Choosing Wine From a Wine List (Part 3)

This post is part of a series of ongoing posts that I began a few weeks ago on choosing a wines from a wine list. If you have not read the previous posts, please first visit:

Choosing a Sparkling Wine
Choosing Appetizers

(NB: I have no affiliation or financial interest in the Sonoma Grille, the restaurant featured in these posts.)

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So here's where we stand:

Aperetif
NV Iron Horse Brut Russian River Cuvee

First Courses
Tapas for Two: Shrimp Tempura, Veal Cheek, Ahi Tartare, Sesame Fried Calamari
Serrano Wrapped Diver Sea Scallops
Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Strudel

Now we need a white wine. We have already determined that we'd like a white wine that will have some or most of the following characteristics (as explained in our previous post): we need a wine that is palate-cleansing; it will cut through fatty fish or greasy fried foods; it should match the spiciness of our foods, be earthy and ripe with good acidity. The wine list is here so that you can follow along.

I'll be honest, instinctively I was going to shy away from a California Chardonnay because many of them are too full-bodied, creamy and/or buttery for a few of these dishes. For example, a full, buttery California Chardonnay would be a terrible choose for Shrimp Tempura or Ahi Tartare. But let's go back to this.

When I think of a palate-cleansing, spicy, earthy, ripe white with good acidity, I think Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc. Those are the two wines that are the most likely candidates. We've already determined that we're drinking California no matter what in the first post because we're at the Sonoma Grille. And California doesn't specialize much in Riesling, a fact reflected on the wine list: not one choice above $50. I'm a bit tempted by the Wente because they offer fairly consistent value, but a $40 isn't special enough for this dinner. We're really looking between $50 and $100, $75 would be about perfect.

So let's look at Sauvignon Blanc. Between $50 and $100 we have four choices. Three of four are from the Napa Valley, and the Napa Valley is generally very hot. We don't want to take the chance of getting a rich, full, buttery Sauvignon Blanc an unfortunate side-effect of heat on white wine. That leaves us with the Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc at $97, probably too rich for my blood for a Sauvignon Blanc.

Keep in mind, many of these choices would work perfectly fine with richer dishes, but considering that are appetizers run the gamut from Ahi Tartare to Goat Cheese Strudel, we need a wine with more flexibility.

Let's peak at the Chardonnays, between $50 and $100.

BV Reserve 2001 (Carneros) 15 52
Domaine Chandon 2001 (Carneros) 55
Trefethen 2003 (Napa) 17 56
Talbott "Sleepy Hollow" 2002 (Santa Lucia) 18 57
Marimar 2002 (Sonoma) 63
Simi Reserve 2003 (Sonoma) 64
Ojai 2003 (Santa Barbara) 65
Jordan 2002 (Sonoma) 20 68
Staglin “Salus” 2002 (Napa) 74
Chateau Montelena 2003 (Napa) 223 77
Mer Soleil 2002 (Napa) 78
Kalin "Cuvee LD" 1994 (Sonoma) 82
Sonoma Cutrer “The Cutrer” 2002 (Sonoma) 85
Cakebread 2004 (Napa) 89
Michaud 2000 (Monterey) 90
Rochioli 2002 (Russian River) 95
Grgich 2001 (Napa) 97
Patz & Hall "Dutton" 2003 (Napa) 98

Fair or unfair, we are going to eliminate the Napa wines for the same reason that we elminated them in the case of our Sauvignon Blanc, we don't want to take the chance that the wine is to full. So let's look again:

BV Reserve 2001 (Carneros) 15 52
Domaine Chandon 2001 (Carneros) 55
Talbott "Sleepy Hollow" 2002 (Santa Lucia) 18 57
Marimar 2002 (Sonoma) 63
Simi Reserve 2003 (Sonoma) 64
Ojai 2003 (Santa Barbara) 65
Jordan 2002 (Sonoma) 20 68
Kalin "Cuvee LD" 1994 (Sonoma) 82
Sonoma Cutrer “The Cutrer” 2002 (Sonoma) 85
Michaud 2000 (Monterey) 90
Rochioli 2002 (Russian River) 95

The BV Reserve and Domaine Chandon are probably less than we want to spend, plus Chandon is best known for it's sparklers. They are also widely available. Talbott "Sleepy Hollow" I always love, but it's too rich for our purposes.

I'm eliminating Rochioli because, despite the fact that their wines are delicious, they are also too ripe for our purposes. I'm elimating Sonoma-Cutrer because that wine has skyrocketed in price and really should be $60. Jordan is tempting, but probably also too ripe. Marimar seems interesting, and if it was recommended by my server I might consider it, but I know little about it other than the fact that it is owned by the Torres family of Spain and the vineyards are largely Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast. Stylistically I have no idea where it falls, so short of a recommendation, I'm skipping it. Simi is too widely available. I want something that I might not have every day.

We're left with these choices:

Ojai 2003 (Santa Barbara) 65
Kalin "Cuvee LD" 1994 (Sonoma) 82
Michaud 2000 (Monterey) 90

Ojai can be pretty nice. Earthy and with good acidity. I'm going to pass on Ojai only because I have found in the past that their wines take a little bit of time to fully integrate the oak and the primary flavors. In two years, especially if the price remained constant, this might be my choice, but not today. Michaud Winery is owned by Michael Michaud, former winemaker of Chalone. The vineyard is way up in the mountains - mountain vineyards are cooler and have better acidity. This is an excellent choice. But I'm taking Kalin. I have always loved Kalin's wines. First of all you'll notice the vintage on the wine - 1994. Kalin always holds bottles, only to realease them much later. This very well may be the current release for all I know. Kalin wines tend to have good structure (+1); because of their age they show a variety of complex earthy and developed charcteristics (+1) without sacrificing fruit (+1); and Kalin Chards tend to fall on the light- to medium- side in terms of body (+1). This is my choice, but if you're uncomfortable with the Kalin, a unique wine when compared to its peers, you can get the Michaud.

Next we're going to pick our main courses and reds...

Kryptonite and picking appetizers...

When last I blogged , I began discussing piece by piece what a wine geek might look for when looking at a wine menu. I chose a Pittsburgh Restaurant, the Sonoma Grille, as my sample restauarant and wine list, and in Episode I, we picked a sparkling wine to start with, NV Iron Horse Brut "Russian River Cuvee".



Then, I forgetting that I am not Superman and also forgetting that I am no longer athletic, decided to play two-hand tab football with some younger relatives. I was awesome on the first drive. The second drive, not so good. After landing directly on my shoulder after attempting to make a Deion Sanders-esque interception, I have now announced my retirement. And I don't mean in that "The Who" kind of way. I mean for good. I felt like Superman in that Lex Luther's swimming pool with the Kryptonite chained to me. For about a week. My flag football career is over because I have only in about the past 24 hours regained the ability to move my left arm and hence type. (Not so ironically, this coincides with the release of EA Sports College Football 2008.)



Back to the meal and menu. Okay, so we're sipping on some Iron Horse Bubbly and now we have to look at the appetizers/first courses and then start thinking about the white we will order. Let's look at the apps (http://www.thesonomagrille.com/DinnerMenu1.php?SECT=3)



[Disclaimer again: I have no affiliation with the Sonoma Grille. I know one of the bartenders vaguely that's about it.]



I'm going to purposefully order a variety of things so that this isn't to easy. (If you read part 1, there are four of us dining.)



My date and I are going to get the Tapas for two. One guest is going to order the Serrano Wrapped Diver Sea Scallops, and our other guest is a vegetarian and will be getting the wild mushroom and goat cheese strudel.



Okay let's start determining what we might be looking for in a wine by looking aty the important elements in the dishes:



Tapas for two:

Shrimp Tempura, Asian slaw, scarlet orange and apricot chutney: Normally with most breaded or deep fried things, I drink something with bubbles, either sparkling wine or beer. Our Iron Horse will continue nicely with this, but if we're going to drink a "still" white wine the slaw, orange, apricot combo leads us to something with sweetness - not necessarily sugar - but ripe fruitiness, spice and sour. This is a complex dish that needs a complex wine, not to full-bodied, but with a lot of character and probably a good dose of acidity to cleanse the palate just like the bubbles would.



Veal cheek and black truffle ravioli, roasted shallot cream, black pepper demi-glace: The truffle and veal cheek are going to be very earthy, the shallot cream sweet, the demi-glass spicy. Again sweet and spicy, and now a wine with some earthy flavors would probably be a good idea as well.



Ahi tartare, sushi roll, white truffle and wasabi mayonnaise, fried lotus root, Tobiko caviar: Spicy. Truffle again - earthy. Tuna is fatty, and the best thing for fatty foods is to use the counterpoint of acidity.



Sesame fried calamari, yuzu and roasted poblano remoulade: FRIED needs bubbles or acidity as we've already covered. Poblanos are a type of pepper of course, not real biting, but a little sweet and a little spicy.

And...

Serrano Wrapped Diver Sea Scallops: The Scallops have a fatty texture like the tuna + the spiciness of the serrano ham.

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Strudel: The mushrooms, like truffle, are earthy. We'll go back to the goat cheese.

Okay so we need a wine that is palate-cleansing; it will cut through fatty fish or greasy fried foods; it should match the spiciness of our foods, be earthy and ripe with good acidity.

In the next post, we're going to start crossing off white wines from the list until we get a few possible choices for our white wine..

Mi casa su casa

What I love more than anything else is sitting down and cooking a nice meal and enjoying it, along with a few bottles of wine, with some friends new or old. Since my readers are from throughout cyberspace, distance prevents this from happening. So, barring my inability to concentrate too long, I'm going to walk you through our imaginary dinner, or more importantly, our selction of wines, at a well-known Pittsburgh restauarant, the Sonoma Grille. Before you ask, I have no affiliation with it whatsoever, it just has a really nice wine list for lover's a California wines. Even wine lists in many other major metropolitan areas boast more eccentric, pretentious or what have you wine lists, this i s a good one to look at and perhaps have you look at a wine list the way I do.

Their web site is http://www.thesonomagrille.com/

Before we even get to food, we're going to start with a bottle of sparkling wine. The sparkling wine list is http://www.thesonomagrille.com/WineList.php?SECT=4&CAT=2&SEP=20.

First, what are we dealing with:

Kenwood Brut NV (California) $7/glass $28/bottle
Villa Sandi Prosecco NV (Italy) $8/$32
Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc 2001 (Carneros) $44
Schramsburg Blanc de Noirs 2001 (Carneros) $75
Iron Horse "Russian River Cuvee" 1999 (Sonoma) $80
J Brut Rose NV (Napa) $82
Veuve Clicquot "Yellow Label" (France) $16/$90
J Schram 1999 (Napa) $175
Dom Perignon 1998 (France) $250

Okay. We're going to elimate anything above $100 for starters, because we're going to have four bottles of wine - 1 sparkler, 1 white, 2 reds and maybe after dinner drinks. We're also going to eliminate anything outside of California (although I love Prosecco): after all we're at the Sonoma Grille, not Alain Ducasse. We want to experience California. So we're looking at the following choices:

Kenwood Brut NV (California) $7/glass $28/bottle
Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc 2001 (Carneros) $44
Schramsburg Blanc de Noirs 2001 (Carneros) $75
Iron Horse "Russian River Cuvee" 1999 (Sonoma) $80
J Brut Rose NV (Napa) $82

I've never had Kenwood sparkling wine, and I'm sure it's good, but frankly Kenwood is best known for it's Merlot, and Merlot is not a grape that goes into sparkling wine, so I'm deleteing that as well. (I'll be honest, I didn't know they made sparklers.) Gloria Ferrer is a nice enough choice. As one enters Sonoma County from the south, the vineyards that line the highway are Gloria Ferrer. You're in the Carneros AVA, one that straddles souther Napa and Sonoma. It is a cooler region owing to the breezes that blow north off the bay. This is a good choice, expecially if we're pinching pennies, but we're going to look further. I REALLY like Schramsberg. Schramsberg was the sparkling wine that Nixon served to the Chinese during a summit in the 1960's. Even so, we don't want Blanc de Noirs. Real Champagne (and those wines that copy it from outside of France) use three grapes in their production - Chardonnay (White) and Pinot Noir or it's lesser-known cousin Pinot Meunier (both Red Grapes). Blanc de Noirs (literally white from blacks) is Champagne made entirely from the two red grapes. While the color is still lightish, the body is fuller, in fact, fuller than we want at the beginning of a multi-course dinner with four bottles. By the same reasoning, we're skipping the Rose. Hence, we are left with one of my old-stand bys, Iron Horse "Russian River Cuvee", not an unenviable choice. The Russian River Valley is a coller microclimate perfect for sparkling wine production (as is Carneros as we have mentioned). By it's nature of using both white and red grapes, it's flavorful but yet refershing, and a perfect way to start the dinner.

Peruse the menu and the whites, and we'll start picking our appetizers next time...