lgsjr – Page 38 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Tablas Creek Vineyard

Tablas Creek Vineyard is unabashedly a corner of southern France plunked down in the middle of California, in Paso Robles to be exact. It is owned by the Perrin family of the southern Rhône valley (along with American wine importer Robert Haas). The Perrins are particularly known for one of the most renowned Châteauneuf du Pape wines, Château de Beaucastel. This history is important because of the vines that the family brought to the Central Coast from France. Going back to 1985, Haas and members of the Perrin family sought vineyard land and imported root stock. While the vines went through quarantine, the winemakers determined that the western fringe of Paso Robles was very similar in climate and soil – the terroir – to that of Châteauneuf.

Today, California’s Central Coast is revered for its Rhône-style wines but it was not always so. In fact, it was the vision and generosity of the Tablas Creek owners that established these wines in that region. Paso Robles has long been known for Zinfandel, and still is. The Tablas Creek people realized that one good Rhône winery would be an outlier; if the region did well with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and the other Rhône grapes, everyone would prosper. Thus they sold their vines to other wineries in Paso Robles. If this seems reminiscent of Robert Mondavi and Napa, so be it.

Visiting Tablas Creek has its challenges as well as its rewards. Paso Robles is pretty far from major airports (three hours south of San Francisco’s) and Tablas Creek is a fairly long drive from downtown Paso. Driving there along the Adelaida Road (Tablas Creek is in the Adelaida AVA) is very beautiful and there are quite a few excellent wineries along the way, so does it make sense if you only have a little time to visit to go all the way out to Tablas Creek? In a word, yes.

You never forget while you’re at Tablas Creek that you’re in California, but there is a great deal to remind you of France, beginning with a signpost at the entrance that tells you that the tasting room is nine yards away and that Domaine de Beaucastel is 9009 kilometers. There are posters and other souvenirs for sale, heralding Perrin’s French labels like La Vieille Ferme, their basic Rhône wines. That French identity carries over into the Tablas Creek wines, which come close to tasting like actual Rhône wines (as opposed to California Rhône Rangers that taste like California wines made from Rhône grapes).

Photo courtesy of Particularly Nice

The tasting room is Mediterranean-style building and is expansive, while the wooden interior still somehow makes it feel warm and inviting. They also have a terrace with umbrellaed tables where picnicking is welcome.

If you are not familiar with Rhône-style wines, a visit to Tablas Creek is an education. Tablas Creek’s wines are perhaps a little more Mourvèdre heavy than in southern France, but the character certainly evokes Châteauneuf de Pape. That is especially so, in our opinion, for the Esprit de Tablas, which until a few years ago was called Esprit de Beaucastel. The Panoplie is their highest priced wine, and to us tastes richer and bolder than we have tasted in wines from the Rhône valley; it is more California than France.

Even more evocative of California wine sensibilities are the single grape varietal wines. If the bottles are open, you can taste grapes you know, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, and many that may be unfamiliar to you, like Counoise, Grenache Blanc, Picardan and Tannat.

Photo courtesy of Tablas Creek Vineyard.

There are stunning views to be had at Tablas Creek, nestled in the foothills of the Santa Lucia mountains. That, taken together with the French atmosphere and the unique wines, make the long hike to Tablas Creek worthwhile.

Dealing with “Sideways”

If you love going wine tasting, as we quite obviously do, and if you enjoy telling friends about it, you will inevitably be asked whether you have seen the movie Sideways. Well, yes we have and we liked it quite a bit. But since the movie may be all your friends know about a wine tasting trip, you owe it to them to point out what is and is not realistic about it.

First, the film gives you the idea that people who visit Wine Country for tasting are jerks and geeks. (We deny being either.) In our experience, the jerks are most often people who want to drink rather than taste and have often been previously overserved. Most wineries are pretty good at dealing with this sort, for their own protection and to preserve the positive experience of other visitors. As for geeks, these are often normal people who are enthusiastic about one topic – wine tasting, in this instance – and are eager to share it. As long as they aren’t intimidating wine snobs, they are usually nice to deal with.

Often, people will tell you that they really liked what they saw of Napa Valley in the movie. However, the wineries and other locations shown in Sideways are from the Central Coast, in and around the town of Los Olivos. This is a wonderful sector of Wine Country, with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown to the west and Syrah to the east. There are some excellent wineries in the movie such as Fess Parker, Foxen and Firestone, well worth visiting. But they are hardly representative of California wine tasting as a whole. In particular, the town of Los Olivos is unique. It’s a quiet little California village that just happens to have an exceptionally high concentration of tasting rooms along its Grand Avenue. This is an opportunity for some interesting wine tasting, but this kind of atmosphere usually is found in urban settings, not a small town like Los Olivos.

What we find most evocative in the movie is the passion for wine experienced by its protagonists (well, some of them). The scene in which Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen explain what wine means to them is eloquent and affecting. Of course, you would be eloquent and affecting too if you had script writers. All the same, there is a spirit of seeing beautiful scenery, trying fine and not so fine wines and eating Wine Country meals that comes through in Sideways. That spirit is instantly recognizable to those of us who go wine tasting often.

There is much in the movie that evokes the real experience of wine tasting, despite the characters’ love lives and other shenanigans. Probably the worst thing in the movie is what it did to Merlot production in California. The fellow who keeps crying “No more Merlot” is a Pinot Noir lover, fair enough, but he doesn’t really know what merlot tastes like, as shown by the St. Emilion he drinks at McDonalds. That’s right, it’s made primarily from Merlot grapes.

So when Sideways comes up in conversation – and even thirteen years on from its debut, it will – tell your friends that it’s a fun movie and that some of it actually reflects your own experiences in Wine Country. Then suggest that they take a wine tasting trip and experience the real thing for themselves.

Cheers !

Editorial: Why Power Tasting Has No Bad Reviews

Each issue of Power Tasting contains a review of the tasting experience at a winery, often in California’s Wine Country but also of wineries we have visited elsewhere around the world. The review never says, “We had a terrible time. Don’t go there.” That’s not because we have never visited a subpar winery. Rather, it’s our view of service to our readers. We enjoy suggesting places you might like to visit and take no pleasure in telling you what to avoid.

There are many so-called “magazines” available in Wine Country, that find everything to be wonderful. Their articles are mostly written by vineyard public relations people and the magazines, if not on the take, are recompensed by advertising dollars. This is absolutely not the case with Power Tasting. We take no money or advice from anyone in our appraisals for the tasting experience. In fact we pay to be members of the wine clubs at several of our favorite wineries.

If you read some of our commentary closely, you’ll see that there are some where the overall experience is commendable but we’re not crazy about the wine. You may also see that we prefer simple wineries to elaborate Napa Palaces. But we also recognize that tastes differ and that it would be better to let you discover the occasional winery you’re less than satisfied with, than try to keep you away from having your own wine tasting discoveries.

We always focus on the tasting experience you can have when you visit the wineries we write about, not the wines themselves. But sometimes when we make a wonderful discovery, it’s difficult not to write a little about it.

Going Back, Again

We have in the past offered tips on tasting wines you may never have heard of. But what about wines, and wineries for that matter, that you know very well? If there are particular sectors of Wine Country that you visit repeatedly, how do you get the most from revisiting a winery that you have been so many times before? In fact, why go back at all?

The best answer to these questions is that although you may know a wine well, each year renders a new variation on an old theme. Even if you are familiar with a producer’s wines, you don’t know these wines. So just updating your understanding of a favorite winery is reason enough.

But unless there has been a major renovation or a radical departure in winemaking philosophy, the experience at any given winery is and should be the same, time after time. Have you ever seen a movie more than once? Re-read a book? Ordered the same meal at a restaurant? It isn’t that one time was better than another but each experience was different. The same applies to wine tasting.

We recently took this concept a bit far. We had some non-wine related reasons to be in Napa Valley and didn’t have time for serious tasting. In fact, we barely had time for tasting at all. But the road home took us past a favorite winery, Etude, so we decided just to stop for a quick visit before going along our way. We were there for several weekends in a row. Aside from a slight “you again?” look from the staff, we were warmly welcomed each time. In fact, we feel as though the welcome was even warmer as the weeks passed. We were showing them that we really love their wines.

Etude Winery’s tasting room

So if you are going back to a favorite winery, here are a few ideas to make the experience even more worthwhile.

Get to know the servers. If you are going to see Susan or Jeannie or Angel over and over, it’s only polite to learn their names and greet them as people, not just a means to getting wine in your glass. Any good wine tasting experience should include a sense that your patronage is appreciated; that works both ways. And there might just be a little something unusual that was left, say, from a trade tasting that you might be invited to try.
Don’t bother tasting everything. It is quite likely that there are one or two wines in particular that bring you back over and over. Focus on those. If possible, ask if they have older vintages available so that you can accurately compare the wine you remember with the one that they are now releasing. In our repeated visits to Etude, Lucie went right for the Heirloom Pinot Noir (their top end) and Steve only sampled the Cabernet Sauvignons.
Try something different. Despite what we just said, it’s worthwhile sipping something you didn’t care that much on previous visits. Maybe it was just a bad harvest. It happens. Or maybe it was what you had for lunch the last time that ruined your palate for a specific wine. That happens, too. If you still don’t like it, then your taste buds are confirmed and little is lost. But if you do enjoy it this time, you’ve expanded your appreciation of this winery’s production.
Revisit the wineries where you are a member of their wine club. In this way, there is no charge for a tasting and they will probably give you refills of your favorite wine (within reason and safety limitations). You’re not a member? Then join right on the spot. If this winery makes wines that bring you back time after time, you will probably enjoy having their wines shipped to your home. It’s not a lifetime commitment, and you can quit after a few deliveries. (It’s poor form to quit immediately.) But we have found that cutting the cord with true favorites is hard to do, and so we remain members.

Revisiting a well-liked winery is sort of like having a favorite pub. “Welcome back, pal. What’ll ya have?”

Visiting Napa/Noma in October

We are returning to the topic of the best time to travel to Napa Valley and Sonoma County, which we consider to be essentially one place called Napa/Noma. All times of the year are good times, but each month presents its own enticements and occasional challenges. Previously we have discussed January and April.

As East Coasters and Québécois, we see one of the advantages of autumn to be the extraordinary coloration of the foliage that we are treated to each October. Until we first visited California Wine Country, it had never occurred to us that the vineyards come alive with color each year as well. I guess we never took the Turning Leaf brand from Gallo all that seriously.

This photo was taken on St. Helena’s Pritchard Hill, looking towards Lake Hennessy

If you go in the first part of the month, especially the first week, you’ll have the chance to see the last days of the harvest. As global climate change takes hold, the beginning of the crush is coming earlier and earlier. It used to start in mid-August but now July harvests of some white grapes is not unheard of. In October, most of the grapes are in the process of becoming wine, so you’ll have less chance to see them hanging on the vines. What will be there will be red grapes in the higher elevations and those that are destined to be late harvest dessert wines. October is, after all, late for a harvest.

All of this is made up by the glorious display of colors in the vineyards. We’d like to say that the red leaves are Cabernet Sauvignon leaves and the yellow ones are Chardonnay, but that just isn’t so. As with oak trees and maples, different leaves have their own pigmentation that is overwhelmed by chlorophyll during the spring and summer. As the chlorophyll fades in fall, these colors come out. The predominant hues are a golden yellow and orange. In time, as they dry they become a light brown. There always seem to be some green leaves that hang on, so it’s quite a palette.

The red leaves you see in the photos accompanying this article are a special case. As tourists, we love to see them. Vineyard managers and wine makers aren’t very happy though. Red leaves are a sign of leaf roll, a virus carried by bugs that live in vineyard soil. It seems to be an increasing problem, according to some industry publications. So temper your pleasure at seeing fields of blazing red, as it’s an indication that there may be problems down the road for some of your favorite wines.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When you visit wineries in October, and taste at their bars, the staff you encounter would have a right to be a little tetchy. Harvest season is full of stress in the wine business. We’re glad to report that we have never encountered anything like that, but we also haven’t seen too many wine makers at that time, either. One time, however, a wine maker handed us a stick and asked us break the cap on a vat of bubbling grapes, so be prepared!

Since autumn is the harvest season for fruits and vegetables other than grapes, you’ll have the chance for something special in the Napa/Noma restaurants that feature local produce. Mustards in Yountville and Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg fall into this category of restaurant, and there are many others.

Days are still warm, although you may want a sweater in the morning and in the evening. You won’t usually encounter the blazing heat of Napa/Noma’s summers but again with climate change, you can never tell for sure.

Santa Clara Valley

At the southern end of San Francisco Bay there is the town of Santa Clara, which lends its name to the valley that runs south of it to Gilroy (called the “Garlic Capital of the World”), as well as to the AVA for the wines made there. There are, according to the local wine trade association (http://www.santaclarawines.com/santa-clara-valley.html) twenty-five wineries in the valley, although that’s just the association’s membership, since we know a few that aren’t listed.

The northern end of Santa Clara Valley is better known by another name: Silicon Valley. The town of Santa Clara abuts San Jose and other famous software producers, like Los Gatos and Sunnyvale. These places are possible reasons you might be in the area, beyond wine tasting. It was the case for us; we tacked on some tasting to a business trip. Silicon Valley, of course, has long shed its agricultural roots but there are a few wineries that could be interesting to visit. J. Lohr Vineyards (https://www.jlohr.com/) is on a typical urban street in San Jose and has little or no wine country ambiance, but it does have some creditable wines that are often found in wine stores and on restaurant lists. We have previously written about Testarossa Winery (http://www.testarossa.com/) in Los Gatos, which offers a superb tasting experience and some top-notch Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays as well. Maybe you can cut your last meeting short and visit these two, although they are quite far apart.

As is the case in much of California’s Wine Country, Route 101 is the main stem through the more southerly and more rural section of Santa Clara Valley. A half-hour out of San Jose you’ll find a number of wineries to visit. This is the Morgan Hill district and is the area in Santa Clara Valley with the densest population of wineries. We’d like to report on some great discoveries, but for the most part we weren’t as impressed with the wineries here as we were with those in the urban areas. There was at least one that was a gift shop that made wine rather than vice versa, so beware where you go.

Sycamore Creek Vineyards (http://www.sycamorecreekvineyards.com/) offers a very modernistic picnic area, with high metal stools clustered around stone planters with what appear to be olive trees rather than sycamores in the middle. The winery is a massive industrial building with the barrel room and a metal bar to one side.

Sycamore Creek’s picnic area. Photo courtesy of Léal Vineyards, Inc.

Kirgin Cellars (http://www.kirigincellars.com/) is California Wine Country the way it used to be…a long, long time ago. They have been making wine since 1916, and it shows. Their original tasting room is still there and it gives the impression that hobbits must live there. They also have another, larger tasting room that is actually modern but designed to look as ancient as the original one. With a wood-burning stove in the middle, it truly reminds you of wine making and tasting in another era.

Kirgin Cellars “new” tasting room

The town of Morgan Hill is where you’ll want to go for lunch. We learned after we visited that Morgan Hill is heavily populated by Silicon Valley zillionaires and it seems to follow as day follows night that people with money like to dine out. Monterey Road, not far from Route 101 is chock-a-block full of restaurants, some upscale, some not. You’ll have quite a few to choose from.

Santa Clara Valley is scenic in much the same way that California Vineyard areas are all scenic. The hills roll, the roads twist and the vines grow in serried rows up to the horizon. We wouldn’t call it a destination locale in Wine Country, but if you happen to be in the area, overall it makes for a pleasant tasting experience.

Château Léoville Barton

There’s a lot to be said, both positive and negative, about wine tasting in Bordeaux. In fact we’ve already said some about the subject. What makes the snobbishness, the appointments and the limited variety of wines worth putting up with is, well, the wine. We are not the first to note that Bordeaux produces some of the world’s greatest wines. If you’re going to make the trip you really ought to taste the best of the best, and Château Léoville Barton (https://www.leoville-barton.com/) certainly falls into that category.

As with everything in Bordeaux, and especially the section north of the city called the Médoc, there’s a lot of history. Let’s start with the name, Château Léoville Barton. While there is a beautiful château to see when you visit, it is not properly speaking a château in winemaking terms. The grapes are actually pressed in the adjoining estate of Langoa Barton. However, they are blended and aged on the château property.

Photo courtesy of Château Léoville Barton.

You may recognize “Léoville” with names other than Barton after it. That’s because it was once a huge estate – the largest in Bordeaux, in fact – but was split up. That’s why you can find Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Poyferré as well. (An interesting tasting might be the three side-by-side. We’d love to do that someday.) The three are in the heart of St. Julien, an appellation known for sunny, approachable but profound wines. All were named as second growths, or deuxieme crus, in the 1855 ranking. That doesn’t always mean much today, but it certainly holds up for the Léovilles.

Finally, the name Barton comes from an 18^th century Irishman named Thomas Barton who established himself in southern France and bought up some vineyards. (You may have heard of Barton & Guestier. Same Barton.) Power Tasting is all about the wine tasting experience, and when you are in a great Bordeaux château, the history is a part of the experience.

Your tour must be booked in advance and you had better arrive promptly. You will be met, escorted and explained to by your designated guide. Ours spoke English, but since Lucie was raised in French and Steve can get along, much of the tour was conducted in a mix of the two languages. If you have even a little French, you may get better explanations if you use that language.

Much of the tour is of the château itself, which is lovely in the same way that Downton Abbey is lovely. It is still the Barton family home. At one point, we were in a corridor with windows facing the gardens. We saw a man in running clothes jogging by with some hounds. Our guide exclaimed, “Oh, there goes the count!”

As on most winery tours, you get to see the blending and barrel rooms. The huge wooden tanks (not stainless steel as in the United States and even much of France) are quite impressive. Our guide told us that Léoville Barton still holds with tradition. We think that all that really matters is in the glass, so let both tradition and modernity reign. Of course, the rows of barrels full of future great wine does raise a thirst.

The tasting itself consists of two wines: Langoa Barton first and then Léoville Barton. (There is also a Léoville Barton second label, but we don’t remember it being offered.) Langoa Barton is itself a third growth, so it’s not shabby. Having the second growth Léoville Barton alongside – both made by the same people from grapes on adjoining ground – really brings out what makes one wine better, or at least different, from the other.

As we have said before, wine tasting in Bordeaux is snobbish like nowhere else in Wine Country, but it is worth going at least once. Let’s not forget, they have real châteaux there and they’ve been making great wine a long time before the New World did. You can taste their experience in the glass. Santé !

Wine Tasting…on a Cruise

On a day at sea on a cruise we took recently, they had a show at lunchtime. It was a musical called “Wine Lovers: The Musical”, (https://www.wineloversthemusical.com/) billed as wine tasting comedy show. There was no way we could resist a meal with six wines to taste and a show, so we went. It was as much to pass the time pleasantly as it was to learn anything about wine or wine tasting, and have a pleasant time.

Photo courtesy of Wine Lovers: The Musical

The lunch was no more than agreeable. The wines were pleasant but fairly common labels and varietals. The show was cute but predictable, with performers of quite some talent. The information about wine was introductory. But there was one song in the show that caught our imaginations. It was called “See, Swirl, Smell, Sip, Swish, Spit.” There it was – how to go wine tasting in six simple words, all beginning with the letter S.

What an interesting idea to build a musical on wine tasting and combine it with a wine tasting luncheon. As we said, for us it was quite basic but it must not have been so for everyone in the room. We’re sure the experience was valuable for some people.

Wherever our travels take us, we look for wine bars as a way of spending a pleasant time, especially in wine-making counties. That’s the way to learn about the wines they make there. At every wine tasting, we learn something; that’s part of the experience of going wine tasting, be it at the vineyard, at a wine bar or (you never know) on a cruise.

You should always be open to experience, to new tastes and new ideas, especially form unexpected sources. As we say in Power Tasting’s mission statement on our cover page, we want our readers “not to be intimidated by wine snobs on either side of the bar”.

The best advice to someone trying to learn from more experienced people is to keep your ears open and your mouth shut. If you are new to wine tasting – or if you’ve been doing it for decades – our advice is to keep both your mind and your mouth open.

Frank Family Vineyards

There is a certain type of winery in Napa Valley (and elsewhere, too) that sets our teeth on edge. Someone is a great success at something other than wine making, buys a property in Wine Country and vows to make wine that’s not only great in itself but reflects the values of his (always his) family and their tradition. After all, this is the description of Joseph Phelps and many other great, great wine makers whose products have enriched our lives and those of many other wine lovers, so we cannot be doctrinaire.

To that select group we must add Rich and Leslie Frank, whose Frank Family Vineyards are located in Calistoga, at the northern end of Napa Valley. They were big shots in television before opening their winery. It is not our purpose at Power Tasting to review wines, but it is fair to say that we enjoy their wines very much. Our objective is to pass along our views on the experience of wine tasting at wineries we have visited, and Frank Family gets high marks there, as well.

The site itself is historic. There is a rather spare stone building, which was once the building of Hanns Kornell’s winery, where methode champenoise winemaking was introduced to America on a commercial basis. The Franks bought the vineyards and the winery that Mr. Kornell had built. As you drive up, you’ll find a spacious picnic area under the trees. Evidently, Frank Family was grandfathered in; Napa County doesn’t give permits for picnicking to newer wineries.

The building hosting the tasting room has the feeling of an old home, with lots of wood and rooms leading from one to one another. Cleverly, Frank Family has set up bars in several of the rooms, so it never feels very crowded. You can also have a seated tasting, which we found worthwhile as you get to really savor their reserve wines. This being Napa Valley, the top wines are Cabernet Sauvignons, especially the Patriarch, which is 100% Cab and quite expensive as well.

One of the bars at Frank Family

We found the servers to be quite knowledgeable about their wines and wine in general. This may be because they knew we were from Power Tasting, so we hope that it is representative of the entire staff. If you do take a reserve tasting, you’ll find it valuable to have several glasses so that you can compare different wines and, if you’re lucky and they have them open, different vintages of the same wine. Our experience at Frank Family is that if you exhibit real interest in their wines, they go out of their way to provide you with an interesting experience with a lot of variety and interesting insights into their wines.

Many visitors to Napa Valley drive up from San Francisco and go wine tasting only in the southern end of the valley. Now, we love the wines there too, but sometimes it pays to just keep driving north. Calistoga itself has its own charms, being a bit more of an old-fashioned feel than some of the other towns in Napa Valley. There are very nice cafes and restaurants where you can enjoy your lunch. And it has mud baths (ugh!). It’s worth making the drive and if you do come up that way, make sure that Frank Family is on your itinerary.

ved Stranden 10, Copenhagen

Many of the world’s great cities have landmarks that are central to their images. Tourists and locals alike gather at the Eifel Tower, Big Ben, the Coliseum and Time Square. Other cities without such internationally known monuments offer something different; they’re great hanging out cities. San Diego is one; so are Milan, Amsterdam and Madrid. Let us introduce you to yet another, Copenhagen, and in particular a wine taster’s destination bar known by its address, ved Stranden 10.

First about the city. The most famous locale in Copenhagen is Nyhavn, which is a long harbor, mostly for fishing and tourism boats. All the buildings along the harbor are brightly colored and alongside is a long row of cafes under welcoming umbrellas. Of course it’s full of tourists, but you find Danes there as well, especially at night. As we said, it’s a great place to hang out. But so are the sidewalk restaurants on Gothersgade; the big square in the fashionable shopping district, in the middle of Højbro Plads (or Place); and the Street Food center across the main harbor.

Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s “new harbor”, only 300 years old

Which brings us to ved Stranden 10 (http://www.vedstranden10.dk/). It’s located alongside a canal and from the outside, it’s an unassuming building on a quiet little street. In warm weather, they have tables outside along the canal. Ved Stranden 10 is a wine store and also a wine bar. Inside, there’s a very small bar up front with pourers, waiters and customers scurrying about like mad. There are a few tables and stools along one wall, but for the most part all you can do in the bar is stand and order. There are several more rooms that are far more like someone’s rather chic Danish Modern living room than a wine bar.

So far, so nice. What differentiates ved Stranden 10 from all other wine bars we’ve ever been to, is that most of the waiters are sommeliers and that there is no wine list! Instead, you negotiate with your waiter. He or she will ask, “What do you feel like drinking?”. Maybe one wants a light white, somewhat austere, not very fruit forward and the other a robust red, chewy and full of fruit. (That would be Lucie and Steve, respectively.) The waiter will get a few glasses and bottles and pour little tastes. “Does this work for you?” If so, your glass will be filled. If not, he or she will go get something else. No one goes away disappointed.

Inside ved Stranden 10

You can’t say, “I’ll have a Pinot Noir” or a Bordeaux or a Sauvignon Blanc. They don’t work that way. You tell them you like Bordeaux but they don’t carry Bordeaux. They will bring you a taste of what they think is similar to Bordeaux. They have a lot of wines from obscure places, like Serbia or Turkey or some valley in Italy you’ve never heard of. So the light white wine came from Sardinia and the big red was a Blaufrankisch from Austria. We might have ordered those ourselves, but if there were something on a list that was more familiar, we never would have gotten to these wines. The result is that we both got to drink some wines we weren’t familiar with, that met our taste preferences at that moment.

A word about the glasses. If you choose to sit outside, they will use very nice glassware, but nothing you’d notice one way or the other. But inside, they use some of the most delicate stemware we’ve ever drunk from. The glasses are very light and the stems are so thin you feel like you’re going to snap them with your fingers. (We didn’t.) They don’t use them outside because the slightest breeze would knock them over.

Fair warning: you’ll have such a good time at ved Stranden 10 that when it’s time to sum up and pay, because you have no idea what the cost was of that glass of wine that you just ordered (remember, no wine list), you’ll find that you had so many wines that the bill is bigger than you thought it would be. You’ll probably conclude that it was money well spent, like we did.