docsconz

It would be my pleasure.

It would seem to me that buffing and grinding are not exactly the same thing. Please, Samhill, expound upon your apparent expertise. I, for one, am on this thread to be educated.

WB, Thanks for the suggestion of the pairing with orange. I reduced some orange juice with about a teaspoon of extra dark maple syrup and ancho chile powder. I sauteed my duck to rare to medium-rare, let them rest , sliced them then dragged the slices through the glaze. Not bad if I say so myself. Served with roquefort mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans and 1999 Beaux Freres Beaux Freres Vineyard Pinot Noir. The wine was fine but not a stellar match with the sweetness of the orange-maple glaze. It was a better match with duck without the glaze.

I will be pan-searing some duck breasts this evening and was thinking of using a light maple glaze. Any suggestions as to what might be the best and/or easiest ways of doing this?

That would be a very good tip as most people I believe would feel that 20% before tax is a very good tip. Yours seems to have been on the full dinner plus tax at approximately 20%. I believe they would likely welcome you back so long as your behavior wasn't such that the tip would have been hardly worth it for the servers. There weren't any broken chairs or china, or other patrons avoiding you, were there? Seriously, that is morre than you need to give to be appreciated, although I am sure you were appreciated all the more for it.

Pleae tell us more about it and why we shouldn't be discussing the best food in the area without it? What part of the state is Tully?

It makes sense on a personal level while drinking the wine, but not really when trying to get a sense of what the wine was like and whether or not I would likely have the same response. Give me a nice cab based wine with pasta in tomato sauce and it won't be the same as with a good steak and mushrooms. Does it mean that it is a bad wine when drunk with the pasta? No. What about a wine that is great to drink on its own without food - e.g. "the hedonistic fruit bomb"? How does it fare with food? Context is key. Am I drinking the wine at a casual party with friends or a wine tasting with strangers? Ultimately what matters is whether one enjoys the wine or not. Understanding the context of a tasting report or score is invaluable in assessing whether an investment in a new wine may be worthwhile. A number without the context of its rating is useless, but not totally so long as it can be placed in the appropriate context. A statistical model such as proposed here is IMO not a bad idea so long that someone is able to give it enough of a chance to match his or her palate to the statistical norms.

I have to give the guy credit...for what I don't know, but I do have to give him credit.

IMO, no professional rating of a wine should be based on just one tasting. Certainly not without also divulging the circumstances of the tasting. As I have said in other posts, therre are simply too many variables. s such I think statistical analysis can be useful, albeit difficult, in getting an overall picture of a wine.

Ratings and rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, however, I find it more useful to consider ratings from individuals than from publications. An individual who remains consistent in his or her palate (e.g. Parker) is useful whether or not one likes the wines he likes. Parker is not just about numbers. If one reads his critiques one gets a fairly good description of the wine, much like what one gets from Florida Jim. A number is only a number until it is backed up by the description. If one is not a fan of a 99 point "hedonistic fruit bomb", then one can also avoid other hedonistic fruit bombs 99 points or otherwise. ratings are nothing more than guides. The problem isn't the rater or the ratings themselves, it is that people take them as gospel, that is they cannot disagree with the "expert". Parker is just as useful with his less stellar ratings as with the big numbers. Find the style you like and learn how to equate it with Parker or some other person who can describe wine characteristics consistently and you have a useful tool. The biggest problem with the WS as I see it, is a total lack of consistency because the write-ups and scores come from a stable of tasters. It is therefore difficult to establish a consistent base for comparison. To answer the original question, I don't think quality in wine can be defined in a totally objective quantifiable way for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that the impact of a particular wine at a particular time depends on too many variables, including environmental factors (temp., barometric pressure, humidity, surrounding beauty, food or lack thereof, etc.), personal factors (taster's mood, satiety, sobriety, tired palate, etc.) and historical factors (e.g. storage condition, transport, care, decanting, etc.). Nevertheless, I do see value in the rudimentary approaches to quantification with descriptive qualities.

speaking of Rowan atkinson, how about Bean and his "turkey head"? This was in the movie, "Mr. Bean" as well as the british television show, "Bean". He certainly has a way with food.

You can do the same thing very easily on a mac with iPhoto.

Speaking of SNL, how about belushi's Samurai deli?

One of the funniest skits ever on SNL IMO.

Did the Spaniards contribute anything culinarily to Texas or the New World? They certainly took plenty out of it, including chocolate, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, etc. they did do a little wine growing in Mexico and California, but as far as I know, not really much.

Susan, thanks for the interest. Actually it was very easy. I heated a flour tortilla on a griddle until it was hot and soft, grated some dark chocolate (actually a lot of dark chocolate), took some sliced strawberries and mango, spread them on top, folded it into a burrito then put it back onto the double-sided griddle for a minute or so until the tortilla was crisped and all the chocolate melted. While it was "grilled", I must confess, this part wasn't done on the charcoal grill, although I imagine it probably could have been.

I would think parts of Texas would be great olive country. I'm actually surprised that there is not a more mature olive industry there especially given the historical connections to the Spaniards.

Spring is infectious! I'm feeling feverish.

The Montelena was the Estate cab. It was gooooood. For dessert I made a grilled chocolate, strawberry and mango burrito.

Grilled up my veal chops tonight as well as nice skinny asparagi. I marinaded the chops in EVOO, anchovy (as per bleudauvergne's thread on lamb chops) and garlic with fresh-ground pepper. They were two-inch thick loin chops. Yum! I made them for myself and my kids since my wife was out of town (she doesn't eat veal). I was too lazy to make potatoes too, so I served Cape Cod Whole Earth Collection yukon Gold Chips. I also cracked a 375ml bottle of '97 Montelena. It was too nice a day weather-wise to settle for anything less.

I've never been to a restaurant more eager to please. They best part, though is that they accomplish it!

Never went....oh well!

In this case size does matter. There is not enough motion and they are too small

That won't be until May 1. Until then I will have to live vicariously or through mail order.

I think even now, Napa Valley has more cache and name-recognition than any of its sub-apellations for most consumers, thus there hasn't been much reason for producers to push the sub-appellation envelope. With the exception of arguably a few sub-aps such as the Rutherford Bench or perhaps Howell Mountain, the effect of terroir hasn't been hugely noticeable even when the sub-aps have been pushed.