Author: lgsjr

Dining at The French Laundry

Power Tasting is not in the business of reviewing restaurants and we won’t be starting to do so now.  But it is not saying much to state that The French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s flagship restaurant, with its three Michelin stars, is the best eatery in Yountville.  Maybe in all of California.  Possibly the United States.  We’ll leave it to others to say where it stands in the world’s gastronomic pantheon.  In this edition of Power Tasting, focused on Yountville, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about our experiences there.

We’ve dined at The French Laundry a few times.  The first was just a short while after it opened in 1978, prior to Mr. Keller’s involvement. We were on a wine tasting trip with friends, passed by on a Saturday afternoon and walked in, asking if we could still get lunch.  Try doing that today!  The contents of that meal are lost in the fog of time, but not the overall experience.  We were seated upstairs by a window, looking out on the farms – not vineyards – of Yountville, including one just across the street.  The fare on the menu included chicken from this farm and lamb from that one…and the farms were in walking distance.

The French Laundry today.  Photo courtesy of thomaskeller.com

Today, The French Laundry is on a section of Washington Street that is largely residential, but shopping, hotels and tasting rooms are not far away.  The only remnant of yesteryears’ farms is the French Laundry’s private garden just opposite the restaurant.  Last year, Thomas Keller has completely renovated the restaurant, spending $10 million to make it very modern.

In 1998, we dined there after Mr. Keller had taken over.  The highlight was that we were invited into the kitchen to meet Chef Keller.  The stainless steel surfaces gleamed and a small army of cooks scurried around making last minute dishes and making sure that all was in good order.

The French Laundry’s kitchen.  Photo courtesy of thomaskeller.com

In 2014, we were riding on the New York subway when we saw Mr. Keller across the car, on his way to Per Se, his East Coast equivalent of The French Laundry.  A few weeks before, the New York Times had published an article about Mr. Keller and a favorite recipe he used to make for his father.  We tried it at home and loved it. We all got out at the same station and we took a few minutes to speak with the chef, extol his restaurants and cookbooks and say how much we enjoyed the recipe of his that had appeared in the newspaper. He was very friendly and talkative.  On the basis of that “deep, personal relationship” we wrote Mr. Keller requesting a table at French Laundry for a wine tasting trip we were planning several months hence.  It worked.

As it happened, the dinner coincided with Lucie’s birthday that year.  When we arrived, the staff wished her a happy birthday, and that wish was repeated on the custom-printed menu we were given.  Again the meal was astonishingly good, but then something totally unexpected occurred.  The power went out in Yountville and the restaurant was shrouded in darkness, but only for a few minutes.  The staff brought out stout candles and placed them all around the restaurant and along the stairs.  French Laundry is beautiful as it is; by candlelight it’s extraordinary.

Yountville

Not so long ago, Yountville was a sleepy farming village where freight trains stopped to pick up produce and drop off supplies.  We always hoped it was named for Milwaukee baseball legend Robin Yount, but it actually got its name from one George Yount, who was reputed to have planted the first vineyard in Napa Valley.

There are many reasons why it grew into the tourist mecca it is today, not least being the explosion of interest in California winemaking.  But if Yankee Stadium is the House that Ruth Built, then Yountville is the Town that Thomas Keller Put on the Map. Beginning with French Laundry, he has added Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and Ad Hoc to his restaurant empire, all along Washington Street in Yountville.  Keller has recently opened La Calenda, a Mexican restaurant in the location that used to house the late, lamented Hurley’s.

With all that, Yountville is now the culinary capital of Napa Valley.  After his time as chef at Domaine’s Chandon’s Étoile restaurant, Philippe Jeanty opened Bistro Jeanty, a veritable reproduction of a country French bistro.  Richard Reddington added Redd and then Redd Wood.  And on and on.  It’s hard to find a bad meal in Yountville.

With the restaurants came the diners and the shoppers.  Washington and Yount Streets abound with boutiques, topped by the V Marketplace, a shopping center with the full line of Napa Style accessories, housewares, wines, restaurants and galleries that give Napa Valley its fashion tone (and fill your mailbox with catalogs).

Photo courtesy of Yountville.com

There are also a number of tasting rooms along Washington Street.  As with all in-town tastings, there are some that are well worth a stop and others that are best passed by.  Unfortunately, there is little way to know in advance which is which.  In Yountville, we have enjoyed Priest Ranch and Beau Vigne, which is not to say that some of the others aren’t worthwhile.

As a visitor to Yountville, a great way to enjoy it is to make a day of it.  This is especially good advice on a weekend, when the roads and wineries on Route 29 are jammed.  Begin with breakfast at Bouchon Bakery.  You’ll stand in line for coffee and croissants but the wait will be worth it.  Sit outside at one of the little tables and think about all the places you will go today.  Well fortified, you can try a winery and look into a gallery or two.  Then it’s time for lunch.  Why not a pizza at Redd Wood or a salad at R & D Kitchen?

A few more wineries in the afternoon and some serious boutique-ing come next.  Be smart about the alcohol you consume; still, it’s nice to know that you don’t have to get behind the wheel to go from place to place.  An aperitif at the bar at Bistro Jeanty will give you the chance to mingle with a few locals.  Then it’s off to dinner.

Yountville at Christmastime.  Photo courtesy of Yountville.com.

As noted, the choice of restaurants is broad, but if you want to be in with the in crowd, queue up for a table at Ciccio.  Run by the owners of Altamura Vineyards, Ciccio doesn’t take reservations and it is always packed with people who have the patience to dine there.

A final word: visit Yountville at Christmas season.  They wrap every tree on Washington Street in little white lights and the town becomes a fairyland.  It’s magical.    And the crowds are less in December as well.

Domaine Chandon

For us, it is impossible to think of our experiences of tasting wine in Napa Valley not to think about Domaine Chandon.  It was the first place we visited on our first wine tasting trip to Napa Valley.  The site was beautiful; the education about making sparkling wine stayed with us forever; and the wine was first rate.  This was in the late 70’s and everything was new and wonderful, only enhanced by the haze of time.

It was the beginning of an avocation that has led to this e-magazine.

There are differences between that experience and the one you can have if you visit Domaine Chandon today.  At that time, the winery included a restaurant, Étoile, that closed in 2014.  Back then, the restaurant was the seat of haute cuisine in Napa Valley, and people flocked there to taste real French food (!) in America, washed down with real French Champagne (!!).

But real Champagne comes only from the section of France by the same name.  Domaine Chandon is a subsidiary of the French company Moet et Chandon and so they never describe their American product as Champagne (with or without a capital c).  Their labels eschew any description at all, except to say that they are Brut (or rosé) and Méthode Traditionelle.

The tasting room overlooking the gardens.

The educational experience at Domaine Chandon is also diminished from the olden days.  Then, a guide walked you through the winery and explained double fermentation, dosage and how they got that big cork into the bottle.  Today, you can walk through yourself and read the plaques as you go, but it’s not the same thing. After the tour you were invited to sit in the charming little garden under umbrellas and they would bring you a glass of sparkling wine, a little bowl of spread cheese and croutons.

After all about what it was, Domaine Chandon is still worth a visit today.  There are far more sparkling wines to taste than in the past, including Pinot Noirs that were not even thought of then.  The tasting room offers many wines to compare, including the Bruts from around Napa Valley.  Depending on the day, they may open wines from Yountville (the mother ship), Carneros or Mt. Veeder.  Their top wine was and is Étoile, in Brut and rosé, as well as the top of the top, the Tête du Cuvée (which is rarely available for tasting but is, of course, sold there).

The grounds are gorgeous, a sprawling campus with fountains, ponds and greenery that invite a long, lazy afternoon, sipping Champa…, oops, sparkling wine.  And Domaine Chandon makes that easy with a spacious veranda and seats around the gardens.

Unfortunately Domaine Chandon is to an extent the victim of its own success.  It was the first French winery to open in the United States and it has been a landmark for more than 40 years.  So people arrive in great numbers, especially on beautiful summer weekends.  If you are there on a busy day, you will be given your tastes but will feel rushed and you won’t be able to engage in much conversation with the server.  Maybe a rainy day in November is the best time to visit.  Our last experience at Domaine Chandon was not enjoyable because of all those inconveniences.  It was also so crowded that getting to the bar to ask for another tasting was almost impossible.

But try it, take in the beauty of the site and of the architecture of the tasting room and enjoy the wines.  You’ll become a part of California history.

Bringing Wine Home from Europe

Worldwide terrorism has changed our lives in many ways, none of them good.  There are many losses greater than the difficulty in bringing wine home with you from your European vacation.  It used to be easy: get a case that would fit in the overhead rack and tote it along with you on the plane.  Needless to say, that won’t work these days, especially if your destination is in the United States.  So what can you do if you want to bring back home some of the wines you tasted?

  • Ship them. This way works but is in general a bad idea.  It costs a lot to ship a case of wine across the Atlantic and it can’t be sent directly to your home.  It goes to the airport into customs.  You have to go deal with the functionaries there, pick it up and pay the duties.  This is a lot of money and a lot of work just to be able to say you bought it at the vineyard.
  • Put some in your luggage. This works but the technique is limited and risky.  Each person coming into the US is able to bring two bottles, so a couple can carry four.  If – some if – you have room in your valise for four bottles, you are trusting the gentle handlers out on the tarmac not to toss, drop or otherwise maul your bags.  Good luck.  If you are going to stash a few bottles this way, you can buy resealable padded plastic bags that protect your clothes but also take up more space.  We often pack some bubble wrap and enclose the bottles ourselves.  Place them between layers of soft clothing if you carry them this way.

Do you want your wine to be in this pile?

  • Buy a case and take it home as luggage. You can buy a case (meant for shipping with styrofoam or cardboard) in a store or at a winery and fill it up as you go.  Then, on your return trip, check them in.  You will definitely have to pay duty on the number of bottles over your limit when you get to the US, but that may not be onerous.  You still have to contend with the aforementioned baggage handlers, so definitely mark the case as fragile.  But you have to lug the case with you in your travels and then carry it through the airports on your trip.  And some airlines or airports won’t accept cases of wine, because of the fear of terrorists.
  • Buy it back home. If you’re at a winery and you particularly like a wine, ask the person serving you about the name of their American distributor(s).  The bigger and better known the winery, the more likely they are to have one.  You can call them on your return and find out where you can buy the wine in question in the States.  Unfortunately, that great little find you found in an unknown little village may not have an American representative.  Worse yet, if they do export, these wineries are more likely to sell only their higher volume, lower quality wines on the world market because they don’t press enough of their top wines to attract a distributor.  You won’t find that special gem at home.

There is one other alternative.  Appreciate the wines you taste in Europe while you’re there.  Savor the tastes and the aromas and the memories.  That’s one of the beauties of travelling through Wine Country in the first place.

Carcassonne

The town of Carcassonne sits among several different winemaking regions, with Minervoix to the northeast; Corbières to the southeast;  and Gaillac to the west.  If you are on a wine tasting trip in the Southwest of France, you should definitely save time for a stop in Carcassonne.  In fact, the town is a worthwhile destination, no matter what brings you to the French Southwest.

The Cité of Carcassonne. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

The lower town is no different than many others in France, but the massive rock to the north is a wonder.  It is a classic medieval fortress city essentially undisturbed since the late 13th century.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  In fact, by the mid-19th century the town had fallen into such disrepair that the French were prepared to tear it all down.  The hero of this tale is Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, an architect and antiquarian who made it his life’s work to restore structures that had suffered over the centuries.  He led the project to restore Carcassonne to its previous glory and although his vision was as much romantic as historical, the restored town is not only a monument to French history but also to the memory of Viollet-le-Duc.

While there had been a town along the Aude river since Roman times, Carcassonne achieved a prominent place in history during a crusade against believers in a proto-Protestant religion known as Catharism, considered heretical by the Popes of the 12th and 13th century.  The fortifications that can be seen today, called La Cité, were first erected to keep the papal armies out.  The local nobleman who ruled the city decided to give it up without a fight and when all the wars were over, Carcassonne had become a part of kingdom of France.

The entrance to the Château Comtal.

As a visitor, you can walk around the stone streets and along the ramparts.  It doesn’t require much imagination to see the invaders below, holding Carcassonne in siege.   In fact, anyone who has ever dreamed of knights in shining armor and their damsels in flowing robes will feel a bit of romantic memory wash over them while inside the walls.  The Château Comtal, or the Count’s Castle, is one of the sights not to miss.  Here you will get a feeling for how the people of the time actually lived.  Also, the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, built before the age of the Cathars, is a testimonial to the glory of the Middle Ages.

A café in one of Carcassonne’s squares.

Of course, Carcassonne is a tourist destination so there is the usual array of stores selling t-shirts and other souvenirs, but that shouldn’t keep you away.  This town is a piece of history that has been lovingly restored, and the 21st century gets along quite well with the 13th.  Have lunch at an outdoor café, drinking the local wines and eating the contemporary fare and pretend that you are gathered with townsfolk to fete the Viscount and his court.  You and your inner child will be glad you did.

Brolio

This is going to get a little complicated.  In the heart of Tuscany’s Chianti Classico region there is a castle named Brolio (https://ricasoli.com/en/).  It is owned by the noble Ricasoli family and they make wine there.  Some of their wines are named Brolio and others are called Ricasoli and some say both, hence the complication.  If you want to visit, go to the town of Gaiole and look for signs pointing to either name.

The Brolio Castle.  Photo courtesy of Ricasoli.

Power Tasting is all about going wine tasting and we’ll get to that in a bit.  But we can’t overlook the fact that the tasting room is at the foot of a hill and on top of that hill is a castle.  It is a major tourist attraction in the region.  It is rather grand, with beautiful gardens, and it is available for tours.  There is even a restaurant there where you can dine in some splendor.  If your wine tasting schedule allows the time, you really ought to see it.

Photo courtesy of Chianti.com

Brolio/Ricasoli makes a lot of wines, some of which are available on store shelves in the United States.  The best known, naturally, is their Chianti Classico.  [A few words about Chianti, since we’re getting a little complicated. Lots of areas in Tuscany make Chianti but only those in a specified region around the villages of Radda, Greve and Gaiole make the Classico, known for the black rooster (gallo nero) on the label. A Chianti Classico must be at least 75% Sangiovese and up to 10% Canaiolo, with the rest usually filled in with international varietals. Is the Classico any better than any other?  Who’s to say? (Well, Lucie thinks so.)   But it is marketed way better.]

Brolio’s top wine is the Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, which is rarely available for tasting.  However, the Riserva is there and is definitely worth trying.  To our tastes, the best part of a tasting at Brolio are the wines generally less associated with their name(s).  Among these are their 100% Sangiovese wines, which can’t be called Brunello because they’re not from Montalcino but are made the same way.  We particularly liked their Vin Santo dessert wine.

An unusual attraction of wine tasting at Brolio is the stemware used in the tasting room.  They are light and beautifully shaped and add an unexpected pleasure to a wine tasting visit.  We thought of buying some and bring them home, but they are so thin and fragile, we changed our mind.

Overall, a visit to Brolio/Ricasoli is an event.  If there were nothing more than the tasting room and the wines alone, it would be very satisfying.  There are the castle, the vineyards, the restaurant, the tours which taken altogether can be a bit overwhelming.  We’re not trying to discourage anyone from visiting Brolio – far from it.  It’s just that if you want to take full advantage of everything that Brolio has to offer, plan on spending some serious time there.

One thing that Brolio offers is a sunset tour.  We have never done it, but the idea of watching the sun go down over the Tuscan countryside is an attraction we might take up on another occasion, and spend the night in the village instead of driving back to wherever we stayed in the past.

Cooperatives

Across Europe’s many wine growing regions there are regional cooperatives.  These are societies that produce wines under the name of the locality, in many cases well-known ones such as Chablis or Barbera. In other places, they’re little more than the village wine press.  The wines they produce, for the most part, are indicative of the style of that region.  And why not?  They are made from the same grapes that grow in that AOC, DOPG or whatever the local wine denomination may be.  In some instances, they make rather good wine at a very good price.  In others, the best wine available is pure plonk by any measure.

Why should a visitor to any particular corner of European Wine Country take the time to visit one of these cooperatives?  The answer depends a lot on how you approach wine tasting and how much time you have.

If you are the sort who only wants to taste the very best products of the European vines, by all means spend your time in Bordeaux, Tuscany and the Rioja.  Spend freely and drink deeply.  And to be sure, there is a time in every wine lover’s life when he or she should get to know what truly great wines taste like.

But if you also want to get to know the geography of a locale, who the people are and how they live, where they shop and what they drink, the cooperatives are a great place to start.  Very few people in Burgundy, for example, are drinking grand cru wines every night with dinner.  We doubt that even the Rothschilds are quaffing Lafitte with a plate of charcuterie.  And if you aren’t a baron, you probably don’t either.

A customer bringing his jug for a refill at the Coopérative d’Enserune in Languedoc, France.

What do the regular people in the small villages that dot the countryside do?  They bring empty bottles and jugs to the cooperative and fill them up at a spigot, much like putting gas in their cars.  The wine lists are not extensive: white, red and rosé are on offer, and often not all three if they’re not made locally.  These folks go to their homes, eat nice meals and drink nice wines and are quite happy doing so.  They’ll buy a good bottle every now and again for special occasions, but they don’t make a big deal about a pleasant beverage that accompanies their meals and their lives.  Even as a visitor, if you want a picnic or light meal on your hotel balcony, why not do like the locals do?

Another good reason to visit some – not all – cooperatives is to get an introduction into the grapes, winemaking methods and terroirs of the region.  In quite a few cases, one town may have a cooperative that’s almost a museum of their wines and the next one over is little more than an outlet store.  It’s a bit of a crap shoot and there isn’t much available even on the Internet to guide you before you get there.  Give a try, especially if you’re going to be in a town for a while.  The worst that will happen is that you’ll walk in, have a taste and leave.

La Chablisienne may be as famous for this poster as they are for their wines.

Finally, there are some cooperatives that make really good wine.  Often they make up a name for their labels so you won’t know they’re coop wines.  Rasteau makes Ortas; Chablis has La Chablisienne.  These are worth buying either while you’re there or if they show up in a local wine shop back home.

Editorial: Gary Farrell Winery, Again

We at Power Tasting always strive for journalistic accuracy in all our articles.  Sadly, sometimes we slip up.  But we always correct any errors we know of.

So, in our last issue we published a review of wine tasting at Gary Farrell Winery in Russian river Valley.  We received an appreciative note from Sam Folsom, a publicist for the winery.  Evidently, there were some significant changes made just after our last visit.

He informed us that Gary Farrell Winery opened their new tasting room, which was significantly redesigned and remodeled. They no longer have the tasting bar, which is shown in our story, and it is replaced by a series of comfortable seating options, which look out on the valley through a floor-to-ceiling window (the popular outdoor patio remains). As we noted, they are now open by appointment, and guests have a series of tasting and tour options to choose from.

The new Gary Farrell Winery Salon, created by architect Michael Guthrie, has a contemporary design with organic finishes and they tell us that it is welcoming and comfortable. Its center room is open and airy with a vaulted wood beam ceiling and dramatic, floor-to-ceiling canted windows that showcase a commanding view of the forested Russian River Valley. The popular outdoor terrace remains a centerpiece of the Gary Farrell Winery experience, around which the salon rooms are now arranged, but it has undergone a significant remodel with new furniture and seating arrangements, including oversized couches, as well as distinctive, vaulted shade sails.

We intend to re-visit in the near future.

Value Tasting in California

Wine tasting, at least in California’s prime winemaking regions, has become an expensive pastime.  What winemakers once – a long time ago – considered a form of marketing has become a profitable sideline for the wineries themselves.  We’ve heard that Napa Valley is America’s number one adult tourist destination (we can’t vouch for that) but we can say that the roads and tasting rooms in Napa Valley and Sonoma County are more crowded than ever.

Photo courtesy of Cal Alumni Association

Along with these trends, the cost of tasting wines at the wineries has risen dramatically.  For some of the more renowned wines, a charge of $40 or more is no longer unusual.  It is commonplace to find a $25 fee for tasting from a winery’s reserve list.  There are people who neither want nor can afford to pay those prices.  Perhaps they are just looking for a pleasant day in the country, with a picnic and a little wine tasting to add zest to the day.  For them, paying top dollar for a few sips just doesn’t make sense.

We have long advocated tasting the best wines when visiting Wine Country, because they provide the maximum pleasure.  But for those who would also like to have the maximum value without paying the maximum price, here are some ideas for attaining that double goal.

  • Look for wineries that offer free tastings. Yes, there are still some.  The most famous and by far the best is Heitz Cellars.  Joe Heitz, one of Napa Valley’s pioneers, never wavered from his goal of making great wine accessible and his winery still offers tastings without charge.  Don’t miss this one.  A few others, such as Buehler, Sutter Home and Vincent Arroyo are also still free of fees.
  • Do a little homework in advance. Figure out what sector you would like to visit, keeping thoughts of where you can picnic in mind.  For a variety of legal reasons, picnicking is much easier to do in Sonoma County than in Napa County.  Check web sites to learn if you can bring food.  And then check the cost of tastings.  There are still some bargains around.
  • Buy a bottle. In many cases, if you buy a bottle of wine, the winery will waive the tasting fee.  So a bottle of wine to accompany that picnic may make for a free tasting.  And of course, you can take a bottle home with you for another time.
  • Share your tastings. If your objective is tasting, not drinking, two people can share a single tasting, thereby bringing down the cost.  We do it all the time, not so much for money reasons as to manage our intake of alcohol.  That way you might be able to splurge a bit on a pricier winery.
  • Try the less costly list. There’s no rule that says you only have to try only the reserve list.  And in fact we have found that in some cases, there’s no particular advantage to a winery’s most expensive wines. You’ll find some pretty nice wines at places like Beaulieu Vineyards and Chateau St. Jean in their regular tasting rooms, as opposed to their reserve rooms.

Visiting Napa/Noma in November

No matter what T. S. Elliott says, some believe that November is the cruelest month.  In northern California’s Wine Country, the grapes have all been harvested; the new wine is all in barrels; and even there you can feel winter coming on.  But at the same time, the frenetic atmosphere of harvest has past and the crush of high tourist season has disappeared with the summer.  The general bonhomie that settles in across America as Thanksgiving approaches can be felt in Napa/Noma as well.

A lot of the pleasures of visiting Napa/Noma depends on the time of the month that you are there.  In the early days, many of the trees are in their autumnal glory.  More important, so are the vines.  There will be many brown leaves but also bright yellows and oranges, a few hardy remaining greens and some vibrant reds.  Sadly, the red leaves are a sign of what is known as “leaf roll”, meaning that the vines are getting along in years and will soon enough stop producing.  They will be replaced by seedlings, but visitors can still enjoy their bright color in the fall.

Photo courtesy of Yountville.com

In the latter part of the month, Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas season lend a festive quality to Napa/Noma.  Almost all wineries have put on their holiday decorations; they sell giftware and a few are really little more than novelty stores that serve wine.  So you can get a lot of your holiday shopping done while you sip.  For those who favor wine-themed gifts, we have in the past bought a wreath made of vines and a gold-dipped grape leaf to hang on a Christmas tree.

Along with summer’s crowds, summer’s heat disappears in November as well.  Instead of searing 90’s, you’ll find afternoons in the 60’s and mornings rather colder than that.  We recommend packing a sweater and maybe even a heavier jacket.  It’s up to the individual whether this temperature is bracing or just brrrr.

November can be a season for tasting newer vintages.  Wines that sat in the barrels for 18 months or longer will have just gone through the bottling and labeling processes and are just hitting the stores and the tasting rooms.  Of course, these are young wines and you might prefer them with a bit more age to them.  November is really not about what you should be drinking now but what you will be drinking in a year or two.  It’s a good idea to bring a long a Clef du Vin if you have one, which can help you simulate what the wines will taste like a few years hence.

On or about November 1, the rates for hotel rooms in Napa/Noma go down, so you might get a better deal on accommodations.  The prices in restaurants, alas, do not follow suit but since there are fewer tourists, it becomes easier to reserve a table in some of the more exclusive places.  You might even find yourself sitting next to a winemaker, who finally has a chance to slow down and enjoy dinner out after a hectic few months.

That’s the theme of a wine tasting visit in November.  Everything is easier and more relaxed, which may be exactly what you are looking for.