Mark Sommelier

Check out FineWine.com . They have a great website and several stores in the suburbs. You can browse online or in person. http://www.finewine.com

FG, You should start a thread about going "off-menu" in a high end place. This is where they take the goodies out of the fridge that they were saving for their friends. Costs a lot, though.

Hope Key ! ! The Lobster XO rocks.

Rocks, You forgot to describe the ambience of the restaurant, including the clientele and the staff.

Dear bbq4, I am curious about your comments. What did "the hype" leave you to expect?

Joe H, do you know that Chateau St. Michelle is still owned by U.S.Tobacco? I drink Burgundy. Only small producers. Call me a snob.

I'd sure like to know the answer to this also. Even as an ex-Jew, I still have cravings for good prune Hamentaschen. Hate the poppy seed ones, though.

Let me add 3 small producers: Marc Tempé Domaine Kientzler Domaine Martin Schaetzel I am also partial to Boxler, Weinbach, Josmeyer and Z-H.

Yes, the Nectarines turned the Simpsons on for us. They even turned up the sound! D'oh!

The best wine event in Washington is coming up in March. The California Barrel Tasting is the big deal event of the year for California wine. It is a charity tasting that is produced every year by Addy Bassin's Macarthar Beverages. Call them for details. All the top-end CalCab producers are there, and there's a good buffet spread. At the Watergate this year, I think.

[rant]NO!!! There are no circumstances under which it is appropriate to have ice crystals in beer! Ever!!! Don't get me started, you know how I get.[/rant] Beg to differ. Butt-widener needs it.

It is great if you want to taste wine from all the corporate giants of the wine industry. Gallo, Mondavi, Brown-Forman, Diageo, Southcorp. All wineries who market hundreds of millions of bottles a year. I had lunch with a humble Barolo producer today. He was incredulous that a winery could produce 200 million bottles and claim they have "quality". Know what you are walking in to.

As a sommelier, this is a very interesting statement to me. Rather than minimalize the winelist, why not focus it? It doesn't have to be loaded with big, oaky and buttery chardonnays, (ick) pinot grigios, sweet shiraz and monster cal-cabs. I would be interested to see a listing of your wine pairings. Is it listed on your website, yet? When people go out to spend a lot of money on a memorable dinner, the NEED a winelist. Focus your list on things that compliment your food. You pick the parameters. Buy wines in all the price categories. You'll be surprised.

sous vide is a marvelous cooking method. You vacuum pack food (chicken, beef, pork, fish) with stock, seasonings and herbs in a plastic bag. You can then braise it in hot water to the perfect cooking temperature. 160° for an hour and a half for beef and you get perfect medium-rare. Can't overcook it. Same with chicken, squab, guinea hen. You need the vacuum machine to do it at home.

Had a few appetizers at Nectar last night and then went to Marcel's for some more. We sat at the bar and I had the best steak tartare I've had in a very long time. Freshly made mayonnaise, cornichons and a poached quail egg on top. Absolutely excellent. Next dish was beer battered shrimp with citrus dipping sauce. Wow !! Chocolate souflée and I was bien cuit . I love this place.

Don, having dined recently multi-course at two of the consistently top ranked restaurants in DC, I'm afraid to try Maestro because your comments echo almost precisely my experiences at the other $250-300 per head dinners I refer to. At some point I will have to try Maestro but maybe I'll approach it less critically and just try to have some fun Joe: from the pictures looks like you folks had a nice time, and the food does look pretty tasty. Please tell us about your experiences at the other multi-course, $200-300 restaurants that you refer to. We are curious.

They toast the bun while you wait. That's the gimmick.

There were at least three of them that I can vouch for. I watched until I began to fidget.

Johnny!! Shame on you! You watched that, too? OOOPS

The "front line" price of Clicquot Yellow Label is $32 at wholesale. If you pour it by the glass or buy sufficient number of cases it goes down to $27. That's the best deal. Mr. jgould, I told you once before that retailers pay lower prices than restaurants. Any retailer selling it for $32 is either giving it away... how about veuve @ a nyc retailer for $29.99? are THEY really giving it away??? No. The front line price is $32. The deal price is $27. That's as low as they'll go.

I was in Burgundy last November and had pre-arranged tastings with 2 vignerons whose wine I use. It was great fun, but obvious that neither 2 were open to the general public. We had a marvelous lunch at Le Chassagne in the, you guessed it, Chassagne-Montrachet town square. The restaurant is owned, I was told, by Marc Colin and Bernard Morey, 2 very well known vignerons. It is what they call a "gastro". We stayed at the quite nice and fairly inexpensive hotel Le Montrachet in Puligny's town square within walking distance of the vineyards and many of the more well known producer's homes. I noticed that some offered tasting rooms. While ancient and extremely beautiful, Puligny and most of the towns around it go to bed early. Beaune is a much larger town and is sure to have some sort of night life.

The "front line" price of Clicquot Yellow Label is $32 at wholesale. If you pour it by the glass or buy sufficient number of cases it goes down to $27. That's the best deal. i was just pointing out, the cost to the consumer at a retail outlet in manhattan, then the difference bet 2 restaurants pricing. i "assume" the cost to a restaurant is somewhat below the retail outlet's price, i.e., the wholesale price to the restaurant from the distributor??? & therefore the base level for the restaurant's mark-up. the restaurant price/glass seems to vary bet $14-16. Mr. jgould, I told you once before that retailers pay lower prices than restaurants. Any retailer selling it for $32 is either giving it away for cost or making very little. For a restaurateur, at $14 a glass with 4oz. glasses you can make $84 a bottle, a tidy profit.

The "front line" price of Clicquot Yellow Label is $32 at wholesale. If you pour it by the glass or buy sufficient number of cases it goes down to $27. That's the best deal.

Sturm is a tradition in Austria. Partially fermented grape must. Easy to drink, wicked hangover. In 5 months it becomes Heurige .

I'm a big fan of Austrian wines, especially the wonderful Gruner Veltliners of Brundlmayer, Mantlerhof and Nigl. I pour them by the glass every Spring and Summer because they are one of the few wines that can handle ripe tomatoes, artichokes, asparagus and other wine un-friendly vegetables without falling apart. Austrian gewurztraminers are generally drier than Alsatians. The rieslings have interesting differences from Mosel and Rhein versions. My friend Terry Theise is the prime importer in the US. You can view his portfolio at : http://www.skurnikwines.com