trip, it happened to be a miserable rainy, almost snowy evening when we went to Mainz, so the others in my group retired to a bar, while I decided to take to the streets, in spite of the rain and cold. I ended up taking some cool pictures of the buildings in the night. I didn't really buy anything but I enjoyed being out there. It made me feel adventurous.

Also nice about this town and this shopping area is the furry of activity - there are people walking through this shopping area on their way home from work and and school. So it is a town that is old but very much alive, and I always like that about places, such as London, where things seem so old but all the old buildings are used for something. Same with places in Belgium such as Brussels and Gent.

Love that! I didn't capture a lot of people on film here because it was kind of miserable out, but here are a couple of pics.

Wine tasting and singles

2009-03-03T06:53:00.000-08:00

On the weekend, I worked an event at a wine bar called Bottlerock in Culver City, where a group of singles which formed on a site called meetup.com convened to do a wine tasting and a sort of relaxed singles meeting thing.

There were three flights of wine being poured, and I was the last flight. The first flight was being poured by a couple who owned a small distribution company that distributes primarily Santa Barbara boutique wines. The second flight was poured by a winery owner whose family makes wine up in the Gold rush country, which I think I recall is the Sierra foothills area, outside of Sacramento. My flight was just 2 white wines, meant to refresh the palate, the 2007 Hans Wirsching Estate Silvaner and the 2007 Monchhof Urzig Wurzgarten Riesling Kabinett. Both wines showed well and were well received by the mingling singles.

The thing that struck me about the event was how much singles mixed well with wine tasting. It is such a natural combination, it seems. You have wine in your glass that you can focus on and use a bit of intellect about, but not too much, and have enough left to focus on the conversation before you. The wine relaxes without knocking people out too much.... food is ordered to accompany the beverage, and all is well in the world of the single person.

It is not that I don't think married people or coupled people do well in wine tastings, it is just that I think singles and wine tasting can be a niche thing that can be quite successful for establishments that want to beef up their events. And for singles, I think going to a wine tasting to meet people is such a fun way to do that compared to something totally awful like speed dating or drinking coffee.

Anyway, I had a good time pouring wine for 3 hours, and even managed to sell some!