Uptown Lulu's. Gary, Jerome, Jerome's friend Frank and I went to the new Lulu's in the Garden District Hotel on St. Charles Avenue Saturday night. The kitchen, I gather, is a lot bigger, so the chef has a lot more room to play around, and the menu reflects that. There's a full complement of appetizers (unlike at the Quarter Lulu's, where the entrees come with a plate of roasted vegetables). My beet/fennel salad was great, though the real hit of the table was the soft-shell crab appetizer special, which came on a bed of fried green tomatoes. My entree was a special, too: a big hunk of tuna on top of white beans. It was terrific.
     The other good thing about the place is that it's still BYO. We brought a California pinot noir and an Australian shiraz. The former was really great, and the latter might have been. It was hard to tell, though, because the two go together well at all. (Imagine, like, Brian Eno opening up for the White Stripes.) Anyway, I'm not sure what's going to happen if and when Lulu's in the Garden District gets a liquor license. The Provençal place on Maple Street -- is it called Côte Sud? -- started charging a $10 corkage fee once it could sell wine, which is kind of a drag.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 9:56 AM
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June 4 results. The goal of this tasting-slash-dinner was to find wines that go well with specific dishes. Each of the cooks made a dish and selected wine(s) to go with it. We didn't assign numerical scores or go around the room so everyone could talk about each wine, partly because of seating configuration and partly because we were critiquing not just the wine but its relationship to a dish.
     The goal of these notes is to avoid quoting Chip too much, because Charles thinks Chip is quoted excessively and probably rehearses his offbeat comments in advance. Anyway...
     First course: Baked goat cheese salad with bacon
     Delia prepared this from a recipe she found on Eat Drink Dine. Her observation about that site is that it's quite broad, perhaps overly broad, in what it suggests as a pairing. Rather than specific wines, it mentions several varietals -- and even broad categories, like "sparking wines" and "Bordeaux white blends."
     "Lenin." 1998 Bouvet Saphir Brut Vintage, Saumur, Loire Valley; 85% Chenin Blanc, 15% Chardonnay. $12. This sparkler didn't have much of a nose, and the fruit was quite restrained. But most of us were surprised by how well the wine went with the bacon in particular. The acid, and maybe the fizz, cut right through the fat. Delia thought the wine was a nice palate cleanser.
     "McCartney." 2001 Domaine de la Rossignole "Cuvée vielles vignes" Sancerre, Loire Valley. Fragrant, grassy and assertive, as you might expect in a 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Might be better to drink on its own than "Lenin," but some of us thought it muscled its way out in front of the salad just a little too much. Some thought it went better with the goat cheese but worse with the bacon than the first one (and others thought exactly the opposite). Jon actually brought this wine and "Brown Bag #1," below.
     Second course: Roasted eggplant and garlic soup
     Stephanie made this soup from a recipe in
The Wine Lover's Cookbook. (To repeat the plug from a previous post: If you click on the link and order the book, this Web site makes a buck or so. Plug No. 2: The links page mentions other such items.)
     "A.C." 2002 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand. $15. A nice wine that comes under a screwtop -- a wine club first. Straightforward and fruity, with a sweet smell of apricots and red delicious apples. Its varietal character comes out the longer it sits on your tongue.
     "D.C." 2000 Davis-Bynum Fumé Blanc, Russian River Valley. $17. Same varietal, but a much different wine. Mustier, with some honey flavors (though without the sweetness). Delia thought it had a nice kick. Steph said the wine seemed confused. Pam thought the nose was Gewürztraminerish. For what it's worth, your Webmaster thought "A.C." was, in general, a better match for the soup than this one. Nevertheless, this one actually added something new -- a subtle earthiness -- to the soup, whereas the first wine was sort of like an echo chamber for the flavors that were already in the soup.
     Intermission
     "Brown Bag #1." 2000 Domaine Bouchard Monthélie Les Duresses, $17. Most of us quite liked this one. Smells like boysenberry jam and tastes, in Becky's words, like a sorbet alternative. Delia found it soft and unobtrusive, a bit flowery for a red. Jon explained how a wine from a 1er Cru producer ended up at only $17. I think it had something to do with it being an off-year, during which the depth and elegance of the wine suffered. But Jon asks, "When it's 90 degrees outside and 100 percent humidity, do you really want depth and elegance?"
     Third course: Some kind of beef
     Pam improvised a tasty beef dish. There might have been a vegetable on the side, but other than a black pepper crust around the edges the beef was unadorned and basically spoke for itself. Anyone who remembers the exact nature of it might want to post a comment saying more about it.
     "S." 1997 Calvano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Tuscany; all or nearly all Sangiovese. $17. From Tuscany's vintage of the century comes this rich, mentholly wine. Not too complex, but interesting and straight up.
     "M." 1998 Silverado Sangiovese, Napa Valley, $15. Very extracted, lots of body, deep and murky with an unusual but nice cherry-cough-syrup smell. A nice wine, but some of us thought that it would go better with a beef served with a thick, dark gravy or some other heavy sauce. Pam said she'd drink either of these with a hunk of meat anytime.
     Fourth course: Penne with sausage, porcini and portobello mushrooms and wine
     This pasta dish, which Terri made, also came from
The Wine Lover's Cookbook.
     "Scratchy." 1999 D'Alessandro Cortona Syrah "Il Bosco", Tuscany. $28. Clear evidence of terroir; it's a Rhône grape, but when you drink the stuff it fairly screams out "Italian wine!" Slightly vegetal, adds a nice earthiness to the pasta. On its own, Jon says, it's a fruit bomb. But not when it's served alongside...
     "Itchy." 2001 Simon Hackett Shiraz, McLaren Vale. $17. Damn. Really a fantastic match. Fuller and harder-driving than "Scratchy," with a hint of pine. Terri said she wanted to marry it. Pam said that, if she had a "hall pass" to cheat on her husband, she'd use it to cheat with this wine. Balanced with a lot going on, said Steph. As Chip said, "It says so much without being redundant."
     These last two pairs made up the best run of four wines than we've had in a really long time. Your Webmaster would have scored each of them 15 or higher. All of these wines came from Cork & Bottle. Props to Jon for recommending them.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 6:39 PM
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Wine and Food Club recipes. The write-up for the June 4 session is coming shortly, I promise. In the meantime, here are the recipes that Stephanie and Terri used. Both come from
The Wine Lover's Cookbook by Sid Goldstein and Paul Franz-Moore. (Shameless plug: If you click on the link and order the book, this Web site makes a buck or so.)

     Roasted Eggplant-Garlic Soup
     (Steph made this. Recommended pairing is Sauvignon Blanc. Alternate wine is Zinfandel.)

     1 large globe eggplant (about 1 pound)
     Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
     1 whole head garlic
     Olive oil
     1¾ cups chopped red onion
     ½ cup chopped fresh basil (or ¼ cup dried)
     1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (½ tablespoon dried)
     ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
     3 cups seeded, chopped tomatoes
     4½ cups chicken stock
     garnish: basil sprigs, chopped red bell pepper

     1. Preheat oven to 375. Trim ends of eggplant. Leave skin on. Rinse, pat dry, cut into ¼-inch rounds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on paper towels for 20 to 30 minutes to remove excess water.
     2. Cut off top of garlic head and sprinkle lightly w/ olive oil, salt, pepper. Wrap in foil, leaving it a little open at the top. Place egglant and garlic on lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Remove eggplant and continue roasting garlic for 35 minutes more. Chop eggplant into 1 inch pieces.
     3. In large soup pot, heat 1 T olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, basil, thyme and pepper flakes and saute for 5 to 6 minutes, or until onions are translucent. Squeeze garlic out of head, making sure flaky peel does not get mixed in, and add it to pot. Add eggplant, tomatoes, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
     4. Remove soup from pot and puree in batches. (Steph used a blender, and it worked just fine.) Soup can be refrigerated at this point.
     5. Heat thoroughly before serving, season to taste, and garnish.

     Penne with sausage, porcini and portobello mushrooms and Syrah
     (Terri made this. Recommended wine pairing is Syrah; alternate is Zinfandel.)

     2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
     12 oz. Italian sausage, cut into ½ inch slices
     1½cups chopped yellow onions
     3 cloves garlic, chopped
     1½ cups chopped portobello mushrooms
     ¾ teaspoon dried crumbled rosemary
     1 teaspoon dried thyme
     ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
     ¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
     1½ cups Syrah
     2 14½ oz. cans chopped tomatoes, drained
     1 tablespoon tomato paste
     Kosher salt, pepper or red pepper flakes
     1 lb. dried penne or other small pasta
     garnish: shredded Asiago cheese, chopped parsley

     1. Soak porcini in hot water for 2 to 3 hours. Drain
     2. In a medium nonstick skillet, saute sausage for 6 to 7 minutes over medium-high heat, turning to brown on both sides. Remove with slotted spoon, pat dry with paper towels.
     3. In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes, or until onions are translucent. Add mushrooms, herbs, salt and pepper and continue sauteing for 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer to reduce by half. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and simmer 8 to 10 minutes. Add sausage and heat through. Season to taste.
     4. Toss sauce with cooked pasta.

Recipes are copyright the authors and their publisher, I presume. Not used by permission, though I would hope the fact that we are enthusiastically encouraging people to buy this book because it's really @#$%ing great would convince all involved to construe the term "fair use" liberally.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 11:26 PM
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New Grape. Or at least it was new to me. I tried a French white made from ugni blanc grapes this week at Gautreau's, as part of the $20, three-appetizer-and-glass-of-wine summer special. Very crisp and acidic, and went nicely with the wonderful smoked salmon and the very interesting (and very red) tomato and watermelon salad. My google search revealed that hardly anyone writes about ugni blanc, at least not in English, but that it's common in France, Italy, Australia and Greece and is also used to make cognac and brandy. Also known as trebbiano.
 :: posted by Stephanie Grace at 9:46 AM
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The pricey stuff. When I first started buying wine, I had a huge emotional investment in the idea that you can find a $10 bottle better than most $20 bottles, a $20 bottle better than most $40 bottles, and so on. And I still think this is true up to a point -- if you choose wisely, if you recognize that finding that cheap bottle could take some work, and if you don't kid yourself into thinking the $8.99 Rosemount Cab/Shiraz mix from Sam's Club has the same potential as the $175 bottle of Grange.
     That said, when Steph, Becky and I went to Martin Wine Cellar's Once Upon A Vine event Sunday, we headed straight for the really expensive bottles that none of us can justify actually buying. We found some really phenomenal stuff, such as the spicy, smooth 1999 Dominus ($115), the 2000 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Select ($150) and even an $83 Chilean -- the 2000 Almaviva, which appears to be a joint venture of Barons de Rothschild and Concha Y Toro. It came as some relief, albeit not much relief, the the wine we responded to most was the 2000 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, which costs a mere $65 a bottle. Meanwhile, the 1999 Dolce Late Harvest, at $60 for a half-bottle, was the best dessert wine I've ever had; it's sweet without being murky or sticky, fruity without being cloying, and as I remember it was rather herbal. (Chip, who came after getting a free ticket at the last minute, observed that it tasted like marijuana smells. But in a good way.)
     The only major disappointment in the ultrapricey range was the top-shelf Deutz, a.k.a. the 1995 Deutz Brut Cuvée William ($95). Steph didn't think it was any better than the $30 nonvintage that's become the Official Champagne of Wine Club™. You can tell the Cuvée William comes from the same winery, but I thought it was a little bit fruitier than the one we're used to. And I'm not convinced that added fruitiness is a good thing. Part of the charm of the Official Champagne of Wine Club™ is that it smells as much like a croissant dusted with powdered sugar as it does like grape juice. Cuvée William doesn't.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 12:24 AM
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Have it our way. This terrific story from The Washington Post has nothing to do with wine or New Orleans, but it's really worth reading. It's about how chefs in white-tablecloth restaurants are getting frustrated with customers who want to customize their entrees, as if they were ordering Dell computers rather than pork chops.
     Here's one money graf: "Chef Gillian Clark has had it up to here. She's had it with customers who order her lovingly prepared food at Colorado Kitchen and then demand hot sauce or ketchup to dump all over it before they've taken a single bite.... She's had it with Atkins diet followers who order the steak and potatoes at her Northwest Washington restaurant, then have the chutzpah to ask for extra steak instead of the potatoes. And she's especially torqued off with people who want to completely sabotage the carefully thought-out entrees she's offering with their litany of demands: Can I have another vegetable, I want a different sauce, can you leave out the garlic, don't use any butter, could that be fried instead of broiled, and, oh yeah, can you cook the beef 'rare but with no pink at all'?"
     And here's another: "Last December a woman asked for tomatoes on her tuna sandwich. Furstenberg told her he doesn't serve tomatoes in winter because they're not in season. She pointed out that the supermarkets have them. 'But those are pink and hard and I won't serve them,' Furstenberg told her. 'Haven't you heard that the customer is always right?' she asked, getting annoyed. 'Yes, but that's a silly idea. The customer is not always right, the customer is simply the customer,' he shot back. The woman left."
     I've always thought that restaurants should accommodate special orders if they can reasonably do so. At the same time, some people take things to extremes and completely miss the point of eating out. I once ate dinner with some friends in a Mexican restaurant in Atlanta. One guy ordered a chicken quesadilla but asked that it be cooked in olive oil rather than butter, that the skins be removed from the chicken and that low-fat cheese be substituted for the regular kind. And I was like, why don't you go back in the kitchen and cook it yourself?
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 1:32 PM
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