Showing posts with label oak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oak. Show all posts

Friday, August 13, 2021

Anniversary Dinner at Hemingway's Bistro Oak Park

Anniversary Dinner at Hemingway's Bistro Oak Park 

For our anniversary celebration dinner we dined at Hemingway's Bistro Oak Park, one of our favorite eateries. 

Hemmingway's Bistro' menu combines classic French dishes with the fresh Midwest ingredients crafted by Chef Ala, a certified Executive Chef with the American Culinary Federation with 25 years of professional cooking experience. 

In 1999, Ala was the opening Executive Chef of the Historic Allerton Hotel in Chicago after their 80 million dollar renovation. Ala has also ran Le Meriden Hotel and Chez Paul Restuarant in Chicago.

In Boston, Ala was the Chef of The Colonnade Hotel and Brasserie Jo. In Florida, he was at Boca Raton Resort and Club and spent seven years in the Caribbean working at resorts in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

Ala features daily specials of fresh seafood, typically East-coast seafood flown in daily from Boston, a daily Souffle, Pate or Foie Gras, and each weekend, their signature Beef Wellington. 

They have a thoughtful, carefully selected winelist with a nice offering of WBTG - Wines By The Glass. They also have an appropriate corkage policy and we typically bring a bottle from our cellar to accompany a winelist selection.

I pulled from our cellar a couple of special bottles from which to choose based on our entree selections, but in the end we opted to select a couple of WBTG - wines by the glass, from the winelist, allowing us to each select different wines to accompany our entree selections.  

We opened with Roederer Brut Premier Champagne

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1128546

Linda had their signature Baked Brie in puff pastry with Apricot preserves, wildflower honey and almonds, which she paired with a Russian River Valley Chardonnay

I started with their delectable Foie Gras on a bed of turnips with peaches, balsamic and honey glaze. I paired the Foie Gras with a Bourgogne Marsannay from Louis Latour

 
With my Foie Gras I had this Burgundian Pinot Noir.
 
Louis Latour Marsannay Pinot Noir 2017
 
This is from Marsannay, the village which marks the northern gateway to the Côte d'Or on leaving Dijon, the capital of Burgundy and home to the Ducs de Bourgogne. This village marks the beginning of the Route des Grands Crus which follows the N6 highway through the Côte d'Or.

Wines from Marsannay are generally lively and robust; characteristics that come from the rich iron soil. Marsannay received its Appellation Contrôlée as recently as 1987 in recognition of the consistently high quality of its wine.

Winemaker notes for this release: "Our Marsannay is sturdy and robust due to the rich iron-based soil. The wine has an intense bouquet of red fruit and a silky palate with a distinct gamey character and great tannic appeal."

Reviewers notes for this label: James Suckling gave it 91 points, Wine Spectator 90/100 and a 'Top Value', the Burgundy Report, Bill Nanson (UK), cited "Delicious".

This was an ideal complement to the Foie Gras, 

RM 90 points. 

 
 

Our entree selections were the daily fish special, Striped Sea Bass in a Meuniere sauce for Linda, and I had the Duck A L'orange, served on a bed of braised cabbage in Gran Marnier sauce and pommes dauphine. 

 
After tasting the Burgundian Chardonnay with its clean clear crisp acidity, Linda opted for the Russian River Valley Sonoma Chardonnay for its bigger, bolder, fuller body with a more buttery flavor profile, more suited to the white wine butter Meuniere sauce.

  
 
Lake Sonoma Winery Sonoma County Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2018
 
Winemaker Notes: Aromas of tangerine, pear, tropical fruit and creamy oak. Flavors of white peach, Charentais melon, crème brulee with a lengthy orange citrus and vanilla bean coated finish.
 
Wine pundit Wilson Wong of Wine.com gave this 89 points noting its aromas and flavors of dried peach and savory spices.
 
45% of this Russian River Chardonnay was barrel fermented in 30% French oak (15% neutral barrels), with the remainder fermented in stainless steel. 75% of the juice went through a softening malolactic fermentation during its one year of ageing.
 
Gold colored, medium bodied, notes of pear, pineapple, butter, and vanilla with accents of peach, pear, and mandarin orange.

RM 88 points. 
 
 
 
My wine selection for the main course was another Pinot Noir, this time an Oregon Willamette Valley from Roots Vineyards. 
 
 

Roots Wine Company Klee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2019

This is a mainstay of the carefully selected Hemingway's WBTG feature offerings. I've had several vintages releases of this label at Hemmingway's over the years, either with their pate', the Foie Gras, or tonight, with the Duck. 

This is from producer winemaker and winegrower Chris Berg, born in Racine, Wisc., and raised in Idaho, Pennsylvania and Illinois. After graduating from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, with a bachelor's in English, he followed his parents, Chuck and Dian Berg, to Oregon from Illinois to work with them in their manufacturing company in Tualatin, Ore. There Chris soon set upon planting a small vineyard.

In 1999, the Bergs planted seven acres of mostly Pinot Noir on the 20-acre property near Yamhill in the Yamhill-Carlton District of the Willamette Valley. Chuck and Dian built a small house on the vineyard, and Chris lived in Portland with his wife, Hilary. They closed the doors of the manufacturing business in 2000, and the Bergs found themselves full-time in the winery business. 

Chris and Hilary moved to the vineyard from Portland in 2001 and in 2002, picked their first harvest of three tons, which were produced 72 cases of Pinot Noir. 

Today, Roots produces approximately 5,000 cases annually, the flagship estate Pinot Noir, as well as eight single vineyard-designate Pinot Noirs, sourced mostly from neighboring vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. They also produce a Grenache, Pinot Gris, Melon de Bourgogne, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and a Méthode Traditionnelle sparkling named after their son, Theo. Roots' reserve Pinot Noir label, Racine, honors the town in which Chris was born. (The name means "root" in French).

Roots' second label, Klee (named after artist Paul Klee), makes up the largest portion of the case production. 3400 cases were produced of this release. 

This label, akin to an artists series label, pays homage to one of winemaker/owner Chris Berg’s favorite artists, named for the famous Bauhaus artist Paul Klee. 

The artwork on the label is an adaptation of a painting called Solution “ee”. of the Birthday Assignment, 1924. Berg likens this wine to the Bauhaus school where art is for the people, this wine is for the people! 

In homage to one of Chris' favorite artists,
the artwork is their own adaptation of a Klee painting. 

This Pinot Noir is sourced from 14 family-owned vineyards located in the North Willamette Valley, west of Portland, about 40% located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA and coming mostly from sedimentary and alluvial soil. 

 

  

Garnet colored, medium bodied, this was bright and vibrant with fruit forward notes spicy ripe black cherry, black raspberry, and plum, with hints of cedar, fresh-crushed herbs, and earthiness. 

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3902204

Roots Wine Company 

https://roots.wine/ 

We finished the evening with the classic Hemingway's Souffle, tonight's feature raspberry, which we enjoyed with a shared glass of Sambucca!


 

 




Saturday, March 31, 2018

Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet 1985

Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1985

For a special intimate family dinner we opened a birth year wine from our cellar for the occasion - Silver Oak from the 1985 vintage.

Linda prepared surf and turf - grilled steaks, mussels, lobster tails and sockeye salmon.

Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1985

While showing showing character of age, this is still approachable and luscious with dark garnet color, slight rust colored bricking on the rim, medium bodied, tangy oak predominates from start to finish on the nose and flavors accenting cherry fruit layered over dusty herbal and green pepper notes with black cherry, leather and forest floor, and hints of cassis on a tangy tongue coating oaky finish.

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=25766

http://www.silveroak.com/ 



Saturday, April 20, 2013

Trefethen Family Vineyards Napa Valley Estate

Trefethen Family Vineyards Napa Valley Estate

Located in the Oak Knoll District at the cooler, southern end of Napa Valley just north of the town of Napa straddling highway 29 as one enters the checkerboard of vineyards sits Trefethen Family Estate Vineyards and Winery, one of Napa Valley’s few remaining family wine estates.



Eugene and Catherine Trefethen moved to Napa in 1968 from the Bay area after purchasing six small farms and the historic 19th century Eschol Winery, creating a 600-acre wine estate. At that time, there were fewer than 20 operating wineries in Napa Valley.



After graduating from Stanford University, John Trefethen and his new bride Janet began producing Trefethen Vineyards’ wine in 1973. Three years later, the winery’s 1976 Chardonnay earned “Best Chardonnay in the World” honors at the 1979 Gault Millau World Wine Olympics in Paris. That accolade combined with the famous Judgement of Paris won worldwide acclaim for Napa Valley wines.




After two decades developing their vineyards, Trefethen embarked on a major replanting of twenty thousand vines of disease resistant rootstock. Today, Trefethen grows nine different grape varieties; Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Viognier. These are planted in 63 distinct vineyard blocks comprised of 10 different types of rootstock and 49 different clones including 13 of Chardonnay and 10 of Cabernet Sauvignon.

We first discovered Trefethen in the late eighties in our early days of discovering Napa Valley wines but really took notice when we were introduced to their flagship Trefethen Halo in the late nineties at wine tastings at the Downer's Grove Wine Shop. Our wine buddy Bill C (left with Beth, Will, Kate, L) is a fan and collector of Halo and earmarked Trefethen for our Napa Valley Wine Experience 2013. This was fitting since our custom in recent years has been to focus on but one appellation at a time and we were also scheduled at another Oak Knoll District winery this trip, and, our group were staying just down the road at the nearby Napa Valley Marriott.

Amazingly, we've driven past the Trefethen Estate literally dozens of times and never stopped there. We were all pleasantly surprised by the extensive estate with its scenic drive past the vast vineyards against the backdrop of the backdrop of the Vaca Mountains in the distance to the east, and the nearby Mayacamas Range and Mt Veeder to the west. The vineyards are signposted according to the year they were planted.

Upon reaching the wine house there are picturesque grounds and gardens with fountains and an outdoor tasting area. Inside there is the usual tasting bar, several more formal tasting tables and personal tour tasting rooms, and a do it yourself tour of the barrel storage room with displays of the ranch, vineyard maps, and displays of the soil topology from the different sections of the estate.


They offer an estate and a reserve tasting, which is shown below:

Trefethen Napa Valley Pinot Noir 2010

Rather uninspiring and light, slightly astringent with modest cherry and red berry and currant fruits with a modest cola tone and layer of dusty earth.

RM 86 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1272265


Trefethen Dragons Tooth Napa Valley Red Wine 2010

This wine is a tribute to the winery's matriarch Catherine Trefethen. who was from Welsh ancestry. A blend of Malbec and Petit Verdot, this 100% Estate wine is sourced from new plantings from the rockiest part of our vineyard where obsidian flakes occasionally remind us of the toothy smile of Y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon) guardian and symbol of Wales.

This is the the third vintage of this distinctive blend, medium bodied, deep purple in color with aromas and flavors of black currant, blackberry and cinnamon turning to tones of plum, cherry and mocha and hints of spice, finishing with nicely balanced but structured tannins.

RM 90 points.

 https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1370334


Trefethen American Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Trefethen Hungarian Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010



Another example of the proliferation of labels we saw time and again during this trip. In this case, here is the same wine with two distinct variations of oak - American and Hungarian. This approach was popularized by Dave Del Dotto in his branded Connoisseur Series starting around the millenium. Del Dotto offered the same vintage cabernet with as many as eight to ten different oak variations. We conducted a vertical tasting of the 'Series' a couple years ago. It was fascinating to see the influence of varied nuances of different Ameican and French oaks on the same wine. Neither the breadth or depth of that experience is present here - these two variations are subtle and modestly distinctive - not necessarily worthy of the investment of all it requires with this approach. This was a more modest cab with the American oak being perhaps slightly sweeter and the Hungarian introducing modest tones of spice on the black berry fruits.

RM 88 points.








Trefethen Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009


Medium bodied with subtle blackberry and currant fruits with layer of plum, hints mocha and nutmeg turning to moderate but smooth approachable tannins on the finish.

Blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec and 2% Merlot
Estate vineyards - 74% Hillspring 26% Main Ranch

RM 91

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1483155


http://www.trefethen.com/

Gallery -