Dining in Portland, Oregon I had a nice dinner at Higgins Restaurant last night. We had the good luck of having Andy Zahlman, the restaurant’s sommellier, as our waiter. I always feel that I should have the local produce when dining in a new city and the restaurant has a formidable list of Oregon Pinot Noirs. Most of them come from the Willamette Valley, which rhymes with damnit. I always trust a skilled sommellier to make a choice for me and Andy is one of the best in Oregon. I don’t know much about the Willamette Valley, even though I have spent many enjoyable hours with Jim Proser from the JK Carriere Winery, so I asked Andy to rustle something up for us that was under 14.5 degrees of alcohol, not in new wood, not enzymed, not yeasted and without Dijon Clones. This might seem like a strange request, but it is how the guys in Sideways order Pinots. If you haven’t seen this film, make sure to take an over four hour air or train trip to any destination in America. The entire American transportation industry is currently featuring this film as on-board entertainment. Andy hesitated and tried a 1985 Eyrie that unfortunately was no longer alive. Back to the drawing board and he found a 1985 Amity that was just smashing. Maybe a bit short, put pure Pinot elegance, lightness, finesse and fruit. Still young with time to go. It was a great meal and I want to thank Andy and Higgins for finding such a special wine. For a white wine, we had a delicious Guillemot-Michel Macon-Clesse 2002. I always thought the importer was David Shiverick, but it turns out that Fran Kysela now imports this wine. I had no idea that Fran was raiding David’s book. There’s so much great wine out there it is a shame to see too of my best colleagues fighting each other for wine suppliers.
"There’s so much great wine out there"?! Since when did you become a misty-eyed optomist, Joe?
Perhaps I was being sarcastic. I lose track.
Gee, I saw David Shiverick last night and he was gazing longingly (and prepossedly) at a bottle of 2001 La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
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