Category Archives: wine review

Review–Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse: the steak is fine but where’s my wine?

Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse Santa Barbara: better than home?

If the man in my life had a blog, it would be called Beer, BBQ & Bruce (that would be Springsteen).

But he’s too busy barbecuing for a blog.

While I tend to stick my nose in a collection of poetry and browse around, he’s likely to daydream his palate away in a cookbook.

We BBQ’d a ham for Thanksgiving last week, and I salivate just thinking about the duck eh made a few months ago. He cooks salmon perfectly, and the fine art of cooking a steak comes out just right every time.Two weeks ago, we were both ecstatic over some filet mignons which we enjoyed with a bottle of Teusner Barossa Valley Shiraz.

That night, we both agreed as we usually do, that we just couldn’t get a meal like this out that was as good as home. After all, how could you improve on perfection?

Turns out, you can. At least in the steak department.

Last night, with the Big Monkey at one end of the table and his boss at the other, celebrating the best month of sales they’d ever had, the Big Monkey proclaimed that the porterhouse steak here at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse was not only better than any steak he’d ever had in a restaurant, but the best steak he’d ever had. Period. And that it was worth every cent.

Now that’s saying a mouthful.

However, if we’d been dining at home, we wouldn’t have sat around for ages with no wine in our glasses.  And we would have had the wine we’d ordered with the various courses we’d intended to drink them with. Continue reading →

Teusner “The Riebke” Ebenezer Shiraz 2004 & filet mignon: essentially excellent

Bacon wrapped filet & Teusner “The Riebke” Ebenezer Shiraz 2004

Give a little whistle (bacon!) Try a little bacon (whistle!)

OK, yes, maybe I’m a little bacon crazy. A little.

But who could blame me after being at the Grateful Palate warehouse sale a few weeks ago for almost three hours smelling the stuff cooking? And of course, sampling.

I came home with a huge need for bacon. I was tempted to fry some up right then and there, with some eggs maybe, for a late lunch.

Instead, I went to the grocery store where I scored two beautiful filet mignons–on clearance at 30% off! Just in case, I had the butcher check them over, and he approved, so with a warm loaf of french bread under my arms and a bag of russets, I headed home to wrap my filet in two thick slabs of clove and garlic bacon; the Big Monkey dribbled gorgonzola on his when it came off the grill. With baked potatoes and broccoli on the menu, the remaining dilemna was which wine to pour? After all, I had two cases of the good stuff, fresh from the warehouse!

The Big Monkey loves those cab/shiraz blends, and I looked long and hard at the ones I bought. And I can’t wait to try the Stray Dog GSM, but I wondered if it would have enough pow for the filet and bacon. So what I opened was the Teusner Riebke Ebenezer Shiraz–if anything could stand up to that steak and bacon I figured it would be an Eb Shiraz–and I was NOT disappointed. Yummy!  This wine typically retails around $20, and I picked up two bottles for $10 each. I should have bought more!

Teusner "The Riebke" Ebenezer Shiraz

Teusner’s “The Riebke” Ebenezer Shiraz

The color is gorgeous dark purple, and the nose is filled with lucious black fruit–cherry and plum, especially. It had good structure, and surprisingly low alcohol at 14%, which for us made it more balanced than some of the other shiraz we’ve enjoyed. There wasn’t a whole lot more going on other than that lovely perfectly ripe fruit (not jammy, not over-ripe but perfect!) and maybe a little dark chocolate–a bit of the edge of super dark chocolate, a bit of that richness.

We didn’t care really for the particulars in the moment–it was such a pleasurable, feel good, taste good wine with a wonderful rich meal.

Hmmn…but could we have gotten more out of it if we hadn’t enjoyed it so quickly? We opened it not long before we ate; maybe with a little more air time, more would have been revealed. Let’s see if I can make that happen with bottle number 2! (where might I hide it??)

The only disappointment? By August 2008, according to Michael Pollard, Grateful Palate dropped Teusner from their roster of wines (or was dropped, who knows). What a huge disappointment! I do know I want to know more and have more of winemaker Kym Teusner!

Now I wonder if I head over to the Grateful Palate’s retail store on Del Norte in Oxnard if I could pick up some more????

Masia Carreras 2001: patience pays off

More Salvage: Masia Carreras 2001!

I am so glad I have no moral compunction about scavenging and salvaging what I find valuable and what otherwise will get thrown out.

After all, I grew up going to garage sales and auctions with my family. For years, my dad worked as an auctioneer. When I was in college, I bought for him at garage sales, worked his auctions, and learned to refinish furniture too.

I find no shame in dumpster diving, having spent several of my formative years collecting beer cans from the neighborhood dumpsters. I still have a number of Navy middies I found at the dump when I was about 12; I imagine now they once belonged to someone recently returned from Viet Nam.

Like the recently deposed Sarah Palin, I regularly shop at thrift stores, especially on half-price Wednesdays at the Goodwill by the farmers market, and at Habitat for Humanity’s Restore.

So when it seemed that the room full of open wine left behind after the after party at the Wine Bloggers Conference was going to get poured down the drain, thrown out or who knew what, I packed up what I could manage and drove off with it, figuring I’d drink what I could as fast as I could, taste and write and taste some more, and share the wealth–which is exactly what I’ve been doing since I returned from the Wine Bloggers Conference last week.

I know now how little I know about wine. Continue reading →

Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls Mourvedre for all the sinners on your list

River of Skulls: the perfect wine for Halloween & Dia de los Muertos & more

Twisted Oak's "River of Skulls"

Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls

This is the wine you need for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and maybe for all the sinners on your list: Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls, a mourverde with a little syrah thrown in.

Not just because the bottle itself is impressive. Which it is–the graphic was created by El Jefe’s son Andrew Stai  when he was 16, with all that intensity for which 16 year old boys are known. (Andrew, by the way, has made it to 20). The punt of the bottle is sensually curved and ribbed, asking you to run your finger around its rim. The shape of the bottle itself calls out to be held, grabbed, carressed, and slugged. Really. It is the perfect wine for a pirate and begs for a candle when it is downed and out.

I first tasted this wine with El Jefe at Doug Cook’s birthday celebration at the Wine Blogger’s Conference last weekend at Santa Rosa.  We were talking between pours and he pointed out the bottle which I’d been admiring for awhile, not even knowing it was his wine, or a mourverde (recall my fondness for Quivira’s? Or even better, the RBJ 2002 theologicum mataro? Now that’s a wild wine…)

So El Jefe opened it up lickety split and poured. Considering the powerful wines that had crossed my palate from Doug Cook’s cellar that night, it stood its ground (of course, mourverdre will do that for me!) There was a some left in the bottle so El Jefe let me take it home–lucky me!

It was the first red wine I enjoyed when I returned–with a dinner of cioppino and brown rice and a salad with blue cheese, walnut, and apple. Some lovely musky earth and spice balances the fresh lively raspberries. Certainly enough to wake the dead or to serve them on your altar. Saints and sinners will appreciate this offering.

from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

This is a special creature, this wine. Sorry to say that unless you have a trip planned to Calaveras county, you’re out of luck. You can get on the list now for next year! Sign up here.


(WBC 11) Sharing the Wine Wealth Part 2

Sharing the OWC Wealth Part 2: Trick or Treat!

Hey there friends and fellow wine enthusiasts!

This is no trick, it’s all treat–I spent last weekend at the First Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa and scored a bunch of open wines including a motherlode of  Dry Creek Valley zins!

These wines were opened Friday so they need to be enjoyed soon! Want to come help me taste and evaluate them??

I’ll set out some crackers, cheese, apples, bread, vegies, that sort of thing, then when we’re ready, I’ll throw some pasta on and Kathy’s going to pick up marinara at Ferrarros (both meat and vegie).  Kathy’s also going to make a salad.

Since both Kathy and the Big Monkey just had birthdays, we’ll put some candles on a cake (I’m thinking cheese cake with home canned cherries and fresh blueberries actually).  SHHH! That part’s a surprise!

Looking forward to seeing you and hearing what you think about these wines!

ml, g

So went the email I sent to about 15 friends. Ten wine enthusiasts came over the other night, and in the course of the evening, we polished off the remnants of eight Dry Creek Valley zins and tasted two pinot noirs from two continents.

I laid the zins out on a table with a black cloth to hide wine spills and to carry out the Halloween Trick or Treat theme. The boy and I had put out Halloween decorations the week before, but I added a few more before the party so it was quite the festive scene.

But it was the table laden with alphabetized dry Creek Valley zins which got all the attention from the adults! (The children of course were transfixed by the led motorized pirate ship…) And it didn’t take long for us to choose our glasses and get to tasting.

In addition to collecting these wines from the conference, there was a pile of 20 or so tasting sheets from the meal I didn’t get to eat and the wines I didn’t get to taste, so since I’d brought them home for scratch paper, we used the backs of those sheets for our notes providing an intro to other Dry Creek wines as well as a place for our notes.

I’d also gathered up all the handouts that were lying around the sweet zin suite, and was able to supply those informational sheets for almost everyone. I had maps out and I showed everyone where the Dry Creek valley was, and set the scene. I had the laptop up with info from Dry Creek also but we never went there. It would have been wonderful to have someone like Nick Gorevic of Wine Scholarship lead us, but I think I muddled along quite well!

Here’s a quick run down of our tasting notes with some general info as possible:

Bella Vineyard and Wine Caves: 2006 100% DCV zin, 15% alcohol $35.
Smoke right away (tar?), dark cherry, blackberry, smooth and silky yet “jazzy.” Hangs around.

Copain 2003 Arrowhead Mountain Zin 14.8
Smoother, a little smoke like smoked salmon, barn, leather, hay, thick.

Dutcher Crossing 2006 Maple Vineyard DCV 91% Zin, 9% Petit Sirah; old vines 14.8%
i was reminded right away of the light rose raspberry currant spice of carnation vanilla natural perfumed scent of an old beautiful elegant refined woman smiling, and I couldn’t shake her. Maybe it was the time of year, here on the heels of Halloween, but I couldn’t help but like her and want to know her better. (Jock’s favorite?  He worked as a sommelier at the Ranch House in Ojai 30 years ago…)

Mauritson 2005 Growers Reserve DCV Zin 15.5
Very fruity, muddy, hard to taste after the Dutcher

Mauritson 2006 DCV Zin Rockpile Ridge 15.5
Clear sense of cherry, bramble

Fritz 2006 14.6% DCV Zin
Butterscotch, black fruit, hay, leather. Lots going on.

Pedroncelli 2006 14.6%
This wine went really really well with dinner! Very satisfying and pleasurable! Easy going yet meaty and smooth.

Talty 2005 Zin Estate 15.0%
I remember really liking this one: peppery, complex, intriguing, a conversation starter of a wine

(I’ll come back and add links to more of the wineries when I get a chance…)

So here’s my latest idea for an income stream: organize regional wine tastings to go. You could order a tasting for 12 say, of Dry Creek Valley zins, or wines in general, along with tasting notes and other info from the region. This could be done for every appellation in California and beyond! I’ll leave the northeast for Lenn Thompson if he wants it!

Even better, to work with other folks in the Open Wine consortium to pull this together, drawing on different people’s areas of expertise, and giving them a shout out, for example, doing an Austrian ed pack of biodynamic wines from Anthony Nicalo Farmstead. Or working with David Strada and his New Zealand wines.

While I may not be the most sophisticated or knowledgeable person out there in wine, I do know my way around educating adults after teaching college and yoga for 20 years!

Hmmn, maybe this idea is so obvious it’s already out there. But it is a bit of a complicated idea to pull off well to provide the service of connecting people to a wide variety of regions in a consistent way. If it is out there, I sure haven’t run across it during the last six months of world wide web wine wanders. Then again, I wasn’t looking for it specifically.

Please let me know if you know anything I should know!

(WBC Post 5) Biodynamic & mostly organic Quivera

Biodynamic & mostly organic: Quivira

Saturday morning I packed up and left my sweet zin suite at the Flamingo Hotel to jump on a shuttle with other attendees of the First Wine Bloggers Conference for a hike through the wine country…except I watched the shuttles head off into the morning without me.

Fortunately, I could jump on my cell and talk with organizer Allan Wright who sent me to Quivira, and since I had both a car and Quivira marketing director Nancy’s card, I was set with a quick call from her for directions. Off I went down the chill autumn, chasing after the van, and dodging bicycles on the back roads of Sonoma County’s Dry Valley Creek Road until I found myself pulling into the idyllic, picturesque barnyard setting of Quivira, chickens, solar panels, and all.

Farmer and winemaker Steve Canter was at work with the dozen or so bloggers, explaining biodynamics and homeopathy and everything else under the sun including cleansing and purification rituals he uses (go for the power of the earth, Steve!!).

And then we went for a lovely walk, visiting goats, and Ruby the pig, and picking grapes off the vines (my favs were the old zins of course), looping along unusually dry Wine Creek to Dry Valley Creek, both which eventually feed into the Russian River, then under a fig tree, and up a ridge planted in zin and down along the olive trees to the barn.

Steve and Nancy tag teamed a bit, telling stories about the vines, the wines, and the processes both of biodynamics and organics in practice here. Of particular interest to me was how they are healing Wine Creek by building weirs to slow down the water to create better habitat for steelhead and other native species practically wiped out by the previous channelization and control of the creek.

Approved Biodynamic wineries like Quivera can use this seal

Approved Biodynamic wineries like Quivera can use this seal

The idea behind biodynamics seems an obvious one: in order for a wine to reflect the land where it came from, it needs to be fed as much as possible by an integrated series of local, native, natural influences. That means Continue reading →

(WBC Post 4) An Armload of New Zealand Pinot Noirs

Wine Blogger’s Conference: After Zin, Comes New Zealand Vin

Unfortunately, my sweet suite at the Wine Bloggers Conference at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa was going to charge me to get on line so I poured myself a glass of Mauritson’s Rockpile 2006 Zin (which I liked even better than the reserve–not as “fruity” but more cherry and better structure and balance and depth), grabbed my MacBook Pro and some crackers, and wandered back into the lobby which had quieted down significantly save for the music blasting “Brick House” from the bar. I used the code from my Wine Bloggers Conference Welcome packet and got right on.

I didn’t stay on for long, certainly not long enough to get a post written or an email sent, as I struck up a conversation with three gentlemen with some open wine bottles across the lobby, and quickly found myself on their couch with a sample of a New Zealand Pinot Noir in my glass–something completely different than the zins in the sweet suite or the Aussie shiraz I spent the summer drinking!

I found myself in the presence of David Strada, New Zealand wine guy, who had organized a wine tasting of New Zealand wines which went on while I was in the sweet zin sweet snacking on cheese and crackers. Next thing I knew, I was in the presence of a roomful of New Zealand wines, with permission to swoop up any that interested me–but I had to do it quick!

I didn’t even try to think–I just walked past all those tempting whites and headed for the pinot noirs–after sampling what was on the table in the lobby, I had to try more!

I grabbed pinot noirs by Wild Earth, Forrest Estate, and Wooleston, plus a syrah by…(oh, no I don’t remember now! Trinity Hill maybe?)

“Good choices!” said David. “We have a nice selection of wines on the table, a selection from the different wine growing regions of New Zealand–the Wild Earth from Otago, Forrest Estate from Marlborough, and Wooleston from Nelson. Did you know that? How did you choose them?”

“Well, I liked the label on the Wild Earth,” I admitted.

Award Winning Wild Earth Pinot Noir

Award Winning Wild Earth Pinot

“Yes, Americans do like that one,” he said with a smile. Continue reading →