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Yakiniku Osen

Oct22

Location: 3503 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (323) 426-9455

Date: March 18, 2022

Cuisine: Japanese Yakiniku

Rating: Good, but I hoped it’d be better

Yakiniku Osen is a newish A5 Yakiniku place in Silverlake. I imagined it was somewhat like Yazawa.

It’s just street-side on Sunset in busy Silverlake.

There is a fairly tight interior.

And a small but nice set of patio tables with built in grills.

We sat outside.

From my cellar: 2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. JG 95+. The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a stunning young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and youthfully complex, as it offers up a very classy blend of pear, delicious apple, fresh almond, incipient notes of crème patissière, chalky minerality, brioche and just a whisper of vanillin oak in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and rock solid at the core, with exquisite balance, refined mousse, crisp acids and simply superb length and grip on the seamless, youthful and oh, so promising finish. The style of the 2005 vintage gives this some early accessibility that was not evident with the more tightly-knit 2004 out of the blocks, but this wine has the structure to also age long and very, very gracefully. It has been a year since I last tasted this wine and it has started to show more precision to go along with its early generosity and is a classic in the making. My gut feeling today is that it will be superior to the 1989 version, to which I compared it to a year ago. Brilliant wine. (Drink between 2015-2045)

2010 Dominique Lafon Meursault. 93 points. The 2010 Meursault emerges from the glass with notable elegance and class. This is a slightly more restrained, nervous style than fans of Comtes Lafon have become used to over the years. The 2010 is made from parcels in Petit Montagne, Charmes and Narvaux that belong to Dominique Lafon and that were once used in the Comtes Lafon Meursault. (Drink starting 2013)

1976 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. 92 points.

Decanted into a narrow/tall water beaker. Moderate sediment. Initially, watered down and a muted nose of red fruits. Two hours later, aromatics increased – the most unbelievably ridiculous nose of dried red berries . Light bodied. Moderately long finish. A gorgeous wine. I don’t know if it improves, but it held in the beaker and only improved with air.

1978 Rioja.

1997 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli. VM 92. Intense garnet with ruby reflections. Opens with wonderfully sweet tobacco scents and spicy cedar. In the mouth there are nicely delineated, fresh flavors of anise, mocha and roasted coffee, the whole supported by very soft tannins, and the rather smoky close conveying an essence of raspberry. Although there are no hard edges in this sleek and mellifluous medium-bodied wine, it does not possess quite the depth and concentration of the best Brunellos of this vintage. (Winebow, Hokokus, NJ)

1997 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill. 93 points. Dark red violet color; intense, ripe cassis, berry, plum nose; tasty, berry, cassis, plum, cedar palate; medium-plus finish.

The menu is long. We ordered almost everything!

A5 Wagyu Beef Uni. A5 Wagyu Beef Tartare with Uni, Garlic, Crispy Sea Trumpet and Caviar. Delicious. Sweet sauce on the beef pretty much hid the uni.

A5 Wagyu Gyoza. Groudn A5 Wagyu Beef, Tofu, Mixed Vegetables, Glass Noodles. So (temperature) hot that it could have been anything inside.

Chawanmushi. Japanese Steamed Egg Custard with Uni and Caviar. Fairly runny custard.

Amaebi Carpaccio. Yuzu oild dressing, Red Pepper, Black Pepper, Chive. Not the greatest shrimp, but the pepper and dressing were pretty good.

Staemed Awabi (abalone) with abalone innards dressing.

Lobster Carpaccio with Caviar and Somen Noodle, Creamy Dressing. Butter-like sauce was reat on the noodles.

A5 Wagyu Tataki Salad with Spicy Citrus Dressing. Delicious strong tanyg/sweet sauce. Microgreens had a nice bite. Meat was quite cold.

A5 Wagyu Beef Diced Steak with Sweet Shrimp and Chimichurri Dressing. This is was one of the weakest dishes.

Honey Citron Sorbet.

Gas grills.

Tallow to grease the grill.

3 Kinds of sauce: salt and pepper, house-made wasabi, and yuzu-koshu

Assorted Vegetables and Mushrooms.

Veggies on the grill.

Mushrooms at the ready.

3 Kinds of Japanese A5 Wagyu. It comes on this cool tower.

On the grill.

Beef cooked.

Beef Tongue.

Cooked.

A5 Japanese Wagyu Sukiyaki.

Marinated A5 beef for the sukiyaki.

Egg to dip it in.

Truffle A5 Wagyu Beef Hot Pot. A5 Wagyu Beef, Chive, Ala Minute Dashi Rice, Fresh Black Truffle, Sesame Oil, Tsuyu, Shoyu Marinated Egg Yolk.

Smash that yolk.

Sukiyaki pot beginning to boil. For those that don’t know, Sukiyaki is like the sweet soy/dashi stock version of shabu shabu. You coat the beef in raw egg and then cook it briefly in here, or cook it then coat it with raw egg (which will cook on the hot beef).

Short Rib.

Special Alligator from the chef.

Cooked gator.

Berry Panna Cotta.

Red Bean Ball.

Sesame Ice Cream and dried fruit.

Sesame Ice Cream, Red Bean Cake, and Syrup. Like most of these very Japanese desserts, sweet without intense flavor.

Sesame Ice Cream, Cake, and Syrup.

Very fun meal and good food. Far away (Silverlake is not only far but one has to battle some significant traffic). Many of the dishes, particularly the straight up grilled A5 and the sukiyaki, were quite good, but many of them were hit and miss. The chef is trying some new things here, but not always successfully. It’s not nearly as focused nor as good as Yazawa, although it is quite a bit cheaper.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: A5, bbq, Foodie Club, Meat, Wagyū, Wine, Yakiniku, Yakiniku Osen

Rockin’ Ten Raku

Jun20

Restaurant: Ten Raku

Location: 4177 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 380-8382

Date: Oct 21, 2021

Cuisine: KBBQ

Rating: Solid old school KBBQ

Chevy setup tonight’s dinner and he chose KBBQ because he loves meat and any excuse for big red wines. Not that I’m complaining too much.

Ten Raku is a classic KTown KBBQ place place.

It’s kinda old school, and given the state of the pandemic was fairly quiet.

The menu has a decent number of options. This is good, sometimes I feel that some Korean places are too focused.

1995 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Cuvée Fleur de Champagne. VM 88+. Strong mousse. Restrained aromas of lemon rind, lime, honeysuckle and chalk. Tightly wound, firm and quite refined; almost hard today and distinctly backward. Finishes long, brisk and dry, with bracing lemony acidity. (I also tasted a far less fresh bottle, which showed tired aromas of apple and pear.) There’s been a change of importer since last year, so ask your merchant for this fall’s shipment. (Allied Domecq Wines U.S.A., Healdsburg, CA)

From my cellar: 2018 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. VM 92. Bright pink. Minerals, fava beans, pomegranate and violet on the bright nose. Then very harmonious in its acid-fruit-tannin profile, with lively balanced acidity nicely extending the flavors similar to the aromas on the long back end. Strikes me as a rather refined, sneakily concentrated Cerasuolo. (Drink between 2019-2025)

Typical “free” salad.

Banchan.

Bean sprouts.

Mac Salad.

Pickles.

Spicy pickled cucumber.

Kimchee.

My personal favorite the chewy fish cake.

Another spicy something.

Seafood pancake. Egg batter with flour, green onions, belly peppers and octopus served with a soy vinegar dipping sauce.

Fluffy egg soufflé.

Besides beef, Ten Raku specializes in octopus, so of course we had to get some. This is some kind of Jeon Gol, a Korean Stew with octopus and various vegetables and noodles.

It all gets cooked down and then…

Served up like this for some chili flavored deliciousness.

Then they dump a bunch of rice into the broth and fry it up into spicy fried rice (with a lot of flavor).

1994 Château Haut-Brion. VM 93-95. Fabulous smoky, roasted, black fruit and tobacco nose, with a sappy urgency. Like liquid velvet in the mouth; gives a saline impression of extract. Very fresh and bright, with uncanny sweetness. Explosive finishing fruit buries the uncommonly fine tannins. One of the very few ’94s that truly stains the palate.

1996 Château Cos d’Estournel. VM 93. The 1996 Cos d’Estournel has a fragrant, Pauillac-tinged bouquet with the melted tar and graphite leitmotifs that I remarked upon in previous encounters. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy-textured tannin. I feel that the 1996 shows a tad more maturity than a few months ago, with undergrowth and peat-like notes surfacing with aeration and then a dash of white pepper streaking across the finish. However, it evinces fine persistency and embraces the classic tropes of the 1996 vintages. Though not a top tier Cos d’Estournel, it remains an excellent Saint-Estèphe. Tasted at the Cos d’Estournel vertical at the property. (Drink between 2018-2035)

1997 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon. VM 94+. Bright deep ruby. Blackberry, violet, tar, shoe polish and game on the nose, plus a light floral note; at once vibrant and surmuri. Superconcentrated, remarkably intense flavors of crystallized black cherry, cassis and licorice. An extremely persistent wine of noteworthy finesse, yet also one with a powerful structure for aging. One of the standouts of the vintage.

1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne. VM 93-95. Full, saturated ruby, by a wide margin the darkest of these ’97s. Spicy, high-pitched aromas of cassis, black cherry, licorice, flint and tar. Densely packed but currently tightly wound and dominated by its structure. Shows a restrained sweetness and complicating hints of leather, flint and tar. More tannic than the Mouline or Turque but here, too, the tannins are quite fine. Very long on the palate. A lovely expression of syrah from a very ripe year.

1997 Joseph Phelps Insignia. VM 94. Full ruby. Supersweet aromas of blackberry, cassis, bitter chocolate, espresso and tobacco. Thick and seamless yet bright and sharply defined. Very long and spicy on the aftertaste, with excellent grip. Sweet tannins coat the teeth. Williams says the selection for Insignia is based on quality and concentration rather than on a particular flavor profile.

1995 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. VM 89. Healthy dark red. Plum, coffee and chicory on the nose. Savory redcurrant fruit is complemented by well-integrated oak notes of coffee and chocolate. With good salinity and energy, there’s nothing heavy about this Cabernet. Finishes with firm, fine-grained tannins that avoid dryness. No easy sweetness but nicely ripe and persistent. À point right now. (Drink between 2016-2020)

1997 Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino Vigna di Pianrosso. VM 94. What a treat it is to taste the 1997 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Pianrosso on this day. Medium-red in color, it offers an expressive, ethereal nose with notes of roses, tar and tobacco that float out of the glass along with soft, perfumed fruit in a delicate, captivating interplay of sensations and aromas. Although this bottle had been decanted for three hours prior to my visit to the estate it nevertheless appeared somewhat closed. Still fresh, it promises to provide memorable drinking for at least another decade although my guess is that the wine’s structure will ultimately outlast the fruit. Regardless, it is utterly irresistible right now. Anticipated maturity (Drink between 2013-2014)

Cold mustardy noodles with beef and veggies. They actually put ice in here that melts.to get it nice and chilled. They are both spicy, tangy, and mustardy.

Korean style beef tartare. Always a great take on beef tartare as it has bits of pear and a sweet and tangy marinate.

Our full spread of uncooked meat! This is the core KBBQ deal.

Some close ups of all that beef. KBBQ doesn’t actually photo that well as it’s really tedious to remember all the different cuts and show them cooking and then cooked.

Some cut on the grill.

And a few minutes later.

The big rib eye.

More meat.

Daikon slices in case one wants to wrap up the meat.

Pickles, garlic, and chiles.

Spicy bean paste. You can add all the elements and some meat together to make a delicious Korean wrap.

Pork belly on the grill.

And more cooked.

Strawberries & Mascar-Creamy Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Strawberry Curd — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — my vain attempts to pipe a pretty decoration on top were uttery foiled by timing –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mascarpone #cheese #strawberry #cream

This was a fun and solid meal. Some of the beef was a bit too “straight up” for me — aka not marinated — but there were a bunch of interesting extras like the noodles, pancake, and octopus stew. Quality was high. Service good. If you want the classic 80s/90s KBBQ style (ignoring AYCE which I always do as it’s pointless), this is a great place. There are newer glitzier places like Gwang Yang which have a much hipper vibe, but the actual meat isn’t much different.

Our wines were generally great even if there were a couple new worlds in there. Unfortunately one of mine was a bit corked. Sigh.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, KBBQ, Korean BBQ, Ktown, Meat, Ten Raku, Wine

Banquet Style — Flame International

May21

Restaurant: Flame International

Location: 11330 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 444-0045

Date: September 30, 2021

Cuisine: Persian

Rating: amusing and vast place, solid food

This was a peculiar dinner. Jeffrey Merihue organized it, set the menu and then was suddenly out of town on the day of so Yarom picked up the organization (such that it was).

I’ve passed by Flame about 1000 times (on Santa Monica Blvd) and even eaten next door at Nanbankan. I’ve long wondered about Flame.

Turns out it’s one of those Persian large scale “event space” restaurants. Probably it’s used for weddings and other similar functions. I forgot to take good pictures of the inside so I have to use some (bad ones) from the web.

It has that Persian “overbuilt” look. Lots of marble and curtains and chandeliers, but really cheap (looking) construction.

Big space though.

And outside they had this HUGE patio/tent which was even odder. Initially they tried to put us here even though we were the only people in the entire restaurant but the problem was that the floor slanted quite considerably so one side of your chair would be about 2 inches lower than the other. We moved inside (took a bit of convincing to get them to do it though).

Hummus. I find Persian style hummus too thin.

Yogurt with cucumber (and some herbs).

Plain yogurt. Cucumber one was much better.

Shirazi Salad. The classic.

Lavash bread.

Roast Eggplant with crispy onions and tahini. Warm and delicious. This stuff was totally crack. I probably ate 1.5 plates of it myself.

A different salad, same basic ingredient except this one had lettuce.

Trout and salmon. Trout was nice and crispy.

Three kinds of rice.

Crispy rice with lamb. I liked this.

Lamb chops and koobideh.

Succulent game bird.

Fessenjoon given reluctantly at the last minute and with no protein — just the sauce. It was on our menu, but despite (or perhaps because?) we were the only guests they seemed in hurry to move us on threw. We had to request this, even though it was on our menu, and then they just brought a minuscule portion of the sauce alone (no chicken). It was tasty though.

Ghormeh Sabzi with nothing in it — just the stew. Same deal as above.

Blood Peach and Ume Sorbetto — Blood Peaches from Avignon with a bit of Joto Umeshu “Ume” (Japanese plum) Sake! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #BloodPeach #Ume #peach #plum #sake

Sweet Milk Signature Flavor — Italian Lemon Cookie Meringue Pie — Limoncello Zabaione base with lemon cookie flavor mixed with Italian Lemon Creme Cookies and Sicilian Candied Lemon and topped with house-made toasted Meringue — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemon #LemonCookie #cookie #Sorento #Limoncello #Meringue #LemonMeringuePie

Mint tea.

Food was actually pretty good, and if one wanted to do a cheap banquet with solid Persian food this place might be interesting. Service sucked though and the space was giant but odd. I found it had it’s particular charms.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

We had lots of wines, but I don’t bother to photo them (except for my own) at this kind of casual dinner anymore.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Flame International, Gelato, hedonists, Iranian cuisine, Jeffrey Merrihue, Meat, Persian cuisine, Wine

Dirty Dozen Prime

Apr06

Restaurant: Lawry’s The Prime Rib

Location: 100 La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 652-2827

Date: February 20, 2020

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Surprisingly excellent — great service too

The blind tasting sub group of the hedonists, the Dirty Dozen, moves around. Tonight’s theme was Bordeaux 2000 and older and we chose:

Lawry’s The Prime Rib. Look at this “they don’t make ’em like they used to” dining room. I hadn’t been to Lawry’s in at least 20+ years. I think it might even have been at their previous location.

The menu.

NV Delamotte Champagne Brut. VM 92. Light yellow. Mineral-tinged peach, melon and pear aromas display excellent clarity, picking up a subtle floral quality with aeration. Supple and seamless on the palate, offering vivid honeydew and pit fruit flavors accented by a vibrant lemon zest quality. Finishes very long, silky and precise, with an echo of juicy melon and strong mineral lift.

2017 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Garenne. BH 90. A more elegant and slightly fresher nose exhibits notes of citrus, quinine and green fruit nuances. The tighter and better focused flavors exude a subtle minerality that adds the impression of lift to the sappy and dry finish that offers reasonable but not special depth. Once again, this could be drunk young with pleasure.

2017 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé. VM 93. Pale peach skin color. Intensely perfumed, mineral- and spice-accented aromas of fresh red berries and citrus fruits are complemented by building peach and floral qualities. Silky, focused and dry, offering concentrated yet lithe pit fruit, strawberry and blood orange flavors that show outstanding clarity and tension. Expands steadily on a very long, focused finish that leaves a sexy floral note behind.

Bread.

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail. Classic cocktail sauce.

2000 Château Péby Faugères. VM 90-91. Impressive saturated ruby. Roasted black cherry, dark chocolate, mocha and espresso on the nose. Lush and silky on the palate, with intense, nicely delineated dark berry and torrefaction flavors. Impressively concentrated and rich. Dense, vinous and solidly structured wine, with plenty of extract to support the firm tannins. Finishes with excellent length.
1998 Pavie Decesse. Parker 96. The 1998 Pavie Decesse is medium to deep garnet-brick in color and explodes with fabulous plum pudding, prunes, blackberry preserves and blueberry pie notes with hints of smoked meats, garrigue, dusty soil, cast iron pan and star anise with dried roses and cinnamon stick wafts. Full-bodied, concentrated and packed with rich exotic spice and black fruit preserves layers, it has loads of mineral and meat sparks and a very, very long, layered finish. Incredible! For cellaring potential, I give it 20+ more years.

2015 La Conseillante. Parker 96+. Composed of 81% Merlot and 19% Cabernet Franc and aged for 18 months in 70% new and 30% one-year-old French oak, the medium garnet-purple colored 2015 La Conseillante opens with reticent, earthy notes of dusty soil, garrigue, forest floor and iron ore with a core of warm plums, cassis, cigar boxes, star anise and dark chocolate plus a hint of violets. Medium to full-bodied with decadent fruit and a gorgeous plushness to the texture, the palate features impeccable poise and compelling depth, finishing on a lingering mineral note.

agavin: “someone” (not me :-)) “cheated” the rules as this clearly is younger than 2000

Cheesy Onion Fondue. Gruyere, Sherry Wine, Sourdough Toast. This was some delicious cheesy goo with just enough onion to add a bit of texture. I couldn’t stop myself from eating it.

Crab Cakes. Arugula Salad, Lemon. Not bad.

From my cellar: 1989 Troplong Mondot. Parker 95-96. A very youthful wine that probably will never hit the heights of the 1990 (but how many wines do?), this dense ruby/purple-colored wine has a very pure nose of roasted espresso, black cherry jam, blackberry, mineral, and even a hint of blueberry. Some smoke and high-quality toasty new oak are there, but now that seems to be fading into the background. Quite full-bodied, powerful, and concentrated, yet at the same time elegant, this wine still seems very young and unevolved. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2025. Last tasted, 11/02.

agavin: slightly weird bottle, and placed with the salad, so it didn’t test well

1990 La Conseillante. Parker 94-98. This deep ruby/garnet-hued 1990 reveals considerable amber at the edge as well as a knock-out bouquet of cedar, kirsch, licorice, roasted herbs, and spice box. An exuberant, atypically flamboyant effort, it possesses supple texture, medium to full body, sweet fruit, plenty of glycerin, and attractive melted tannin. This wine has been delicious since birth, but additional nuances continue to develop in the bottle. Drink it over the next decade.

Caesar salad with anchovies. An decent but not great caesar.

House Wedge. Nueske’s Bacon, Point Reyes Blue, Cherry Tomatoes, Scallions, Baby Iceberg, Egg, Blue Cheese, and Vintage Dressings. Very nice wedge actually as there was lots of good chunky bacon (lardons).

Lawry’s Famous Spinning Bowl Salad. Spinach, Romaine, Iceberg, Shoestring Beets, Croutons, Egg, Vintage Dressing, Prepared Table-side. The dressing is a sort of sherry vinaigrette.

The “spinning” part is just how they apply the dressing.

Prep for the lobster bisque.

Lobster Bisque. Lobster Meat, Chives.

1985 Ducru-Beaucaillou. Parker 92. A wine of extraordinary charm and elegance, the dark garnet-colored 1985 Ducru-Beaucaillou has a floral, cedary nose intermixed with red and black currants as well as flowers. The wine is fully mature and soft, with beautiful concentration and purity. It is not a blockbuster, and certainly not nearly as powerful and massive as the 1986, but it is certainly much more seductive. This wine should continue to drink well for at least another 10-15 years. Anticipated maturity: Now-2012. Last tasted, 5/02.

1994 Léoville Las Cases. Parker 92-94. Michel Delon, a great man, is the consummate proprietor, meticulously administering this vast estate spread out along the St.-Julien/Pauillac border, separated from Latour’s finest vineyard by a mere ten feet. The 1993-95 vintages from Delon are brilliant wines. Leoville-Las-Cases remains one of the irrefutable reference points for high class Bordeaux. One of the more massive Medocs of the vintage, this opaque purple-colored wine exhibits fabulous richness and volume in the mouth. Layers of pure black-cherry and cassis fruit are intermixed with stony, mineral-like scents, as well as high quality toasty oak. Medium to full-bodied, with a sweet, rich entry, this wine possesses plenty of tannin, yet fabulous extract and length. Leoville-Las-Cases is one of the half-dozen great wines of the Medoc in 1994. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2025. This lion never falls asleep on the job!

1999 Léoville Las Cases. Parker 90-92. The 1999 Leoville Las Cases possesses a dense purple color as well as classic aromas of vanilla, black cherries, and currants mixed with subtle toasty oak. The wine is medium-bodied with sweet tannin, yet it remains young, backward, and unevolved (unusual for a 1999). Its extraordinary purity and overall harmony give it a character all its own. This excellent Las Cases will be at its finest between 2006-2022.

Prime Porterhouse. 32oz.

Iron Skillet Mushrooms. Seasonal Mushrooms, Garlic, Fresh Herbs.

Truffled Mac & Cheese. Very “light” as it was heavier on the mac than the cheese. But tasty.

1989 Pichon-Longueville Baron. Parker 96. Both the 1989 and 1990 vintages exhibit opaque, dense purple colors that suggest massive wines of considerable extraction and richness. The dense, full-bodied 1989 is brilliantly made with huge, smoky, chocolatey, cassis aromas intermingled with scents of toasty oak. Well-layered, with a sweet inner-core of fruit, this awesomely endowed, backward, tannic, prodigious 1989 needs another 5-6 years of cellaring; it should last for three decades or more. It is unquestionably a great Pichon-Longueville-Baron.

1986 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Parker 94-96. Now at 30 years of age, there is a gulf between the two Pichons in this vintage that no longer exists. The 1986 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has long been one of the best wines from the estate alongside the 1982 (even if the first bottle was a little oxidized). The second bottle was representative. It has a classic pencil-lead, cedar-infused nose that rockets from the glass, a subtle floral note developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple red berry fruit, a pinch of white pepper and cedar, structured compared to coeval vintages and perhaps further along its drinking plateau than previous examples. Certainly à point, I would be reaching for bottles of this now if you cannot locate those 1982s, or alternatively seek out the superlative 1996. This still remains a fine, rather regal Pichon-Lalande. Tasted July 2016.

1970 Latour. Parker 89-98. One of the top two or three wines of the vintage (Petrus and Trotanoy are noteworthy rivals), this young, magnificent Latour is still 5-10 years away from full maturity. The opaque garnet color is followed by a huge, emerging nose of black fruits, truffles, walnuts, and subtle tobacco/Graves-like scents. Full-bodied, fabulously concentrated and intense, with a sweet inner-core of fruit (a rarity in most 1970 Medocs), and high but well-integrated tannin, this enormously endowed, massive Latour should hit its prime by the end of the century and last for 2-3 decades thereafter. This is will be the longest-lived and potentially most classic wine of the vintage. Cream always comes to the top.

The Lawry’s Prime Ribeye. 22oz bone in. Really great steak and way better than the porterhouse — not because that wasn’t a nice porterhouse but the ribeye is a tastier cut.

Brussels Sprouts. Brown butter, garlic, almonds. Quite good. They should have thrown some of those lardons in for good measure too!

The toppings for the baked potato.

Lawry’s Classic Baked Potato. Nueske’s Bacon, butter, chives, sour cream. I don’t like baked potatoes but this was damn good — all the sour cream, chives, and lardon factor.

1985 Palmer. Parker 90. Tasted at the Château Palmer vertical in London, the 1985 Château Palmer was clearly a favourite amongst the participants in the tasting, although here I actually concur with Robert Parker – it’s a pleasant Margaux, but not the most complex wine of the vintage. You get the feeling that it doesn’t fire on all cylinders. It has an appealing bacon fact and savory bouquet – a little smudged, but full of charm. The palate is fleshy on the entry, perhaps here with a touch of brettanomyces, the acidity nicely judged with expressive Merlot defining the finish. It does not “take off” as the greatest 1985s are wont to do, yet you would contentedly polish off a bottle, seduced by its easy-going nature. Tasted May 2015.

2000 La Mission Haut-Brion. Parker 100! One of the wines of the vintage, the 2000 has barely budged in its evolution since it was bottled and released in 2002. After ten years in bottle, it still reveals a dense opaque purple color along with a potentially sensational bouquet of blueberries, black currants, graphite, asphalt and background oak. Extremely powerful, full-bodied and superbly concentrated with good acidity and high but round tannins, this massive La Mission-Haut-Brion should take its place among this estate’s most hallowed vintages when it hits full maturity in another one to two decades. I was surprised by just how youthful this wine tasted at age 12. If tasted blind, I would have guessed it to be around 4 to 5 years old. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050.

This deco style cart has apparently been in use for over 80 years! Wow!

Toppings for the Prime Rib — namely horseradish and Yorkshire Pudding.

Prime Rib inside the cart.

Close up.

Cutting the rib.

Plating the rib.

Beef Bowl Double Cut Prime Rib. Celebratory Rose Bowl Cut. I’m not sure I “get” prime rib. This was a nice hunk of meat, but the slow cooking method leaves it moist but not very flavorful.

Regular Horseradish and Lawry’s Whipped Cream Horseradish.

Yorkshire Pudding. Basically a brioche like thing. I can’t say this did anything for me.

Cauliflower Gratin. Gruyere, Herb Brioche, Crumbs. This was pretty good.

They keep the mashed potatoes in the cart.

Buttery Mashed Potatoes with Gravy.

Cart Side: Creamed Corn.

Cart Side: Creamed Spinach. Served with bacon.

The dessert menu.

1998 Raymond-Lafon. Parker 93. Medium gold colored, the 1998 Raymond-Lafon has a very pretty, lifted citrus nose of candied orange peel, lime cordial and preserved kumquat plus wafts of lanolin and fungi. Rich, full-on decadent and seductive in the mouth, it has plenty of allspice and honeyed characters coming through on the long finish.

Snickerdoodle Snickerdoodle Gelato — An eggy cinnamon vanilla custard base with my house-made Snickerdoodle Cookie bits mixed in — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #snickerdoodle #cookie #cinnamon #vanilla

Warm Chocolate Fantasy Cake. Served with Fosselman’s Vanilla Ice Cream. The cake itself was too dry and there wasn’t enough icing.

Coconut Banana Cream Pie. Good except for the banana (which I hate).

Creme Brûlée. Served with fresh fruit. The custard was a bit soft.

The lineup.

Various scores.

The gang — plus a photobomb by Ron Jermey (who just happened to be eating at Lawry’s at the same time).

Overall, this was one of the best Dirty Dozen’s in a long while — if not the best Dirty Dozen Red. I was pleasantly surprised by Lawry’s. Nice atmosphere, and while we should have been in the private room (someone, not going to name any names, didn’t want to commit to the minimum), the service was impeccable. Our server was pretty incredible. This is a big group (14) and a complex 5-6 course order and she got it down absolutely perfectly. She checked on everything too. Really really professional. The food was generally great too. Not perfect, but most things were very good. I’m not sure I “get” Prime Rib, but I have the feeling it’s a great PR they serve here. Wines showed pretty well (except mine and one other) but it was a very fun night.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Beverly Hills, blind tasting, Bordeaux, Dirty Dozen, Gelato, GYOG, hedonists, Lawry's, Meat, Prime Rib, Steak

Quick Eats – Park’s BBQ

Feb19

Restaurant: Park’s BBQ

Location: 955 S Vermont Ave G, Los Angeles, CA 90006. (213) 380-1717

Date: December 23, 2019

Cuisine: Korean BBQ

Rating: Great charcoal KBBQ

It’s been many years since I was at Park’s BBQ — before I started blogging in 2010 for sure — so when my friend Jerome mentioned that he wanted to try some KBBQ off we went.

Park’s is seriously OG. It’s been around for a long time, has real charcoal grills, and very high quality meat.

Even on a random Monday in December at 1:45pm there was a 30 minute line!

Each table has its own dedicated hood.

It’s hard to see down inside the grill but there are real charcoal chunks in there — none of that modern gas fired cooking!

The menu. We went for set P2. The server said it served 4. We were just 2. I figured it’d be about the right amount of food!

Salt and pepper vinegar.

Hot sauce and fermented spicy bean paste (love the stuff because I love fermented Asian everything).

Salad is of course one of the ban chan.

Daikon radish wraps.

Rice crepe wraps.

A kind of kimchee.

Spicy pickled cucumbers.

Some kind of green.

Marinated bean sprouts.

Chewy fish cakes — delicious — I ate 3 bowls of them.

Broccoli.

Spiced potatoes or radish.

Crunchy sweet pickled veggies. Really good.

Taste of Parks P2.

Mushrooms and Zucchini – in the back various beefs.

Rib Eye Steak, and back right Pork Belly.

Boneless Beef Short Rib (left), Beef Brisket (center), Ggot Sal (right).

Bulgogi (with the green onion on top).

Park’s Gal-bi – probably my favorite.

Meat on the grill.

Steak on the grill.

More meat on the grill.

Pork belly.

Overall, other than the bit of a wait, everything was great at Park’s. This isn’t a new style whacky or AYCE joint and they have a fairly traditional set of dishes and cuts but the meat is fabulous and the charcoal flavor great, so this is some really satisfying very Korean KBBQ — as it should be. Service was very great too.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: beef, KBBQ, Korea-town, Korean BBQ, Korean cuisine, Meat, Park's BBQ, Steak

Eating Tel Aviv – a Place for Meat

Aug21

Restaurant: A Place for Meat

Location: 64 Shabazi Street | Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv, Israel. +972 53-944-4023

Date: July 4, 2019

Cuisine: Israeli

Rating: Not my favorite

After a morning touring some of the city’s historic sites…

We ended up needing to get my dad lunch — he’s a definite 3 meal a day kind of guy.

And in search of a Yemenite restaurant ended up at this steakhouse — boo, not a steakhouse fan.

The lunch menu. This is like Israeli Houstons or something.

Tomatoes, onions, etc.

Greek salad.

Beef carpaccio. I ordered this and it was actually a pretty good beef carpaccio. Very salty though, both from the parmesan and probably from some salt.

Home made potato crisps — aka chips. Nice and crispy.

Creamed spinach.

Grilled artichokes.

Skewered filet. A bit tough.

There is nothing wrong with the kitchen here, but it’s just kind of boring. I like more exotic flavors and spices.

Click here to see more Eating Israel posts.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Eating Israel, Eating Tel Aviv, Meat, Steak

Eating the Golan – Shawarma

Aug07

Restaurant: Shawarma

Location: Somewhere in the golan

Date: July 2, 2019

Cuisine: Kosher Shawarma, Falafel etc

Rating: ok, but not amazing

While driving around the Golan Heights we stopped at:

This authentic kosher Shawarma place. I have no idea where or what it’s actually called.

The inside is very casual. Very. There was substantial authentic Israeli salesmanship going on in dragging us inside. Many of the customers were young army soldiers.

You can see the rotating cylinder of Shawarma in the back right.

They really good self serve pickles. The peppers were incredibly spicy, even by my standards.

Shawarma. With fries. It was all a bit dry. Flavor on the meat was good. But it really needed the tahini. Probably the kosher meat factor. Plus it was chicken or turkey or something. Lamb would be better (aka fattier).

The ruins of Beit Shean (a late Roman city)

Falafel.

I was not super impressed. I was hoping for some really good beef/lamb — ideally with yogurt (aka lebneh). This was much like you get at a super casual LA kosher Shawarma place.

Click here to see more Eating Israel posts.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Eating Golan, Eating Israel, Kosher, Meat, Shawarma

Saddle Up Again

Feb20

Restaurant: Saddle Peak Lodge [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 419 Cold Canyon Rd, Calabasas, CA 91302 (818) 222-3888

Date: January 11, 2018

Cuisine: Modern American

Rating: Great ambiance and terrific game oriented food.

Ever year, both in the summer and winter, we Hedonists return to Saddle Peak Lodge. It’s pretty much the perfect venue for both a winter or summer food and wine blast, with gorgeous lodge patio, game driven food, and awesome wine service. For those of you who don’t know, Hedonist events have amazing wines (each diner brings at least one bottle).

Saddle Peak Ranch used to be a game lodge back in the early part of the 20th century. The rich and famous used to come up and hunt Malibu’s finest, such as this poor fellow. Now the deer are just served up on the menu.

The private room.

They offer a tasting menu, but our party likes to order ala carte. I’d actually like to build our own custom tasting menu which we sort of half managed to do tonight.

The regular menu. They have confusingly moved a bunch of the sides into starters — even though they make no sense as starters.

Stuffed animals!

The place was DEAD on this particular night. I didn’t see anyone else upstairs.

A freebee from my cellar. It’s a cheap “like rose champagne” from the Jura. Many of us actually liked it better next to the Billecart!

Pretzel bread and butter.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.

2013 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest. VM 91-94. Bright, subdued aromas of pear drop and citrus fruit. Densely packed and saline in the mouth, offering terrific stony energy and depth along with a sexy impression of sucrosite . Still tight, austere and uncompromisingly dry for all its richness. More obviously soil-driven than the foregoing samples–really classic stony Chablis premier cru.

From my cellar: 1985 Nicolas Potel Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. BH 91. A very fresh yet mature nose of citrus, white flower and lightly toasted nut aromas combines with round and vibrant middle weight flavors that possess a seductive and rich mouth feel, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish. This is really a lovely effort with complexity and ample finishing punch and is a wine that will continue to hold well if not improve.

agavin: this bottle was more oxidized than the first I opened

2014 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne-Montrachet Les Ancegnières. BH 89-91. Mild reduction doesn’t significantly diminish the appeal of the citrus and slightly exotic fruit and petrol aromas. The solidly intense and delineated middle weight plus flavors are supported by a well-integrated acid spine and refreshing citrus nuances on the lingering finish. This is a quality Chassagne villages and worth considering.

2009 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. BH 93. A discreet touch of wood sets off aromas of dried rose petal, lemon grass and green apple that precede rich, full and obviously well-muscled big-bodied flavors that possess an intense minerality on the powerful, driving and palate staining finish that delivers simply terrific persistence. This imposing effort is most impressive and should offer up to a decade of potential improvement.

Potato leek soup. These soup amuses are kinda boring.

1999 Château d’Yquem. JG 93. I was very surprised to like the 1999 Yquem a bit better than I liked the 2001, as the vintage in general seems to be decidedly stronger in Sauternes in 2001. The 1999 Yquem offers up a complex and classic nose of toasted coconut, oranges, honey, butter, lovely soil tones, fresh apricot and a lovely framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and quite crisp, with lovely focus and balance, excellent mid-palate depth and a very long, bright and poised finish. A lovely bottle of Yquem.

Seared Foie gras with brioche and apples. An excellent seared prep, special ordered.

And served with the perfect pairing of d’Yquem!

1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Viña Tondonia.

Warm Octopus “Pouche-Grille”, Chermoula, Potato, Mache, Parsley, Lemon Vinaigrette. This was the weakest dish, overly warm and tough.

1999 Delas Frères Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette. VM 90+. Moderately saturated medium ruby. Roasted berries and leather on the rather shy nose. Juicy, firm and flinty on the palate; not nearly as full or explosive as the Cote-Rotie La Landonne but very nicely delineated and subtly aromatic in the mouth. Finishes very long, with fine but serious tannins.

Bandera Quail, Charred Onions, Fingerling Potato, Sage Soubise. This was tasty enough with a very strong char flavor.

1998 Le Petit Cheval. 89 points. Deep colour. And on the nose, deep fruit, seasoned with a little fresh garden mint and green peppercorn. This is fine. Integrating tannins on the palate which still provide a good structure, flavoured with a little coffee and mint. Delightfully structured wine, very approachable now, but will do some short term development I think.

Beef Tartare, wasabi, smoked avocado, crispy rice, herbs.

1997 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon. VM 94. Bright, dark red. Wild, sexy scents of raspberry, game, olive tapenade, pepper, cedar, mocha and mountain herbs are wonderfully perfumed and subtle. This firmly built, aromatic midweight Cabernet is not especially voluptuous or generous but has the energy and definition to continue to improve for years. Savory more than sweet but still with terrific dark fruit retention. This classic ageworthy wine (Old World comes to Spring Mountain?) still shows some reserve but is impeccably balanced. Finishes with perfectly buffered tannins and subtle rising length.

Mushroom agnolotti.

2002 Lail Vineyards J. Daniel Cuvée. 92 points. Not my type of wine. Big wine, might be more approachable in 5 – 10 years, but now it was way too big a wine for my taste. palate and nose dominated by cherries and chocolate, almost sweet. Wine was huge, good balance, tannins were resolved…just not my cup of tea.

Roasted Mushrooms, bone marrow, persilade, red wine, butter pastry. This was delicious. Like a mushroom pot pie.

Spaghetti Rustichella, white shrimp, uni butter, chili flake and garlic. Solid dish. Nice and buttery. Hint of spice.

Cast Iron Johnnycake, maple butter. Awesome!

Mac & Cheese, 4 cheeses, gouda, aged cheddar, reggiano, jack. Good, but a little dry.

1989 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. JG 93+. I have always been a fan of the 1989 Château Beaucastel, which I rank just behind the superb 1981 at this fine estate. The most recent bottle I tasted of this wine was still just a touch youthful, but offered up fine complexity on both the nose and palate and shows excellent promise. The bouquet is a blend of roasted fruitcake, cherries, new leather, venison, incipient notes of sous bois, woodsmoke and hot stones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and rock solid at the core, with a bit of tannin still to resolve, fine focus and grip and a very long, classy and slightly chewy finish. I would be tempted to give this wine a few more years to really resolve, as it will be a superb wine and it would be most enjoyable to drink it at the same plateau that the 1981 has been enjoying for a good decade already.

From my cellar: 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. JG 92+. The 1990 Château Beaucastel is a lovely wine and is just about ready for primetime drinking, but will continue to improve over the coming five or six years and then cruise along for decades from that point forward. The bouquet offers up a fine blend of dried raspberries and red currants, roasted game, incipient autumnal tones (fallen leaves) and a potpourri of spice tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and a touch leathery in personality, with a good core, melting tannins and fine length and grip on the complex finish. Having had the good fortune to drink several older vintages of Beaucastel at peak maturity, my gut instinct with the 1990 would be to let it rest in the cellar for just a few more years and allow the last layer of aromatic complexity to emerge here, though it must be said that the wine is really lovely on the palate right now.

2003 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 92. Dark red. Vibrant raspberry, blackberry, floral and spice aromas convey impressive purity and freshness. Supple and sweet, with deep red fruit flavors, hints of floral pastille and baking spices and gentle tannins. This wine has more grenache than usual for the property, which makes it one of the most graceful (despite the hot vintage) wines I’ve had from the Perrins. Clean and energetic on the finish, which echoes the red fruit and floral qualities. A touch of heat takes my score down a hair, but this is Chateauneuf, after all. I scored this wine 93 points on release.

Game Trio with Emu, Elk, and Bison.

Game Quadro adding in Water Buffalo.

Braised Bison Short Rib, smoked miso-potato puree, blistered asparagus, peppery jelly.

Water Buffalo Loin, dates, brown butter, brussels sprouts, grapes, juniper, blackberry.

Amaroo Farms Emu Strip, balsamic onions, potato, spinach, red wine jus.

Elk Tenderloin, bacon jam, cranberry, crispy yam strings.

Left over from the night before.

8oz Filet Mignon, mushroom, potato puree, pea greens, cider glazed carrots & turnips.

New Zealand Lamb Rack, smoked miso potatoes, blistered asparagus, pepper jam.

French fries.

Dessert menu.

1971 Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva. 92 points. Seb brought this and didn’t even know it was super sweet. It was great though!
Cappuccino Cream, hazelnut fudge & cocoa crumble.

Banana & huckleberry bread pudding, Tahitian Vanilla bean ice cream.

Valrhona Brownie, chocolate cremeux caramelized white chocolate, raspberry, bourbon barrel ice cream.

Sorbet. Coconut, blackberry, and I can’t remember. Nice texture but way too mild in flavor.

This night was typical of Saddlepeak in recent years. Food is good. Prices are a bit high. Service is super nice and they really try — but the format isn’t perfect for wine dinners. I’d rather do it in family style waves rather than a few huge courses.

Our wines were mixed tonight with many very good but a few flawed.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foie gras, Meat, Saddle Peak Lodge, Wine

Vega Sicilia – Hearth and Hound

Dec10

Restaurant: Hearth & Hound

Location: 6530 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 320-4022

Date: November 18, 2017

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Amazing wine and really good food

Liz Lee at Sage Society organizes some of the most amazing wine maker dinners and this night of Vega Sicilia is no exception.

The dinner took place at Hearth and Hound which is opening in the old Cat & Fiddle space in Hollywood — but it wasn’t even open yet. Still, the chef and crew beta tested (superbly) on us.

There is a gorgeous patio here that I failed to photograph well.

We have a few stems for the night — one for each wine and all individually labeled.

The inside has been completely redone.

Everyone is jumping on the “Asador” (wood fire grill) bandwagon these days.

Lamb legs spinning in front of the fire.

Octopus legs.

Mushrooms ready to cook.

And other prep.
Including cauliflower.

Tonight’s special menu.

All the wines are from Vega Sicilia except for this intro Champagne (they don’t make champ).

NV Petit & Bajan Champagne Grand Cru Ambrosie Brut.

Parmesan Beignet. Chickpea flower I think, as I was told they were gluten free.
Whipped Cod Toast. This was my favorite amuse. A nice briney quality.

Shigoku Oyster. Garlic.

We were situated in the private room — of course we had the whole restaurant so that didn’t matter tonight. The room was fairly open though and connected to the kitchen and as such the white noise drone of the hood was fairly loud.

Liz stands and presents our honored guests.

Pablo Álvarez, owner of Spain’s greatest estate, Vega Sicilia.

On the right is Taylor Parsons, former wine director at Republique and a friend of Liz. He coordinated the wine service for the evening. Behind him is some of Liz’s staff and the restaurant managers. Apparently Make D of the Beastie Boys helps with the wine list too! Whacky.

Brit April Bloomfield of New York’s the Spotted Pig is a partner and helms the kitchen here at Hearth & Hound. She is partnered with Ken Friedman.

2012 Bodegas Pintia Toro Pintia. VM 93. Bright violet. Suave oak-spiced black and blue fruit, pipe tobacco and floral pastille aromas are complicated by mocha and vanilla flourishes. Plush and broad on the palate, offering sweet cassis and blackberry flavors that tighten up slowly on the back half. Rich yet surprisingly energetic in style, finishing sweet, sappy and impressively long; youthful tannins add framework and grip.

agavin: very fresh and fruity. 300k bottles made. Tinto del toro (which is a kind of tempranillo). Mixed American and French oak for 10 months.

2013 Bodegas y Viñedos Alión Ribera del Duero. JG 91. I routinely bought a case of Alion for my cellar each vintage for the first several years after Vega Sicilia started this project, but as the years rolled by, I somehow lost track of this wine and was delighted when the team at Vega sent the new vintage in my box of samples. The 2013 Alion is comprised entirely of tempranillo and raised in new French wood. The wine is ripe at 14.5 percent octane, but also refined and beautifully balanced. The bouquet offers up a classy blend of black cherries, plums, cocoa powder, cigar wrapper, a fine base of soil and smoky, nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and nicely transparent in profile, with a good core, fine focus and grip, ripe tannins and good length and grip on the well-balanced finish. This wine is beautifully made in its style, with the new wood very well done and the ripeness level managed with dexterity.

agavin: French oak for 12-14 months.

2012 Bodegas y Viñedos Alión Ribera del Duero. VM 93. Opaque ruby. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe dark berries, violet, licorice, pipe tobacco and toasty oak, and a suave mineral flourish adds vivacity. Sweet, seamless and broad on the palate, offering powerful cassis, cherry-vanilla and floral pastille flavors that become livelier and more spicy as the wine opens up. Distinctly rich but graceful as well, showing zero excess fat and no rough edges. Closes impressively long and sappy, with sneaky tannins adding gentle grip. This bodega, which is owned by the Vega Sicilia group, has been on a serious quality roll in recent vintages.

Wood-Roasted Cauliflower. Marinated with romesco. Very Spanish, and in some ways very much influenced by the asador style. Crisp and yet lightly pickled it was quite delicious. Very bright flavors.

2012 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 93. Opaque ruby. Primary dark berry and cherry scents are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, coconut, cured tobacco and cedary oak and accented by a suave floral topnote. Sappy, concentrated and expansive in the mouth, offering sweet black raspberry, cherry-vanilla and candied licorice flavors that are supported by a spine of juicy acidity. Unfolds slowly with air, picking up a spicy quality that carries through the very long, gently tannic finish, which echoes the cherry and coconut notes. Hands off this one for at least a few more years.

2011 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Inky ruby. Sexy, high-pitched dark berry and floral pastille aromas are complemented by suggestions of oak spices and smoky minerals. Shows a surprisingly light touch on the palate, offering sharply focused blackberry, bitter cherry, licorice candy and floral pastille flavors that deepen and become sweeter with air. Harmonious tannins add grip to the extremely long, sappy finish, which leaves behind notes of dark berry preserves and candied lavender.

2010 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 95. Opaque ruby. Powerful, deeply pitched red and dark berry preserve, incense and floral pastille scents are enlivened by an intense mineral quality. Concentrated yet strikingly vibrant and focused on the palate, showing bitter cherry, black raspberry and vanilla flavors that spread out with air while maintaining urgency. An extremely long, sweet, penetrating finish features velvety, harmonious tannins that provide gentle grip to the wine’s sappy berry fruit and candied lavender qualities. This stunning wine was aged for 18 months in new oak, half of it American and half of it French. I can’t recall a better version of this bottling at this stage of its development and I hesitate to apply an arbitrary drinking window here as I’m sure that it will outlive me.

2009 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Opaque ruby. Spice- and mineral-accented aromas of dark berries, cherry pit and potpourri, with a toasty topnote. Minerally, incisive and sweet on the palate, offering smoky cherry and blackcurrant flavors complicated by vanilla, mocha and licorice. Shows impressive power and vivacity on the youthfully tannic finish, with the smoke and spice notes strongly repeating.

Grilled octopus with puree and basil oil. Super tender. Very nice tentacle.

2008 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Vega Sicilia’s 2008 Tinto Valbuena 5 Anos is compelling. A young, intense wine, the 2008 is going to need significant time to fully come together, but it boasts superb depth, persistence and a total sense of harmony. Hints of cedar, tobacco and sweet spices wrap around an intense core of dark fruit.

agavin: these “older” Valbuenas have more Merlot and Malbec in them.

2007 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 93. Ruby-red. Aromas of dried cherry, raspberry, vanilla, mocha and Cuban tobacco, with smoke and potpourri accents. Supple and expansive, offering sweet, spice-accented red and dark berry and floral pastille flavors that stain the palate. Dusty tannins add shape and grip to the very long, smooth, penetrating finish. I find this wine quite approachable now but it has the balance to age. Not the weightiest Valbuena but very impressive for the vintage.

2006 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Deep ruby. Heady, exotic bouquet evokes candied cherry, cassis, sassafras, vanilla and potpourri, plus a smoky overtone. Sappy and expansive but energetic, offering sweet cherry and floral pastille flavors lifted by spice and mineral notes. Gains sweetness with air and finishes with superb clarity and spicy persistence. This benefits enormously from aeration but really should be stashed away for at least another five years.

Seared duck breast with pumpkin. Rather delicious and gamey.

2008 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 96. Opaque ruby. Powerful, expansive aromas of cherry liqueur, cassis, pipe tobacco, incense and pungent flowers show outstanding clarity and pick up a smoky mineral quality with air. Stains the palate with concentrated dark berry, bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors that are complicated by notes of mocha, cola and Indian spices. Distinctly generous in style but there’s outstanding energy here as well. The gently tannic, dark-fruit-dominated finish emphatically echoes the spice and floral notes and lingers with striking persistence. Production for this bottling was cut by over half in this challenging vintage and the result shows what can happen when severe selection is applied in the vineyard and cellar. Speaking of tough years, the 2002 version of this iconic wine, from a vintage that has been ignored at best and vilified at worst, is drinking beautifully right now. In fact, it appears to have just entered its drinking window: its fruit is still a bit on the youthful side while its tannins have begun to recede. Like this 2008, it’s a textbook example of what great vineyards, diligent farming and serious winemaking can accomplish under difficult circumstances.

agavin: Unico is released very late, only in good years, and is 85% tinto (Tempranillo) and some Cabernet.

2007 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 93. Vivid ruby-red. Spice- and mineral-accented redcurrant, cherry, cured tobacco and candied rose on the highly perfumed nose. A juicy, sharply focused midweight offering lively red fruit and floral pastille flavors and earthy suggestions of chewing tobacco and succulent herbs. In a graceful, energetic style (due to the cool vintage, no doubt), with strong finishing cut, resonating floral character and velvety tannins coming in late to add shape and grip. A successful wine for the vintage, no question.

2005 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 97. Saturated ruby. Explosively perfumed aromas of fresh ripe red fruits, floral oils, pipe tobacco and incense take on sexy vanilla and woodsmoke nuances as the wine opens up. Densely packed yet shockingly lithe on the palate, offering intense cherry liqueur, red currant and spicecake flavors given spine by a core of juicy acidity. Shows superb energy and clarity, finishing sweet, smoky and extremely long; velvety tannins add gentle grip.

2003 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 95. Inky ruby. Highly aromatic scents of ripe cherry and dark berries, singed plum, cured tobacco and succulent herbs, with a vanilla undertone. Sweet, expansive and powerful, offering intense black and blue fruit flavors with smoke and floral accents. Rich and full but surprisingly lively, with excellent finishing thrust and sweet, harmonious tannins adding grip. Shows the ripeness of the vintage to good effect; this is a somewhat approachable and exotic Unico, especially with some air, but it has the concentration to age slowly.

2002 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 92. Bright ruby. Smoky, floral-accented aromas of redcurrant, cherry pit and plum, with a peppery topnote. Sweet and open-knit, offering musky red fruit and floral pastille flavors and notes of mocha and succulent herbs. Shows very good depth and power for the vintage, finishing smooth, sweet and long. Not the greatest Vega by any means but highly successful for 2002, and you can actually enjoy it right now.

Dry aged beef ribeye. Definitely could taste the age. Nice mushrooms with it too.

The glasses keep adding up.

And the piece de resistance: lamb.

Plus potatoes bravos.

The whole team worked to assemble this dish.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 2003, 2004, 2006 (2017 Release). VM 96. Vivid ruby-red. Ripe cherry, dark berries, cigar box, vanilla bean and incense on the deeply perfumed, expansive nose. Shows impressive weight and breadth on the palate, offering sappy blackberry, candied cherry and spicecake flavors complicated by hints of rose pastille, vanilla and licorice. The smooth, strikingly long finish shows a seamless quality and repeating floral and dark berry notes that build as the wine opens up. While this wine has plenty going on right now, I’ve no doubt that it will enjoy a long, positive evolution as well.

agavin: next to the “regular” unicos you can taste how much more powerful and broad the blended reservas are — they are amazing.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1994, 1995, 2000 (2014 Release). 95 points. Extremely concentrated with aromas of leather, blackberry, vanilla, butter. One of the best oaked young wines iv’e tasted. Outstanding quality with high potential for agening, 95p at least, higher score for the future.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1994, 1999, 2000 (2013 Release). 95 points. Nose of plumbs, chocolate, vanilla and tobacco. Rich complex palate. Lovely.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1991, 1994, 1999 (2012 Release). 93 points. Savory nose of umami, freshly plucked seaweed, and a beguiling mix of coffee bean, dark spices and blackberry juice. Medium toward full-bodied at first, this adds weight but also elegance with each successive glass, thanks to abundant acidity and seamlessly layered fruits. A joy to drink now, with great upside as well. Ideally, I would/will try again in 5 years, if possible. Still scratching my head at just how approachable this is today, yet with obvious structure for the long run as well.

Lamb leg a la Ficelle. Potatoes bravos. Apparently Ficelle is wood fire cooked while spinning. Super delicious lump of lamb. There was a lot left over and I could have eaten 3 of these.

1982 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 98. Even better than the 1990, the 1982 Unico is simply one of the very best wines I have tasted in some time. Powerful, fleshy and full of energy, the 1982 Unico is another wine that is almost overwhelmingly beautiful. A striking mélange of savory herbs, smoke and tobacco add complexity, but the 1982 is about the total package. And the 1982 has it all going on. In a word: Magnificent.

agavin: our bottle unfortunately wasn’t drinking at its best. It wasn’t bad or anything, but just a little flat.

1970 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 94. The 1970 is the most subtle of these Unicos, although I have tasted fresher examples. Delicate and perfumed throughout, the 1970 is laced with the essence of crushed flowers, tobacco, dried cherries and mint.

agavin: our bottle was amazing. Fresh, young, tight even, but massively powerful and delicious.

Ossau-Iraty cheese and roll.

2007 Oremus Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos. 94 points. The bouquet was deep and rich with notes of ripe peach, mango, plum, dried flowers and hints sweet herbs. On the palate a velvety wave of textures was offset by stunning acidity, ripe tropical fruits, sweet inner florals and spiced apple. It finished unbelievably long with a contrast of rich textures, tart citrus and zesty acidity.

agavin: tons of acidity and hence really delicious

Rush Creek Reserve cheese. Not too far off from a vaucheron. Like cultured butter.

My cryptic notes.

The wine lineup.

Taylor tastes all the bottles and puts out a glass of each for the staff.

The final glass count.
They didn’t use this for our meal, but they have the same Carpigiani batch freezer (for making gelato/ice cream) that I have in my basement for my experiments on Sweet Milk.

Overall, the food was great. I’m not sure what’s on the menu normally, as this was a very Spanish inflected meal — which worked perfectly with all that Vega Sicilia, of course. And the wines were amazing, particularly the Reserva’s.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: April Bloomfield, Hearth & Hound, Hollywood, Ken Friedman, Liz Lee, Meat, Pablo Álvarez, Sage Society, Taylor Parsons, The Hearth & Hound, The Hearth & Hound review, Unico, Vega Sicilia, Wine

Chance Meating

Nov03

Restaurant: Meat on Ocean

Location: 1501 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 773-3366

Date: September 26, 2017

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Solid fare, good service

Meat on Ocean replaces the old i. Cugini on Ocean Ave. That storied Italian place was around for 20+ years (I even went on an early date there with my wife). It was (and still is) owned by the Watergrill group but has rebooted as a mid/high-end steakhouse. Tonight is a special small informal dinner featuring GIANT and RARE Australian Shiraz.

They have opened up the patio space which is great to see as this is one of the most appealing outside strips in the city, almost reminiscent of Miami’s South Beach.

The build out was extensive and looks great.

And it continues inside.

One of their “things” is that they age their own beef and make the cuts in the morning. To that effect they have this serious aging room.

Check out the old cow.

The menu.

The festivities begin with our old favorite, courtesy of Ron: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse.

Tasty milk buns.

A round of oysters. Meat is owned and operated by the Watergrill group so the seafood comes from there.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 94. Knockout perfume of soft citrus fruits, menthol, wet stone and white truffle. Densely packed, saline and seamless; deceptively approachable today owing to its sheer richness and depth of flavor and its very long, sweet aftertaste. But this utterly primary wine has the stuffing for aging. Boillot recommends drinking it in the next year or so or holding it for seven or eight years; he’s convinced the wine will be totally closed in two years.

Maryland Blue Crab Cocktail. Crushed avocado, roasted tomatoes, lemon mayo. The saltines (and very few at that) are in interesting touch. The meat itself was very good, if a bit mayo-infused.

Wild Jump Mexican Shrimp. Good shrimp but pretty much what you expect looking at it.

Duck Rillettes. Fig jam and goat cheese. A great pate, particularly with both the jam and cheese.

From my cellar (I didn’t have big Aussies): 1998 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. VM 95. Bright red-ruby. Brilliant aromas of strawberry, raspberry, cherry and bitter chocolate. Wonderfully intense, sharply delineated flavors of red berries, spices and mint; a wine of great density and verve, not to mention powerful structure for long life. A rare combination of silky texture and lightness of touch. Fabulous back end features utterly suave tannins and resounding, vibrant fruit.

agavin: spectacular

Charcuterie plate with Chorizo soria, mortadella, prosciutto di parma, lomo and speck. Plus various pickles and mustards etc.

Crunchy Iceberg Wedge. Bacon and blue cheese dressing. A decent wedge. Nice strong creamy dressing and a virtual slab bacon.

We asked for and received some bonus blue cheese.

Little gem. Grilled per, avocado, buttermilk dressing. Some might call this overdressed.

Baby romaine caesar. grana padano and house crutons. Ron didn’t like this at all. They aren’t using real Parmagiano, instead a grana (similar type of cheese from a slightly different region).

The parade of super rare Chris Ringland Shiraz begins.

1998 Chris Ringland Shiraz. VM 96+. Saturated purple-ruby to the rim. Perfumed, exotic aromas of darkest berries, graphite, sandalwood, mace, nutmeg and roasted herbs. A wine of incredible verve and spicy intensity; like a fruit essence today, with literally painful concentration. Conveys a saline impression of pure extract. A remarkable combination of sweetness and vibrancy. Palate-staining finish features great persistence and snap. Already brilliant but capable of a long and glorious evolution in bottle. Alas, there are only four barrels of this elixir.

Parker 100. The Chris Ringland (formerly known as Three Rivers Shiraz), which is aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, and is rarely racked until bottling, represents an extraordinary expression of Barossa Shiraz. The perfect 1998, made from a single, 88-year-old vineyard cropped at one ton of fruit per acre, soaked up its wood component as if it is not even present. It boasts a sumptuous texture, great delineation, and a huge fragrance of bacon fat, blackberry liqueur, creme de cassis, toast, espresso roast, and hints of chocolate as well as pepper. Full-bodied yet remarkably well-delineated and fresh, this stunning wine is still a baby, but it promises to evolve for two decades or more.

More fancy boxes.

1999 Chris Ringland Shiraz. Parker 98. The Chris Ringland (formerly known as Three Rivers Shiraz), is aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, and is rarely racked until bottling, represents an extraordinary expression of Barossa Shiraz. The intense 1999, released in 2004, demonstrates that this vintage is somewhat underrated after all the hype over 1998. From a vineyard planted in 1910, its inky/purple color is accompanied by aromas of lavender, lard, smoke, licorice, blackberries, cassis, espresso roast, chocolate, and pepper. Full-bodied, slightly less voluminous than the perfect 1998, with an unctuous texture, sweet tannin, and a 70+ second finish, this magnificent, still young Shiraz should be accessible in 3-5 years, and last for two decades.

And more

2000 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 97. It is clearly the Barossa wine of the vintage, and has put on considerable weight since it was bottled. This stunning cuvee, which used to be known as the Three Rivers Shiraz, was aged 33 months in new French 300 liter hogsheads. A beautiful bouquet of crushed rocks, white flowers, blueberries, blackberries, incense, and subtle pain grille is followed by a rich, full-bodied red revealing supple tannin as well as tremendous texture and richness, and more depth and intensity than it did last year. By Chris Ringland’s standards, it is quite approachable, and should age beautifully for 10-15 years.

Packed in straw.

2001 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 100. The monumental 2001 Shiraz, from a 91-year old vineyard, spent 43 months in new French 300-liter hogsheads. The result is a compelling wine of great richness, flavor breadth, and length. An inky/blue/purple color is accompanied by extraordinary scents of flowers, blackberries, blueberries, and cassis as well as hints of espresso roast, truffles, roasted meats, and incense. This sexy, beautifully balanced, loaded Shiraz should keep for three decades or more.

agavin: an absolute monster, so big that a WEEK LATER we tried a bit of it left over (and in Yarom’s fridge) and it was still great! (although not as integrated). The alcohol is almost 17%.

Larry brought: 2006 Torbreck The Laird. Parker 99. Deep garnet colored, the 2006 The Laird offers a multi-faceted nose of ripe black berries, blueberry preserves and kirsch aromas with an underlying perfume of baking spices, lavender, cinnamon stick and cloves plus some savory / earthy nuances, including bacon, black tea, tobacco and forest floor. The palate is full bodied and densely packed with fruit, savory and earth flavors while supported by a firm level of very fine-grained tannins and refreshing acidity. It finishes very long and while already incredibly complex, promises a lot more to come. Consider drinking it 2014 to 2026+.

Specially selected cut of aged (30 or 45 day, not sure) Bone-in Ribeye.

Some sauces.

Full rack of sugar cured Baby Back Pork Ribs. Great ribs actually.

Grilled Maitake Mushroom. Balsamic soy glaze and shaved parmesan. To help mobilize things.

Colorado rack of lamb. Very salty and seasoned but absolutely delicious.

House made French Fries.

Moo.

Some info on the cow.

The dessert menu.

2000 Árvay János Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos. 93 points. Wow! This is (finally) really coming into its own. Big juicy apricot & marmelade notes supported by strong acidity that manages to balance the sweetness Outstanding dessert wine!

1998 Müller-Catoir Mußbacher Eselshaut Riesling Eiswein. 92 points. I had expected just a touch more from this Müller-Catoir Eiswein, but the wine’s more powerfully built personality seems to have taken just a bit of elegance and vibrancy out of the customary Eiswein equation. This is still a very good bottle by any stretch of the imagination, but I simply was hoping for a bit more. The bouquet is a powerful blend of pineapple, sweet grapefruit, papaya, Pfalz soil tones and a bit of straw in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and impeccably balanced in its muscular style, with brisk acids and fine length and grip on the finish. The wine at age eleven is complex, well-balanced and drinking well, and others may find this a hair better than I did, but for my palate, a bit more elegance and refinement would have been nice additions.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sundae. Peanut butter ice cream. Fresh raspberries. Good stuff. Reminds me of my even better peanut butter and jelly gelato.

Pistachio Creme Brulee. Bitter chocolate, candied pistachios.

Rotisserie Pineapple. Vanilla and red chili caramel, sweet cream ice cream.

Overall, a very nice dinner. Food was very solid. Not super innovative for a steakhouse like Alexander’s or anything, but quite good. Wines were AMAZING and I don’t even like giant extracted wines (but these were just over the top good). Service was fabulous. No corkage at Meat and they really took great care of us.

Yarom with the manager, Veronica!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Chris Ringland, Dessert, hedonists, lamb, Meat, Meat on Ocean, Wine

Seconds at Chi Spacca

May29

Restaurant: Chi Spacca [1, 2]

Location: 6610 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 297-1133

Date: April 17, 2017

Cuisine: Italian Steakhouse

Rating: Rich but delicious, a carnivore’s paradise

The little Mozza empire on Melrose now includes the Pizzeria, the Osteria, Chi Spacca, and Mozza 2 go. They do a great job with all their restaurants but their annoying corkage policy (2 bottles per table!) has limited my ability to attend. I only go to this sort of place with my wine groups (my wife being a near vegetarian) and so the limits make it near impossible. But anyway we managed to organize a small group after months of planning.

Chop chop.

The menu.

The small room.

The smoky in the room grill.

I ordered this off the menu.

2015 Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica. 91 points. Bright and crisp, very minerally. Nice summer wine. Great food wine too.

Grilled Octopus. pureed & fried ceci, parsley leaf. Very soft tender octopus. Basically as good as grilled octopus gets (which is pretty good).

From my cellar: 1974 Gaja Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo. 95 points. One of the stars in this tasting, the 1974 Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo is quite a bit fresher and also more powerful than the 1971. A huge core of fruit hits the palate, followed by savory herbs, leather, tobacco and smoke. The 1974 remains powerful and virile, with fabulous intensity for a wine of its age and a compelling interplay of tertiary nuance, dense fruit and plenty of structure to back it all up. Readers lucky enough to still own the 1974 can look forward to another 5-10 years of very fine drinking.

Focaccia di Recco. Fett’unta. Super light, crispy cheese “pizza.”

See the cheese, feel the cheese. Very very salty though.

Smoked burrata & roasted parsnips. garlic, thyme, honey. Okay, but arguably the most disappointing dish tonight (most were awesome).

1995 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. Big!

“Moorish” lamb shoulder chop. mint yogurt, cilantro.

mint yogurt.

A special salad of citrus, kiwi, etc.

2005 Château Cos d’Estournel. VM 97. I have been fortunate to taste the 2005 Cos d’Estournel three times in recent weeks and it has never been anything less than stunningly beautiful, as it is once again on this night. The interplay of dark, ripe fruit and the more mineral, savory-inflected nuances typical of Saint-Estèphe yield a compelling, wonderfully complete Bordeaux that simply has it all. An exotic mélange of graphite, gravel, smoke, cured meats and dark-fleshed fruits flow through to the explosive finish. Riveting today, the 2005 Cos will continue to thrill those fortunate enough to own it for several decades. Given its price vis-à-vis many of the high-flying wines of the year, the 2005 Cos remains a terrific relative value in its class.

Costata alla Florentina. Dry-aged bone-in New York steak. Solid beef.
2000 Harlan estate. VM 93-96. he 2000 Harlan Estate is in a beautiful place today. Soft, open-knit and nicely mellowed by age, the 2000 is absolutely gorgeous, with soft contours to match is engaging personality. Mocha, black cherries, leather and spice are all quite forward in this succulent Harlan Estate. The 2000 might not be a profound Harlan Estate, but it is a striking wine that is peaking today and that should continue to drink well for at least another few years.

Tomahawk Pork Chop. fennel pollen. The top (far) part is the pork chop itself, wonderfully tender and with a lovely flavor. The bottom long parts are the pork belly, similar flavor but WAY richer.

Roasted cauliflower. crushed lemon bagna cauda. Excellent!

Roasted potatoes. Lardo, rosemary. Flower of sliced crispy potatoes.

2004 Harlan Estate. VM 95+. Bright ruby-red. Superripe aromas of raspberry, currant and tropical dark chocolate. Sweet, lush and large-scaled, hinting at surmaturite and compellingly mouthfilling without coming across as heavy. This extremely ripe wine’s high pH seems fully buffered by huge dry extract. Finishes with big but lush tannins and outstanding palate-staining persistence. A bit port-like but with mineral and licorice notes giving it definition and grip.

Beef & bone marrow pie. beef cheek, cippolini, funghi. Wow! Like the ultimate beef pot pie — and I mean ultimate. Salty, though, like almost everything here.

Mashed potatoes.
The dessert menu.

1986 Château d’Yquem. 96 points. Deep honeyed gold colour. Nose of burnt carameled toffee, soaped new leather car seats and shoe leather, white shoe cream, apricots…very suave but complex. Palate is gorgeously honeyed, rounded, almondy burnished copper and with a medium-cut acidity to stop it getting cloying. Tooth-coating. Massive head-expanding resonance and reverberance and all so smooth-edged… quite silence creating. Wow! Hard to stop sipping. It just gets more head-expanding with more time in the glass and the mouth.

Banana cream slab. hot caramel. Even I loved this, and I hate bananas.

Butterscotch Budino. sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies. OMG, I love these creamy puddings. I ordered an extra too just for myself.

Cocoa Nib Caramel Tart. whipped creme fraiche. Rich.

Seasonal Gelati & Sorbetti. Pistachio and I can’t remember what else.

Seasonal Gelati & Sorbetti. Passionfruit (great) and others.

Overall, I thought the food at Chi Spacca was quite awesome, if not exactly authentically Italian. Certainly more to my taste than any normal steakhouse. They should import some pastas over from Mozza though :-). From the menu I thought prices looked crazy, but the total turned out to be reasonable ($130 a person before tip) even though we went to town. Really to town as the above was for 6 people! It was salty though. Extremely salty.

Service was great too, and the atmosphere fun. My only complaint is with the bottle limit. The $30 corkage is fine. But the 2 bottle hard limit, apparently strictly enforced, is quiet annoying. It totally breaks down for wine dinners. Their list has interesting Italians, but the wines are too young. Plus I just resent having to buy off wine lists altogether (beyond the occasional white or rose). If they priced a fixed $30-50 markup, and had my kind of wines, it would be fine, but they always use a multiplicative markup. I’m not paying $400-600 for a $200 bottle!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chi Spacca, Corkage, Gaja, hedonists, Italian Cusine, Meat, Steak, Wine

Grasping Gwen

Feb21

Restaurant: Gwen

Location: 6600 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 946-7500

Date: February 8, 2017

Cuisine: Butcher Shop modern?

Rating: not bad, but expensive and weird format

It seems everyone is opening a “butcher shop / restaurant” these days. Certainly Curtis Stone’s Gwen opened with a big splash last year but I didn’t go because they had a strict no outside bottles wine policy. I just don’t buy from wine lists, and certainly not high markup lists. That’s not saying there is anything at all wrong with selling wine at a restaurant — we sell wine at ours — but I just own too many bottles and need to work on “culling the herd.”

Anyway, recently our Hedonist group arranged a dinner at Gwen where we were allowed to bring our wines, so I was excited to try the place out. I enjoyed sister restaurant Maude, even if its annoying reservation system (and somewhat less strict but still irritating wine policy) has lead me not to go very often. Maude is so busy you have to call on a Saturday 1-2 months in advance and grab whatever you can. I don’t plan that far ahead :-).

The Gwen build out is very mid 2000 teens. Lovely though.

The meats certainly look “meaty” (and good).

It’s even got a real wood fired asador!

We dined upstairs at the well stocked bar.

Now the menu is odd. Curtis Stone seems to love weird formats. Maude has that one ingredient / one menu / one month thing. Gwen has an even stranger format. At the bar there is some ala carte ordering, but at tables you get a kind of unusual fixed menu. It reminds me slightly of Valentine’s day menus at fancy places. A bunch of courses, most of which are very small. Then there is sort of an “almost an entree” and the option to pile on some really expensive shared steaks. There isn’t a lot of flexibility.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse.

Now bear in mind that we were a table of 10-12 people and that each of the pictured plates was shared by multiple people. I will designate the sharing factor. Technically each of these items is a “course.”

Pretzel Bread (one roll each). Nice bread (but it’s bread).

Chorizo spread (about 2″ in diameter, shared by 2-3 people). A decent meaty spread. A little heat. Not a ton of it, but considering the size of the bread… more than sufficient.

Dr. Dave brought: 2002 Jean Boillot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. VM 93-96. Superripe, highly aromatic nose of cling peach and clove, with no obtrusive oakiness. Explosive, sappy, peachy fruit is superconcentrated and rich but impressively dry. Perhaps less expressive today than the Clos de la Mouchere but this has grand cru intensity and class, and great sappy freshness and energy. Extremely long and fine on the aftertaste.

agavin: great Burg for the price.

Jacob brought: 1999 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. VM 92. Sexy nose of peach, butter and smoky oak. Rich, sweet and pliant but with firm supporting spine. Very silky wine enlivened by succulent acidity. Classic Folatieres, very long and firm on the aftertaste.

agavin: our bottle was a bit corky

From my cellar: 2006 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. BH 96. A reserved, indeed even reluctant nose of fresh and stony green fruit and citrus aromas that offer real depth leads to precise, minerally and exceptionally powerful full-bodied flavors that possess huge amounts of dry extract on the hugely long finish. This is still sorting itself out but the quality of the raw materials is impeccable and it possesses impressive potential, which will require at least a decade to realize. One of the finest examples from this appellation in the 2006 vintage.

agavin: nice, but still a bit hot and young

Duck Rillette, Tete de Cochon, Foie Gras Terrine, toast (shared by 3 people). These were all very nice bits of cured meats, but cutting them up 3 ways wasn’t the easiest. Plus I ran out of bread after about 2 of them. Note, sort of counts as “3 courses.”

Finoccina, Negroni, Coppa, Fuet? (shared by 3 people). Each salami was excellent, too bad they were about the size of a Necco Wafer.

From my cellar: 1993 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. VM 92+. Good deep youthful red. Quintessential briary Bonnes-Mares aromas of raspberry, roasted currant, mocha and menthol. Penetrating flavors of black cherry, flowers and mint; insinuating, ripe acids give the wine terrific verve and lift. Finishes long, vibrant and youthful, with firm but round tannins. Quite rich but not as concentrated or long as the ’96. “The crop size was down due to mildew. The aromas remind me of red Burgundies from 1953.

agavin: young and spicy

Seb brought: 2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Blue-Slide Ridge Vineyard. BH 78. Here the nose offers a different aromatic composition of menthol and extremely ripe red pinot fruit though the same melted vinyl note is annoyingly present. There is fine richness and density to the round broad-shouldered and robust flavors that possess an admirable amount of dry extract but the finish is noticeably bitter and even warmer. An imbalanced and difficult wine to enjoy.

agavin: I didn’t hate it as much as Meadows, but still: “Fake Pinot!”

Jacob brought: 1986 Domaine Robert Jayer-Gilles Echezeaux. Nice

Salad (1 per person, about 3″ across), buttermilk dressing. The salad was tasty. Tiny, but tasty. I liked the buttermilk.

Yarom brought: 1960 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Ygay Reserva. 95 points. Great bottle. One of the best reds of the night.

Gnocchi, smoked ham hock, salsify, black truffle. (1 per person, about 2″ across).

Someone had raved about the (tiny) pasta course from a previous visit. This one was just nice. I prefer a real plate of soft gnocchi. This had nice flavors, but it was small.

We got our knives in a box.

2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95. Dark red. Exotic, even flamboyant on the nose, which displays strong red berry preserve, candied cherry, mineral and floral scents. Round and juicy, with deep red fruit flavors and a strong note of licorice. This is showing even more energy today than it did on release. Lush and sweet on the finish, leaving behind spicecake and cherry notes. I rated this wine 94 points on release and now think that I was stingy.

2007 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95+. Deep ruby. Powerful, pungent aromas of kirsch, dark berries, smoky herbs and spicecake, with notes of black olive and tobacco coming on with air. Chewy, palate-staining dark fruit flavors are complicated by bitter chocolate, licorice and black cardamom. Acts like a 2005 today, with serious structure but also superb depth of powerful, densely packed fruit. A hint of cherry skin adds grip and refreshing bitterness to the long, smoky, focused finish. Not an easy read right now: this demands cellaring.

2003 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. VM 92. Deep, saturated ruby. Intensely spicy aromas of blackberry, bitter cherry, tobacco and minerals, with a complicating note of black pepper that became more pronounced with air. This is quite fresh and lively for the vintage, showing tangy red and dark berry flavors and a solid, chewy texture. Finishes with considerable finesse.

2003 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon. VM 95. Bright, deep red. Spicy, vibrant and tangy nose offers redcurrant, wild strawberry and minerally raspberry tones. Impressively fresh and nervy on the palate, with lift and thrust to the exuberant red fruit tones. As this opens in the glass, the fruit tones take a darker turn toward blackberry and cassis, also picking up notes of graphite and licorice. The deeply concentrated, spicy and wonderfully long, sweet finish is framed by huge but remarkably integrated tannins.

Ocean Trout. Finger lime, shiso, pumpernickel (shared by 5-6 people!). Now the size was a problem, and was probably the fault of our ordering. We should have had 2 of each type of entree for our table of 5, but we ordered 1 of each (don’t ask). As it was I got a morsel about the size of a piece of nigiri. It was very tender.

Boneless shortrib. Braised and grilled (shared by 5-6 people). Yep, tasty but not enough!

Fire Roasted Pork. Glazed cheek, grilled rack, smoked belly. (again shared by 5-6!). Hard to get a taste of everything except for the cheek.

Sides. (shared by 3 or more people). Cauliflower, smoky eggplant? These were decent, but again so little it was hard to remember the taste.

1997 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. VM 93-95. Healthy saturated dark red. Very deep, musky, alluring aromas of roasted plum, dark cherry, nutty oak, mocha, leather and truffle. A seriously outsized Napa Cabernet with a compellingly plush texture but still with a juicy shape to it. This slightly warm wine can’t quite match the 1995 for complexity or energy but it makes for a mouthfilling meal substitute. Slightly dusty tannins reach the incisors.

2000 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon RBS Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard. Big!

1985 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. JG 96+. I can distinctly recall from my early days in the wine trade the release of the 1985 Martha’s Vineyard, which was eagerly anticipated after it was announced that this was the first vintage to be graced with a special label since the legendary 1974. This was at the height of the winery’s popularity and the 1985 Martha’s was an extremely difficult bottle to come by at the time of its release. Consequently, I had not seen a bottle in many years and was delighted to see it included in our vertical at the winery in June. The wine is flat out brilliant, as it soars from the glass in a mélange of black cherries, saddle leather, a great base of soil tones, eucalyptus, smoke, incipient notes of petroleum jelly and a very gentle framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and powerful, with a rock solid core of fruit, great complexity, moderate tannins and a very long, perfectly balanced, tangy and palate-staining finish. This is a very intense vintage of Martha’s that is decidedly younger than the 1987 for instance, and still demands plenty of cellaring time. It will clearly prove to be a legendary vintage of Martha’s and certainly has earned its special label.

Bone-in Ribeye. 30 day dry aged Creekstone farms. (we had 3 for 11 people). This is what filled us up. And it was a great steak. Very medium in the middle, and nice and crispy (and salty) on the outside.

1999 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Szt. Tamás. 94 points. Great dessert wine. Sweetness and a nice acidity.

Yuzu pavlova. White chocolate, thai basil. Nice intermezzo. Great flavors and very bright.

Chocolate praline, caramelized banana, cinnamon. Tremendous dessert, and I don’t even like bananas. Along with the steak it was the best dish by a solid margin.

Petite fours. Gelee, truffles, caramel.

Chevy had a bad reaction to the garlic.

Overall, this was an “interesting meal.” Really, the rigid format is not designed for 11 rowdy Hedonists (and we are a handful). There wasn’t enough room on the tables and because of it I think they just put down less plates than they would have normally, and they rigidly put the same portions on the plates they usually do. The result was us splitting some very tiny things many ways.

Sommelier Fahara Zamorano is a real pro and is a gracious and highly skilled Somm — but Gwen isn’t used or our chaotic format and the need to get a lot of bottles opened and poured. With bringing 2 bottles a person and constant flights the wine we need to get the vino flowing and fast. Ideally we can use a ton of glasses, but we had 3-4 each. Our needs don’t allow time for the careful opening, glass selection, placement, pouring that Gwen normally does. The result is a bunch of impatient boys who want their grape juice. After a flight or two it got moving, but at the beginning there was a momentum problem. Hedonist dinners need to get stuff popped and poured ASAP to get through the mountain of wine. I’ve tuned my own Somm duties to these needs, by throwing out the niceties! I just pound through the corks and get the stuff out there.

Food was good, but only a couple of dishes blew me away: namely the steak and banana dessert. The rest were just good. Extremely well executed for sure. But the price is high and the expectations even higher, so I’m not sure what to make of it. Clearly Gwen is a place to go on a romantic meal or with two couples. It’s very much a couples place by portion and feel. The setting is lovely and romantic. And the guy can eat half his date’s food!

But a very fun evening and they really went out of there way to take care of us despite the total mismatch between the group (big and boisterous bordering on boorish!) and the format (designed for upscale couples).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: butcher shop, Curtis Stone, Gwen, Meat, Steak, Wine

Belcampo Meat Co.

Sep23

Restaurant: Belcampo Restaurant and Butcher Shop

Location: 1026 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (424) 744-8008

Date: September 2, 2016

Cuisine: American

Rating: A little flat

Apparently, opening a restaurant/butcher shop is all the rage recently. Seems everyone is doing it.

Belcampo has half a dozen or so locations, but I can’t attest to the butcher shop itself, having merely poked in.

The restaurant, despite a hidden entrance, has a nice clubby build out.

And a bar with lots of booze.

The menu.

And the cocktail menu.

Cherry Phosphate. The waiter claimed this was a real phosphate. I can’t be sure, but I’ve wanted to try one for a while. They’re a late 19th century / early 20th century thing where phosphoric acid was used instead of carbonic acid to add taste and fizz. It tasted pretty good either way.

“Free” crispy bread and pepper/olive spread.

Roasted red & gold beets. Burrata, kale, & balsamic reduction.

Veggie Burger. Avocado, lettuce, tomato, onion, & house sauce with fries.

Lamb burger. Romaine lettuce, roasted pobano chilies, & tourm, on Bread Bar brioche with fries and chipotle-tomato jam. The meat was tender and lamby but it was pretty much just meat on a bun. Yeah there was some chilies, but it didn’t have that much umph. Frankly, I prefer an Umami Burger (by a lot).

I didn’t try too many things, but what I did was just “fine.” Pretty typical modern American without much pizzaz. Call me jaded.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Belcampo, butcher shop, Meat, Santa Monica

Hatchet Hall

Aug29

Restaurant: Hatchet Hall

Location: 12517 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. (310) 391-4222

Date: August 27, 2016

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Interesting flavors and presentation

Hatchet Hall takes over the “old” Waterloo & City space in Culver City.

The logo hangs over the street in cryptic glory.

The frontage isn’t so different.

But inside they have this whacky new game and “period” decor.

And a great patio.

The menu is organized into dishes by vague progression and features a lot of meat and vaguely North African and middle eastern flavors in a very Modern American presentation.

From my cellar: 2005 Simon Bize Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne. BH 92. A deft touch of pain grillé highlights the airy, clean, pure and elegant white flower and green fruit aromas that serve as the apt introduction for the textured, concentrated and mouth coating flavors blessed with abundant dry extract levels and an intense stoniness on the wonderfully complex, vibrant, dry and penetrating finish. This is a very classy effort and recommended. (Drink starting 2010)

stone fruit. country ham (we left the ham out), farmer’s cheese, date vinegar, mint. A very nice combo of simple cheese, herbs, and fruit.

watermelon. cucumber, vinegar dressing, cilantro, mint, peanut. Quite a bit of chili kick! Nice crunchy texture.

chop steak. fried oysters, watercress, horseradish. Interesting combo of steak tartar and fried oysters!

cornbread. shishito, cheddar, good butter, honey. Some super buttery cornbread goodness!

chicken liver. onion jam, grilled bread, pickles, apple vinegar. Like Jewish liver toast! Pretty yummy too.

sea bream. bagna cauda, soft herbs, lemon.
lamb porterhouse. mint salsa verde, lemon. Have a bit of lamb! Nice tender medium rare meat. Not the cheapest slab of meat on the block.

Sweet peppers, muhammara, walnut, raisin, mint. That whole muhammara and mint thing is so Middle Eastern.

carrots. charmoula, labneh, honey, benne. Great texture and Moroccan flavors.

The dessert menu.
Icebox cake. Vietnamese coffee bavarian, caramelized milk jam, chocolate crunchies. Like a sort of more solid tiramisu.

Overall, Hatchet Hall had some really great flavors going on. The plating and presentation was fabulous, and the melding of North African/Middle Eastern flavors into the modern American was quite on point. Lots of flavor and interesting. Also fascinating how the Middle Eastern thing is downplayed in everything but the actual flavors. Vibe and build out are great too. Service was slow and a little weird. They got the job done, but the crew helping us out was a tad confused.

I’ll definitely return, as food is more important to me than service.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Culver City, Hatchet Hall, Meat

Winter at the Peak

Jan22

Restaurant: Saddle Peak Lodge [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Location: 419 Cold Canyon Rd, Calabasas, CA 91302 (818) 222-3888

Date: January 21, 2016

Cuisine: Modern American

Rating: Great ambiance and terrific game oriented food.

The private room (this photo is actually from the year prior, but it doesn’t look much different).

The regular menu tonight, although we had some off menu specials.

2005 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. VM 94. Bright yellow. Vibrant pear and melon aromas are complicated by suggestions of ginger, brioche and smoky minerals. Dry, smoky and precise, offering intense orchard and pit fruit flavors that gain weight with aeration. A dusty mineral quality adds focus and lift to the long, penetrating, floral finish. There’s a Burgundian thing going on here that’s quite intriguing.

Roasted Vegetable Soup. It tasted a bit like Eastern Shore Crab soup (tomato based for sure).

Bonus from my cellar: 2005 Morey-Blanc Corton-Charlemagne. BH 91-94. More evident wood with hints of spice and vanilla frames the green fruit and spiced apple aromas and a trace of it can also be found on the full-bore, rich and intense big-bodied flavors blessed with excellent concentration and muscle, all wrapped in a minerally, delicious and serious finish of superb length.

Pretzel bread and butter.

2008 Domaine Michelot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 92. Deep yellow. Initially reticent stony, saline and smoky aromas gave way to butter and stone fruits with extended aeration. Complex and mineral-driven on the palate, with a dusty gingery spice quality and an impression of firm acidity. Broad, rich and dense wine with a long, tactile finish, but very young and in need of cellaring. In fact, this improved markedly with 48 hours in the recorked bottle.

Chef’s daily selection of market oysters.

Caesar salad, garlic croutons, Parmigiano-Reggiano. With anchovies, which rule.

Roasted Pink Lady apple salad, endives, St. Agur blue cheese, pecans.

This begins the first of our three red flights. The theme tonight was “Rhone Style”, and in this case, actual Rhone.

1989 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 97. The 1989 is inkier/purple in color than the 1990, with an extraordinarily sweet, rich personality offering up notes of smoke, melted licorice, black cherries, Asian spices, and cassis. Full-bodied and concentrated, it is one of the most powerful as well as highly extracted Beaucastels I have ever tasted. It requires another 3-4 years to reach its plateau of maturity, where it should remain for at least two decades.

agavin: nice, in great shape for this wine.

1990 Les Cailloux (Lucien et Andre Brunel) Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Centenaire. Parker 100. One of the greatest vintages for Andre Brunel, aside from his extraordinary succession of vintages from 1998-2001 is 1990. The perfect Cuvee Centenaire is still dense ruby/purple-colored with a sumptuous nose of white flowers, raspberry and cherry liqueur, smoke, and mineral scents. The gorgeous aromatics are followed by an unctuously-textured, pure wine that combines the best of Chateauneuf du Pape with the floral, earthy complexity of a great grand cru red Burgundy. This is a riveting tour de force in winemaking. Don’t miss it.

agavin: Great. Tasted very mature, almost a little Burgundian, but great. Another contender for WOTN.

1995 Guigal Cote Rotie la Landonne. Parker 95-97. The brawny, black/purple-colored 1995 Cote Rotie La Landonne reveals the animal, sauvage side of the Syrah grape. Licorice, prune, iron, and vitamin-like aromas compete with copious quantities of black fruits and smoke in this complex, structured, muscular, massive Cote Rotie. It will require 5-6 years of cellaring, and should keep for 30+ years.

From my cellar: 2000 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin. Parker 98. The 2000 Châteauneuf du Pape Hommage À Jacques Perrin (60% Mourvedre, 20% Grenache, 10% Counoise, and 10% Syrah) was singing! Open, upfront, sexy and seamless, with awesome notes of saddle leather, Provencal herbs, barnyard, spice and licorice-soaked black cherry and sweet cassis, it hit the palate with full-bodied richness, no hard edges, and an unctuous, heavenly texture. Reminding me of the 1990, yet perhaps just slightly less intense, this is a profound effort that will drink nicely for another two decades or more.

agavin: a delicious, even slightly bretty, anise-starred monster. Many people’s WOTN.

Foie gras with toast, berries etc. Really nice tonight with a generous slab of the good stuff.

Or sauternes to go with the foie: 1997 De Suduiraut. Parker 88-90. The 1997 Suduiraut reveals surprisingly crisp acidity for its weight, as well as excellent richness. An intense, weighty, moderately sweet feel in the mouth, with copious quantities of buttery, honeyed fruit, impressive power, and a corpulent style, characterize this well-delineated wine. It should develop more complexity, and may merit an outstanding score after bottling. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2022.

And back to our regularly scheduled program of heart reds, this time the Grange flight!

1980 Penfolds Grange. Parker 94+. The least impressive, but still a very great wine, is the dark garnet-hued 1980. Still a young wine at age 29, it exhibits massive earthy, meaty, bacon fat notes intermixed with notions of scorched earth, blackberries, currants, pepper, and spice. Full and rich with slightly rustic tannins, it has a good 20 years of life ahead of it.

agavin: still lots of fruit and life. After about 30 minutes, most people’s favorite of the flight. Tons of eucalyptus.

1981 Penfolds Grange. Parker 97. The 1981 stood out as slightly superior. Winemaker John Duval always felt this was a tannic style of Grange, but the wine has shed its tannins, and this is one of the few vintages where the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon was above 10%. Sweet notes of creme de cassis, cedarwood, charcoal, and barbecue spices are followed by a full-bodied, opulent wine displaying heady amounts of alcohol, glycerin, and density in its full-bodied, skyscraper-like texture. I was drinking this wine with great pleasure in the mid-nineties, yet here it is nearly 15 years later, and the wine does not appear to have budged much from its evolutionary state. This is a testament to how remarkably well these wines hold up, and age at such a glacial pace.

agavin: young. Everyone’s favorite at the start, but the 1980 seemed to get better with time.

1990 Penfolds Grange. Parker 96. Deep garnet-brick colored, the 1990 Penfolds Grange has an evolved, earthy character of damp loam, black truffles and tar with an underlying core of figs, dried mulberries, salami and aniseed. There’s a good amount of savory flesh supported by a crisp acid line and medium to firm level chewy tannins, finishing long with some smoked meat coming through. Drink this one now to 2020+.

agavin: younger and more massive. Lots of great fruit.

Goose. Our special goose and berry and potato course. The goose was a bit over-cooked.

And onto the Chris Ringland flight!

1997 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Randall’s Hill Vineyard Shiraz. Parker 96. Deep garnet colored, 1997 Randall’s Hill Shiraz offers notes of warm mulberries, figs, sandalwood, cinnamon stick, cloves, underbrush, tree bark and black truffles. Decadently full bodied, rich and dense, it has just enough refreshing acidity and a medium to high level of velvety tannins to support. The finish is long and layered of baking spices and dried fruits. Drinking beautifully now, it should continue at this plateau for another 6 to 8 years+.

Look at the cool case and sign that came with it.

1999 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 98. The Chris Ringland (formerly known as Three Rivers Shiraz), is aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, and is rarely racked until bottling, represents an extraordinary expression of Barossa Shiraz. The intense 1999, released in 2004, demonstrates that this vintage is somewhat underrated after all the hype over 1998. From a vineyard planted in 1910, its inky/purple color is accompanied by aromas of lavender, lard, smoke, licorice, blackberries, cassis, espresso roast, chocolate, and pepper. Full-bodied, slightly less voluminous than the perfect 1998, with an unctuous texture, sweet tannin, and a 70+ second finish, this magnificent, still young Shiraz should be accessible in 3-5 years, and last for two decades.

2000 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 97. This is a re-review of the 2000 Shiraz since I significantly underrated it previously. It is clearly the Barossa wine of the vintage, and has put on considerable weight since it was bottled. This stunning cuvee, which used to be known as the Three Rivers Shiraz, was aged 33 months in new French 300 liter hogsheads. A beautiful bouquet of crushed rocks, white flowers, blueberries, blackberries, incense, and subtle pain grille is followed by a rich, full-bodied red revealing supple tannin as well as tremendous texture and richness, and more depth and intensity than it did last year. By Chris Ringland’s standards, it is quite approachable, and should age beautifully for 10-15 years.

2001 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 100! The monumental 2001 Shiraz, from a 91-year old vineyard, spent 43 months in new French 300-liter hogsheads. The result is a compelling wine of great richness, flavor breadth, and length. An inky/blue/purple color is accompanied by extraordinary scents of flowers, blackberries, blueberries, and cassis as well as hints of espresso roast, truffles, roasted meats, and incense. This sexy, beautifully balanced, loaded Shiraz should keep for three decades or more.

agavin: sadly, our bottle was mildly corked.
Because there was so much food, we shared 3 of these “game quartet” plates for 12 people.

Amaroo Farms Emu Strip, apple-wood bacon, broccoli rabe, corn fricassee.

Braised buffalo short rib. Pommes puree, bloomsdale spinach, globe carrots.

Elk tenderloin, brandied cherries, vanilla-butternut squash, baby portabella, cipollini.

Rack of Venison. Pine nuts, glaze.

Sauteed wild shimeji mushrooms.

Jumbo asparagus, béarnaise.

Four cheese mac & cheese gratin.
Buttermilk biscuits, honey butter. Oh yes! Voted a 10 by the group.

Truffled french fries, parmigiano.

A dessert madeira we didn’t open.

Beignets, apple.

Banana huckleberry croissant bread pudding with white chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate raspberry brownie.

Trio of house-made sorbets. mango, coconut, blackberry.

This was a total blow out event. The food was impeccable and the service warm. We had so much wine we left them a little overwhelmed, but that’s par for the course. Plus we had a really great mix of people and some of the most awesome wines. Tonight was particularly killer in the wine department as you have seen.

A note on the wines. The flighting really helped, and even helped me enjoy the New World’s better because they drink much better amongst their own kind.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: hedonists, Malibu California, Meat, Saddle Peak Lodge, Wine

ThanksGavin 2015 – Uzbekistan?

Dec02

Restaurant: Chaikhana Uzbekistan

Location: 12012 Bustleton Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19116. (215) 671-1990

Date: November 24, 2015 & November 21, 2017

Cuisine: Uzbeki

Rating: Tasty fun

It’s tradition on the day before ThanksGavin, for us Gavins to go somewhere ethnic.

This year, we ended up at a new place, and a new cuisine (or sub cuisine) for me: Chaikhana Uzbekistan. Seems fitting this year too because I’ve been reading about the Mongol conquest — and well, Uzbekistan was on the menu. But tonight we are the beneficiaries of this crossroads of the world.

My father brought this sparkler. NV Casa Vinicola Botter Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Santi Nello. 88 points. Peach, mineral, dry, small bubbles, hint of sweetness, but not overly so. Great value.

Salad with preserved meat, olives, and cheese. Nice salad actually. Sort of like a Greek salad, but with bits of pastrami.

Salad in the back. A more normal middle eastern salad. Also in the front, those shot glasses of yogurt and tomato “sauce.” These could be drizzled over just about anything to add to the flavor — and they really did. This is a bit similar to Afghan places.

From my cellar: 2013 Christophe et Fils Chablis. 92 points. Limpid color. More orange fruit than the Petit Chablis. Slightly leaner and lighter than that wine, but similar outstanding acidity and limestone. Excellent.

Tomato salad.

An eggplant salad. Nice, with good smoked flavor.

Uzbeki bread. Nice and hot and puffy.

From my cellar: 2009 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Dürnsteiner Kellerberg. 92 points. Medium green-yellow. Seductive aromas of ripe peach, subtle blossom honey and mandarin orange. Becomes more exotic in the mouth, adding papaya and lime to the mix. Sweet peach and papaya fruit is lifted by extraordinarily elegant lemony acidity. Finishes with palate-staining fruit and intense wet rock minerality. Wonderful to drink now, but should be even better between 2014 and 2024.

Herring and potatoes. Marinated cut herring in front. Like some saba sashimi — with potatoes!

Potato dumplings. Very soft succulent gnocchi like things.

Chicken dumplings. Don’t look like much, but were very tasty.

Bread with spinach and cheese. Sort of Uzbeki spanakopita.

From my cellar: 1993 Pierre Damoy Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. 93 points. Elegant, extremely pure and spicy with austere black fruit notes and understated, powerful, densely concentrated and superbly well focused flavors that deliver superb mid-palate punch and terrific finishing complexity. This has always been impressive, even since release and it continues to develop well. It can be approached now but it will certainly be better in a few years. That said, it’s so close to its peak that there would be very little left on the table to open a bottle now. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

Rice with lamb. One of these typical pilaf dishes found in central Asia, and north India, and China (as fried rice). Delicious.

Turnovers. Meat and cheese and spinach. The Flat one is the cheese. Both were good, and the meat one was a serious bomb, but quite delicious with the yogurt and tomato.
T

Kabob. Beef or lamb and ground beef. I really liked the ground beef kabob (kobideh or similar), even if it looked like a big turd. Delicious.

Meat stew.

Potatoes. Like home made potato chips. Excellent.

Cheese pie. This was crazy gooey with a melted form of fresh cheese and a light flakey dough.

Check out the cheese pull!

Chicken kabob.

Lamb rib, lamb, and beef kabobs.

Salmon kabob. From those Oxus river salmon.
2011 Torremoron Ribera del Duero. VM 89. Bright ruby. Perfumed, expressive bouquet of black and blue fruits and candied rose. Ripe and generous on the palate, offering fleshy cherry and blackberry flavors and a touch of black pepper. Dusty tannins add grip to the sweet, nicely persistent finish.

Manti. Why exactly these came at the end is anyone’s guess, but these giant dumplings, clearly influenced by China, were stuffed with a chewy meat and onions. Tasty, but I prefer the Afghan version.

Honey cake and baklava. Not the syrup covered Middle Eastern kind, but more dry.

Tea with sugar and candied fruit.

Lights from the front of Chaikhana Uzbekistan “coat” the adjacent building.

I’d never had Uzbeki food before, and while it’s certainly closely related to Afghan and Russian, but has its own unique personality. The place was fun too. Very lively and there was even a young guy at a nearby table (see below) playing traditional songs on a guitar. Clearly a place mostly visited by Russians and Uzbeki.

Food was quite good too. Perhaps leaning a bit on the heavy meats and pastry, and I would have liked to try the Borscht and some other dishes too, but everything we had was pretty good. Enormous amount too. We took home bags and bags of it, and the bill was very very reasonable.

Great fun.

For more Philly dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chaikhana Uzbekistan, kabob, Manti, Meat, ThanksGavin, ThanksGavin 2015, Uzbeki cuisine, Wine

Meat under the Moon

Oct02

Chef: Andrew Greene

Date: September 27, 2015

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Awesome meats

Jake and Elizabeth’s yard has been the site of several awesome Hedonist gatherings, and tonight is no exception.

It’s a gorgeous warm night and twenty-some of us are ready to chow down.

The chef tonight is Hedonist veteran Ron’s son, Andrew Greene (with the beard), shown here with a bunch of other chefs in attendance, including Kaz from Totoraku! Andrew is the chef at Troya in San Francisco and he’s prepared some epic meaty feasting for us tonight.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.

Salami. Out in the beginning are a few nibbles.

Cheeses.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97.5. Racy, silky and vibrant in the glass, the 2004 Dom Pérignon is all about energy. Here the flavors are bright and delineated throughout, with veins of acidity and minerality that give the wine its sense of drive. Mint, rosemary and yellow-fleshed fruits linger on the finish with the classic DP reductive overtones that are such a signature. Once again, the 2004 Dom Pérignon truly shines. The 2004 Dom Pérignon is a wine to treasure over the next thirty or so years.

More cheeses.

Crackers.

From my cellar: 2004 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 95. Knockout nose combines pineapple, orange and spices, with a subtle leesy suggestion of nuts. Wonderfully sweet, supple, fine-grained and full, with a captivating sugar/acid balance and an intriguing suggestion of exotic fruits. Extremely broad, silky, palate-saturating wine of great purity and persistence. I underrated this when I tasted it from barrel a year ago. From Domaine Caillot vines located high on the hillside. A great Batard.

hamachi with fennel, pickled with ponzu, Persian cucumbers.

This was a nice sashimi starter.

2010 Marcel Deiss Schoenenbourg. VM 94+. Bright straw-green. Spicy aromas of lime, honeyed peach, anise and quinine. Dense on entry, then spicy and vibrant in the middle, displaying juicy, fresh flavors of peach, flowers and earth. This structured, very long wine magically combines an impression of strong extract and a weightless quality. Very impressive.

Uni. Isn’t much of a looker on the plate.

But sure tasted great on crackers.

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Mushroom dashi. A lovely light soup of bonito dashi and various mushrooms.

2008 Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Catherine. VM 94. Glass-staining ruby. Highly perfumed, precise aromas of cherry, blackberry, licorice, herbs and violet; much darker in character than the preceding wines. Sweet and firm on entry, then fresh and aromatic in the mouth, with strong cherry and dark berry fruit supported by a firm spine of minerality. Finishes sweet and long. This is built to age.

agavin: ain’t no Burgundy!

2006 Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Elizabeth Bodega Headlands. VM 94. Deep red. Energetic red and dark berries on the nose, with sexy notes of potpourri and blood orange adding complexity. Lively raspberry and blackberry flavors stain the palate, taking on a richer mocha quality on the back. The red fruit repeats strongly on the strikingly pure and precise finish. An impressively tangy, pure expression of pinot, with the balance and intensity to reward cellaring.

Tomato corn salad.

From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. 92 points. Deep colour, wonderful fruit (black fruits) and sweetness. Very long. A really pleasant surprise, and a perfect companion for salmon teriyaki. A true grand cru, excellent value for money. No hurry to drink the rest.

1990 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 96. Two great back to back vintages are the 1990 and 1989. The more developed 1990 boasts an incredible perfume of hickory wood, coffee, smoked meat, Asian spices, black cherries, and blackberries. Lush, opulent, and full-bodied, it is a fully mature, profound Beaucastel that will last another 15-20 years.

Lamb bacon. Chunks of tender lamb meat reduced and smoked. Very chewy, and amazingly delicious.

2001 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 95. The classically styled 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape has plenty of the telltale kirsch and sweet spice notes that always seem to be present in Avril’s wines. Showing more mature notes of truffle, olive, licorice and garrigue as it sat in the glass, it’s medium to full-bodied, elegant and balanced, with a great texture and finish. It has solid mid-palate depth, as well as sweet tannin, so, while there’s no harm enjoying bottles today, it has another decade of longevity.

braised oxtail. Tender meaty oxtail.

Warm humus.

1991 Beringer Chardonnay Private Reserve. Parker 96. The second largest production of Beringer’s Private Reserve, the 1991 came in just behind the 24,000 cases of the 1997. Interestingly, these are among the greatest Private Reserves made, and as Ed Sbragia told me, it was just one of those perfect vintages. One of the longest and coolest growing seasons in the history of California, it was marked by cool temperatures throughout the summer and a perfect Indian Summer. The hang time of the grapes, ranging from the date of flowering to the date of harvest, was historically long (I do not believe it has been equaled since). The Cabernet Sauvignon came from the same three sources as the 1990, Bancroft Ranch, the Home Vineyard in St. Helena, and Chabot Vineyard, and the tiny dollop of Cabernet Franc was from the Bancroft Ranch site. I’ve enjoyed many bottles of this spectacular effort, which still possesses a dense ruby/purple color as well as a sumptuous nose of spring flowers, graphite, loamy soil, creme de cassis, black cherries and blackberries. With sweet tannin, a full-bodied mouthfeel and incredible purity as well as youthfulness, this wine has another 15-20 years of life left in it. If this were a Bordeaux, one would think it was 8-10 years old, not two decades. There are no hard edges, and the seamless integration of all the component parts make it one of the prodigious Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserves to drink now as well as over the next 20 years.

fig marmalade. These four, the bacon, oxtail, humus and marmalade were served together.

Things are cooking!

2003 Guigal Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis. Parker 96. A wine I’ve been lucky enough to have numerous times recently, the 2003 Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis is an off-the-hook effort that gives up plenty of plum sauce, smoked duck, licorice, tar, vanilla bean and violet aromas and flavors. Never acidified, it has awesome freshness and focus to go with full-bodied richness, a hedonistic texture and a blockbuster-styled finish. While it’s not for those craving delicate-styled aromas and textures, I think it’s a gorgeous effort that will continue to drink nicely over the coming decade or more.

Salmon with tomatoes and onions.

2007 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino. Parker 95. The 2007 Brunello di Montalcino is gorgeous. Dark red cherries, plums, spices, leather and tobacco wrap around the palate as this dense, powerful wine starts to open up. Expressive aromatics are woven throughout, giving the 2007 a measure of polish and sophistication that is not always present in this wine when it is young. Finessed, suave tannins reinforce an impression of elegance. The 2007 can be enjoyed with minimum cellaring, but it will also age gracefully for many years. Readers who want to try the 2007 today should give the wine plenty of air, as the more refined qualities only emerge over time. When tasted next to the 2006, the 2007 shows redder tonalities of fruit and less sheer muscle. Hints of tobacco, crushed flowers and spices wrap around the sensual finish.

2010 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown. 92 points.

Venison loins.

Seared venison. Incredibly tender slices of venison.

Some Turley Petite Syrah. I don’t usually bother with these monsters.

Served with blueberry demiglase.

2000 Pavie. Parker 100. Just beginning to come around and strut its enormous potential, this wine at age 15 has been evolving like a glacier. The wine has an inky, opaque, plum/purple color and a stunningly rich nose of mulberries, bramble berries, blackberries, licorice and incense as well as touches of toast and graphite. Fabulously concentrated and full-bodied, with a multidimensional mouthfeel, this profound Pavie is in mid-adolescence. It should evolve and continue to drink well for at least another 30-40 years. This is clearly the first compelling effort made by the Perse family.

agavin: bottle was empty before I got to it 🙁

Maitaki mushrooms.

1996 Mouton-Rothschild. Parker 94-96. This estate’s staff believes that the 1996 Mouton-Rothschild is very complex. I agree that among the first-growths, this wine is showing surprising forwardness and complexity in its aromatics. It possesses an exuberant, flamboyant bouquet of roasted coffee, cassis, smoky oak, and soy sauce. The impressive 1996 Mouton-Rothschild offers impressive aromas of black currants, framboise, coffee, and new saddle leather. This full-bodied, ripe, rich, concentrated, superbly balanced wine is paradoxical in the sense that the aromatics suggest a far more evolved wine than the flavors reveal. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030. By the way, the 1996 blend consists of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc.

Smoked fingerling purée. These mashed potatoes were insane, particularly with the blueberry sauce. Tasted like BBQ or something.

2005 Rol Valentin. Parker 92-94. A sexy, full-bodied, very drinkable style of 2005, Eric Prissette’s 2005 Rol Valentin displays loads of black cherry fruit, licorice, Christmas fruitcake and spice. Full-bodied and opulent, it can be drunk over the next 10-15 years.

Duck confit. One of the best duck legs I’ve had — not quite Peking duck, but what is?

2001 Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Parker 100! The 2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is the first of these back-to-back perfect wines from Shafer that, at age 13, is still a baby, but, wow, what an amazing wine. A fabulous growing season produced a wine with inky/purple black color, stunning crème de cassis notes, with additional hints of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, cedar wood and forest floor. It is full-bodied, sensationally concentrated, with a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood and alcohol. This is a great, monumental Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is still an infant, at age 13, going on 14. This has got at least three decades of life left in it, and probably won’t hit its peak for another 5-7 years.

agavin: slut!

Veggies cooked in duck fat.

2006 Justin Vineyards & Winery Isosceles Reserve. 93 points. Massive, complex fruit, with a nice layer of tannin. This is a whopper, with plenty of time left. Highly enjoyable now with a some air. Very masculine.

From my cellar: 1973 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Bosconia. 93 points. This is quite dusty but really complex. Coconut, sweat, mushroom, strawberry, cranberry and dark cherry flavours. The palate shows a strange lactic note that borders on yogurt and egg yolk which is a bit distracting but in the end, flavours of earth, mushroom, cherry, sweat, herbs, leather and cedar round this wine out and make it quite enjoyable. The finish is medium+ with moderate complexity but is really earthy which is just so captivating.

Charred fennel purée. Good stuff.

1932 Massandra Red Port. 94 points. Tawny in color, with a complex nose of smoke, caramel, butterscotch, toffee, coffee ban, banana and wild strawberries. The wine had great freshness and ample sweetness, but the nose was better than the palate, due to the shortness of the finish. But then the wine was close to 85 years of age. Massandra is not a wine I see often, making this a rare and interesting treat.

agavin: Joseph Stalin probably tasted this wine many times.

1999 Fred Prinz Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling Auslese. Really nice.

Kumefe (Turkish filo dough with cheese), with Meyer lemon syrup, hazelnut crumble. I’ve had this in Turkey a number of times. Great stuff with an interesting crispy/gooey texture.

Some extra hazelnut crumble.
It should be noted that we were able to see the “super blood moon” (super moon in eclipse) right as we ate.

Overall an incredible evening of amazing food — and way way too much of it too — and tons of great wines. We rolled out of there. The meats were super flavorful and extremely well cooked. They probably “suffered” slightly too from the family style plating, as I can imagine individually plated with all the elements integrated they would be even more impressive — and they were fabulous as is. Mmmm, lamb bacon.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Andrew Greene, duck, hedonists, Meat, super blood moon, venison, Wine

Eating Assisi – Locanda del Podesta

Jul20

Restaurant: Locanda del Podesta

Location: Via S. Giacomo, 6, 06081 Assisi PG, Italy. +39 075 802455

Date: June 15, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: More hearty Umbrian goodness

After finishing with Lazio with continue inland into Umbra, Italy’s rural Etruscan heart.

Our first dinner in the hillside pilgrimage city of Assisi. We had to walk UP quiet some way to get to this restaurant. Work off 10% of the cream.

Like most of Assisi the buildings are all old medieval stone structures, heavily restored and in great shape. Apparently JC watches over modern Italian dining. The city is older than him though, as it has a Roman forum under the main square — and they weren’t the first either. There was a town here when the Etruscans took over before that.

2012 Goretti Grechetto Colli Perugini. Some local Grechetto.

Antipasto of meats. It seemed appropriate to sample the local pigs.

Raddicio, pecorino, and walnut salad.

Cacio pasta. Simple pasta for the kid.

Cacio e pepe. The peppered version.

2008 Scacciadiavoli Sagrantino di Montefalco. AG 91. Smoke, tar, licorice and a host of dark aromas and flavors develop as the 2008 Montefalco Sagrantino opens up over time. This remains an essentially fruit-driven style of Sagrantino, but at the same time the wine’s balance and sense of harmony are both impeccable. The 2008 Sagrantino is another harmonious, beautifully balanced wine from Scacciadiavoli.

Penne Norcina. An Umbrian speciality. Pasta with pork sausage in a light cream sauce with truffles! Yum yum. Really great stuff.

Chicken breast with rosemary.

Lamb chops. My dad loves lamb chops.

Scrambled egg and truffle. This is some serious Italian comfort food!

Insalate Mixte.

Fava beans with truffle. The fagioli felt left out when the eggs got truffled, so they had to join the party.

Overall, nothing fancy, but a very nice meal showcasing the Umbrian love of truffles.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

The Basilica of St Francis in Assisi (Sun set just as we hiked past)

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Antipasto, Assisi, Charcuterie, eating-italy, Italian cuisine, Locanda del Podesta, Meat, Salami, Umbria, Wine

More Meat – Chi Spacca

Jun30

Restaurant: Chi Spacca

Location: 6610 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 297-1133

Date: June 01, 2015

Cuisine: Italian Steakhouse

Rating: Rich but delicious, a carnivore’s paradise

The little Mozza empire on Melrose now includes the Pizzeria, the Osteria, Chi Spacca, and Mozza 2 go. They do a great job with all their restaurants (annoying corkage policy notwithstanding), and I’ve been itching to sink my canines into Chi Spacca for some time. When a plan earlier this year for the larger Foodie Club gang to go to Chi Spacca failed, we ended up at Spear instead, and despite that being a great meal I still wanted to get here. But because of the annoying corkage policy (a complaint I will continue to reiterate from my soap box), we had to wait until a small dinner (3 of us), this time nominally for my birthday.

Chop chop.

The menu.

The small room.

The smoky in the room grill.

From my cellar: 1989 Paolo Scavino Barolo Bric dël Fiasc. VM 95. The 1989 Barolo Bric del Fiasc (3-liter) is still striking for its freshness. Some of that is a factor of the large format, but standard bottles have also develop very positively. Here we find a classic flavor profile of tobacco, herbs, spices, plums and licorice with the depth, muscle and concentration of the modern school. The 1989 is a touch more layered and aromatically intesne than the 1990, with a little more length and overall complexity. Tar, smoke and licorice linger on an eternal finish.

Pickles. spring onions, carrots, fennel. Nice crunchy pickled vegetables. The acidity is a nice contrast to all the fat to come.

Affettati Misti-Daily Selection of Cured Meats. Calabrese salame, oregano salame. pork butter. That white stuff that looks like butter, pure lard (smoked and aged).

Pate & Terrine. butcher’s pate, trotter fritti. The fried things are stuffed with pig feet meat. Now, I’m not normally a fan of pig’s feet at all, but these were delicious (maybe because you can’t SEE the trotter). The terrine was also very good, classic country pate.

Bread for the meats.

Erick brought: 1979 Chateau Margaux. Parker 93. This wine is just now reaching full maturity, much later than I initially expected. It is a classy, elegant example of Margauxpossessing a dark ruby/purple color, and a moderately intense nose of sweet black currant fruit intermixed with minerals, vanillin, and floral scents. The wine is medium-bodied, with beautifully sweet fruit. This linear, more compressed style of Margaux possesses a good inner-core of sweet fruit, and a charming, harmonious personality. Although not a blockbuster, it is aging effortlessly, and appears to take on more character with each passing year. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010.

Burrata Primavera. Snap peas, carrots, mint. Very nice salad with good contrast of sweet and acidic.

Pane bianco. Fett’unta. Super light, crispy cheese “pizza.”

Whole Branzino. herb salad, olive oil. Extremely herby and fabulous, with an almost Thai like lemongrass flavor.

Grilled Octopus. pureed & fried ceci, parsley leaf. Very soft tender octopus.

2003 Di Prisco Taurasi.

Braised Lamb Ribs. Castelvetrano olive, preserved lemon. Nice rich lamb meat.

Grilled Lamb Sausage. Calabrian peppers, roasted onion. Basically Merguez with a bit of heat. The herby salad is a nice counterpart.

2005 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. JG 94+. Beautiful dark rose color. Really unusual nose with an off note I can only describe as like something you might smell in a petroleum refinery or maybe cordite. Mild notes of Indian spices and perhaps a bit of prune. This wine is very hard for me to describe. It is spicy with deep red fruits.

Tomahawk Pork Chop. fennel pollen. The top (far) part is the pork chop itself, wonderfully tender and with a lovely flavor. The bottom long parts are the pork belly, similar flavor but WAY richer.

Dessert menu.

Cocoa Nib Caramel Tart. whipped creme fraiche. Rich.

Butterscotch Budino. sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies. OMG, I love these creamy puddings.

Seasonal Gelati & Sorbetti. Mint, coconut Stracciatella, and a berry flavor. Nice complex Italian flavors.

Overall, I thought the food at Chi Spacca was quite awesome, if not exactly authentically Italian. Certainly more to my taste than any normal steakhouse. They should import some pastas over from Mozza though :-). From the menu I thought prices looked crazy, but the total turned out to be reasonable ($130 a person before tip) even though we went to town. Really to town as the above was for 3 people!

Service was great too, and the atmosphere fun. My only complaint is with the bottle limit. The $30 corkage is fine, and you can even wave the corkage ordering off the list — again great. But the 2 bottle hard limit, apparently very strictly enforced (we brought the Barolo and the Margaux), is quiet annoying. It barely worked for 3 people and totally breaks down for wine dinners. Their list has interesting Italians, but the wines are two young. Plus I just resent having to buy off wine lists altogether (beyond the occasional white or rose). If they priced a fixed $30-50 markup, and had my kind of wines, it would be fine, but they always use a multiplicative markup. I’m not paying $400-600 for a $200 bottle!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More Foodie Club craziness.

A post dinner yummy cucumber gin drink

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, Chi Spacca, Dessert, Foodie Club, Meat, Mozza, pork chop, Steak, Wine

Barrel & Ashes – BBQ Go Big

Mar20

Restaurant: Barrel & Ashes

Location: 11801 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604. (818) 623-8883

Date: March 16, 2015

Cuisine: American BBQ

Rating: Amazing Meats

My Hedonist group will eat anything — well anything good. It can be fancy or casual, but there’s (almost) always wine.

Barrel and Ashes is a collaboration between restaurateur Bill Chait, Chef Timothy Hollingsworth, Chef Rory Hermann and mixologist Julian Cox riffing on the classical pairing of bourbon and barbecue.

The menu focuses on family style service with daily specials from both executive chefs Timothy and Rory, and Chef de Cuisine, Michael Kahikina.

Barrel and Ashes features picnic style seating on the front patio, communal and traditional seating inside, and additional seating on the rear patio that showcases a Texas style food trailer.

The menu.

2005 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Coeur de Cuvée. Vinous 93. Bright yellow. Sexy, smoke-tinged aromas of ripe citrus fruits, poached pear and candied ginger. Spicy, penetrating and pure, offering intense Meyer lemon and bitter pear skin flavors plus hints of honeysuckle and chamomile. Shows impressive urgency and focus on the finish, with the floral note echoing.

agavin: awesome champy

Pear & Endive Salad. Goat Cheese, Walnut, Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette.

2010 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc. VM 94. Pale straw-yellow. Lemon, chamomile, vanilla, ginger and a faint lactic nuance on the restrained, minerally nose. Pliant and sweet in the mouth, offering good concentration and fat to the vinous lemon, guava and grapefruit flavors. Very minerally on the long finish, showing lingering notes of peach, vanilla and coconut. This should age splendidly and will probably be at its best between 2020 and 2035.

agavin: Dave had opened this a couple days before to get it to open up. Quite nice with a lot of minerality.

Caesar Salad. Tuscan Kale, Romaine, Crouton. A nice cheesy salad.

From my cellar: 1998 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée. Parker 95. The 1998 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reserve showed the warmth and richness of the vintage, with knockout kirsch and blackberry fruit, garrigue, game and leather aromas and flavors that literally come jumping from the glass. Full-bodied, rich, textured and beautifully focused, if not still structured, it’s a rock-star to drink through 2020 or so.

Frito pie. Fritos smothered in chili, beans, cheese, sour cream etc.

agavin: This is oh so easy to digest! (but tasty)

1994 Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Tinto Pesquera Reserva Especial. 93 points. Fabulous, mature tempranillo from a top estate in Ribero. This was packed with red cherry flavours, gentle tannins and perfect acidic balance.

Spicy Pork rinds. Malt Vinegar Mayonnaise.

agavin: actually, some of the best pork rinds I’ve had.

2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 98-99. Still a young wine at age 12, the 2001 Insignia exhibits a dense purple color along with a sweet bouquet of camphor, blackberries, cassis, incense and spring flowers. Full-bodied, rich and heady with sweet tannin, stunning concentration and a fabulous finish, this remarkable Insignia has 25 or more years of life ahead of it.

Smoked Chicken Wings. Shaved vegetables, blue cheese sauce.

agavin: really great wings, although hardly good wine pairing with that blue cheese sauce!

Grilled Blue Prawns. Chili, cilantro, lime.

agavin: These were actually a freebee, given to us at the end of the dinner, but properly they are an appetizer.

Boning it again.

2006 Booker Vineyard Fracture. Parker 91. The 2006 Fracture is the most backward of the 2006s, yet it is well-endowed, muscular, and dense as well as promising. Forget it for several years, and drink it over the next decade.

Mary’s Free Range Chicken.

agavin: soft and tender.

2005 Saxum Rocket Block James Berry Vineyard. Parker 96. Another superb southern Rhone-like blend (Chateauneuf du Pape-like actually) that comes from a single block of James Berry Vineyard, the 2005 Rocket Block James Berry Vineyard offers off-the-hook levels of sweet blackcurrants, black raspberries, exotic spices, crushed flowers and hints of incense on the nose. Full-bodied, super-concentrated and sweetly fruited, with a voluptuous and rounded texture, this beauty is drinking perfectly now, and should continue to thrill for another 4-5 years.

Sausage – Electric City Butchers. O.G. and Jalapeno cheddar.

agavin: the cheesy ones were insane!

2004 Alban Vineyards Pandora. Parker 96-97. The 2004 Pandora (80% Grenache and 20% Syrah), is deeper in color and completely opaque. Slightly more voluptuous and rich, with the Syrah giving some heft to the mid-palate, it offers up layers of black raspberry, black currants, cured meats, iodine and crushed rock-like minerality on the nose. This flows to a full-bodied, beautifully textured and seamless wine that has no hard edges, thrilling richness and a blockbuster finish. Gaining a tad more richness with time in the glass, it still has only hints of maturity and has a long life ahead of it. Enjoy bottles anytime over the coming decade (or more).

Spare Ribs – Salmon Creek Farms.

agavin: really great tender ribs with lots of flavor.

2006 Pax Cellars Syrah Kobler Family Vineyard. Parker 91. From a cool Green Valley site, the deep ruby/purple-tinged 2006 Syrah Kobler Family Vineyard exhibits hints of lard, blackberries, asphalt, and smoke, medium to full body, sweet tannin, and a spicy finish. Drink it over the next 5-7 years.

Pork Short Rib. Heritage Berkshire Pork.

agavin: a table favorite, totally fell off the bone.

2004 Hundred Acre Vineyard Shiraz Summer’s Block Ancient Way. VM 92. Dark ruby. Deeply pitched aromas of cassis, dried cherry and singed plum, with a smoky overtone and a suggestion of cured tobacco. Lush, sweet and smoky on the palate, offering superripe dark fruit flavors with suggestions of cola, chewing tobacco and mocha. Extremely rich and verging on thick, in the style of this bottling, but showing surprising vivacity, especially at a decade of age. A peppery note adds lift and bite to the long, smoky, gently tannic finish.

Brisket – Greater Omaha C.A.B.

agavin: the #1 favorite at the table. Hands down the best brisket I’ve had. If only I knew how to make it like this at home!

2007 Sine Qua Non Grenache Pictures. VM 95. Deep, bright ruby. Wild aromas of black raspberry compote, mocha, Asian spices and incense. Expansive and deeply concentrated, with obvious sweetness to its very intense red fruit, floral and spicecake flavors. Shows real spine and outstanding finesse for a rich wine. Finishes vibrant and extremely long, with great spicy perfume.

Parker 97. 2007 Pictures Grenache: A blend of 87% Grenache, 11.5% Syrah, and 1.5% Viognier, this wine has wonderful floral notes intermixed with black raspberries, black cherries, licorice, graphite and some camphor. In the mouth, more white chocolate notes appear, along with meatiness and some silky tannins. Its great purity, density and richness make me think this wine could even improve a few points and flirt with perfection. This stunning wine should drink nicely for another 10-15 years.

Miner’s Potatoes.

agavin: I’m not that into this kind of potato.

Coleslaw.

agavin: nice to have some “greens.” haha

Hoe Cake.

agavin: insanely good too, like cornbread deep fried in butter.

Shells and Cheese.

agavin: mac and cheese, but a good one.

Pork n’ Beans.

agavin: I love baked beans, even if they don’t love me, and this was a fabulous one with tones of bacony pork.

Hush Puppies.

agavin: not bad for fried corn balls.

Braised Greens.

agavin: I skipped this. Too healthy!

Turtle Ice Cream Cake. Pecans, Salted Caramel, Chocolate.

With the caramel. Awesome stuff. Nice textural play between the cold, warm, crunchy, and soft.

Cobbler. Spiced apples, Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

agavin: great apple cobbler.

Banana Pudding. Toasted meringue and ‘nilla wafers.

agavin: I don’t like bananas but this had a nice texture and slightly “spicy” (nutmeg?) flavor.

Lemon Pudding Cake. Thyme, White Chocolate.

agavin: yum.

Barrel & Ashes was some pretty awesome BBQ. First of all, we sat outside on this lovely warm night. Second, the service was first rate. As usual, they weren’t really equipped to deal with our kind of group (not very many wine glasses etc), but they really went out of their way to pull it off. The pacing started out great with slow apps, then we got all the entrees in one giant wave. Our fault, as we didn’t specify. Next time we need to stage out the entrees two at a time or something to give us more runway on the wine. Didn’t matter though, because it was awesome fun and totally delicious.