Yesterday, Dorianne and I stopped into Taberna del Volapié (LINK) for lunch (around 3pm). We had a very nice meal of tapas and wine. The waiter told us that there was a free Flamenco (LINK) show that evening at 9pm. We decided to go later on.
We arrived at the Taberna at about 8:15 pm and noticed that all of the tables were either filled with customers or had “reserved” cards on them. Our waiter from lunch came up to us and we said that we had come for the show, but we did not know that we had to reserve a table. After some very rapid Spanish conversation with someone behind the bar, we were escorted to a table right up front, the reserved card was removed, and we were all set!
We ordered a bottle of 2013 Protos Roble, from Ribera del Duero (LINK), a wine that we have had before on our trip (in fact, I had two glasses with lunch). At 14€ (about $15) a bottle, it is quite a bargain.
2013 Portos Robles Tinto
We had several tapas dishes – see the photos – and the show began.
Iberico Jamon (ham)Patatas Bravas – fried potatoes with spiced sauce – each place makes this in a slightly different way.Tuna loin with tomatoes.
We each had a glass of Solera 1847 Cream Sherry to close out the evening – a sweet wine, it is reminiscent of a late harvest or a tawny port wine.
And then, FLAMENCO!
This group of three – guitarist, vocalist and percussionist (via clapping) and dancer – were the most accomplished team we have seen yet in Spain. Here are some photos and a video.
Another night out for tapas and wine – after a visit to the medical clinic for me today. I was washing a wine glass last night (IKEA brand) and it shattered, lacerating my hand. So I got a brief tour of the Spanish health care system. Overall, I give it a B+, as compared to a D+ for the US system.
Anyway, we went to a nearby wine bar, La Bodega, at Plaza Alfalfa in Sevilla. They have a much more wine-oriented approach to tapas and wine than a taberna or a tapas bar. We ordered a Ribero del Duero Tinto – a 2013 Protos Ribero Duero Tempranillo (100%) for 15 euros per bottle. Really.
We had the following tapas – tortillitas camarones (mini shrimp cakes), jamon croquettas (ham croquettes), queso (sheep cheese), arroz con verduras (rice with vegetables), plus a basket of bread and crackers, and the bottle of wine for 24.40 euros. Really.
The wine was very good – fruit and mineral on the nose, a nice balance of acidity and tannin, with a smooth finish.
Exploring Sevilla (Seville) is an experience of one discovery after another. This is our first trip here, and we are in a rented apartment near the center of town for 3 1/2 weeks. Preparations are underway for Holy Week (LINK), which is a huge deal here, with between 1 and 2 million people coming to the city for over 50 processions and other festivities. It is the biggest week of the Sevilla calendar.
Sevilla is also the home of tapas, the concept of a variety of dishes served on small plates. Tapas used to be either a snack between lunch (served here between 1pm and 4pm and dinner (served between 9pm and 11:30pm), or to accompany a larger meal. Today, especially after the economic recession here, tapas have become lunch through dinner for most people. Plates of tapas, usually one or two pieces of something, a plate of olives or a salad, cost between 1.5 and 3.5 euros. Larger servings, media or plata cost more (think bread plate/salad plate/dinner plate).
Marinated Pulpo (octopus) with Onions and PeppersSerrano Ham on Toast with Quail EggsPatatas Fritas (fried potatoes) with a spicy Catsup and Garlic Mayo
There are hundreds of tapas places in Sevilla. We happen to be staying within a block of a very good one, and we have been there twice so far.
The place is Taverna Coloniales (LINK)at the Plaza del Christo de Burgos. Here, on a corner, dozens of people gather from afternoon through late at night to sample an amazing array of tapa, wine, and beer. Dorianne and I have found that three or four tapas plates are sufficient for a meal. Add two or three glasses of wine each, and our bill comes to about 18 euros, or $20. It is cheaper than eating in our apartment.
The Taberna is staffed by six people, four at the bar, one in the back room where there are about 6 tables, and one out front where the sidewalk cafe can seat around 30. The place is often packed, but the staff is excellent at knowing who needs what and when they need it, and they remember what you ordered when it comes time to pay. They remind me of the countless counter people who work in places in Manhattan, giving excellent service to large numbers of people. Part of what we in the US would call a “chain,” there are several establishments owned by the same people in the area.
Last night, we had the tapa pictured above with a Tinto (red) wine from Rioja a 2011 Finca 10 Crianza (LINK – translation needed). The wine is, of course, Tempranillo. The term Crianza means that the wine has been aged for a shorter time (24 months with 6 months in barrel) than a Reserva (36 months with 12 months in barrel) or a Gran Reserva (60 months with 18 months in barrel). The wine was fruity, with a pleasant nose and a hint of minerality on the tongue; a bit bitter, with medium tannins and acidity. At under 2 euros a glass, it was hard to complain, so we did not.
After our meal, I ordered a glass of Sherry, a Canasta Cream Sherry (LINK) from Jerez (LINK), the premier Sherry region about an hour south of Sevilla. Also under 2 euros a glass, this wine reminds me of a California Port – rich and smooth with a very nice finish. That’s me above, with the glass of Sherry.
Dorianne and I arrived in Madrid on Friday the 13th. We are staying near the Palacio Real and the Cathedral, adjacent to the old city. So far, we have explored a few Tapas places, including the wonderful Mercado de San Miguel (LINK) which is a moving conveyor of wine-drinking, tapas-eating revelers from vendor to vendor devouring a variety of tapas and wines or beers. The two photos below are of the Mercado.
Last night (Saturday) we visited TripAdvisor.com to see what was the highest rated restaurant near us. We were pointed to La Mi Venta (LINK), a nondescript little place near the Palacio. It was rated #32 out of over 7,000 Madrid restaurants.
Here is my TripAdvisor.comreview: Thank you TripAdvisor.com! While in Madrid, we looked for the highest rated restaurant near our hotel – and found this gem just a few blocks away. La Mi Venta is very unassuming from the outside – it looks like a thousand other touristy street cafes in this area near the Palacio Real (LINK). But inside is another matter. The ground floor is a very nondescript tapas bar – but downstairs are two very intimate and lovely dining rooms. David, who presides over this area like a king, is assisted by a young man who’s name we did not get, but the two compliment each other beautifully.
After being served a delicious bread and an amazing olive oil for dipping, we opted for tapas – two of the combination plates that evening. The menu includes a number of Tapas selections, plus other small plates, salads, and larger meals at the back.
Our first Tapas Platter was a combination of Iberico Jamon (LINK) (reputed to be the best in Madrid – and I have no argument there), and other charcuterie with Manchengo cheese.
At David’s recommendation, we ordered a bottle of 2010 Pago de Carraovejas Riserva Tinto (LINK). A blend of 97% Temperanillo, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Merlot – a truly superlative wine (Parker – 94 Points) for only 44 Euros (I saw the same bottle in a retail store the next day for 41 Euros). The wine was a perfect accompaniment to the Tapas.
For our second platter, we chose a seafood base – Pike, tuna, foie gras, and Pork back with fried potatoes and mild chilies. All amazing. The Spanish foie gras (which won the French competition last year) is very light and delicious and the geese are not force-fed to produce this amazing product.
We had digestives at the end of the meal, a version of limoncello and a chocolate cream liquor with wonderful confections.
The entire bill with tax was 84 Euros.
This restaurant is a don’t miss if you are visiting Madrid.
This will serve as our introduction to fine Spanish Wine. The wine had a very appealing nose of dark fruit with a hint of savory minerality. David decanted the wine for about 20 minutes before serving. He noted that it is one of the hottest wines in Spain currently. The 2010 Pago de Carraovejas Riserva Tinto drank much like a California Cabernet – big and bold at 15% alcohol, a trait of many Ribera Wines.
For a Digestive, we were served two liquors made on the premises, a Limoncello-like liquor and a Chocolate Cream Liquor, topping off a grand meal. Then, a quick tour of the wine cabinet with David.
On Friday, eleven of us made the short trek from the Conejo and Simi Valleys to the Oxnard/Port Hueneme area for a wine pairing dinner at the Waterside Restaurant(LINK), featuring Casa Barranca Wines(LINK). The dinner was set up in the back of the restaurant and included a table for 12 or so in a back room and a table for 16 in the front room.
I will speak to the food, the wine, and the execution of the concept. I want to begin by giving kudos to the owners of the Waterside Restaurant, who have created a very nice wine bar on a scenic marina in Oxnard. We had lunch there a while back and everything was good – the food, the wine, and the service. They hold a number of events during the week, and are working hard to bring a good wine experience to an area that has been generally lacking in good cuisine and good wine venues.
As you can see, the menu was both ambitious and inventive. I should also note that some of the dishes were prepared differently for a member of our party who had allergies.The service was efficient and friendly.
That said, there were some problems with the wine pairing event. The food was both inventive and beautifully presented, the chef used the paired wines in most of the courses. However, almost everything was served at a luke warm temperature at best. Part of this was due to the desire to have the chef explain each course after it was served AND having the winemaker describe the wine each time.This had to be done twice, as they could not be heard at both tables. They did finally alternate, with each speaking to a table then switching. I did taste a couple of courses as soon as they hit the table, and they were not hot. Something to think about for future events.
The Casa Barranca Wines are organically grown at a historic winery in Ojai, CA. The winery shares space with a spa retreat facility. Grapes are sources from Santa Ynez for the most part. Winemaker Samuel Tulberg, represented the winery at the dinner. He was very knowledgeable about the wines and their process, as you would expect.
The wines served were their 2013 Viognier, 2013 Sauvignon Blanc, 2010 Pinot Noir, 2013 Craftsman Red, and a 2011 Vino Noche Port. The Sauvignon Blanc and the Craftsman Red (56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 22% Merlot – and just 12.5% alcohol) were quite good. The Pinot Noir was very average, and the Viognier and the Vino Noche were just not very good. The wines that I liked (and this was the general consensus at the table) were complex and somewhat elegant, with nice hints of fruit and terroir in there. The Viognier was anything but elegant, had a chemical nose, and simply was not a pleasing wine to drink. The Vino Noche Port was very harsh on the palate and hot with alcohol. It was better with the dessert – chocolate lava cake, but still . . .
I am sure that a visit to the Casa Barranca Winery is a fun outing, but I would not be going for the wines. Perhaps, over time, the wine making process will mature and even out.
As for the Waterside Restaurant, I encourage them to keep on trying and working on their presentation timing for food at events such as this.
Last night, Dorianne and I joined Richard Clark and Mary Stec at Niroj Restaurant in Agoura Hills, CA. Since it was the eve of the Lunar New Year, I figured (correctly) that it would not be a big night for Kurdish food. The restaurant was not crowded, and we had a leisurely and delicious meal and some good wine.
I brought a bottle of 2009 Dover Canyon Che Vito Da Cano, a 70% Sangiovese, 30% Syrah Blend. This wine is smooth, fruit forward without being out of balance, and had a very nice finish with a hint of spice aftertaste. Delicious. The wine doesn’t even appear on their website, so I guess there is no more of it to be had. Dover Canyon Winery is a great stop if you are in the Paso Robles area.
Luqman Barwari, the owner, oversees NirojCuisine with a loving hand. A former executive at Amgen, he began the restaurant a couple of years ago to follow his passion for the food of his home culture. Niroj is, I believe, the only Kurdish Restaurant in the southwestern U.S. The food is beautifully prepared – very much like the variety of Middle Eastern cuisine. We shared a cold Mezze Platter of appetizers with the made-on-the-premisis soft bread, then the four of us shared two entrees – a lamb shank and a shrimp tawe – all excellent.
Mary, Luqman, and Richard
Then, for our second bottle, we ordered a Lebanese wine – a 2010 Massaya Silver Blend from the Bekaa Valley. This wine with its unusual blend of Southern French( 40% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 15% Mourvedre) and Bordeaux (15% Cabernet Sauvignon) grapes benefits from the sunny climate of the Lebanon tempered by cool night-time temperatures as a result of the height of the vineyards. The wine was very smooth, with medium tannins and a nice blend of fruit and minerals on the palate.
Some house made Baklava ended the experience at Niroj Cuisine. I took a photo of the Lebanese and Turkish Wines on the menu.
Dorianne, Richard Clark and I went to the new restaurant in Westlake Village tonight, sort of by accident. Our house is for sale and they wanted to show it at dinner time, so . . .
I suggested Ahroha, the new New Zealand Restaurant that we had seen the night before. It’s been open for nine weeks. Chef Gwithyen Thomas and his wife opened this place on their own after Gwithyen had worked as a chef in eight previous restaurants over eleven years. He looks like he is about 28.
The restaurant is in a small space that had been empty for some time.
We had an amazing meal – venison, lamb, scallops, etc. Entrees run in the $30’s, but are well worth it – excellent ingredients, many sourced from New Zealand, beautifully prepared and served very competently.
The wine list is very heavily New Zealand oriented, which is both what you might expect and very nice. We chose a mid-range 2012 Pinot Noir from Forest. Very nice, evenly balanced, peppery. It struggled to keep up with the heavy meats, but it did fairly well. We ordered the wine before deciding on entrees, or we might have ordered something more substantial.
2012 Forrest Pinot Noir
I noted that on the wine list, wine by the glass was a bit expensive and the bottles were something of a bargain. The bottle price was just about the cost of three glasses.
I look forward to returning and exploring more of the New Zealand wines – there are also a smattering of California, French, and Italian bottles, by the way.
There is also a nice brunch menu.
We now have a New Zealand restaurant and a Kurdish restaurant (Niroj Levant) within a mile or so of each other. Very nice!
This past weekend, Dorianne and I visited Manhattan to see our daughter, Heather. During our short visit, we had three dinners with wine and went to a rooftop bar atop our hotel – The Indigo Hotel on W. 28th Street in Chelsea.
Friday, Heather made reservations at Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina, known as Rana, located in the Chelsea Market (a must visit in NYC). Known for their fresh pasta and other Italian fare, the restaurant is bustling and noisy – in a good way. We had reservations for three and they put us at a table for six, which was fine because it was in a corner and allowed for our conversation to be heard without too much trouble.
We ordered a 2012 Guado al Tasso Vermentino from Tuscany – a white wine to go with seafood pasta. It was the second Vermentino I have had – oddly enough the first was the night before at a friend’s home where we had a Vermentino from Tablas Creek in California’s Central Coast to begin the evening. I did not take a photo of the Sicilian bottle – both wines were light and crisp with a hint of spice. The Tablas Creek was perhaps a bit spicier, and the Guado al Tasso had more of a green apple taste, but they were very similar. I recommend both the restaurant and the wine.
Saturday we went to the RoofBar at the top of our hotel (17th Floor) and watched the sun set and the lights of the city come on. Our wonderful bartender, Costa from Greece, showed us around the fairly spacious rooftop area, some covered and some open. The wine list is short, and features a number of Greek wines (the owner is Greek, we were told). We ordered the French Sauvignon Blanc – a “Lulu” 2013 from Touraine. It was everything you would want in a Sauv Blanc – crisp and fruity, with hints of citrus and lemongrass, but very well contained, unlike the wines from New Zealand, for example that tend to be heavily citrus based. We returned to the Roof Bar on Sunday evening for a repeat performance of the sunset and some more Sauv Blanc.
Costa behind the bar at RoofBar in Chelsea.Manhattan sunset.Night Falls on the City.
Saturday dinner was at the Petit Pouleton 33rd Street off of Avenue of the Americas. The food was classic French (I had steak frites) and we chose a 2012 Les Jamelles Pays d’Oc Merlot, which was recommended by our waiter, a classic New York waiter who treated you grandly if you looked like you knew what you were doing and were also appropriately subservient to his opinion. The wine and the food were both wonderful.
The French Merlot at Petit Poulet.Steak Frites at Petit Poulet.
Sunday afternoon, we had lunch at BoludSud, a Daniel Bolud restaurant across from Lincoln Center, next to Bar Bolud. As you would expect, food, wine and service were impeccable. It was warm enough to dine alfresco, which was a bonus. I had a glass of 2012 Au Bon Climat Chardonnay while Dorianne opted for tea. Jim Clendennonwould have been half-happy.
Dorianne making her selection at BoludSud – my Au Bon Climat in the foreground.
Sunday dinner, after our second stop at Roof Bar (which by the way, does not even have nibbles, which is unfortunate), we opted for the John Dory Oyster Bar at 29th and 6th Avenue. This is a beautiful restaurant with a very limited menu – shellfish based, as you might imagine. It is also the first restaurant that I have ever been to where I did not recognize a single wine on the wine list. The list is short, to be sure, but not a familiar winemaker in sight! There are four house wines that are “on tap.” The wine prices were, shall we say, sky high, so we opted for one of the on-taps and ordered a ½ carafe of Vinhos Verde (at $34). The wine was a fairly typical Vinhos Verde in my experience, young and raw – not very pleasing. It was ok with the oysters and clams that we ordered. This might be a good place to bring your own bottle.
Where the Magic Happens at John Dory Oyster Bar.Waiting for our somewhat disappointing Vihno Verde at John Dory.
Oh, and we went to Eataly – which may require another post even though we did not drink any wine. So a quick trip into town, a bit hit or miss on the wine scene (we did not plan around the wine), some good food, and uniformly good service. I look forward to a more wine-centric visit to this great city in the future.
Jim Lockard On Wine 