huevos con vino

This weekend my fiance and I went to Vancouver, BC to unwind from a long school quarter, among other things.  I had some bad wines, some good wines, and some great scotch…but I’ll explain chronologically.

Friday at Lumière

This restaurant is justifiably recognized as one of the best in Vancouver, if not one of the best places on the West Coast. The food was unbelievably good, but this is a wine blog, so:

1. “Aviation” cocktail: Gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur - extremely nice
2. Glass of Balthasar Ress Hattenheimer Schutzenhaus Riesling Kabinet 2003 - also extremely nice, very sweet for a Riesling, but delicious with lobster bisque
3. Glass of 2001 Palandri Shiraz - not all that great, unfortunately…a bit too weak and thin on the fruit so it wasn’t a very good match with the veal chop…but I did drink it all, so it wasn’t horrible or anything
4. Glass of Penfolds Grandfather Tawny - delicious, but perhaps a bit too much red fruit showing in the finish (not tawny enough, somehow)
5. Glass of Aberlour d’abunadh (Speyside single malt Scotch) - really nice Scotch…I’m just starting to appreciate single malts and this one is quite nice

Saturday at Blue Water Café

1. “Manuka Mojito” cocktail: Honey vodka, fresh pineapple, mint, lime, ginger beer - very tasty and spicy!
2. Tasting of an Inniskillin red blend - pretty bad, I didn’t order any
3. Carafe of 2002 DeLoach Pinot Noir - good, standard Pinot Noir…nothing too fancy, but it tasted good with my arctic char
4. Glass of Embajador Reserva Especial 7-year aged Anejo Mezcal - absolutely mind-blowing stuff…well worth tracking down!
5. Flight of three single malt Scotches from the Isle of Islay - Caol Ila 25-year (too smoky and dry for my taste), Port Ellen 24-year (very peaty and smoky, but nice), and Bruichladdich 32-year (really incredible Scotch)

So, it was a fun weekend…although a bit expensive.  In the end I think the first wine (the Riesling) was my favorite overall, but the mezcal and the Bruichladdich Scotch were the clear winners in terms of spirits.

While this batch of wine is technically the second allocation I have ever received (Domaine Drouhin 2003 Pinot Noir being the first), this is the first time I have actually held a bottle of Radio-Coteau in my hands.  Or, rather, this is the first time I have held five bottles of Radio-Coteau in my hands!  Very, very exciting stuff.  Here’s a photo:

The Savoy and Cherry Camp releases are the major winners in this lot, I’d say.  Savoy Pinot Noir from years past goes for about $80-$90/bottle now, if you can find anyone willing to sell it.  I’m not sure when I’ll drink any of these wines, but I’m really looking forward to it…it’s tempting to open one of the La Neblina bottles tonight at Ray’s Boathouse, but perhaps I should go with something else.  We’ll see.

Exciting stuff, I tell you!!

POSTSCRIPT: I have decided to try a bottle of La Neblina Pinot Noir tonight at Ray’s Boathouse. As I’ve said here before, they charge $15/bottle to open, decant, and serve the wine via sommelier, so it’s worth it for sure.  My friend is bringing a bottle of Pinot Gris to start things off, so this should be an awesome dinner.

POSTSCRIPT #2: Well, we had a bottle of La Neblina with dinner…absolutely fabulous wine!  It is ready to drink now, but I can see where the complexity of this wine will continue to grow over the next few years.  Different aromas and flavors continued to unfurl from the glass…truly a terrific wine.  I wish I had wished for more bottles on my wish list.

Radio-Coteau is probably my favorite wine that I have yet to try.  Their Web site describes their background; the 2004 vintage is their third release to date, and the reviews of their wines from 2002 and 2003 have been quite good.  I love the premise: unfiltered, unfined wines made from grapes culled from a number of sites around California.  The name itself, “Radio Coteau,” means either “word of mouth” or “broadcasting from the hillside,” according to their Web site.  I love the idea of a winery whose reputation spreads largely through word of mouth advertising and reputation rather than, say, massive RVs with advertising on the side.

Anyway, I signed up for the Radio-Coteau e-mail newsletter because I got sick of trying to remember to visit their site to see when their new vintage would be released.  Ultimately, I was quite glad that I signed up because, starting with their 2004 release, they chose to move to an allocation-based sales system…and they decided to offer their wines to newsletter subscribers first.  Nice. 

Allocations are based on past patronage.  In my case, my past patronage was zero, so I was offered 2 bottles of the La Neblina Pinot Noir release.  However, I also put a few other bottles on my wish list.  I wound up getting 3 other bottles through this process: the Savoy Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, the Timbervine Russian River Valley Syrah, and the Cherry Camp Sonoma Coast Syrah.  We’ll see which ones I drink and which ones I attempt to resell on winecommune.com to cover the slightly unexpected cost of snagging 5 bottles total.  Of course, this is one reason why wine makes a great hobby: I can just drink my collection to make room for new items!

So, we’ll see how these wines taste soon enough.  As I’ve said before, though, since my fiancé can’t drink too much I may need to wait for a dinner party before I crack open a Radio-Coteau.  In the meantime, I will continue to content myself with the El Tesoro Platinum tequila I bought yesterday….

Paracombe is one of my favorite wineries and their wines, while terrific and reasonably priced, are damned difficult to find.  For example, if you search for “paracombe” at winezap.com, you’ll find a number of promising results.  But when you click through to many of the results, you find…well…nothing in stock.  Disappointing, to say the least.

So when I managed to contact a sales rep for Paracombe’s US importer (Peter Click), I was excited.  I got even more excited when I learned that I could get a few bottles of 2003 Cabernet Franc directly from the importer.  Earlier this week, I picked up my order: 3 bottles of 2003 Cab Franc, which is the most current vintage on offer here in the US (the winery is selling the ‘04 vintage now).

I haven’t tried a bottle yet, but I’m excited to do so ASAFP.  I have a few bottles of the 2000, 2001, and 2003 releases, and I may try to get a few 2002 bottles as well.  I actually had to cart 10 bottles of wine to my friend’s house as I am out of space.  Quite trusting of me, I know, but his wine is worth more than mine so I’m not too concerned.