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Nana's Chophouse Menu Finalized for September 18th Louis/Dressner Portfolio Dinner
It's only $75.00, its centrally located in Raleigh and you can reserve by calling at 919.829.1212
Here's what's planned:
Reception
Goat Cheese and Fig Streusel
Duck Rillettes with brioche crouton
Crab Salad with apples and celeriac on cucumber
Roasted or Grilled Oyster with melted leek-potato “chowder” and pancetta dust
Francois Pinon, Vouvray Mousseaux, Brut MV
Francois Pinon, Cuvee Tradition, 2005
Eric Nicolas, Les Giroflies, Vin de Table, MV
1st Course
Mussel Bisque
Gingered spinach and poached mussels
Clos Roche Blanche, Sauvignon No 2, 2004
2nd Course
Pan Seared Flounder
Fennel and frisee salad with brown butter- tarragon vinaigrette and lentils Du Berry
La Pepiere, Clos des Briords, Cuvee Vieilles Vignes, Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie, 2005
3rd Course
Roasted Squab
Wild rice “risotto” with cranberries, carrots, cranberry-infused demiglace finished with foie gras butter
Clos Roche Blanche, La Closerie, Touraine, 2004
Dessert
Figs
Francois Pinon, Cuvee de Novembre, Vouvray Moelleux, 2003
Everyone is Getting Old!
Even Buster has aged incredibly over the past year.
This is probably the last year we will do a Cuvée Buster Sancerre at Thomas-Labaille. We've been doing one too long there. We need to move on and call this bottling something else.
Tomorrow is my 64th birthday. The Sherff, a regular contributor to my comments sections, has graciously invited Denyse and I to eat at Alain Ducasse's four-star, New York restaurant.
What are they talking about?
I just took at look at The Wine Spectator's web site, where there is a curious report:
What's better than sex? "SexyBack" with Veuve Clicquot. At least Justin Timberlake thinks so. Veuve was the 'tween dream's drink of choice on Aug. 28 when he and his crew hit the trendy G Spa & Lounge in Manhattan's Meatpacking District to celebrate JT's forthcoming album FutureSex. Given the title, it's no surprise that more than half of the album's songs are filled with innuendos and come-ons, like the lyrics from the racy hit single "SexyBack": "I'm bringin' sexy back / If that's your girl, baby watch your back." JT and his producer pal Timbaland toasted their collaborative effort with Veuve, and during the three-hour party, the crowd had its fill too. MTV News reporters noted a "seemingly never-ending amount of Champagne flowing." Which is always a good idea in our book, but for the record, Unfiltered would prefer to drink Veuve without having to endure those lyrics.
I know I'm an old guy, Friday is my 64th Birthday, but I can't understand what they're talking about.
Does anyone have a clue?
Thank goodness David Schildknecht is reviewing almost of the world's important viticultural regions for The Wine Advocate. He's a literate guy and I hope, by example, he elevates the level of prose in today's wine press.
Don't Miss Marc Ollivier's Incredible Cuvée Granit Mal Etiquetée Reserve Bottle!
Years from now, this rare collector's item will be worth enormous sums of money in the auction market, much like other classic examples of mislabelled commodities, currencies and postal stamps.
Cult Muscadet winemaker Marc Ollivier, who was recently called The King of the Muscadet by wine critic John Gilman, mislabelled his New York shipment of Cuvée Granit 2005. This delicious red Muscadet is a combination of 19.6% Cabernet, 19.6% Côt and 19.6% Merlot. Unfortunately, Marc put the wrong label on the bottles he sent to New York and the label mistakenly identifies the wine as Cépage Cabernet.
To correct this error, the bottles have been decorated with a beautiful gold label reading: Cuvée Granit Mal Etiquetée. Roughly translated, this means Cuvée Granit Mislabelled
Hold on to these collector items and keep them for your grandchildren. They'll be worth a fortune.
The Next Big Thing in Restaurants!
Eating in the total dark, that is.
Several cities around the world already have such restaurants and everyone swears it opens up new sensory sensations. Or something like that.
The latest is in Montréal and I'm sending my kids there Friday night to give it a try. There's an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette about the concept:
The Next Big Thing!
Chat with Wine Importer Joe Dressner and Wine Writer Alice Feiring!
Alice and I will be standing on the Northwest Corner of Bond Street and Lafayette Street on Thursday, September 14th from 2:15 pm through 3:00 pm.
There will be a special VIP discussion starting at 2pm.
Don't miss this compelling event!
Louis/Dressner Tasting at Chambers Street Wines on Saturday, September 30th at 4:15 PM
This is going to be a great event and it is open to the public!
That includes you!
There is a special VIP preview starting at 4 pm. There will be many new releases, some of which are top secret and cannot be mentioned until the day of the tasting.
Chambers Street Wine is located in downtown Manhattan, coincidentally on Chambers Street. It is a wee bit west of Hudson Street but East of Greenwich. I'm not sure if it is Greenwich Street or Greenwich Avenue.
Downtown Manhattan is very confusing. All hell breaks loose as soon as you step out of the more reasonable Uptown grid.
Don't Miss Exciting Louis/Dressner Dinnner On Monday, September 18th at Nana's Chophouse in Raleigh, North Carolina
You are invited for hors d'oeuvres and 4 seated courses prepared by Chef Konrad Catolos... featuring Loire Valley wines from the Louis/Dressner portfolio,
The date is Monday, September 18, 2006. There will be a reception at 7 pm and dinner will start at 7:30. It will cost only $75 and reservations can be made by calling 919.829.1212. The call will be absolutely free if you call using Skype, which has free calls throughout North America through December 31st.
I've never had the pleasure of sampling Chef Catolos' cuisine or dining at Nana's Chophouse. Here's how they describe themselves on their excellent web site (findable with a Google Search):
Nana’s Chophouse is an Italian style Chophouse with a contemporary American influence – A high-energy environment with a sophisticated feel. Our guests are treated to the Triangle’s finest service and highest quality, cutting edge culinary fare. Chef Konrad Catolos provides skillful preparation of local and seasonal ingredients expressed in creative antipasti, appetizers, fresh pastas and entrees. Our bar menu is served until midnight on Friday and Saturday, accommodating late night diners and post-theater patrons.
Nana’s Chophouse was born from a 1937 meatpacking plant. The brick walls and exposed beams reflect the old uses, but the rich millwork and warm yet contemporary finishes bring new life to the space. Rich walnut and brown leather cover the booths, while stunning gold and yellow fabric pop around the room. The space is designed to have an intimate feel for couples and small groups, but still a continuous and open space.
Don't miss this exciting event!
Sam Silversmith Appointed New Midwest Regional Manager!
A 28 year veteran of the industry, Sam Silversmith will be taking over as Midwest Regional Manager on October 1st.
All our congratulations to Sam and entire Midwest Regional staff!
The Radikon Has Arrived!
Stay tuned for more details.
Our first shipment of Radikon Fruili has arrived!
Trivial Pursuit!
All these changes at The Wine Advocate make me think of old favorites which first came to public notice through the pages of Robert Parker's review.
Whatever happened to Marquis Phillips?
Whatever happened to Domaine Capion Merlot? This wine was from the Languedoc (now David Schildknecht's territory) and got great ratings and sold for something like $5.99 a bottle retail. Everyone wanted the wine and everyone talked about the wine. Where did it go?
Congratulations to David Schildknecht !
Recent word from The Wine Advocate is that the talented and prolific David Schieldknecht will now be covering most of the world's major wine regions for Robert Parker. Mr. Schildknecht will not be covering Italy, Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley but his beat will include:
1. Germany
2. Austria
3. Central Europe
4. Eastern America
5. Midwestern America
6. Alsace
7. Burgundy
8. Loire
9. Languedoc-Roussillon
10. Champagne
11. New Zealand
12. South Africa
Best of luck to David and the newly revamped Wine Advocate. It sounds like an exhausting schedule, but if anyone can do it, David certainly can!
I know I would be exhausted by just doing the first six categories, although I hear the South African vineyards are beautiful and rejuvenating.
Rejuvenation is an important part of being on the wine route. I was once hospitalized in Decize after a long tasting of Pouilly-Fumé during a winter jaunt through the French vineyards. Decize is somewhere in the center of France and the correct pronunciation of the town rhymes with deceased. This made me somewhat nervous, but I was simply exhausted from too much travelling, eating and tasting and needed to be on IV units to clean out my system. Being on the wine road sounds glamorous to many people and certainly it beats many other jobs. At the same time, it can be exhausting and I wish David the best.
The doctor who released me from the hospital in Decize asked me what my next stop was going to be and I told him the Beaujolais. With great alarm, he warned me not to taste any Beaujolais wines in my diminished condition, because "they're all trafficked." I'm sure he would have approved of South Africa.
Chambers Street Wines and Louis/Dressner Featured on MSNBC Web Site
We've been getting an avalanche of publicity ever since we hired a PR agent.
All these mentions in the press sell enormous quantities of wine to people who would never buy the wine without the direction of wine journalists.
We're very grateful for all these mentions. The latest can be found at:
Ed Deitsch Praises Chambers Street and Obscure Louis/Dressner Wines on MSNBC
In addition to Ed's piece, there was also a recent piece on MSNBC by Jon Bonné, which featured some of our other wines.
Jon Bonné Reviews Some Other Obscure Wines
Our thanks to our PR firm, Katz and Steinfesse, for their excellent work!
Near-Death Experiences!
I actually shopped at a Walmart the other day in suburban Montreal.
The day before, I bought a kitchen set at a Canadian Tire in the Atwater Shoping Center on St. Catherine Street.
I ate an absurd amount of cholesterol-laden foods during my six days in that city.
I rented a mini-van and drove my kids around as if I was a suburban Soccer Mom.
I sent both my kids off to college and am now an empty nester.
I received a subscription offer for the AARP's magazine.
I've been personally mentioned, as has our company, several times in the media over the past few weeks. Be it The New York Times, Time Magazine, Matt Kramer's syndicated column and a "portrait" in Gastronomica magazine.
Death can't be far behind when the Tributes start coming your way.
On a bright side, our first shipment of Radikon just arrived in New York!
Jess Jackson Has Bought Legacy Estates for $97 Million!
Congratulations to Jess Jackson and the entire Jackson clan!
Although, I can't name a single wine producer in the legendary Legacy Estates Portfolio, I'm certain this was an important and legitimate purchase.
Ninety-Seven Million dollars seems like a lot of money. Wouldn't Jess Jackson be better served by giving it all to the Gates Foundation? That might actually do some good for mankind, even if it did very little for the legendary Legacy Estates Portfolio. Certainly, it would get Jess Jackson on the front page of The Wine Spectator, if not The New York Times.
Alternatively, he could buy a good Muscadet estate for a lot less. Even Marc Ollivier has a price. I've heard that Pepiere is available for less then six million. Ollivier has had a string of splended vintages and is on top of his form these days....the asking price can only go higher.
Back in New York, Leaving to Montreal!
I have no time to talk or to post witty and intelligent observations.
Don't miss the exciting Polaner Selections tasting tomorrow in New York. They should have a great selection of interesting wines from our company and from producers all over the world!
Remember, that one of the great things about Savignin is that it is one of the few white wines which is both powerful and dry! What a wine it can be!
1986 Mâcon-Viré Domaine de Roally
Denyse and I were invited to dinner by Henri Goyard in Viré on Sunday night.
Henri Goyard retired after the 2000 vintage, but his wines remain for us among the top examples of what Chardonnay can produce in Burgundy. This was a micro-estate of under four hectares, which was bought by the Jean Thevenet family in Clessé, and it might seem patently ridiculous to a Burgundy lover to argue that Goyard's Mâcon-Viré were benchmark White Burgundies with few or any equals. There's no Montrachet here, no Meursault, no Puligny and no Chassagne.
Just 3.5 hectares of superb vines that were raised like a personal garden by someone who wanted a very particular type of wine. A Chardonnay of minerality, honey, flowers, length, richness without any of the encumbrances of wood, cellar treatments, enyzmes or yeasts. Goyard was one of the few people in the Mâconnais who worked and plowed his land and made Chardonnays of startling purity.
So, we got to taste the 1986 blind the other night. Oddly, I guessed it was 1986 or 1983. This was the wine which convinced Denyse and I to enter the wine trade when we visited Goyard in 1988. He was bottling with Jean Thevenet, with whom he shared a bottling line. The wine was a revelation then and remains today, some twenty years later, one of the great wines I have ever enjoyed. There is more hay, more secondary aromas today, but it remains living and expressive of a great terroir and a meticulous style of work that seems almost lost in Burgundy.
After tasted this wine, we spent two years trying to get Goyard to work with us. We then decided to look for other Goyards around France, other stubborn, maniacal vignerons who still wanted to work in purity and without modern affectation.
The wine is an expression of the Northern Mâconnais, where the best growers harvest late and often get some botrytis. The 1986 producer about 30% boyrisized grapes and the wine has all the richness, although it is not sweet and it technically dry.
Granted our connection is a personal connection and we cannot judge this wine objectively. But does it matter?
Goyard has three bottles left. I have perhaps two bottles in my cellar. Maybe someone else has some. Maybe some day, someone else beside Jean Thevent will also be making Chardonnay of this caliber and this beauty. The raw material are out there, it just takes a maniac go bring it back to life.
Happy August 15th!
Hype for the 2005 Beaujolais
For once, a vintage and region deserves the hype.
We've been importing Beaujolais since 1989 (when there were only eight crus) and the 2005s are among the best wines I can remember. Perhaps a bit less finesse than the legendary 1991s, but more material and concentration. These are wines to drink now or to hide in a cellar and open in fifteen or twenty years.
Just yesterday, we tasted at Clos de la Roilette and Louis-Claude Desvignes. The Desvignes' Morgon are not yet bottled, but the 2005 Roilette will be coming to America in a few weeks. Oddly, the Cuvee Tardive is more flattering right now and you should run to get some of this stuff. I just put aside twelve bottles in a hidden spot at the Louis/Dressner Complex in Poil Rouge. You should do something similar.