Wine Jabber

Shivering in NYC

Quick visit to NYC to see my sister and family. I haven't been in almost a year ... way too long. I take the train to Philly for a night to visit friends and have the de rigeur philly cheesesteak - hey, when visiting a place for the first time, it's a great idea to sample the local specialty. And what makes a cheese steak authentic? Cheeze Whizz!

Back to NYC: it was frickin' cold. The 15-block walk from ICP to the Modern left me so cold it took a 20-minute break with a large hot chocolate to recover. I prowled museums and galleries for the most part. Seeing Goya's the Forge in its new hanging at the Frick was fantastic. This is one of the greatest paintings (ever, IMHO) and the new hanging avoids the glare and reflection problems at the old location. Plus you can get close enough to examine the brushwork. At the Met, I love going to the room of Goyas and reacquainting myself. The Modern had a super-crowded exhibit of Tim Burton's work which I avoided. There are some fabulous new photographs hanging and I wandered through the permanent galleries, enjoying works by Rousseau le Douanier, Picasso's Demoiselles, and de Chirico.

Went to Maialino for dinner one night; I'd read about this new roman trattoria and was curious ... the place is completely overwhelmed by its of-the-moment "itness". I had the eponymous maialino, a roast suckling pig, which was delicious. The portion is for 2-3 people, so I had a lot of leftovers. Service was well-meaning, friendly, and inept. A nice touch: giving you individually portioned loaves of ciabatta bread for making sandwiches with your inevitable leftovers the next day. A not-so-nice touch: leaving your leftover bag at the coat check for pickup so you feel obligated to give yet another tip.

Also, excellent meal at Yerba Buena on the LES with A & T, my sister and brother-in-law. This is a classic neighborhood gem: if this was near my home in Denver, I'd be here at least every other week. The pan-Latin-influenced cuisine is delicious, easy to enjoy and we scarfed every last bite of everything that was brought to our table. The place communicated its aspirations and values clearly through the menu, and the service is efficient, friendly and unpretentious. Every dish we had was delicious, fit well with the restaurant's mission and was beautifully presented. The owner was on hand and having him roam the tiny dining room made us feel like we were in someone's living room. Wine list was full of great things from all parts of the latin wine world, but with a bit of a dearth in the $45-75 range and a curious lack of depth in Spanish Grenache. As we left, snow was beginning to fall, always a magical thing in NYC.

A very interesting white consumed with my sister at her apartment: a wine made from the city vineyards of Zurich, the StaatsKellerei Zurich, from Pinot Noir (vinified off the skins), Riesling, Sylvaner, Muscat and Gewurztraminer. Wildly aromatic, with scents of flowers, peaches, hazelnuts and citrus,it was surprisingly light on the palate, very crisp and delineated, with good nectarine, melon and apple flavors. Lovely, balanced, light and refreshing. (3.0nb)

Summit, COS: boring place; lovely wine.

Had dinner at the Summit, the least stodgy of the Broadmoor Hotel's dining choices. I've been coming since the restaurant opened and have always found it good without being truly excellent - and this time was no different. The room is nice, the service is friendly and well-meaning if often completely clueless, and the meals are consistently decent though uninspired. It's probably the best choice for "fine" dining in Colorado Springs. Still, it pisses me off that with a bit more effort, this place could be truly excellent.

There was one waiter a year or two back in whose section I would be sat every time I visited, who had the deeply annoying habit of narrating his service to you. As this is a hotel restaurant, the staff is also trained to use your name whenever they address you - so I would get things like "I'm going to refill your water glass now, Mr. Manley" or "Here's your basket of delicious housebaked breads, Mr. Manley" or I'm going to crumb your table now, Mr. Manley." By the end of the meal, I'd be ready to throttle someone.

The menu is divided into "Seasonal" and "Favorites" but I've never seen the seasonal side change more than twice a year. For a restaurant that advertises ambition and luxe through its atmosphere and wine program, the menu is a remarkably static document - it transmits a fear of change and/or risk. It tells me that the management does not have a lot of confidence in the chef, and the chef must not have a lot of confidence in his staff. When the menu does change, it seems incremental - there are no "wipe the slate clean" moments here. I suspect with a good part of its business coming from travelers, there is little demand from locals for change. And why mess with a good thing? Or one that's at least acceptable? I feel that the management should call a spade a spade and get the menu laminated.

The wine program, however, is very nice, and the list is full of hidden gems and interesting selections. Kudos to Bucky and Monique for doing such an excellent job with this.

With the meal - I had the same dishes I almost always have every time I visit, because I've had everything on the menu at least once and have by now narrowed my choices down to two or three things that are acceptable - we had the surprising 2002 Côtes de Roussillon Villages "Clos des Fées" from Herve Bizeul. A blend of Carignane, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, this is both an intense and balanced wine from the difficult 2002 vintage. This is a modern wine, with lush fruit and a good dose of new oak, but I suspect that the difficulty of the vintage informed a judicious use of new barrels and the result is surprisingly balanced and, in a word, delightful. This was a selection that Bucky originally pointed out to me and I've had the wine several times since then. Layers of tarry black fruits are combined with minerality and decent acidity that make for a lovely mouthfeel and give the finish an especially balanced and satisfying feel. This is not one for ageing - I'd consume it over the next 2-4 years. (3.0+ nb)

More Cavallotto

Alfio Cavallotto, with whom I visited last week and whose wines are the subject of the previous post, was back in town the Thursday before the holidays. We met with his importer at Sushi Sasa in downtown Denver for lunch. Funny - my fist meeting with Alfio was several years ago when our mutual friend Silvia Altare decided we were all going to drive to Liguria from Barolo for a dinner of ... drumroll please ... raw fish. In the coastal areas of Italy, fish is often served uncooked, just dressed with a bit of olive oil and salt, and sometimes a bit of lemon juice. The restaurant, Buco di Bacco in Pietre Ligure, was fabulous, not least of which was the amazing list of champagne, as well as the owner, who sized us up the moment we walked in and then brought us, without consulting anyone in the group, the bottle of Champagne he thought we would enjoy the most. It was a great meal - the antipasti of raw and slightly cooked seafood and fish ran to about 15 plates, and so we just split a single pasta afterwards and skipped the secondi entirely. In any case, Alfio was great company at that dinner, and we've kept up contact since. He's a most interesting and really intelligent guy - I like people who, when they decide they are interested in something, dive into the deep end, head first. He's like that.

Interestingly, his red wines went well with the sashimi and sushi. The same wines were poured as at Radda, but this time, the Dolcetto showed much better - brighter fruit, depth and length. Really nice. For the other wines, tasting notes were consistent.

Cavallotto's winemaking is an interesting amalgam of both modern and traditional methods. Walking into the winery the first time several years ago, I was stuck by the big Slavonian chestnut botti, the lack of barrique, and the resulting style of the wines ... until I spied the row of rotofermentors in the vinification room. Mon Dieu! Quelle Surprise! Alfio explained that they still do a 15-35 day maceration for the must, but using rotofermentors allows better control of the pip tannins. As with almost every estate in Piedmont now, the grapes are destemmed to minimize the stalk tannins, which in Nebbiolo are particularly potent and astringent, and rarely, if ever, as ripe as the skin and pip tannins. After the fermentation, the winemaking style is resolutely trad: for the Barolo, 2-4 years in the enormous botti, then bottle ageing for a year or two. The wines are classically styled, with acid and ripe tannin giving a particularly elegant structure to the wines. The fruit is present and in balance but never in a forward or showoffy way. The wines reflect what I consider to be the house style of impeccable structure, good balance and elegance before flash. As such, they are underappreciated in the marketplace and can usually be found at a considerably lower price than many other Barolo. I tasted a barrel sample of the 2004 Barolo Bricco Boschis, Riserva San Giuseppe in November 2009 in La Morra and found it to be lovely, long and sweet, with good cherry and violet aspects, very ripe and long, needing 5-8 years to fully pull together but certain to enjoy a drinking window of a further 15 years (I scored it 4.0+). The 2004 Barolo Bricco Boschis, Riserva Vignolo was slightly tighter and more tannic, with good fruit but extremely closed at this point (3.5+). Both are lovely wines that have a long life ahead of them.

The big surprise with the sushi was the 2005 Barbera Bricco Boschis, Vigna del Cuculo. I would never have thought that a 4 year old Barbera would be this delicious and complementary, especially with the shushi that had a strong umami aspect, like the Uni. This Barbera deserves mention for the layered complexity that really lets the grape shine through - many ambitious Barbera are now aged in new French oak barrels, which layers on flavors of chocolate, vanilla and coffee (delicious, by the way) - but this one lets the earthiness and minerality of the grape shine though. Nice job.

Verona

My friends have mixed up their flight and are arriving Saturday instead of Friday, but so what? Verona is among my favorite cities in the world and a day to myself without worry or care sounds quite groovalicious. I leave Monforte Friday morning around 11, and am in Verona by 2, and enjoying a glass of spritz in the Piazza Erbe by 2.30. I have the day to visit the incredible Romanesque churches – Verona is a UNESCO World Heritage site on account of those churches. And the Roman ruins are fabulous – Verona has one of only three Roman amphitheaters still in use today. The old Roman theater is built into a hillside and still hosts a summer theater festival while the amphiteater has an opera season all summer, and rock concerts are regularly scheduled there as well. (A few years ago I missed seeing Lenny Kravitz here by a few days.)
Most of the old town is limited to pedestrians, and it is possible to amble across the entire old city in less than 25 minutes at its widest part. It is a beautiful town, built into a loop of the Adige river, where the water could form a defensive ring on three sides. The women (and men) are beautiful and know how to dress both provocatively and elegantly – Verona is a wealthy town and the streets are flanked by designer shops – which makes people-watching a favorite activity here.

La Coccinella

Wednesday night I go to La Coccinella in Serralunga Valle with the Altares (Elio, Lucia and Silvia) and Tes. It’s a half-hour drive over there and the room is rustic, homey and cozy beyond belief. The kind of place where you get a good feeling right when you walk in the door. The smells of porcini wafting from the kitchen are intoxicating.

Weekend in the Swiss Alps

I decide that avoiding Milan is of utmost importance and choose a route around it which works really great until I get to the 25-km stretch on back roads that ends up taking 90 minutes. Along Lake Como, the sun starts peeking out and the mountains emerge. Driving up over the 13 switchbacks of the Maloja Pass, then over the hump into the Engadine, its glacial lakes stretching out in front of me in the evening light. H and I go to a local restaurant for dinner - I have been craving "filletes de perche," filets of the tiny lake perch sauteed in butter. Mmmmmmm.

Friday dawns rainy and cool, scattered sun between showers, but the valley is still insanely gorgeous. I walk through town, past the rail station and into the woods toward St Moritz, the neighboring village, along back paths and around one of the lakes. Lovely.

Saturday was one of those insanely gorgeous fall days - not a frickin' cloud in the sky. C has driven down from Frankfurt with K, who turns out to be really nice. She's just bought a little place for herself and I get a quick tour - lovely retreat for her. We get out for a hike to the Boval hut up the Morteratsch valley – this is the hut where my grandfather, a mountain guide, died 54 years ago at 44 years old – exactly my age now. He left his wife and 5 daughters – how different things have turned out for me. The hut is located along the side of a glacier that I have been scrambling over for 30 years – and it is sad to see how quickly the glacier is dying. Warming is real – the glacier is collapsing on itself. Still, it is hard to be too sad on such a gorgeous day. The sun is shining, there is a dusting of fresh snow on the high peaks already, and the temperature in the light is warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt. At the hut, after a two-hour hike, we order some lunch – R, the hut steward, is still here. I’ve known him for ages, a really nice guy with grizzly beard, sparkling eyes and a great sense of humor. The hike down, though, is freezing- this side of the valley is in shade, and the wind has picked up a bit. Brrrrrr. At the base, still sweaty and gross, C and I ham it up for K.

Cuneo with the Altares

9.17.08 Cuneo with the Altares

Off to Cuneo, a charming old village about and hour’s drive from Monforte, for a tasting with Lucia and Elio Altare. I drive with Duncan, the wicked cool Australian who is working for the Altares for the month (he’s a winemaker near Melbourne) and the fancy-schmantzy place in the center of town has some crazy cellars underneath it. As a connoisseur of restaurant kitchens, I find this one quite nice – all induction cooktops, loads of stainless, and everything spotless. Still, I am tired and sore after a full day of picking, cleaning and scrubbing and what would have been an incredible opportunity during the March tasting trip feels somehow, a bit out of place now.

Still, onward and upward. The meal is nice, imaginatively prepared, Elio opens some older wines, and the company is excellent.

2004 Altare, Barbera d’Alba
Slight reduction on nose when first poured. Blows off with a bit of air. Nose of plums, medium-dark chocolate, minerals, even a hint of tar. Meaty mid-palate. Lovely finish, good balance, a lovely, harmonious wine. 3.0+

1999 Altare, Barolo
nose jumps with ripe dark cherries – very harmonious and equilibrated. Also hints of cola nut and tar. Blood and Roses! On the palate, good mouthfeel, balanced, flavorful, assertive but not overpowering. Lovely, good fruit, some secondary characteristics of dried cranberries, leather and violets coming through. Good acid and structure, still with tannins … really nice. Drink 2010-2018. 4.0+

2004 Altare, “Insieme” IGT Langhe
I’ve always found the Insieme wines to be a bit lost, somehow.. They are delicious and flavorful but lack a certain sense of soul. The cab from the blend really shows on the nose – cassis, green and black pepper, some earthy coffee notes, berries. It is delicious, yes, but in the same way tat loads of new world wines are delicious but somehow insignificant – they are easy to recognize not so much for what they have, but for what they lack. It is a delicious wine, but … 3.0-

Duo, 12.17.07

I meet S (the Boulder Som-in-Training) at Duo, the Highlands neighborhood eatery. The chef here, John Broening, was in charge of the Primtivo kitchen for four years. He's consistently excellent - and his Duo menu this season is reminiscent of his Primitivo menus, a bit stripped down and less consciously European (John spent a year cooking in Paris, among other exotic locales).

I walk in a few minutes before S - the bar and dining room are divided by a wall of suspended windowpanes, all rickety and old and with paint peeling, hung haphazardly to imply separation but keeping the space open and airy. John is off tonight (Monday) but as I look at the plates coming up at the window of the semi-open kitchen, they have his trademark bright simplicity and presentation. Four guys seated at the bar are all having the same thing: a grilled pork chop, which all say is: "great, sooo good." By the time we're seated and order, the kitchen is out of this daily special.

S shows up, we're shown to a table next to the sandblasted brick wall. We start with Risotto Fritters for her and Poached Leeks for me. The fritters are beautifully prepared, deliciously briny and salty from gouda and shrimp mixed in with the rice. The leeks are accompanied by bacon and shaved fennel - what dish is not made better by the addition of bacon? Of course, I mean this rhetorically - please don't inundate the comments mailbox with gleeful variants of "ice cream!" or something to that effect. The roasted leeks have that sweet oniony flavor, nicely set off by the smokiness of the bacon and the licorice of anise. A porcini vinaigrette braces everything together. Nice.

We both select the flatiron steak for a main course - this has the slightly liverish and mineral quality that I associate with really good beef. The meat is perfectly caramelized on the outside and the accompanying ragout of cippolini onions and bacon (ahem) is fantastic. I wish there were a bit more of the wilted greens - the two bites of this seemed anemic in relation to the rest of the dish. A celery root and potato gratin was excellent and creamy, the flavors of the celery, potato and cheese melding into a satisfying almost-gooiness. Very nice.

We finish off with a sweet that I neglect to write down (again). S is grilling me on her Som course flashcards - there's a lot for her to learn. By no means do I have all or even most of the answers - humbling, especially on the technical side. It gives me an idea of the knowledge that a structured wine education imparts.

2001 Stefano Inama, "Bradisismo" IGT Veneto
Stefano is one of the funniest and most intelligent people I know making wine - his passions and refusal to compromise come through in both his person and wines. Bradisismo is 70/20/10% Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenère/Merlot and is an expressive example of wines from the Colli Berici, a series of hills to the south of the city of Vicenza. This one is chock-full of ripe berries and plums, a meaty and mineral midpalate, and vanilla from the oak ageing. Stefano makes this one pretty much ready to drink soon after release, and the 2001 is showing beautifully. Loads of meaty well-extracted fruit on the finish, with soft ripe tannins. This is definitely a new-world styled wine - the influences of garagiste Bordeaux and California cult cabs is evident, without being so self-consciously over-the-top. (3.5+nb)

Frasca Truffle Dinner 12.10.07

Frasca, the Boulder restaurant, has been on my radar screen for ages - I've just never made the trip up. Partly, I find Boulder a strange, strange place. It's a bit of a long drive as well ... but Silvia Altare is in town to pour her and her father's wines, and the restaurant has flown white truffles over from Alba for the occasion. Yes, expensive, but Silvia, in no uncertain terms, tells me I will be there. Steve Lewis, the importer, is her co-host for the evening - I've known Steve for ages, and he is a gem. A, from Denver, is accompanying me for the evening. I pick her up in Denver and up to Boulder we go, in a blinding snowstorm.

Frasca bills itself as a Friulian-inspired restaurant, and I'll have to come back to comment on this claim, as this evening's menu is more Piedmontese in outlook - and with a bunch of New American touches in there. There are delicious passed apps during a meet-and-greet; only some of these are particularly Piedmontese. Salami-wrapped grissini (little breadsticks) is delicious and arguably of the region. A tuna tartare is delicious, though more South Beach than Südtyrol, or even Liguria, for that matter. They're pouring the Bellavista nv Brut from magnums. Very nice.

First Course: Maine lobster salad with a crispy soft-boiled egg is wicked delicious - the egg is a delight, and reminds me of another place that uses a soft-boiled egg to great effect in opening a dining experience - Arpege, in Paris. Here, the egg's richness is a counterpoint to the lobster and frisée, and the shaved truffle adds and exotic earthy element. Dining with Silvia in the Piedmont two months earlier, she told me that the typical way to enjoy the white truffle was shaved over a fried egg - and the egg here sets off the truffle more harmoniously than the lobster and frisée. I'm a little baffled by the use of lobster in a Piedmontese dish ... this is a pretty loose interpretation of the Langhe's cuisine, at best. Still, delicious, beautifully presented and satisfying.

New York 12.07

I make the trip to New York to see friends and my sister’s family before the madness of the holidays. Plus there are a heap of great exhibits going on right now that I decide I cannot miss seeing. Martin Puryear sculptures and Seurat drawings at the Modern. The Dutch Paintings exhibit at the Met, along with British Landscape Photos from the 19th century. Gerda Taro and Robert Capa at the ICP. And the big Klimt show at the Neue. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.

I arrive a few hours late (big surprise, airlines, grrrrr) and go to my sister’s apartment, drop the bags, play with my niece and nephew for a bit (E's new boots - nice, huh?), then head uptown to Esca. I’ve written about Esca previously – it seems every time I come here my dinner companion has been spectacularly, breathtakingly lovely, sharp as a carpet tack, and funny – and this poses a bit of a problem for your correspondent. Essentially, I forget to pay attention to both the wine and the food, and sit slack-jawed across from my date, trying not to look like a slobbering idiot. I make a concerted effort, only marginally successful, to not drool. This visit is no different.

Must.Not.Drool … Must.Not.Drool … Must.Not.Drool.