dinwiddie

It is all in expectations and experience. Friend 1 appears to be the type who eats in fancy restaurants often, while Friend 2 does not. 1 has certain expectations for great food and great service based on experience that Friend 2 doesn't have.

When my son was quite young, he called the Duck Sauce in Chinese restaurants (it's an east coast thing for you folks in San Francisco) boy sauce since only little boys ate it (because the adults wanted the hot mustard) on their egg rolls.

I wouldn't buy futures unless it was a wine that you did not think you would be able to buy at a reasonable (meaning reasonable for the wine in relation to others in its class) price due to high demand or scarcity. There are plenty of great French wines that are easily purchased in good shops. It makes sense to buy futures of wines that will be much more expensive when they are finally released, or to get a wine that is so well regarded that it is impossible to buy in a shop, but otherwise, get more familiar with wines first.

I looked at CrushPad and saw that Andrew is going to be the winemaker for the Gap PN. Considering how good his A.P. Vin wines are, it should be outstanding. Why oh why did I look, my wife will kill me if I sign up for more wine.

Lipstick on my glass, unless it is my wife's lipstick, bring me another glass and I'm happy. Hair in my meal, I remove it and continue eating, I watch folks chew on their hair all the time and they live thru it (I've been known to nibble on my mustash on occasion.) Waiter touched the tines of my fork, so what? Unless someone is sick with a communiticable disease, I don't worry about it. If I can pick up my donut that fell on the floor, brush it off, and continue eating, what is the problem with a hair or two? (5 second rule folks) Obviously the folks in question don'thave/never had young children or they would know that you can eat almost anything and live thru it. If I can eat strained peas to make the baby eat them, I can eat anything.

The Inn at Little Washington - After tax and tip, $300 with wine.

Get thee behind me Satan, I have too damn much wine allocations as it is.

Why would anyone in their right mind even consider ordering wine in a Bennigans? Even if there were 10 wines by the glass, I doubt any of them would be anything except plonk.

My younger sister got a job working in a kitchen when she was in college. On her first day she was asked to get the chef's a "left handed fillet knife" from the rack. She looked at the knives, picked up the knife and handed it to the chef with the aside, that the sous chef "was just as stupid as most men. Thank God he's married since he obviously couldn't survive on his own." They didn't try anything else after that.

Sorry folks, I tried watching Hell's Kitchen last year and the year before, and this year doesn't appear to be any better. Why would anybody even want to eat in one of Gordon Ramsey's kitchen if that is what the back of the house is like. I see no reason to have a TV show so a major Ass**** can show off.

Because Americans label their wines by variatal instead of appellation (or AVA) for the most part, this discussion is probably moot. Besides, there is a reason why Italian winemakers started making Super Tuscans, etc. However, anyone who contends that there isn't a distinct "terrior" in American wine producing regions just needs to taste a Rutherford Cab next to one from say Carneros to be able to know there is a distinct difference, even when made by the same winemaker.

It is the paprika and sherry vinegar that makes the matching more difficult. I'd go with Champagne or a fino Sherry. If you could find a good aged white Rioja that would do, but they would cost more than you want to spend. You might also go with a Chablis.

Dinner last night. 2003 Loring Wine Company Pinot Noir Garys' Vineyard 2000 Château La Roque Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup Cupa Numismae

Besides, I'm sure that a phone call from the White House usher to any of the local sommeliers would be quickly returned.

Exactly. China is a huge country, geographically, with many different styles of cooking. And some regions which are affluent . . . or not. Just as in America. To those of us who are unfarmiliar with China, which regions would be the most affluent? The most likely to have Bordeaux collectors? What are those regions/cities like? ← Not only are both of these statements correct, but remember that China has an extremely fast growing middle and upper class and they do not limit themselves to eating "Chinese food" any more than we limit ourselves to eating "American food."

I think the difference was that the 7 or 8 oz of milk in the latte came with one shot of espresso. Now I get a 16 oz latte with two (Starbucks) three shots (the shop I go to) of espresso. So the ratio is close to the same. I drink milk in my coffee because I had to start doing so in college when I was drinking almost 20 cups of coffee a day. My stomach couldn't tolerate it black anymore. Now I have gotten used to it and put in just enough to lighten it a bit and of course drink a lot less than I did then. But I prefer milk, not 1/2 and 1/2, and nonfat just turns the coffee grey.

I thnk it depends a lot on who much the wine you are tasting costs. I certainly have no problem paying a reasonable tasting fee, and expect that the fee will be a little higher if they winery is allowing me to taste their premium wines (assuming they have such) In fact, I tend to be leary of winerys where there is no fee whatsoever to taste the wines because that means I'm probably going to get the basic, mass produced, fairly incipid wine that I could just as well have purchased in the supermarket. If I want to taste (and it is available) the winery's flagship wine that costs $50+ a bottle, I certainly shouldn't expect that they are opening bottles of it to give tastes away. That is one way to go broke for sure. I'd expect that they make the tasting fee enough to cover the cost of opening the wine, but not so high as to be making a big profit from it. I can't remember off hand what the fees were when I was tasting my way thru the icewines in Canada last summer, but they were reasonable, and they did keep the folks who were just looking for a buzz away. I certainly spent enough money on wine that I didn't even think about the tasting fees in comparison as being an outragous expense. On the other hand, when you are talking about wineries that make wine in hundred thousand case quantities, I'd be a little insulted if there was a fee that didn't include at least one of the higher end wines.

← I should say that Karl Lawrence has been rated, I just haven't seen a WS score for them since the 1997 vintage. I've been buying them since 1994. One of the problems coming up with the best of the new wines is that often they are offshoots of or affiliated by friendship to other well regarded small wineries. As such, because the winemaker is already well regarded, they get reviewed and all the production is locked up in allocation lists very early. For example, Pali wines are new, but they have been reviewed by WS in their first vintage because Brian Loring of Loring Wine Company is the winemaker. Shane wines, which I mentioned earlier, will probably be tasted and rated in its first vintage because Shane Finley is an Associate winemaker at Kosta Browne. His first release will be about 220 cases between three single vineyard syrahs. Ketcham Estate, which has wonderful Pinot Noirs, has Michael Browne of Kosta Browne as their winemaker. You might give a look at M2 wines. The Petit Syrah is quite good. I believe that the 2000 vintage was the first for the winemakers, Layne Montgomery and Chris Matheny, but I might be wrong. They do some very nice things with syrah and syrah blends.

Rebel Rose, I'm a big fan of David Dain's wines (Dain), and have been buying them since he started producing about 4 years ago, but recently they have been well reviewed in Wine Spectator. Another of my favorite Pinot producers is WesMar (another winery that I have been buying from every year since they started.) I also like and A Donkey and Goat. One of my favorite Bordeaux producers is Chateau Behere, and I don't think I've ever see a score for them. I also love Karl Lawrence, which isn't new, but does not normally submit their wines for review or scoring. If you are looking for a syrah producer that is just starting out, see if you can get on the list for Shane Wines. New this year, they should be killer.

Actually, I no longer worry about the scores or impules buys since I mainly buy from some small producers that I've been buying from on allocation since they started their operations and a few Bordeauxs and Rhones that I buy year in and year out. Rather than have a huge number of different producers in the cellar, I now have 5 to 10 year verticals of about 10-12 different producers, (well I still have left over one and two bottle lots from lots of producers.) Works for me. Besides, even though my son keeps saying that when I die my wine goes to him, why keep buying more wine than I drink? (Especially since my doctor has limited my wine consumption to two bottles a week.) I've cut my buying down to about 10 cases a year and now only buy from the allocation lists that I really, really like. I've added a few and dropped a lot, and some of them get great scores (like Kosta Brown) and some are not even rated. I still occasionally go out and buy something different on a whim, but I no longer go looking for those high scoring wines like I tended to do when I was younger.

The "Little Ethiopia" area of DC is the 9th and U Street Corridor, there are quite a few Ethiopian restaurants there. My favorites are Etete and Dukem (both in the U Street corridor) and Queen Makeda (which unfortunately, I believe is currently closed) One of the oldest and still pretty good is Meskereem in Adams-Morgan. I also like Addis Ababa, on Fenton Street in Silver Spring, MD.

You might also try Alberto’s (21st and P, NW) for pizza. It's good and it's cheap. Lots of folks go to Zorba’s Cafe for big meals at a reasonable price. But don't be looking for atmosphere, just big portions without breaking the wallet. 3rd & Eats (500 C St NW) makes great carved sandwiches and they aren't expensive. La Granja D’oro in Adams Morgan makes a very good roast chicken that is cheap.

All except the Gemstone and the Kutch. ← Actually, I regularly purchase (I'm on the allocation lists) Loring, A.P. Vin, Dain, Donkey and a Goat, Neal, and Siduri. It is interesting to note that several winemakers who have started recently after working for others are also fairly active on some of the boards. In fact, they often use the boards to let us wine geeks know about them. I remember when Michael Brown of Kosta-Brown was first starting out. He participated in discussions about their wine and now it is one of the hardest lists to get on. Chris Matheny of M2 and Bob Bressler of Bressler Wines is a regular participant too.

Go to one of the Ethiopian restaurants in the 9th and U Street corridor. Etete or Dukem are both very good and won't cost an arm and a leg. Dino in Cleveland Park has very good Italian food and a great and well priced wine list as well as lots of wine by the glass. The Palena Cafe (the front of Palena) is excellent and reasonably priced. You can eat reasonably moderately at Jaleo (tapas) Malaysia Kopitiam (18th and M) (Malaysian/Indonesian food) is quite good and inexpensive, Oohhs & Aahhs (U St) is great for Soul Food.

All except the Gemstone and the Kutch.