docsconz

I can fix this. I could sell you some bottles of these for $250/bottle

Veuve Clicquot vintage roses have been outstanding. I particularly remember the 1986 vintage as being volutptuous

Thanks for the Buffalo info, sacre-bleu, and welcome to eGullet!

The Cookbook that gets the most use with the consistently best results in my house is Julia Child's The Way to Cook. Honorable mentions go to James Peterson's books. The most amazing "cook"book that I now own, though is the new El Bulli book. It is simply beautiful. I'm not sure that I'll be doing much cooking from it, however .

I have been a big fan of Kistler wines for awhile, but maybe my tastes are changing. I served this as an aperitif. It is a big wine. The oak is clearly present, but I wouldn't describe it as buttery. It didn't seem to have the depth that I have come to associate with most Kistler chardonnays. I had this prior to the Cava describedin another post.

This was a cava I brought back from Catalunya this summer based on a recommendation of a wine merchant in Barcelona. I served it with a trio of seafood appetizers including Maine winterpoint oysters and fresh lemon, peekytoe crab, garlic and chive crostini and sauteed diver sea scallops with sauteed spinach pesto and parmiggiano. It complemented all three dishes nicely, although other wines are perhaps a better pairing for the oysters. It was nicely dry with small bubbles. While not innately as elegant as the Grand Dame described in a different post, I'd say that it holds its own against most champagnes that I've had.

Compact, yeasty and extremely elegant. I could drink this stuff all night, but I only drank it at midnight. I can't say that I've ever had finer bubbles.

I love Beaucastel and I have enjoyed this vintage before. This was served with a fairly spicy pork. I thought that it would hold up well with the pork. While it wasn't bad, the fruit was not really forward enough to deal with the spice. I know, I know, I should have gone German reisling. Still I had enough of this and the Il poggio to compare side by side. I preferred the Il Poggio.

Had it last night with Picci ai funghi. This is a beautiful wine. It is still a deep red. I decanted it for about an hour before serving. Big and bold, but not really an "international" wine. strong fruit redolent of earth. It matched very nicely with the creamy porcini and the homemade picci. The tannins, still present did not overpower. I preferred this to a 1994 Beaucastel that was served with a different course.

Still a fairly dark red with a little change around the rim. The tannins remain strong with a good acid and fruit backbone. Eminently drinkable, but has a long life ahead of it IMO.

This wine too was brick red and still possessed a modicum of fruit. It had a slightly bitter finish. I do not have a lot of experience with wines this old. I preferred the 1959 Haut-Brion mostly because of this bitter finish. Otherwise, they were actually fairly similar. Both bottles (this was a 750 in its original tissue wrapper) had good ullage, although the cork of the Latour disintegrated on opening. Perhaps that was the source of the bitterness. The bitterness wasn't much, but it was enough to notice.

This was a very interesting wine tasted from a 375ml bottle from a very generous friend. The color was brick red. While the tannins were rather mellow, the wine had plenty of fruit remaining. It actually still needed a little time to fully open. Nice.

The same can be said from the Dordogneand Languedoc and Catalunya. Roses is a hop, skip and a jump from the border. But then Schneier is fortunate enough to be visiting there in June . That could be a good opportunity to check out a rental in the Dordogne or Languedoc.

Avignonesi Vin Santo is one of my alltime favorite wines. Has anyone seen the 1991 vintage retail? Craig, Nice article as always. I want to try to find some of the Conterno. It sounds wonderful. I found your Vino e Cibo tours very interesting as well. I'm sure they will be fabulous.

I don't remember where I saw it or heard it (perhaps in documentation that came with a teflon pan), but I remember from somewhere that one shouldn't cook a teflon pan on high heat. This could be the reason or it could be that this is another food myth.

"Pues me dio' calabazas" is an idiom that literally translates to "She gave me pumpkins", but means "I got the old heave-ho".

Meaning? Some of you have to translate your regional expressions for us Northeasterners. And Sconz, I've never heard "Lettuce alone without dressing," but I figure I know what it means - maybe sort of like the "One Meatball" in the song of the same name (with no potatoes, no tomatoes, and no bread). It's better (or not ) when said aloud.

Nice job. Good to see another upstate restaurant make good!

Lettuce alone without dressing.

Bring home the bacon

Not worth a hill of beans.

Easy as pie.

Sounds like Citronelle might be just the place

I had dinner at La Francescana in Modena the night after Chef Massimo Bottura returned from the conference. he was very excited by it. His food was superb BTW.

Steve, Welcome to eGullet. That is not a bad list to choose from. What is your experience with wine in general? While any one of them is likely to be a good choice, the producers I am most familiar with are A.Conterno, Einaudi, Marcarini and Vietti. If price is an object I would suggest going with one of the less expensive ones like the 1988 Einaudi.If not the A.Conterno Bussia Soprana would be the most interesting to me (I haven't had it). My best advice, though would be to do whatever Craig Camp suggests .