Mark Sommelier

Mr. Leff is the boss.

Johnny's is closed on Sunday.

On another forum, a notorious wine geek referred to Corton-Charlemagne as "Corton Chuck", which I promptly re-named "2 Hundred Buck Chuck".

Don't forget Timberlakes!

Wine Competition

I was with Cesare from Tosca tonight. I told him about this confusion of the last few posts. He told me that they get TONS of phone calls about their tapas selections and their new place in Arlington. We laughed about it.

Don't miss the queso fundido in the lava bowl. Also order the crab fritters, the chiccharones, the seviche sampler and the fish tacos. If you have room left, order the snapper Vera Cruz.

What Frogprince is trying to say is, why the hell do you want to eat in Bethesda? Come into the city.

The waitresses still wear dirndl skirts.

Uh oh. Last week it was "cutting croissants". This week its "polishing your rocket". Potty mind!

Salaciously, of course.

That means they have good PR.

Re: #4: I see that you've been to these events before.

When I was a student in Vienna, Austria, every Autumn the restaurants would have "Traubenmost". This was the partially fermented juice of the last harvest - hard grape must. You could taste the gruner veltliner and riesling characteristics, plus get REALLY LOADED. Too bad our wineries don't do this.

I've been told by growers that the only grape that tastes like the wine made from it is gewurztraminer.

Ravenswood's Vintners Blends are indeed priced in the supermarket category and, thanks to the Constellation connection, are everywhere these days. Their single vineyard bottlings are much smaller production runs. The last vintage of Pickberry that I tried was pretty tasty. As far as I know, Joel Peterson is still running the winery.

The Comte de Lur Saluces is retiring from Yquem because he no longer owns it. LVMH took care of that. (Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennessey-Krug-Veuve Clicquot-Ruinart-Dior-Tagheuer-Christian Lacroix-Yquem-etc.)

Its all about distribution channels.

Ha! Goofi-maki. A few months ago a pan-Asian place here in Washington, DC called Nooshi (noodles and sushi) sent around flyers in the neighborhood announcing their sushi happy hour which they called "Funky Sushi". $20 for miso and all the "funky" sushi you can eat. Apparently no one explained the finer and more salient points of the word funky to the owners. Funky Sushi..........EWWWWWWW

Curious. Lafite, Chalone and Arbor Mist under the same umbrella. Scary.

The producer of these wines that I use is the Domaine de la Bergerie. They make a very tasty Chaume, several cuvées of Coteaux de Layon and a marvelous Quarts de Chaume. QdC is the only grand cru in the Loire, and in exceptional years can live a very lengthy life. These wines are interesting because of their concentrated mineral flavors - chalk, flint and magnesium. You can actually taste them.

Johnny!! Hey dude. Tahoga closed 2 years ago. They re-opened briefly about 6 months ago and closed after 2 weeks. We do Marshall's only occasionally. Sette and Bistrot du Coin are so much more fun. Alas, they don't have 99 Bananas. Where are you hiding these days?

On the Champagne list, the best quality/price value is the Pierre Peters Blanc de Blancs at @ $70. On the Burgundy list, the '96 de Montille 1er Cru Volnays are a relative good value.

Definitely tasting menu. Plead and beg for a table on the patio. Inside is for tourists.

Had excellent eggs benedict and AWESOME crispy fries at 1 AM. Plate and a drink: $15. Give it a try.