The James Geneva alfresco Sunday Brunch

The James Geneva alfresco Sunday Brunch 

With fellow Pour Boy from our wine group, Bill and Beth in from Charleston for the weekend, we had a delightful Sunday afternoon alfresco dinner on the patio at The James Restaurant in Geneva, IL. This followed our gala Pour Boys Wine Group Citiscape dinner the night before in the City (Chicago). 

We enjoyed a producer wine dinner at The James last fall in the patio room as featured in these pages on this blogpost - James Restaurant "Cab is King" Wine Dinner w/ Bell Wine Cellars Wines.

Todays perfect early autumn afternoon provided an ideal setting for dining outside on the patio.

We enjoyed a perfect pairing of Mendocino Chardonnay with with our brunch Benedicts and apple pear walnut salads. 

We ordered from the wine list this limited release special label from the Meyer Family Vineyards. This is from the descendants of Justin Meyer, founder of iconic Silver Oak. Justin passed away recently and the Meyer stake in Silver Oak was sold to the rest of the investor owners. Matt and Karen Meyer have elected to partner with artisan growers to produce vineyard-designate bottlings under the Meyer Family label. 

The Meyer family continue to produce several labels under the Meyer Family Cellars brand with production divided evenly between site-specific wines from both Mendocino County, where the winery is located, and their remaining holding from the original Oakville estate in Napa Valley.

Up in Mendocino, they source fruit from their estate and growers in two sub-appellations: the Yorkville Highlands and Anderson Valley American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). 

They produce Cabernets from the original iconic Silver Oak Bonny’s Vineyard as well as labels from up north, Le Bon Bon, Spitfire, Fluffy Billows, The Gravels, and a Cab Franc.

Their broad portfolio also includes Elke Vineyard Creek Chardonnay, Monument Tree Vineyard Pinot Noir, Peterson Vineyard Pinot Noir (Comptche-Mendocino County), Wightman House Vineyard Pinot Noir. 

This Meyer Family Chardonnay is vineyard label designated sourced from the Donnelly Creek Vineyard in the Mendocino County Anderson Valley.

Matt Meyer grew up in the wine business under the tutelage of his winegrower father Justin. He spent much of his time in the vineyard and cellar at Silver Oak after school and working various jobs during the summer. Matt spent a couple years gaining experience at internships in Oregon, Australia and New Zealand. He also did one semester abroad at Adelaide University enrolled in this wine studies program. he went on to the University of California, Davis, where he was awarded a Masters in Viticulture. After this he moved to the Anderson Valley and started making wine with his father at the family’s new property.

Karen Meyer was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. After doing a harvest in Margaret River to learn more about the process, she completed a degree in enology at Charles Stuart University, then spent the next few years working harvests around the world. Karen worked in the four distinct regions of Australia, did one harvest in France and spent three years in New Zealand. In 1999 Matt and Karen met in Oregon while working the crush in the Willamette Valley. In 2004 they would work together again in New Zealand after which point Karen moved to the Anderson Valley.

Today they live with their three children in Healdsburg California halfway between their vineyards in the Napa and Anderson Valleys.

Meyer Family Cellars Anderson Valley Donnelly Creek Chardonnay 2018

From the legendary Meyer Family, descendants of the founders of Silver Oak Cellars, this is a vineyard designated label from the Anderson Valley up in Mendocino County. 

This was an ideal pairing with our Brunch Benedicts and apple, pear walnut salad. 

Winemaker notes for this release: “The evenly paced 2018 harvest shows itself in our beautiful bottling from Donnelly Creek Vineyard, a Chardonnay that is all about balance. As usual, the wine is enticing right out of the bottle, displaying aromas of citrus, fresh peach, honeysuckle, and toasted brioche. In the glass, the fruit flavors are ripe and forward, with summer stone fruit and melon balanced by dependable Anderson Valley acidity. Barrel-fermentation and nine months of aging in French oak have added a tasty richness to this elegant Chardonnay”.

This was barrel aged for 9 months in 75% Neutral Oak, 25% New French Oak.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=39600263

https://mfcellars.com/

While the ladies shopped the Fifth Avenue shops and galleries, Bill and I enjoyed a delightful relaxing afternoon on the patio. We selected an after lunch dessert wine from the wine list for sensational casual sipping.

Inniskillin Niagara Peninsula Estate Vidal 2019

We love desert wines and serve them with salads, artisan cheeses and of course with deserts ranging cake to petit fours to dark chocolates or for casual sipping such as this.

Readers of this blog know we have a fairly extensive cellar, with numerous desert wines from the world's finest producers from the finest wine regions - late harvest rieslings from California, Sauternes from Bordeaux, Trockenberenauleses (TBA's) from Germany and Austria, and of course ice wines from the Niagara escarpment peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, between Buffalo, NY and Toronto.

This is from the iconic producer Inniskillin, the crown jewel of producers who take advantage of the unique terroir in the Niagara Appellation to craft true ice wine dessert wines.

Desert wine is nectar in a glass - essence of honey, apricot, violets - there is nothing like it under the sun. Among the absolute finest desert wines in the world are ice wines - wines from grapes allowed to lie on the vine beyond ripening, then past the winter freeze such that as much as eighty percent of the juice in the grape is frozen leaving behind but all the sugars in the remaining twenty percent of the juice. 

Such is ice wine which in North America comes from a small area in the Pacific Northwest where Inniskillin Okanagan operates in Oliver, British Columbia, and from Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small strip of land between the western tip of Lake Ontario to the north and the eastern tip of Lake Erie on the south. The small land mass adjacent to the Niagara escarpment there traps the air to protect the grape vines.

When the temperature reaches 8 degrees fahrenheit the conditions are right to harvest the grapes and collect the extracted sugar rich grapes suited for ice wine. Inniskillin Wines in the Niagara on the Lake appellation, licensed in 1974, the first winery to be licensed since 1929, has been producing and specializing in perfecting ice wines since 1984. Their Vidal Ice Wine from the 1989 vintage received the prestigious Grand Prix d'Honneur at Vinexpo in France. Inniskillin produces ice wine from several varieties of grapes including Vidal, Riesling, Chardonnay and even Cabernet Franc. They even produce a sparkling ice wine, which in other realms might be considered an oxymoron. Their 2006 Vidal Sparkling Ice Wine and 2007 Riesling Ice Wine won the Premio Speciale Gran Vinitaly "World Cup of Wine" in 2007.
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We visited the Inniskillin estate during our visit to the region back in 2012 and featured it in these pages in a more extensive blogpost at the time - Inniskillin Niagara on the Lake Wine Experience.

Inniskillin, named for the Irish village from where GI's hailed who were stationed in the area during the great WWII, has 120 acres of vines, and purchases grapes from local producers from another 250 acres to source the grapes for their wines. Their specialty and flagship wines are ice wines.

This popular Inniskillin Icewine boasts a variety of tropical fruit including orange, mango, and lemons. Flavors of peach and apricot are balanced by a fresh, crisp and lively acidity. Pairs beautifully with aged cheddar, peach tart, and baked cheesecake with a peach compote.

This release was awarded 93 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate – They wrote that this was the richest of the Vidal ice wines this issue. 

Pale golden straw colored, medium to full bodied, intensely flavored, unctuous, syrupy peach and apricot fruits accented by notes of sugary honey nuances with a tongue coating lingering finish, 

RM 92 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?4047660

https://www.inniskillin.com/

https://thejamesgeneva.com/

@PassionatePour1

Patz & Hall Chardonnay at The Olde Pink House Savannah

Patz & Hall Chardonnay at the legendary historic Olde Pink House Restaurant in Savannah

Despite its large capacity seating in the countless dining rooms, The Olde Pink House in Savannah is one of the toughest reservations to get in town. We dined at the historic colonial mansion turned restaurant, an icon of Savannah's historic district with a history as old as Savannah itself. The Olde Pink House recently celebrated their 250th year anniversary as a building and nearly 100 years as a restaurant.

We were visiting Savannah for the week for a mini-family reunion with Sister Jan from So-Cal. During our short week, we also dined at Husk Restaurant, Chive and several local cuisine eateries as part of the Savannah Squares Food Tour.

 

 

Food & Wine Magazine named it #5 of the 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America in 2023 with over twenty thousand reviews.

USA Today featured The Olde Pink house as the lone Georgia entry according to OpenTable's 2022 list of the "Top 100 Restaurants" in the United States. The "most beloved restaurants coast-to-coast" were based on 13 million reviews by diners who booked via OpenTable this year and 20,000 diners surveyed in the U.S. and Canada.

Featuring 47 cities across 21 states, the list is "curated for diners" and "by diners" looking for ideas now or in the new year, OpenTable said in a statement. Qualifying restaurants were scored by data points such as overall diner rating, the reviewing accountholder's "clout" on OpenTable, total number of reviews and overall regional rating.

The Olde Pink House Restaurant was the sole mention from the State of Georgia on the list. 

California dominated the list with 21 restaurants, giving the most populous state in the U.S. the most "top 100" restaurants.

Chicago was the city with the largest number of restaurants: all 17 restaurants that ranked from Illinois are in the Windy City. 

The Olde Pink House has a long fabled history in Savannah. It was the residence of  Savannah's James Habersham Jr., a pioneering merchant and wealthy planter, he built the original residence in 1771 on a land allotment granted by the Crown of England. 

In 1811, a decade after his passing, the Habersham property became home to the Planters’ Bank, the first bank in Georgia. Later, in 1864, the house became a military generals’ headquarters for Union troops following Maj. Gen.William Tecumseh Sherman’s Civil War Siege of Savannah

The timeline of the building can be found on the back of restaurant menu, but the menu selections offer much about the history of the City that occurred during the port city’s checkered past: overlooked immigrants, wayward travelers, enslaved peoples brought here against their will.

“The very story we tell through our food is one of survival,” Proprietor Jeffress says. “It’s a way of honoring all of those hardworking people who endured, so that we can be here [today].”

The Olde Pink House features numerous dining rooms throughout, each one appointed with historic decor.

The building is full of history with much care and attention to every last detail. Revived period pieces curated by owner Donna Moeckel fill the walls of The Olde Pink House - Ivy curls around the Palladian portico, crystal chandeliers shimmer in every room and an extensive oil-painting collection tells the story of Savannah through centurial seaside vignettes and portraits of the city’s esteemed citizens.

The menu is extensive with a broad selection of a dozen Appetizers, eight Soups and Salads, more than a dozen entrees, complemented by no less than twenty Sides offerings.

The winelist offers no less than forty wines by the glass WBTG - twenty whites, Sparkling and Rose, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Other Varietals, and twenty reds - Cabernets, Merlot, Pinot Noir and other varietals - all moderately priced. With such a broad selection, there's no need to order a bottle since everyone can order their preferred selection to suit their entry pairing unless one chooses a more premium selection only available by the bottle. We ordered a bottle since it was the best consensus offering as it paired well with all our entrees. 

The basement level has a large cavernous dining room in the bar room. There, is the old vault that today houses a wine cellar, that is more for show than a functional working cellar. The old cellar vault was once used as the bank vault.

Having done the Savannah Food Tour in the afternoon, coupled with an early dinner, we had a light dinner of soup, salads, sides and wine. The staff were understanding and accommodating with gracious, personable, attentive service.

We started with the Cheese Plate with Capital Bee Honeycomb and Fresh Fruit (below).
It was rather minimal and was served with some rather strange crunches that were more akin to Fritos than crackers, too 'big' and thus not well suited to accompanying the cheese or honey selection, in our collective view. The staff were not able to accommodate our request for crackers or bread of any type as an alternative.

Bill and I started with the Strawberry Arugula Salad with goat cheese, spiced pecans and poppyseed vinagrette.

My main course was the Savannah specialty, "Low Country She Crab" soup. I have to say, it was not as delectable as that served on the Food Tour at Rhett's near the waterfront. 

Linda had the Pulled Pork Sliders with Cheerwine BBQ sauce, vegetable slaw and Bread and Butter pickles. They were lean as she hoped, and as promised.

 

 

Jan had the Fried Green Tomatoes with Grits. 

 

For a wine selection we had from the winelist a bottle of the Patz and Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay.

 Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018

Patz & Hall was founded in 1988 by Donald and Heather Patz, and James Hall and Anne Moses, the collaboration dating back to early 1980s when assistant winemaker James Hall and national sales manager Donald Patz struck up a close friendship while working at Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards. 

They shared a vision to produce rich, compelling wines from fruit sourced from elite, small vineyards. 

James and Anne Moses visited France and Burgundy in 1986, and were impressed by the talented and dedicated vignerons and winemakers who crafted rich and powerful Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. That alerted them to look to cooler growing sites with distinct terroir in Napa Valley for Chardonnay and Sonoma Coast for Pinot Noir, to create a collection of Chardonnays and Pinot Noir that reflected the great wine regions of California.

Patz & Hall have become one of California’s highly regarded wineries with a notable portfolio of exceptional limited-production single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines leveraging close personal relationships with many of California’s finest growers including Larry Hyde, Lee Hudson and the Martinelli and Pisoni families.

Over three decades Patz & Hall have established long-term relationships with the very best small, family-owned world class sites of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards in California. They produce a broad diverse portfolio of notable cuvées and sought-after single-vineyard wines from world-class vineyards in the acclaimed Sonoma Coast appellation.

This label is sourced from a "who's who" of the appellation's most renowned vineyards, including Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap's Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch, Dutton Ranch, and Durrell Vineyard. 

Winemaker Notes - 

The 2018 offering is a collection of fourteen single-vineyard quality sites that could all be bottled on their own including; Dutton Ranch, Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap’s Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch and Durell Vineyard. The wine has inviting aromas of spicy pear, lemon drop and lime zest. As a cool-climate Chardonnay, there’s a nice tartness on the palate giving the wine great poise, balance and energy. A pretty floral note adds a layer of complexity and melds with the peach nectar and apple flavors on the long finish.

This is 100% Chardonnay sourced from partner grower vineyards on the Sonoma Coast. It was aged in 28% new Burgundian French oak barrels.

This label release was awarded 92 Points by Jeb Dunnuck and 92 Points by Wine Enthusiast.

Golden straw colored, medium-bodied, with rich vibrant lemon, green apple, melon, crushed stone, and white flower-like aromas and flavors finishing with hints of brioche and toasted oak on a long and focused crisp acidic finish.

RM 91 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3880625

https://www.patzhall.com/

 

https://twitter.com/PatzHall 

 

@PatzHall

Lilac & Kracher Transylvania Romania Icewine 2020 

I was intrigued by and also ordered from the winelist BTG (By-The-Glass) - this Lilac & Kracher Transylvania Icewine from Romania. We hold close to two dozen vintages and labels of Kracher dessert wines in our cellar but have never seen or heard about this label.

This 'Liliac & Kracher' Ice Wine is a joint venture between Rudolf Krizan, the winemaker at Liliac in Romania and Gerhard Kracher from the well-known legendary Austrian Kracher wine family.

Gerhard Kracher and the well-known francen Kracher wine family, who have been making sweet wines for generations. Kracher is considered the genius of the Trockenbeerenauslese category. 

In the late 1980s and up to his early death in 2007, Alois Kracher handcrafted some of the greatest noble sweet wines of the world. His annual collections of numbered TBAs (Trockenbeerenauslesen), produced in Illmitz at the lake Neusiedl, became legends and were often presented and compared alongside the finest sweet wines from Sauternes (namely Château d’Yquem), Tokaji (Szepsi) and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Egon Müller, Joh. Jos. Prüm). 

Alois’s son Gerhard Kracher continues the tradition maintaining the prolific high level of quality.

Interestingly, this Ice Wine is made from grapes that were grown in Transylvania, in Romania.

Kracher started the collaboration with the Liliac Winery in Transylvania, so as to enhance the climatic peculiarities of the Lechinta region which are optimal for the production of Eiswein. Zwischen den Seen (traditional with fermentation in steel or wooden barrels) and Nouvelle Vague (modern with the use of new barriques).  

According to Stephan Reinhardt of The Wine Advocate, the joint venture between Rudolf Krizan, the winemaker at Liliac in Romania, and Gerhard Kracher of Austrian fame came about because Kracher  asserts that climate change makes it "harder and harder to produce ice wine in the Burgenland." Teaming with Krizan in making a wine in Romania, "this region offers the perfect conditions to produce this kind of wine every single year."

Ice Wine (Eiswein) is made from grapes frozen on the vine. For best results the grapes need to be hard frozen at temperatures of -8°C or less, which makes waiting for a suitable cold snap very risky. 

The fruit is hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed while frozen, so that the ice (water) is removed, thus dramatically increasing the concentration of sugars and flavours in the grape. The pressed juice is then fermented and matured for 16 months in stainless steel tanks.

The final result is a Ice Wine that shows immense concentration of sweetness and complexity along with a good acid structure. 

Golden straw colored, medium full bodied, rich unctuous sweet notes of white stone fruit, lychee and hints of pineapple, and honey on the lingering finish.

RM 92 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4511959

The Olde Pink House also has two sister restaurants:

GARIBALDI SAVANNAH - SAVANNAH, GA

ANSON RESTAURANT - CHARLESTON, SC

https://www.theoldepinkhouserestaurant.com/

Beau Vigne Proprietary Red BYOB at Herrington Inn Atwaters Restaurant Geneva

Beau Vigne Proprietary Red BYOB and Inniskillin Icewine at Herrington Inn & Spa Atwaters Restaurant Geneva

We met with friends John and Kathy McM for dinner at a mutually convenient halfway point, in Geneva, IL. We dined at Atwaters Restaurant in the chic Herrington Inn & Spa that looks over the scenic Fox River at the bridge in downtown Geneva.

John and Kath are from Scotland and I love the English or Scottish feel of Atwater's elegant intimate dining room, so fitting for the occasion, with its stone fireplace, dark wood beamed ceilings and surround glass windows, and rich warm tapestry high backed chairs.

The only drawback might be the room is a bit tight, full of tables that are minimal in size so to be a bit crowded, yet its is amazingly quiet and still has a cozy intimate feel. 

Atwater crafts farm-to-table American cuisine with a broad selection of three courses of beef, seafood, pork, duck and vegetarian selections, assortment of soups, salads and deserts. Prime steaks are cut in-house and only wild-caught seafood is served. Seasonal menus include locally sourced produce and product when available, and from the chefs garden! All desserts are handmade.

We had the butternut squash and the tomato basil bisque soups - both delicious. 

 We also shared the Atwaters salad (1/2 shown above) with tomato basel soup, which was also delicious. 

For our entree courses, we covered all the bases with the Faroe Island Salmon, the Duck Breast, the Filet of Beef and the Risotto Venison Sausage. All were delectable.

Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast Butternut Squash Puree,
Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage,
Blood Orange and Sarsaparilla Reduction

I often order Duck Breast when in fine dining restaurants since it is something I won't get at home or at moderate restaurants. Tonight's Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage with Blood Orange and Sarsaparilla Reduction (shown above) was spectacular, delicious, and perhaps the best Duck sauce accompaniment I've ever had!

Grilled Filet Mignon White Truffle Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes,
Grilled  Asparagus, Green Peppercorn Demi-Glace,
Horseradish Parmesan Crisp

Venison Sausage Risotto with Rapini, Roasted Garlic,
Caramelized Cipollini Onions, Charred Red Peppers,
Grated Pecorino Romano, Arrabiata Sauce Grilled Baguette

Faroe Island Salmon Plum Glazed with Ginger Kimchi Jasmine Rice,
Cucumber Wakame Salad, Miso Broth,
Charred Snow Peas, Sweet Chile Reduction

While the winelist was not posted on-line, I was not able to plan ahead our potential selections, so, I brought BYOB a couple of wines to pair with our dinner. The Atwater winelist was largely American, imaginative and extensive, broad and deep and with several choice labels across all the wine groups to pair with every menu selection - sparkling, red, white, aperitif and after-dinner selections, all at reasonable prices - averaging 2x retail price, with several lower for good values. 

Several unique labels that caught my attention were McGaw Scarlett and several labels from the Long Shadows Vintners Collection, Cliff Lede and more.

Executive Chef Kevin Gillespie leads the culinary team with 25 years of culinary experience in the area. He is joined by Sous Chef Gianfranco Aniello who earned a culinary arts degree at local College of DuPage and trained under numerous great chefs. 

https://www.herringtoninn.com/

https://twitter.com/herringtoninn

Our server Val provided excellent, friendly, professional service and graceously served my BYOB wine selection. 

Beau Vigne Reserve Proprietary Red Napa Valley 2013

Beau Vigne, (pronounced bo-veenya), translated from French means beautiful vineyard, is the same wine I received just last week from the producer and I was eager to share it as a perfect accompaniment to our diverse dinner. 

I wrote about this wine and producer in detail the other day upon receipt of this wine. This producer first caught my attention when buddy Bob brought it to our Pour Boys OTBN - "Open-That-Bottle-Night" 2022 in Charleston and I pegged it as WOTN - Wine of the Night, my personal favorite.

Beau Vigne Reserve Proprietary Red Napa Valley 2013

This 2013 is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Cabernet Franc. The producer cited it amongst the best wines Beau Vigne had made to date. That says a lot since Robert Parker awarded the 2013 Beau Vigne "Cult" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 96 points in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. He also awarded the Beau Vigne Reserve Cabernet from this vintage a stellar perfect 100 points.

Parker wrote about that wine: "Profound, with a stunning aromatic display of blue and black fruits, charcoal, graphite, and spring flowers. The wine has a flawless entry and mouthfeel, with a full-bodied density, opulence and an incredible finish of close to a minute."

He also awarded the 2013 Beau Vigne "Cult" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 96 points in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate . That wine too contains the same Cabernet Sauvignon as in this blend. That blend contained 98:2% while this one is 70:30. Parker wrote of that wine: "Similarly styled is the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Cult, which is 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc. The biggest cuvée of any of these wines, the color is blackish/purple as a moonless night. It offers fabulous fruit and incredible density and richness, with lots of camphor, blackberry and cassis fruit, hints of espresso bean and chocolate as well as some background oak. This is a big, full-throttle, savory style of wine that should age effortlessly for 20-25+ years (RP)."

As a blend of the same fruit as those wines, it has a similar profile. Dark blackish purple colored, full bodied, dense, rich concentrated black fruits accented by a layer of camphor that initially may be a bit unnerving to some, with notes of cassis, expresso and dark bitter mocha with some graphite and oak on the full lingering finish. 

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2010086

www.beauvigne.com

After dinner we had the Chocolate Gateaux and I ordered from the winelist a glass of sweet dessert wine. 

Inniskillin Vidal Niagara Peninsula Ontario Icewine 2019

This is a classic authentic Icewine from the Niagara Peninsula appellation which lies on the peninsula formed between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario between Buffalo, NY and Toronto, ON. 

 

We visited the Inniskillen Winery and estate vineyards back in 2016 where we met Don Zeraldo, founder and former owner/producer. We toured the estate including the cellars and wine library and did an extensive tasting of the Inniskillen portfolio.

Inniskillin has a storied history putting the Niagara Peninsula Appelation on the map, and bringing global notoriety to their classic Icewines. Winemaker, Karl Kaiser harvested the first Icewine in 1984, from Vidal grapes frozen naturally on the vine at the winery site (Brae Burn Vineyard).

Inniskillin Icewine went on to become “ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT WINES” as featured and coined by the title of a book published in the 1990’s that featured Inniskillin Icewine. The first attempt to make Icewine was actually in 1983 but the birds ate all the grapes from the vines that were not netted for protection.

In 1991, Inniskillin received the most prestigious award in the wine world at Vin Expo, France - the Grand Prix d'Honneur for Karl’s 1989 Vidal Icewine.  This was the major turning point thrusting Inniskillin into the international limelight clearly establishing major credibility as a serious wine producer as well as lifting the profile of Canadian wines at the same time.

 

Inniskillin produce a portfolio of Icewines from several grape varietals, Vidal, Cabernet Franc and Riesling, in still and sparkling, white and Rose variations. 

Vidal is a hybrid grape varietal, produced from Ugni Blanc and Seibel varietals, that has a thick skin suitable for harvesting late in the season. It is the most popular Icewine grape grown in Ontario. It’s noted for good natural acidity that gives great structure to the lusciousness of its tropical aromas and flavors of mango and lychee.  Inniskillin produces Vidal Icewine in two distinct styles, one without oak aging to highlight the fresh fruit emphasis, and with oak aging for added complexity.

Winemaker Notes - "This popular Inniskillin Icewine boasts a variety of tropical fruit including orange, mango, and lemons. Flavors of peach and apricot are balanced by a fresh, crisp and lively acidity. Pairs beautifully with aged cheddar, peach tart, and baked cheesecake with a peach compote."

This 2019 vintage release was awarded 93 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and 92 points by Wine Enthusiast.

 

Pearl straw colored, medium full bodied, unctuous, intensely flavored with signature notes of peach, mango and hints of apricots, with classic residual sugar and honey sweetness, and nuances of pineapple and citrus. 

 

RM 91 points. 

 

https://www.inniskillin.com/

http://twitter.com/InniskillinWine

 

Perry's Steakhouse Katy/Houston Wine Dinner

Perry's Steakhouse Houston Wine Dinner

For an important business dinner, we dined at Perry's Steakhouse in Katy Texas in suburban Houston. To accompany my Perry's Signature Bone-in Ribeye steak (shown below right) and for the other's steak dinners' accompaniment, we ordered from the wine list two favorite Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. From the Oakville appellation, Groth Oakville Cab, and from the nearby Stags Leap District, Cliff Lede Stags Leap District Cab, both from the 2014 vintage.

Perry's are recipients of the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence Award for the deep, broad and extensive wine list.

For our special business dinner, we dined in the private alcove room 'Table 79'.

For the dessert course we ordered a wonderful classic Inniskillin Vidal Gold Icewine 2013.

We have visited both Cliff Lede Winery and Groth during several of our Napa Valley Wine Experiences. We also visited the Inniskillin Estate Winery during our Niagara wine region visit back in 2012.

Groth Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

We drank this one first and while it closely resembled the second Cab, the Cliff Lede below, the Groth was slightly more subdued, less vibrant, hence was best served first for best comparison.

Bright dark garnet color with purple hues, medium full bodied, black berry and black cherry fruits with hints of vanilla black currant, licorice and touch of mint and oak on a smooth tannin laced finish.

RM 91 points.

This was ideal with my bone-in ribeye entree (shown below). This was actually a fairly good value being priced about the median price for a Cal Cab on the Best of Award Spectator wine list.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2664215



 
Cliff Lede Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

This is the standard Estate bottled Cabernet Sauvignon with fruit sourced from the hillside terraces of the Poetry Vineyard down the road and across the Silverado Trail from the winery, from the Twin Peaks Vineyard estate surrounding the winery, and a few neighboring vineyards in the Stags Leap District.

This is a consistent crowd pleaser from vintage to vintage.  We hold about a half dozen vintages of this label and they seem to hit their stride and be in their peak after a decade of cellaring. The 2006 was a hit during one of our recent wine dinners.

Dark garnet and dense purple in color, full bodied, bright vibrant black berry and black currant fruits with tones of anise, hints of cinnamon spice and oak with firm but smooth tannins on a lingering finish.

RM 91 points. This got 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and 91 points from Vinous 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2394746

 
 For the dessert course we ordered this marvelous Icewine that was perfect complement to the creme brulee' and other desserts.


Inniskillin Niagara VQA Gold Vidal Icewine 2013

This is classic - what Icewine is supposed to be like in its thick layers of unctuous fruit and sweetness.

Gold colored, full bodied, thick, syrupy with tones of tropical fruit flavors with hints of peaches and apricot and notes of creamy vanilla with notes of brown sugar and crisp acidity.

This is sourced from Vidal fruit taken from Inniskillin’s famous Brae Burn Vineyard – one of Ontario’s most storied vineyards near the Estate.

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1950250


http://www.perryssteakhouse.com/menu-locations/houston/katy/