Restaurant: Water Grill Santa Monica [1, 2]
Location: 1401 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 394-5669
Date: April 27, 2016
Cuisine: American Seafood
Rating: Solid coastal seafooder
Tonight’s outing to Water Grill Santa Monica is with a friend’s wine group. Some of the regulars I’ve known for some time and a bunch of the others I can’t believe I haven’t “met” as we clearly have been at the same events together.
The primary wine theme is 2005 Red Burgundy. A little young, but beginning to come around.
The ocean sunset throws some awesome color on the facade.
1990 Henri Goutorbe Champagne Collection René.
2010 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir. Burghound 95. There is a lovely mineral reduction to the pure aromas of citrus, ripe orchard fruit, dried rose petal and sea breeze that marry into full-bodied and overtly muscular flavors that possess seemingly endless reserves of acid-buffering extract on the mouth coating, long and almost painfully intense finish. This bone dry effort will require plenty of cellar time but it will be more than worth the wait as it’s a knockout.
2004 Hospices de Beaune Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières Cuvée Baudot Louis Jadot. Good stuff, very “round” and tres meursault.
The King Iced Shellfish Tower. Love me some raw sea creatures.
Downstairs are oysters, clams, shrimps (with and without heads), mussels, and snails.
Upstairs is uni, lobster, crab, and Peruvian bay scallops with salsa.
From my cellar: 2005 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. Burghound 93. A very discreet touch of brioche highlights the much more reserved honeysuckle, anise, honeysuckle and apricot aromas that are elegant, pure and wonderfully refined and dissolve into sweet, intense and unusually precise flavors that also reflect more minerality than I typically find in this wine as well, culminating in superb punch and energy. A terrific vintage for Pucelles and one to consider closely.
agavin: sadly our bottle was (mildly) corked 🙁
2013 Francois Carillon Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 91-94. A beautifully expressive nose of notably ripe yellow fruit, acacia blossom, spiced pear and hints of lemon are trimmed in enough wood to notice. The detailed, concentrated, layered and intense middle weight plus flavors are unusually powerful before culminating in a stony, persistent and palate staining finish. This is dense to the point of being luscious and while this is certainly a lovely effort, I wouldn’t call it typical in the context of a classic Chevalier.
agavin: crazy young but still fabulous, particularly at the end of the evening once it got some air. Super long finish.
Crudo Sampler. Wild tahitian bigeye tuna, wild eastern sea scallops, farmed faroe islands atlantic salmon.
Farmed Manila clams with Chorizo. Steamed in saffron broth with crispy french baquette.
Jump lump blue crab cake. celery root remoulade.
From my cellar: 2005 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Fuées. Burghound 94. Here the aromas are slightly riper than those of the villages with a positively sublime elegant dark berry fruit and violet-infused nose that complements the seductive yet notably powerful plum and mineral-inflected medium full flavors that are firmly structured yet velvety with excellent depth of material on the driving, complex and stunningly long finish. The mid-palate sap completely buffers the dusty tannins and this should be capable of at least a decade of improvement but it’s a 25 year wine, perhaps longer. This delivers grand cru quality and should absolutely be on your shopping list.
agavin: lots of promise, but needs more time.
2005 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru. Burghound 93. A strikingly complex nose offers up notes of dried rose petal, exotic spices, tea, earth and very ripe red pinot fruit that merges into rich, full and wonderfully precise medium full-bodied flavors that possess impeccable balance and length that goes on and on. A smaller version of the Musigny and built to age almost as well.
agavin: forward enough to be really yummy, but pretty young
Fritto misto. mixed fried seafood with smokey marinara and tzatziki.
Seafood fritters. crab, shrimp and atlantic cod, with romesco sauce and pickled peppers.
2005 Domaine Xavier Liger-Belair Clos Vougeot. 94 points. Drinking great, with lots of umph. Big wine too.
2005 Domaine de la Vougeraie Clos Vougeot. Burghound 92. Moderate wood spice and a pretty if serious mix of red berry, black pinot and plenty of earth influence can be found on the round, rich and very suave full-bodied flavors that possess ample volume and excellent underlying material though the finish is perhaps not quite as precise and delineated as the very best in the range. Still, this offers plenty of character and superb length plus it’s less youthfully austere than most examples at this very early stage.
agavin: this is a very new world producer. Wine was pleasant, but a little short.
WILD ALASKAN RED KING CRAB LEGS. steamed with our homemade coleslaw and drawn butter.
LIVE WILD NORTH AMERICAN HARD SHELL LOBSTER. steamed with our homemade coleslaw and drawn butter.
2005 Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 93-95. A pungent mix of wood spice, earth, red berry fruit, game, smoke and natural spice highlights the moderately sauvage character of the rich, full, refined and pure flavors underpinned by ripe and very firm tannins that culminate in an austere and very backward finish. This will require lots of cellar time to be at its best and like the Clos de Vougeot, this will be a long-distance runner.
2005 Camille Giroud Chambertin. Burghound 93-96. There are actually several different cuvées of this wine and at the time of my tasting, Croix had not decided what he was going to use for the final blend. The best of them featured a reserved and very backward, indeed almost brooding nose of ripe and distinctly earth red pinot fruit plus a touch of animale that merges seamlessly into textured, powerful and pure big-bodied flavors that despite the size, richness and raw muscle are harmonious and perfectly balanced. A monument in the making but I reemphasize that this review may or may not reflect the final blend.
agavin: massive but very good
PRIME DRY AGED SPLIT-BONE “COWBOY” RIBEYE 20 oz.
PRIME NATURAL “NEVER EVER” NEW YORK STRIP STEAK 16 oz.
FILET MIGNON “double r ranch” 12 oz.
French fries.
Yukon gold mashed potatoes.
Overall, a super fun evening. The wines were a bit young but fun — plus I never mind a surplus of Burgundy. Food was tasty and fresh. The restaurant did a good job by us, even if they didn’t totally get our “wine guy” thing (they never do). Seafood and apps more exciting than mains. The company was awesome though, and that’s what really matters!
Show: 
Next, Alliser Thorne sits in the main hall and tries to spin his treachery. He takes full on credit and goes for a half-assed Julius Caesar style pitch mostly focused on Jon’s terrible direction of leadership and his helping the Wildlings. I think this could have been better. Brutus, Cassius and all had a better argument (even though I’m a huge Caesar fan). They made the reasonable (to Romans) pitch about Caesar having taken too much power (kingship) unto himself. In the political context of the Roman Republic which like America valued the balance of power, and with the historic founding story involving the overthrow of Tarquin as example, they had some decent spin. Alliser Thorne not so much. But he does sound like he believes what he says, and I’ve always thought the show (and the actor) has done a good job humanizing his role.![ep601_publicity_still_11_00154954_a[1]](http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ep601_publicity_still_11_00154954_a1.jpeg)
Ramsay / Winterfell – With Joffery dead, Ramsay is easily everyone’s favorite villain on the show. Really, he does a fabulous job. Here he is delivering the eulogy over Myranda’s body, or at least musing about her in the presence of Maester Wolkan. There is some depth to him and you can see who he liked the hot-but-evil bitch. Textbook touch when he orders her body fed to the dogs.
Sansa / Theon – I guess because of what is about to happen. Sansa and Theon run through the forest — perhaps even the very same set (I mean forest) that we saw way way back in the Season 1 Episode 1 intro. Theon is pretty nimble too for someone without most of his toes because he’s doing the leading. He even forces Sansa across a freezing river to “loose the trail” (hounds are barking in the distance). They make it across, but are in serious danger of dying of hyperthermia and have to take a break under a tree to freeze to death.
Brienne / Pod – ride in for the rescue. An oddball helter-skelter fight scene too as Brienne initially does well, then is knocked from her horse and barely — with the help of Theon and Pod — manages to do in all the Bolton soldiers. Sansa, again, cowers under the tree. After, Brienne kneels before Sansa and again offers her services. This time a grateful, less “innocent”, Sansa takes her up on the offer. The exchange of vows worked nicely, even more underscored by Sansa’s marginal memory of the oath.
Margarey – Is still cooped up barefoot and dirty in her cell. An annoying Septa reads scripture to her and demands confession. The High Septon swaps in to try good cop. Marg still isn’t ready to yield and asks after Loras, but we don’t learn anything.
Dorne – Price Doran is limping along with Ellaria Sand and they exchange what seems to be pleasantries about his and his brother’s personalities. But Tyene Sand (Bronn’s “girl”) stabs Hotah in the back and Ellaria takes out her pseudo-brother-in-law. It’s all too sad and still fairly cheesy.
Jorah and Daario – a exploring Northern Ireland in search of Dany and the show reminds us gratuitously of Jorah’s grayscale by having him take a peek. No surprise, it’s bigger. They find charred ram, clearly Drogon’s leavings and then Dany’s ring. Not totally sure how they manage to do that other than it being on the one untrodden spot where she was standing — and magically figures out that the horde has her.
Arya – is not only still wearing uncomfortable white contact lenses, but is begging in the street. The Waif creeps up on her and beats her with a staff for a while. Clearly, in future episodes, Arya needs to listen to the Force and hone her blind-girl fighting skills!
Overall, it’s great to have the show back but this is one of those episodes that has so much scene setting, and so many story threads that no one really gets that much time to move the plot. That being said, it’s not all just establishing position because a whole lot of stuff happens. As usual in this show everyone’s position is shifting rapidly and isn’t always what it seems. GRRM (and D&B) love to each plot line to alternate highs and lows. Although frankly, there are plenty of lows right now.
COCTEL MIXTO. Local Seafood, Radish, Cilantro, Crispy Rice Paper. This was one of the weaker dishes. It was fairly hard to eat, and even harder to get the ceviche on the crisp.
