October 2010 Archives

C’mon Down To The Cellar, Won’t You?

  • Posted on October 23, 2010 at 5:10 pm

by Phil Anderson
As you walk down the stairs the noise of the street starts to fade, replaced by great music coming from beneath your feet.  On this night it’s accoustic blues.  At this particular moment it’s an Eric Clapton cover, “Before You Accuse Me”.  I think to myself, “I’m not accusing anyone about anything.  I’m just happy to be where I am.”

And that’s what The Wine Cellar in Coeur d’Alene, ID does, it makes people happy and has been since 1992. 

This is the first of a small series of articles aimed at acknowledging the importance of local wine bars and shops.  Every decent city has them.  I’m lucky to live next to a hotbed wine region in Eastern Washington so we have many wine bars near where I live in addition to where I grew up in West Seattle.  I will try to spotlight a few of those in the next couple of weeks.

The Wine Cellar was just recently purchased by a local Coeur d’Alene couple, Tom and Patricia Power.  It was a long ordeal to purchase it because the previous owners were not only out of the area, they were out of the country.  They have retained the founder of The Wine Cellar, Jim Duncan, as a consultant. 

Recently we attended an event for their wine club members and media to introduce the new owners and unveil the plans for a small remodel to The Wine Cellar.  Originally, The Wine Cellar was only a wine bar and music venue but has expanded to a full service restaurant. 

It’s space is quaint and comfortable.  Although the music stage is small, the music they bring in is first rate.  As of this writing, if you click on the About Me link to the left you will see the picture is of me holding a wine glass out in front of me.  That picture was taken AT The Wine Cellar just after it opened under new ownership on September 10th.

On this particular night there were full apetizers and five different wines to taste.  I opted against the Pinot Gris they were serving but I DID taste the rest of the lot, which were served graciously by Michael White, one of the two winemakers for Barrister Winery in Spokane, WA.

I started out with a Pouilly-Fuissé White Burgundy, from Joseph Drouhin, which was absolutely DELICIOUS!  It actually got my highest score of the night.  It’s not often that you get to taste a White Burgundy, which is made from the Chardonnay grape.  I used to love oaky Chardonnay’s until the past year or two when I’ve switched to liking less, or even NO, oak.  Those wines are sometimes called Naked because they are aged in stainless steel instead of oak.  (As you might recall, our house white is Ryan Patrick’s Naked Chardonnay.)

What made this wine so good was the balance.  There was certainly oak, yes, and that’s no surprise from where it comes.  But it was so balanced and smooth.  The oak was very subtle and it added substance.  And it was delicious!

I also tasted a 2006 Pepperbridge Cabernet Sauvignon, a Barrister 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon and a Barrister non vintage Blend called Rough Justice.  Out of those three I liked the Pepperbridge and Rough Justice the best.  Let me make it clear, however, they were ALL quite good, it’s just those two stood out over the the other. 

The Pepperbridge was very peppery with licorice and burnt tobacco on the nose.  There were lots of tannins with raspberries on the palate.  VERY tasty!

The Rough Justice was just that, rough and rugged, blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah.  It had many complex levels to it and had a long finish to boot. 

All of these reds would go so well with a nice juicy steak.  Or….even a nice juicy cheeseburger.  Sheesh, I must be hungry! 

If you get a chance to visit Coeur d’Alene you really must stop in the The Wine Cellar (tell them that Phil suggested it!) right in the heart of downtown Coeur d’Alene.  You will not be sorry.  But until you get that chance, check out their website and join their wine club.  Their wine list is not only extensive but very  “off the beaten path”.  You won’t find the same ol’ same ol’ wines that you see at the majority of restaurants.  I find that to be very refreshing.

And, as always, you can find me on Twitter AND Facebook and I hope you DO.  Until next time, thank you SO MUCH for reading and for all of my new subscribers!  I’m gettin almost TWO A DAY and I’m feeling humbled as well as grateful for that.  Thank you! 

And of course, bottoms up!

Young Servers at Restaurants Serving Wine

  • Posted on October 20, 2010 at 6:09 pm

by Phil Anderson
This will be my shortest post ever but I REALLY have to write something about this.  My daughter, who is going to college in Southern California, is working at an upper end restaurant.  She loves it and is both happy and excited to have this job.  The people are great, the food is great and the tips are great.  AND she is learning about wine!

One little problem….

She’s not yet 21!  “Why is that a problem”, you ask?  Thank you for asking.  This is why:

The restaurant expects her to know the intimate details of the wine she is serving so that she can answer the questions from her guests.  That is all well and good but, honestly, the same wine can taste completely differently to two different people.  Now she’s supposed to answer as an expert when she hasn’t even TASTED these wines?

I love it that young people are learning about the nuances of wine rather than just drinking to get hammered.  In Europe, it’s common for young people to learn about and enjoy wine at home.  I also find it rather interesting that the alcoholic rate is less in Europe than it is in the United States. 

BUT, I digress…

This particular restaurant is grading my daughter on her knowledge of these wines based on her memorizing the tasting notes given to her and the research she does.  Again, it’s great that there is time and effort put in but most, or even ALL, of her opinions on the wines could change when she turns 21 in three weeks.

She keeps calling me asking me specific questions about wines that they carry but wines that I haven’t yet tried.  Even if I DID try them my common response would be, “I don’t know, what do YOU get from this wine?”

SO, I have questions for you.  Is this common practice in upper end restaurants?  As a guest of a restaurant, is it acceptable to have a server recite, verbatim, what they’ve read about a particular wine?  What do you think is the right way for a server, that is not of the legal drinking age, to learn about wine?  Maybe we could have an industry drinking standard that is different than the general law regarding drinking age for people to learn about wine by TASTING it.  Am I all wrong about this?

To be fair, my daughter has told me she gets to attend a tasting at this restaurant but will have to spit.  PERFECT!  Most people who taste a lot of wine spit anyways!  Why can’t THAT be the norm?

As always, thank you for reading and for letting me vent about this.  And don’t forget to join my fan page on Facebook if you “like” drinking wine or Tweet me up on Twitter!

Until next time, bottoms up!

And Now For Something Completely Different

  • Posted on October 2, 2010 at 12:31 pm

By Phil Anderson
Go figure, I’m going to write about some general wine thoughts, for a change!  WooooHoooo!  Now that IS different!  I’m going to do this fast, as the sun is out and it’s suppose to be 80+ degrees today.

I want to, again, thank ALL of our new subscribers!  I’m just so grateful that you like this column enough to want to read more.  Thank you!

We’ve had the pleasure, recently, of having some really good, inexpensive wine and I wanted to let you know about them. 

The first one is Principato from Italy.  From what I’ve been told this is the wine that is served at The Olive Garden.  It is much like a Beaujolais, which uses the Gamay grape, in terms of drinkability.  The Principato uses a blend of three different varietals, ones that I’m not at all familiar with:  Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara.  The beauty of this red gem is that it runs about $11 …and that’s for a magnum!  That’s right, two bottles in one for around 11 bucks!

This wine goes with all kinds of food, like, spaghetti, meatloaf, cheeseburgers and pizza.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Another wine we tried is called Elvio Tintero Grangia and it blends two white varietals, Mascato and Vermentino, 10% and 90% respectively.  This is such a great, refreshing summer wine (I know, summer is over and we’re into Fall now, but still).  It’s crisp and citrusy, with hints of lemon.  It also runs about the same as the Principato and if you can find it it’s worth a go.

I am going to try some new things in the next few weeks with this column.  I’m going to try and involve some other people whether it be a guest post or sample video blogs.  The first one I will do will involve the importance of storing your wine correctly.  Let me know what you think, please?

And lastly, tonight will be a very fun night as I got some small little oysters to grill for our last hoo-ha of the summer.  It’s supposed to be warm (remember, I need to get out there like NOW!) and I’ve got a bottle of Madeleine Angevine to go with the oysters.  I will write about that tomorrow so that you’ll know how it went.

Keep in mind, you can always reach me by commenting on this or any other blog post or write me at drinkingwine@generalwinethoughts.com.   Also, check out our Drinking Wine on Facebook page!   And if you don’t like ANY of those options (you must be high maintenance!) check out my page on Twitter.  If you can’t handle that either, I don’t know what to tell you.  Lean out your window and yell really loud and I MIGHT hear you.  But probably not.  : )

Other than that, thank you for reading and bottoms up!

Top