Tag Archives: muscadet

Top 100 Wines and Restaurants; Christmas and Kinky Boots

I don’t usually pay too much attention to serious top 10 or top 100 lists, especially for wine and food. However, the lists that I do look forward to each year are those from the San Francisco Chronicle. I’ve found over the years that my tastes are usually pretty well in line with these critics; it’s pretty rare that I’ve had a sub-par experience going off one of these lists.

On Christmas we were invited to a friend’s house to join their family and friends celebration, and we brought a bottle of Winemaker B’s Armida 2012 Chardonnay, Stuhlmuller Vineyard, Alexander Valley. I had last tasted this in the barrel nearly 2 years ago, and had been waiting to taste this from the bottle, since another winery’s Chardonnay – same vineyard, same year – had made this year’s Chronicle top 100 wine list. Well, I haven’t tried that Chardonnay, but I can tell you that the Armida Chardonnay was delicious. And the Christmas party was great fun, with some great food. And wine.

The next day Lori and I went into San Francisco to see a matinee showing of the musical Kinky Boots. We love live theater, we had enjoyed the movie when it first came out 8 or so years ago, and the musical (by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper) had won multiple Tony awards. It was a lot of fun, with the audience even clapping along to a couple of the songs.

Afterwards we wandered around wasting time before our dinner reservation, and found a wine bar and shop, Arlequin, where we could sit outside and have a glass. Lori had a Sangiovese blend from Tuscany (La Mozza, Morellino de Scansano, 2012), while I had a Melon de Bourgogne (Luneau-Papin, Loire 2012). When I think of white wine from the Loire region, I’m thinking of Sauvignon Blanc, but this is not anything like that. Melon de Bourgogne is the grape varietal used to make Muscadet wines. (Interesting side note: Muscadet is the only wine made in France that is neither called by its region nor by its grape varietal.) I found it to be closer to white Rhone wines, like Viognier, than to Sauvignon Blanc, but with a less floral nose and more acid. Quite nice actually. Lori seemed to enjoy her wine as well, which was a blend of 85% Sangiovese with Syrah and Alicante, with a few percent of others thrown in. Very much a Sangiovese to be sipped while sitting on the sidewalk and watching the world go by.

For dinner we had reservations at Lers Ros, a Chronicle top 100 restaurant that does Thai food. Wow. We like Thai food, and there are a few good restaurants in our area. But nothing like this. The soup, the prawns and asparagus, the green papaya salad took this cuisine to a new level for us.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Le Bon Somm

I had an interesting dinner in London last week. I was there on business, as my real life company is based near Oxford, and we were hosting customers from Japan. There were 10 of us, a few of which had some wine drinking experience, but also a few novices.

Our CEO turned to me and asked me to order wine for dinner, letting everyone know, especially the VP from our Japanese customer, that I was a wine expert, even writing about wine. No pressure! I just have to order wine for 10 people that have a variety of tastes, a range of wine experience, and are undoubtedly ordering different meals. Of course, as we’re a very small company, I need also to be conscious of price.

Open the wine list, and start going through it. There are certain expectations and constraints going in. I’m expecting not to find any reasonably priced California wines, so I’m already a little out of my comfort zone. (In my experience, very little California wine is available in England.) I’m also not going to be getting a French Chardonnay (white Burgundy) or Cabernet Sauvignon (Bordeaux), as these wines will not necessarily go with all the meals. So I’m looking for something fresh and crisp in a white wine, and something not too big in a red, but big enough to handle the lamb dish which is the special for the evening, and will probably be ordered by more than a few people at the table, including me.

After giving me a few minutes with the wine list, in steps the sommelier, asking me about what I’m looking for in wines, and he gets the information above from me. I had been looking at Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire region of France; he pointed out the best value on the list, but also recommended a Muscadet from the same area, with a similar flavor profile, and even a few pounds less expensive. I went with his suggestion, and was rewarded with a really nice bottle that everyone liked. (Muscadet has no relation to Muscat grapes typically used for sweet wines. Muscadet owes its name not to the region where it’s grown, or to the grape variety,, but instead seems to come from the slightly musky smell it can have.)

For the red, I had a pretty good idea what I wanted: a nice Rhone (Syrah-based wine). I had spotted one that I thought would do nicely. The somm suggested a different wine, saying that the one I had chosen might be a bit too big of a wine for everyone to enjoy, but his alternative, also from the Rhone (Cotes du Rhone area), was a GSM – Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah – blend and would be more likely to a crowd pleaser. Again, a few pounds less expensive per bottle.

coudoulet_de_beaucastel

The lamb special was delicious: lamb shoulder roast brought to the table on a cart and carved table-side. The red wine was 2009 Coudoulet de Beaucastel, owned and operated by the same family that owns/operates Chateau de Beaucastel, which is maybe the best, if not the best known, wine from Chateauneuf du Pape in the Southern Rhone. Coudoulet is “right across the street” (according to the sommelier) from Chateau de Beaucastel, and that street is the demarcation line for the Chateauneuf du Pape region. This wine contains Cinsault in addition to the GSM grapes, and similar to the Chateau de Beaucastel has a comparatively high Mourvèdre content.

This is exactly what the good sommelier should do: listen to his customers, understand their needs, and help choose great wines for the specific customer. Whether you know a lot or a little about wine, don’t hesitate to use the somm.

L’Chaim,

Larry