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

Murray's Cheese - and wine too

Cheese, Murray's Cheese ... and some wine too ...

Enjoying a get-away weekend with son Ryan and daughter-in-law Michelle, visiting son Alec in NYC, we dined at Murray's Cheese Bar in Greenwich Village, one of his favorite haunts. The eatery is a few doors down Bleecker Street, from the legendary cheese retailer and wholesaler. As in earlier adventures there, we left it to the 'Cheese Monger' to select our cheese flight - one of five and one of eight different cheeses or meats.

Each cheese meat combination is paired with a sauce, spread or associated delectable accompaniment such as a orange marmelaide or a pistachio paste, both shown below.

The presentation of the cheese plates by the Cheese Mavin servers was masterful, poetic, professional and informative, a performance deserving of more attention and respect and worthy of an ovation! Following the cheese meat plates came Mussels in white wine broth, grilled Kale sprouts, and Lamb meatballs in a tomato fennel sauce and feta cheese.

For pairing, we selected three wines from Murray's winelist, one white and two reds. For the white, there's always room for a bubbly, a sparkling wine, we selected Domaine Huet Vouvray Pétillant, a Chenin Blanc based wine from the Vouvray in the Loire Valley in Northern France.

Chenin Blanc is not normally associated with sparkling wine, the specialty and province of Champagne in France, rather the incredibly versatile grape is used across the range of dry whites, to semi-sweet to luscious sweet wines.

This version of sparkling wine is considerably less expensive than a Champagne of equivalent quality.

Domaine Huet Vouvray Pétillant Cuvée Huet Brut 2010

This was light, straw colored, crisp and minerally with a bouquet and flavors of floral, peach, ripe pear and sweet spice giving way to almond and a layer of yeast that came across as a bit pasty that diminished the fruits.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1413192






Laurent Betton Saint-Joseph Syrah 2013, Rhone Valley, France

The tangy acid was a nice accompaniment to the hearty bold cheeses and meats.

Son Ryan favors and drinks a lot of these Northern Rhone Valley Syrahs. This was much lighter than those we are accustomed to drinking, from the Rhone Valley, or Syrahs we get from Australia or even California.

This was ruby colored, medium light bodied, crisp bright acidity with black berry fruits, tones of black pepper and a layer of graphite creosote with a tangy spicy finish.

RM 88 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2112330


La Poderina Brunello di Montalcino Sangiovese 2010, Tuscany, Italy 

This bigger bolder more complex and concentrated wine rounded out our flight with a different style and character that matched the boldest and most forward cheeses, and the meats in the tasting.

This was ideally paired with the Lamb meatballs in tomato fennel sauce. 

Dark blackish garnet colored, medium full bodied,  complex, concentrated layers of rather subdued dried blackberry and black cherry, tones of smoke, leather, tobacco and hints of cedar spicy oak and graphite on a smooth polished moderate tannin finish.

This was so good, we ordered a second bottle! 

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2104005

http://www.murrayscheesebar.com/

A highlight of the weekend was seeing Alec's new apartment with its spectacular views from Midtown to the financial district, shown below.

Murray Cheese Selection