Pinon Vouvray at Amandas Hoboken

Damien Pinon 'Tuffo' Vouvray at Amandas Hoboken 

For a midweek team business dinner, we met in Hoboken at Amanda's Restaurant, one of our
favorite eateries in town that we discovered and enjoyed when son Alec lived a few blocks away a few years back. Colleague Tom O'R, a 'local' knew Amanda's well and called it a well known long time dining institution in the area.

Tonight, Amanda's was quiet, although I was reminded it was Yom Kippur which may have been a factor. 

For our dinner entrees, I chose the daily special, Oven Roasted Maine Lobster with cognac citrus butter and puree' potatoes, while colleague Tom O' had the Tagliatelle with mussels, clams, shrimp and scallops in arrabbiatta sauce.

Colleague Vivek is a vegetarian so it was nice to be able to accommodate him with Amanda's special menu offering, Vegan Cauliflower Korma with rice pilaf, raisins, red onions, curry cauliflower sauce.

To accompany our dinner, we ordered from the winelist this Loire Valley Vouvray Chenin Blanc.

Notably, as oenophiles (wine lovers) know, it is customary that French wines (and 'old world' wines in general) are named for the region and sub-region or appellation from where the wine is produced.

On the other hand, in American (and the 'new world' in general), we name our wines for the grape varietal predominant in the bottle.

Hence, parsing the wine label, this is from producer Damian Pinon, from the village and appellation of Vouvray, in the Loire Valley wine region in west-central France. This label offering is named 'Tuffo' by the producer.

Damien Pinon ‘Tuffo’ Vouvray Loire Valley 2017

This is the 'flagship' wine of producer Damien Pinon. From the clay-limestone soil of Vouvray, the dominance of limestone produces a dry, crisp, moderately fruity expressive wine, showing notes of lychee, green apple and stone fruit with a soft and smooth mineral finish. This is 100% Chenin Blanc.

RM 89 points.

Fellow Cellartracker collector WineShlub from Long Island loves this wine and gave it 94 points, writing in his tasting note: "Aroma of stone fruit with a bit of beeswax. Complex mix of flavors includes elements of stone fruit, lanolin, lichee. Rich lichee and apricot finish. Fresh, vibrant, complex, firm backbone, great staying power. Archetypal Vouvray, excellent QPR."

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3187013

I arrived early and tasted a couple of their wines-by-the-glass (WBTG) offerings as part of their happy hour special features.

Peter Yealands 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, Marlborough, New Zealand

Butter colored, light bodied, crisp clean pleasant easy drinking, green apples, lychee and stone fruit with a smooth clean finish.

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3118040

https://www.yealands.co.nz/


Château La Fleur Plaisance 2016 Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France


Chateau La Fleur Plaisance is a quaint, family owned estate nestled on 29 acres located just north of the village of Saint-Emilion. Vineyard management and wine making is a joint venture between the Eresue family and notable Bordeaux winemaker Benoit Calvet.

There is a saying, 'you don't get Dom Perignon by the glass'! Hence, caveat emptor when ordering any wine by the glass since it may have been opened for a while and storing opened wine is a challenge for more than just a day or two unless the proper facilities are in place.

Tasted BTG (By-the-Glass), I sense this WBTG offering perhaps had been opened too long or not stored appropriately and was beyond its suitable serving/drinking state. Hence, take my tasting experience with a note of caution since it may not be a fair appraisal of this label. 

Garnet colored, medium bodied, smoke and earth notes overtake the black berry fruits with tones of anise, leather and hint of cedar.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/editnote.asp?iWine=3429195

Clark Claudon Howell Mtn Napa Cab at Amanda's in Hoboken

Clark Claudon Howell Mtn Napa Cab at Amanda's in Hoboken

For our getaway weekend in New York City, we booked several special dining outings. I grabbed from the cellar several bottles to enjoy sometime over the weekend. Our first night out we returned to Amanda's in Hoboken, a short walk from son Alec's flat, one of the highlights of our last trip. We took BYOB a Clark Claudon Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 1997.

Knowing Amanda's menu, we knew what we hoped to order so we brought a big cab to accompany the steak and lamb entrees we were targeting. Linda and I enjoyed the grilled Angus Sirloin with Iowa blue cheese potatoes au gratin, haricots verts and carrots in a red wine sauce. This was prepared perfectly to our directions - hot-pink center Pittsburgh style. Alec and Sean ordered their grilled Rack of Lamb served with red quinoa, roasted garlic yogurt, goat cheese and arugula. They both said it was as good as any Lamb they've ever encountered. The Clark Claudon was a perfect complement to both entrees.

For our starter course we had the roasted beet and arugula salad served with yogurt, sour cherries, candied walnuts and feta cheese, steamed black mussels parsley in a pepper and white wine garlic broth, and creamy polenta in a mushroom ragout an three cheese sauce. All were excellent except I thought I detected a bit of fennel in the beet salad. Several of their entrees feature fennel in the preparation. I am not a fan of fennel and didn't expect it in the salad however it was not  a detraction from the excellent preparation.

Once again when we asked for wine list they presented the pedestrian modest wine list. Only when pressed, did they present what some restaurants might call the Reserve or Captains list. The extended list, five times the size of the basic list offers several very notable special offerings such as Chateau Figeac St Emilion 1982 ($600), Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, Chappellet Pritchard Hill and a selection of single vineyard Nickel & Nickel selections of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. There were a dozen favorites that you'll see featured in my cellar list and on the pages in this blog. There was also a list of large format bottles and offerings by glass. Similar to the Clark Claudon that we brought BYOB, their winelist features 97 and 96 vintages of Snowden, one of the wines in our cellar that I considered bringing along. 

Clark Claudon Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 1997

In earlier tastings of this vintage of Clark Claudon I wondered if it was like Dominus (86) and some Bordeaux (89-90 Pichon Lalande) that I later learned I drank too early when they finally 'awoke' to reveal their true character and fruits years later? Unlike previous tastings when the Clark Claudon was somewhat closed and a bit flabby with muted fruit upon opening, tonight it appeared to be showing its age opening to ripe raisiny black cherry and black berry fruit, with subtle tone of cigar box and leather with nicely integrated and balanced silky smooth tannins. After an hour or so the fruit closed down and it became subdued leaving a slight astringency and tones of tobacco and leather.

After tonight's tasting, I shaved a few years off the Cellartracker drinking window from 2018 to 2015 and I reduced my rating from 89 to 88. 

We first met Tom Clark and Laurie Claudon-Clark during our Napa Wine Experience 1999 when we hosted them at our wine dinner at Pinot Blanc in St Helena (see picture left). We tasted Clark Claudon 1995-96 against ten year 1989 Bordeaux. We still hold a vertical collection of a dozen Clark Claudon vintages to this day.

http://http://www.clarkclaudon.com

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=229261

http://amandasrestaurant.com/

Amanda's Hoboken for Elegant Casual Fine Wine-n-Dine Experience

Amanda's Hoboken for Elegant Casual Fine Wine-n-Dine Experience

Weekend getaway, our first trip to Hoboken helping son Alec relocate there, we came across Amanda's and dropped in seeking a wine and dine experience. While the 'Wine Bar' sign attracted us, don't let it mislead you, this is a full service, full menu, fine dining restaurant, much to our delight. Everything that followed was spectacular, meeting or exceeding our highest hopes and expectations in every respect. The menu offered a wide variety of seafood as well as beef, pork, chicken and lamb selections.

When presented with the wine list I was uninspired and underwhelmed. I asked the server if there were any wines not listed on the wine list and he promptly produced an extensive bound wine list offering five times more selections featuring many French and American favorites.

There were several very notable special offerings such as Chateau Figeac St Emilion 1982 ($600) and Chappellet Pritchard Hill Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 1976. There were a dozen favorites that you'll see featured in my cellar list and on the pages in this blog. There was also a list of large format bottles and offerings by glass.


While the vintage and top labels were priced accordingly, we were looking for something a bit more modest. We found a half dozen tempting selections in our price range and we opted for a Château Calon-Ségur St Estephe 2004. I thought this 'lesser' vintage would result in an approachable wine that would drink well young (nine years young) and go well not only with my Angus Beefsteak, but also Alec's mussels and Linda's Scallops entrees. I half expected this to be unavailable since I thought it represented good value, the list offered a half dozen back-ups any of which would have been ideal and delightfully suited for our tastes.

Everything went according to plan and as hoped. The ambiance was delightful, service was impeccable and the food was outstanding.

We have Château Calon-Ségur in the cellar going back to the eighties and OWC's (original wood cases) from '95 and '96. We also hold this 2004 vintage but haven't tapped it yet.




The 2004 Château Calon-Ségur was medium bodied, dark garnet colored, bright and vibrant with black and red berry fruits with a muted slight earthiness, a layer of slightly sweet cassis with a touch of tobacco and smoke leading to a smooth moderate tannin finish.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=89644

http://amandasrestaurant.com/


We look forward to returning to Amanda's as a highlight of our visits back to the Jersey side of he Hudson.

More Amanda's...

The family getaway weekend to Hoboken - the spectacular panorama Hoboken view of the Hudson and NYC.