Category Archives: Wine Travel

A SOJOURN IN MANHATTAN – WINE ON THE RUN

Restaurant, Wine Review, Wine Travel, , , , , , ,

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.

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Costa behind the bar at RoofBar in Chelsea.
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Manhattan sunset.
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Night Falls on the City.

Saturday dinner was at the Petit Poulet on 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.

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The French Merlot at Petit Poulet.
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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 Clendennon would have been half-happy.

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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.

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Where the Magic Happens at John Dory Oyster Bar.
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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.

CELLAR MASTERS ON THE CELEBRITY SOLSTICE

Wine Review, Wine Travel, , ,

As a wine lover, you will want to visit Cellar Masters, a feature of several ships in the Celebrity fleet. This nicely appointed wine bar features comfortable furnishings to sit and sip, a wine bar, and an Enomatic Wine Dispensing System that stores and pours with the use of a card.

We had experienced a Cellar Masters on the Celebrity Equinox a couple of years ago, and were eager to see what the experience on the Solstice would be. Our host is Csbas (Sha-vas) from Hungary, a very formal and knowledgeable young man who has had a passion for wine since he was 14. We stopped in to introduce ourselves and were very impressed with Csbas’ knowledge of wine and wine regions around the world. Celebrity has a very good training program for its international wine staff. The staff ranges from the wine stewards in the dining room, to the Cellar Master host, to the overall Ship’s Wine Master who reports to the Food and Beverage Chief Officer. As with most of the cruise line positions, there is a lot of competition to get promoted, and wine knowledge combined with the provision of excellent service, is the path to the top.

We visited Csbas often during the cruise.

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Your blogger with Csbas (Sha-vas), the Cellar Master Wine Steward.

On our first full day at sea, there was an Around the World Wine Tasting event at Cellar Masters. There were six wine stations, three representing the Old World – France, Germany, and Spain; and three featuring the New World – California, Australia/New Zealand, and Argentina. There were a total of 12 wines, six reds and six whites, all of which are available by the bottle on the Solstice. These wines were what I would call, price-accessible to just about everyone, meaning that they were not premium wines. A wine steward staffed each position. There was a table with fruits, cheeses, breads and crackers for palate maintenance. The tasting cost $20 per person, and was attended by about 60 people.

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Bottles Ready for Tasting
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Palate Cleansers
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Tasting in Progress.
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Italian Wines in the Old World Section.

We had a very good time, between tasting wines from labels that, for the most part, we had never had. Speaking with the very knowledgeable wine stewards, and connecting with some of the others at the event.

In the next post, I will describe a higher-end tasting of a flight of four French wines that Dorianne and I enjoyed at Cellar Masters.

WINE ON A CRUISE SHIP?

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This will be the first of several posts about my experiences with wine and other beverages on a cruise to Alaska

Alaska cruise Solstice 1
Celebrity Solstice in Alaska

We booked an Alaskan Cruise this September. Dorianne and I are leading a group of twenty – something that we do just about every year; sometimes on land, sometimes at sea. Our 11 night cruise on the Celebrity Solstice departed from Seattle and will end in Vancouver, after exploring Alaska and British Columbia ports of call.

We chose Celebrity for a number of reasons. We like their ships (Solstice class especially), and they always do a good job with food and beverages. Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and is more upscale than that line.

I will be blogging about the wine experience aboard a ship like this, which is positioned between the basic level lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean, and the upscale lines like Crystal and Seabourne.

Celebrity has a wine list of over 60 pages to cover its many dining rooms, buffet areas, cocktail lounges and bars. There are a total of 35 to 40 wines served by the glass, the selection varying by location on the ship. Bottled wines are available across a wide spectrum in the main dining room and some of the specialty restaurants; and a more limited selection is available at the other bars throughout the ship. The bars range from upscale lounges with live music to a disco to pool bars to Cellar Masters, which specializes in wine. There are lots of options and very little waiting at any of the bars – the Solstice is brilliantly designed to minimize waits for food and beverages, as well as for just about all activities on board the ship.

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French Whites at Cellar Masters on the Ship.

The first thing to realize is that your wine experience will depend on some of the decisions that you make before you sail. Celebrity offers beverage packages in two basic categories – general packages that include all kinds of beverages; and specialized packages that give access to a narrow range of beverages. You can also opt for a pay-as-you-go process, paying separately for each drink or bottle that you order. There are plusses and minuses to these options, of course.

We generally opt for the premium general beverage package. This includes all non-alcoholic beverages, including specialty coffee drinks, premium bottled water, etc., and beer, wine and cocktails up to $13 per glass. The premium package costs $56 per day and must be purchased for the entire cruise. The package gives a 20% discount on bottles of wine. There is also a classic package for $10 less per day that limits you to beverages under $9 per glass. The packages do not cover cabin mini-bar or room service beverages.

There is also a wine-only package that gives you a certain number of bottles in one of three price categories for a discount of about 10% off of the regular bottle price. Celebrity’s markups are like restaurant markups – 2 to 2 ½ times the retail price of the wine.

With the premium package, you are better off ordering wines by the glass up to the price point of $13 per glass, which covers about 90% of the wines by the glass menu on the ship. There are a few places, such as the specialty restaurants, where you pay a premium to dine, and Cellar Masters, a wine bar, that have a higher number of upscale wines by the glass on their wine lists. BUT, when you order a wine at, say, $18 per glass and you have the premium package, you pay the full $18 for that glass – you get no credit for the first $13, according to Celebrity policy. However, we did speak to a person who said that she had ordered more expensive glasses on this cruise and was only charged for the difference. I will blog separately about the specialty restaurants and Cellar Masters – some very nice wine experiences are to be had there.

If you are a wine by the bottle person, you will likely do better with a specialty wine package and perhaps a general package that does not include alcoholic beverages, or a classic general package to allow you to get beer and some cocktails. There are well over a dozen bars on this ship, some with amazing cocktail preparations that may draw you away from a wine-only policy. Plus, you are on vacation – so have fun!

GREAT WINE SHOP AT PIKE PLACE MARKET

Wine Gear, Wine Travel,

We are in Seattle, getting ready to lead a group on an Alaska and British Columbia cruise on the Celebrity Solstice, where I will be blogging about the wine experience aboard ship. Today, we visited Pike Place Market, the legendary Seattle landmark. If you go through the amazing Delaurenti gourmet market, just past the newsstand, you will find a staircase to a wonderful little wine shop. 

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The Reds of the Northwest Section at Delaurenti’s
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Some of the higher-end wines from Europe.

The selection is relatively small, with the exception of wines of the Northwest, as you might expect. But even the selection of European wines is just large enough and well-chosen enough to give you a sense of real choices. There are great wines in most categories and they have been pre-selected by the owners. There really aren’t any wines here that you would not want to drink. There is also a large selection of great wines in half-bottles to use for a picnic with some of the delicacies downstairs in the gourmet market. And lots of bubbly choices, too.

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Large Format Bottles at Delaurenti’s

If you are in Seattle, this is a real gem, along with Pike & Western Wines, at the north end of the market complex, another regional gem.