Continuing our quest to try some new restaurants this month, we had dinner at The Owl House, a tiny city restaurant which specializes in fresh, made-from-scratch food prepared with ingredients sourced from local providers whenever possible, including many vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. For starters, we had the potato and leek soup of the day
We dined for the first time at TRATA, which means The Restaurant At The Armory, a relatively new contemporary three-story restaurant which has completely transformed a decommissioned National Guard armory. I started with a brussel sprout salad — poached and chilled leaves tossed with cherry tomatoes, bacon, crispy truffled shallots and asiago lemon vinaigrette –
Our latest wine trivia question (see post on April 7, 2013) was: Q. The northern Rhône region of France is well-known for powerful red wines, made from Syrah grapes. However, one northern Rhône appellation is famous for its white wine, made from Viognier grapes. Which one is it? a) Condrieu b) Cornas c) Côte-Rôtie d)
With our dinners of chicken parmigiano and house made fettuccine with marinara sauce at Mario’s restaurant, we had a superb bottle of 2010 Rocca di Frassinello “Le Sughere di Frassinello” red wine. This is a “Super Tuscan” blend of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot from the Maremma Toscana appellation in the marshy coastal
At the recent seminar we attended on the Wines of Alsace, we also learned about a type of cork which has been developed to avoid the problem of “corked” wines. After almost ten years of internal research, Hugel & Fils, a leading producer of wines in Alsace since 1639, has adopted “Diam” corks for all
Here is our next wine trivia question: Q. The northern Rhône region of France is well-known for its powerful red wines, made from Syrah grapes. However, one northern Rhône appellation is famous for white wine, made from Viognier grapes. Which one is it? a) Condrieu b) Cornas c) Côte-Rôtie d) Crozes-Hermitage The answer will be
We enjoyed a really good seminar on the Wines of Alsace given by John McMahon at Century Wines this month. John discussed the unique terroir and style of the wines that characterize Alsace, a small wine region in extreme north eastern France adjacent to Germany and bordered by the Vosges Mountains to the west and the
The 2011 Boschendal “1685” Grande Cuvee Sauvignon Blanc is a refreshing white wine produced from 92% Sauvignon Blanc and 8% Semillon grapes grown in the Stellenbosch area of South Africa’s Western Cape. The 1685 line of wines from Boschendal commemorates the date on the original title deed of the “Bossendaal” estate and they are bottled in
We recently enjoyed a bottle of non-vintage Chassenay D’Arce Montaubret Brut Champagne, produced by a cooperative of about 130 grape growers in the Arce Valley located in the southern part of the Champagne region of France. Over 75% of the Champagne produced today is non-vintage (N.V.), that is, made by blending wine from several years’
With our Easter dinner today, we opened a bottle of vintage sparkling wine from the Carneros appellation in California which we had picked up on a trip to Napa and Sonoma a few years ago. The 2003 Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs Brut was rich and full-bodied, as you would expect