Rebel Rose

Can anyone tell me about Les Tuileries 2002 Sauterne? I was comp'd a glass at dinner last night at Cafe Stella in Los Angeles. It tasted of orange rind, almonds, honey and saffron, which I thought was very interesting. That orange-and-tobacco character of saffron was recognizable but subtle, and I liked it. Is that something I shouldn't like? My knowledge of sauternes is abyssmal.

Cafe Stella Wow. This is an interesting place! Very dark inside, the tables are lit with one small candle each. (We had two, so when the hostess took one away, we lost 50% of our ambient lighting.) The interior decor is very knockoff French, and I understand the owner is or was a set designer. The door looks like plywood with a speakeasy peephole, and when you enter the dimly lit front room, be careful of the two steps down. The hostess is apparently accustomed to helping night-impaired visitors, or just impaired visitors, down the steps. I had the escargot, very plump and swimming in butter, wine and tons of chopped parlsey. The butter was a little salty, which didn't stop me from sopping up the sauce with my bread. I savored them slowly, and was too full to tackle the hearts of romaine salad, which was, well, fairly large hearts of romaine decorated with olive oil and two croutons. I was expecting something a little more elaborate there. When the waiter asked for our wine order, I told him what I planned to order and asked for a by-the-glass recommendation. He suggested the Groth sauvignon blanc, which I would have picked. (I just like to check out the waiters.) Service was great and attentive, although there was a certain amount of confusion. Are these your mussels? No? How about this steak? Hm. The place is really crowded and very, very noisy. My companion, our local sales rep, says it is currently the local spot for romantic dining. And the waiter gave us each a complimentary glass of Les Tuileries 2002 Sauterne for dessert. I see other online reviews run the gamut from very unhappy to ecstactic.

There's also an 'Enrico Prati' clone that tastes very similar to zinfandel.

Wow. Thank you! I hope you will soon be seeing more Paso Robles wines in your area. Our vintners' association received a marketing grant this year from California International Market Promotion for Agriculture (CIMPA), and we are using all the funds to market Paso wines to western Canada, and to host Canadian distributors here in Paso. Brad and derricks have covered a lot of my favorite wines here in Paso. A few other small-production wineries that are my personal favorites are Changala, L'Aventure, Pretty-Smith, and Halter Ranch. Steve Glossner, the winemaker at Halter Ranch, was the winemaker who produced Justin Winery's highest scoring wines. He is working with fruit from MacGillivray Ranch in the far northwest corner of Paso, where Justin also acquires their fruit. A very talented and meticulous winemaker. jackal, if you like the Ridge Dusi Zin, you may also like our Old Vine Zinfandel, Benito Dusi Vineyard. Ridge has been purchasing their Paso zin from Benito Dusi for 25 years. The vineyard is 80 years old, and Beni also sells some fruit to Dover Canyon, Cathy MacGregor, and Turley. The total vineyard is referred to as "Dusi Ranch," and also includes his brother's half, Dante Dusi. A few decades ago, depressed by the low price of fruit, Dante got discouraged and ripped out his vines. He replanted about 15 years ago, but his portion is considerably younger than the Benito Dusi side, except for a few rows around the house. Therefore, you may see plenty of wineries with a "Dusi" designation, but if you're "in the know," you'll know which are Benito and which are Dante. Beni, a 73-year-old bachelor, has lived and worked on the vineyard his grandfather planted all his life. It is dry-farmed, and head trained, and right beside Hwy 101. There's no sign, however. Beni figures, "if the vineyard's been here for 80 years, who needs a sign?"

Hello, everybody! I'd like to add my encouragement and applause for starting a regional Wine of the Week. I hope you don't mind if we pop in to check out the BC wine scene. We'd love to have you participate in our discussions as well. I know, having lived in B'ham, that Vancouver is a wonderful metropolitan area, and I'm also aware that BC and Western Canada covers a lot of territory where many wines are unavailable. When I invented tasting tag I didn't think we'd all get to participate every time. Shoot, I live in a small town with a limited international selection. So I hope that whenever you have the chance, you'll play along. In the meantime, I'd like to point out that although Brad and I support the BC:WOW, it isn't ultimately our decision, and site management will undoubtedly want to see a ongoing regional focus in a regional Wine of the Week. My advice would be to search first for wines produced in your area. In addition to providing an important regional focus, I know that our "Winers" would love to see some in-depth reporting on wines produced in your region, and we'll be visiting often. Please PM me if you have any questions! Back to the fun.

Let's consider Brad's warning a gentle reminder to stay "on task" as my retired kindergarten teacher MIL reminds me. Brad is probably thinking the same thing I am . . . Max, your comments are insightful, but now I can't stop thinking about SeaHunt! Discussions of how the movie relates to your wine experiences are fine, as is the very interesting fact that they're going to auction off some of the wines mentioned, and I love the behind-the-scenes info, but let's not stray too far off the path. And the path is, wine!

Right. I'm a farm kid too with a hearty immune system myself. However, some people cannot or prefer not to take those risks. I think the question is not "To Bleach, or Not To Bleach." The question is, if we're in the mood to disinfect, what's the best thing to use? God only knows, I'd love to have each cutting board with its own use for vegetables, raw, and cooked meat. I always start out that way. But when we have impromptu barbecues the boards get passed around like plates and end up abraded and gummy with meat fiber and blood. Blood all over the white tile counter and white grout. Stinky prawn shells in the garbage. People are standing around the butcher block counter in the kitchen, while half a dozen tick-infested labradors and springers have snuck into the living room with their gummy treats from the grill and are gnawing them on the couches and carpets. The cats are climbing into the pantry to hide from the dogs. The kids have their plates of food in the kids' room, where we will find plates on the floor and under the futon the next day (mysteriously licked clean) and unidentifiable crumblets everywhere. So in spite of the fact that I have a strong resistance to invading bio-organisms, I also get the urge to DISINFECT! Help!!

I love vinegar. It probably wouldn't work for disinfecting, because of the possibility of residual stickiness. (How's that for a chemically correct term?) But we keep a vin/water solution in a spray bottle in the winery kitchen for removing those nasty permament-lipstick marks on tasting glasses, and I always keep some in the house--I can soak a burnt pan with vinegar and it loosens the char, I use it to soak out the crust that SO left in the blender, ditto for crusted bread on the bread machine paddle, and if you throw a cup in the dishwasher rinse cycle everything comes out sparkly clean. Very useful, very natural, very cheap. I was asking someone what I could use to clean my white kitchen tile grout without stripping the finish off our old, hand-painted tiles. The answer was old-fashioned Borax. What is borax, and is it useful for disinfecting? Can I use it on cutting boards?

I was resisting buying a copy because of all the hype. How dumb is that? My copy arrived last weekend and I tore open the Amazon box in front of customers, opened it in the middle (page 112), and started laughing. Our power was out so we were pouring wine and conducting business by candlelight and flashlight. I passed the open book around, and one older couple actually took the book and a flashlight down the barrel row aways so their gasping and shrieking wouldn't bother the rest of us. I haven't heard sounds like that since eighth grade. I'm definitely trying the onion soup first, as my significanto is addicted to caramelized Mayan onions.

I have what may be an absurd question, but I'm truly curious. I have heard that these jobs, even for excellent line cooks, are horrendously underpaid, with lots of turnover. How does that reconcile with the few rabid cooks/chefs that have posted comments here like "How dare you? You'll never get a job in this town again?"

Thank you, everyone! Plans for the Calendar are moving apace, and we will be adding quite a few events in the weeks and months to come, with appropriate background information. This was great to get started, look for these events on the calendar, and keep sending me events via PM as you think of them!

Pam, red wines from cooler climates often have a whiff of olive or other herbaceous types of aromas. Olive can be attractive if it is subtle and balanced with richer berry flavors. As wines age, flavors generally become integrated, and aromas more complex and intriguing, but it's always difficult to predict how gracefully a wine will age. Perhaps the berry-like aromas have faded and the olive has simply not. Did you have a chance to try the same wine when it was younger?

Mel, thank you so much for giving us this unique opportunity to inquire into the wonderful world of oak! And thank you to everyone who participated in what has been a very enlightening discussion. I will leave this thread open through the weekend in case anyone would like to throw in one last question or comment, and then we will close it and pin it in our Conversation index. However, that won't preclude us from introducing future topics on the subject of oak. Mel, I hope you will return to visit us frequently and share your insights on life, wine and quercus supremus.

Will there be speculation as to whether Mr. Ruhlman (whom I greatly admire) is trying to steal tatooed, body-pierced loyal line cooks from the fringes of society from someone else (whom I greatly admire)? I hope so. That would make it really fun.

Amen to everyone. And Darcie, thank you for this insightful and personal post. This is exactly why I believe it is so important to vote with our dollars, as do others here. We are supporting not only the artisan producers of the present, but promising a market for tomorrow.

You're right. Malbec is one of the varieties approved for making red wines in the Bordeaux region of France, along with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot. (I think there's one more, actually, but I'm not remembering it right now.) It is used in small percentages in the Bordeaux blends and appears to be thriving in Argentina. I'm not very familiar with Malbec yet. (Hey, it's taking me awhile to work through sangiovese!) So I hope some of our other members can contribute more insight.

Can we order your wines online? Links?

I’m pleased to announce that eGullet has formed a five-person Calendar Team to develop, enrich and inform our members about culinary events all over the world. To that end, I’d like to know what events you have attended in the past that you found exciting, fun and informative. In particular, this thread is for wine events held anywhere in the world. At the moment, I’m looking for events that fulfill some or all of the following requirements: *Charity events based on food *Large cook-offs *Events may be combined with music, art and wine *Annual or very special dates—no recurring classes or hosted seminars *A current website and contact information *Some contribution to culinary advancement or culinary fun! Thanks for your help! Let’s fill up the Calendar with your favorite food and wine events. You can also add or suggest a Calendar entry for any type of culinary event at any time, by simply submitting your suggestion to your regional forum host or to a Calendar Team member. (To discuss a regional member gathering or event, please contact your forum host.) The Calendar Team is: Rachel Perlow Marlene Pedro Andy Lynes Rebel Rose We'd love to hear from you!

And can you tell us how and why you got started making wine with Jim Moore? Did you just show up one day to present barrels, and a few barrel-samplings and beers later decide to get into the wine business together? That's how it seems to happen around here . . .

Mel, can you tell us more about your relationship with Becky Wasserman? How it started, who she is, how it has colored your interest in coopering?

This is an excellent idea, and I am glad to hear it is succeeding. I recently visited my hometown of Chehalis, Washington, set in the verdant Newaukum Valley west of the Cascades. The area seems economically depressed, and in fact was so depressing that I asked my folks about it. It seems the smaller landholdings on the western side of the mountains, with their wetter and more unpredictable weather, cannot compete with the large agribusiness firms that operate over huge swaths of land on the eastern side of the state. The soils in the Newakum Valley are as rich and dark as moist chocolate cake, and I remember picking wild blackberries along the river that were as large as robin's eggs, so there is certainly no problem getting things to grow. My sister, in Olympia, grew marigolds and zinnias that were five feet high this summer. I have been wondering why there isn't some kind of push to establish support for artisan productions. Certainly there is a market here and elsewhere for small productions of eggs, milk, and creme fraiche. A local butcher here in California told me there is no truly prime beef in California, and what he has access to he raises himself. And I know there are berry farms galore up there, as well as a strong seafood association. And yet the whole area seems to be suffering from economic lethargy. It's very sad.

Here you go: Hugh Johnnson's acerbic comments on Chateau M's Cellar Funk A detailed article on the threat of TCA at Hanzell

Exciting choice, waves! It will be nice to try a white after several reds. I'm off to see if I can find one locally. . .

CharityCase, thank you for that interesting report on your university's research project! It gives us all 'food' for thought. And thanks to the others who have contributed information as well. Jared, I hadn't thought about all the mid-level organisms we rely on that are basically GMO's. I have given some thought to your comments on abuse of trade subsidies, but it isn't an area that I'm at all knowledgeable about. Thanks to your posts, however, I'll be watching these topics in the news with a little keener (and skeptical) interest. FaustianBargain, I am finding the information you post very interesting, as well, particularly the milk label fiasco.

Mel, can you tell us a little bit about the different French oak forests, what they each contribute, and how they are managed?