Wow. I knew I got distracted, but I only posted two wines this month at The Grand Crew. I had much more than that, I attended a wine dinner with about six wines, and had several with Thanksgiving dinner, but no tasting notes.
One of these two is one of the best wines I’ve ever had.
J and I went out with our neighbors last night to Dogwood. We don’t get to Hampden enough.
The experience at Dogwood was mixed, primarily because of how busy they were. There were five of us, and we lucked out, there was another party of five that didn’t show, so we didn’t wait.
The staff is very friendly, and they know their stuff about the menu and wines. However, they spend most of the evening in the weeds. Our server did a nice job of timing things for us, but the kitchen struggled with it a bit. They also didn’t keep things straight on who ordered what – I was brought the wrong salad, for example (I ate it anyway, and it was pretty awesome); they later brought the right one (and to their credit, comped it).
Food was mixed, in my opinion, although again I think the kitchen was struggling with timing.
I had the Romaine. Local Radish Caesar salad, which was excellent. (I ordered the Farmers Market salad because I wasn’t sure about the Caesar, but was happy to get the wrong salad.) My dinner was rockfish topped with crab, which was well prepared, but I think spent a little too much time under a heat lamp. Good, but not awesome.
The table shared potato chips and dip, which was outstanding. Cocktails were great, and wines made from noble grapes were 20% off. They have an excellent selection, not too many, but lots of variety.
The consensus at the table was generally favorable, and with a vegetarian in the group, it’s nice Dogwood has so many vegetarian options, and they don’t overcome (or ruin) the menu. All in all, a fair experience. I think we need to go back on a slower night to see what they can really do.
Afterwards, we stopped by the new Dangerously Delicious in Canton. They have just opened, and have limited selections. I have to say, there’s something that draws me in about a pie place blaring old school punk.
We ordered a Baltmore Bomb (Berger cookies in butterscotch). The filling was as incredible as that sounds, but the crust was a little tough; this was not a pie I’d spend $25 (!) on again, I’m afraid. Maybe they are working out the kinks in the new location.
Lots of wine this month, in great part due to the Wines of Chile tasting a few weeks ago.
2008 Washington Hills Paradise Peak Riesling
2008 Hacienda Aracuano Clos De Lolol
2007 Casas Del Bosque Gran Estate Selection Private Reserve
2006 Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Quinta Da Aveleda Douro Charamba
2006 La Castellina Chianti Classico Riserva
Last night I had the opportunity to attend and be part of an online tasting sponsored by the Wines of Chile. Yes, it’s a marketing thing. Yes, I got some free wine. But it was still a fun and educational experience, and I figure if someone wants to send me a box with some wine in it and invite me to taste it while listening to the winemakers discuss the wine and while I interact with other wine lovers via the web, I’m willing to spend some time writing about it.
(I think that meets the FTC disclosure requirements.)
The tasting was led by Fed Dexhelmer, a Master Sommelier who works as an educator for Wines of Chile. He’s also worked for a number of pretty well known restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern, Cello, Daniel, and the Spice Market. He’s also been featured in a number of well known publications.
Because I’m a friendly fellow, and I like to share wine, I invited seven other people to join me for the tasting. My wife, of course, who loves wine as much as I do (and is much better at the ‘pairing with food’ part), my next door neighbors as well as a couple who live across the street, and a colleague of my wife with whom we’ve been friends for years, along with her husband.
The tasting kit included 8 wines, a bottle of olive oil, and a bottle of chiles, as well as some recipes for dishes that would work well with the wines. We decided to forgo all the cooking (we do have day jobs), and instead served a simple cheese board. That turned out to be a good call, as we zipped through tasting all 8 wines in about 90 minutes, and it was much easier to remain engaged in the tasting without worrying about serving several courses.
There were two key themes to the tasting. The first was that the 8 people in my house, as well as all the people commenting on Twitter and in the chat on the web meeting, had no clear consensus on which of the 8 wines were the best. I had a clear favorite, but only one other person of the 8 at my house shared my view, and the others all disagreed with each other as well. We couldn’t even agree on a least favorite.
The second key, and I think the more important, was the remarkable value of the wines we tasted. Of the 8, I rated none worse than a 3/5, and there were a couple of 4′s and a 5. Yet only two of the wines were more than $30, and two of them were less than $20. I would buy almost all of them at the suggested retail price, and I’m pretty sure I’d by a case of all of them (with a case discount) if I had the room to store eight cases of wine.
All of the wines are blends, some more traditional Bordeaux style blends (which was historically Chilean wine’s strength), some more unusual and ‘New World’. Almost all of the wines had an old world sensibility; there were no fruit bombs, although some of the wines were very bold.
Here are the wines we tasted, in order:
2005 Valdivieso Eclat, Maule Valley
2006 De Martino “Las Cruces”, Cachapoal Valley
2008 Estampa Gold Assemblage, Colchagua Valley
2008 Montes Limited Selection Cabernet/Carmenere, Cochagua Valley
2006 Maquis Lien, Colchagua Valley
2008 Hacienda Araucano Clos de Lolol, Colchagua Valley
2007 Emillana Coyam, Colchagua Valley
2007 Casas del Bosque Gran Estate Selection Private Reserve, Casablanca Valley
I’ll post my tasting notes over the next several days at The Grand Crew.
Again, I want to thank the Thomas Collective for inviting me. This was an awful lot of fun. I got to make some new online friends and really enjoyed the wines and the experience. I think this type of marketing effort is fun and effective, and was very well done.
(Crossposted at The Grand Crew)
Still finding I’m drinking a lot of wine socially, so not taking notes. Actually had 3 great wines last night, but didn’t take formal notes. I’m going to try to at least give them a rating after the fact more often.
Wines blogged in September:
2009 Château de la Tour de l’Ange (4/5)
2008 Angeline Sauvignon Blanc (4/5)
2008 Concha y Toro Carménère Xplorador (2/5)
2008 Heartland Stickleback Red (2/5)
2007 Chateau Ste. Michelle Pinot Gris (2/5)
Got back on track tasting wine and blogging about it. 7 wines. I’m still well off the pace to get 100 wines tasted and noted this year, although I will certainly taste 100 wines.
2006 Bodegas Vicente Malumbres Navarra Rosado
2008 Bricco dei Tati Piemonte Barbera
2007 Zind Humbrecht Pinot d’ Alsace
Normally this time of the month I put up a summary of all the wines I tasted and noted during the past month. Nearly all of those wines are documented at The Grand Crew.
I had a number of outstanding wines last month, but remarkably didn’t take notes on any of them. Why? They were all enjoyed with friends, and I don’t typically take notes when having wine out with my wife or with friends, as the experience of sharing wine with people you like always inflates how good the wine tastes. I typically take notes when drinking at home (usually with J), where we taste and compare our thoughts on the wine.
There’s a lesson there – drink wine with loved ones and friends, and the wine tastes better.
The rules are out for the new sales tax on beverages in bottles, and the city is doing it’s best to make sure consumers don’t know about the new sales tax.
City officials on Tuesday cautioned businesses that when they advertise their prices, they can’t make it appear that the consumer is paying a new sales tax in the city. The new regulations make it clear that this is not a direct tax on consumers, Miller reported.It means that the distributors and retailers may charge a couple of pennies more per bottle of soda at a store in the city, but when you buy it, your receipt won’t list a line item for the bottle tax, Miller reported.
Of course, it is a new tax on consumers, but they don’t want you to think that. We really need to vote these people out.
