A Wine Lunch in Bel-Air

There are a lot of impressive cellars in Bel-Air. Deep with age and rife with amazing producers that command insane amounts of money these days, but were purchased for modest amounts on their release. For example, last night I had the opportunity to open and taste 1966 Latour, 1970 Leoville Las Case, 1979 Haut Brion, 1982 Vieux Chateau Certan, and a 1980 Corton Charlemagne. And these were all from different tables!

We often have special events in our private dining room. On this particular day, we hosted a wine lunch for ten gentlemen. Flights of four wines per course were provided by a designated guest. I actually liked this approach as it afforded one the opportunity to showcase a theme or a producer from their cellar. Both cases were provided in this tasting.

We started with the St. Chamant 'Blanc de Blanc' Champagne NV from magnum. Aromas of freshly baked bread and lemon, nice minerality on the palate with baked apple and Granny Smith apple combined, a crisp mouthfeel and a ripe, fruit-filled finish driven by refreshing acidity. This was a lovely Champagne, great aperitif wine and drinking beautifully.

For the first flight, we poured a selection of Chablis from various producers and vineyards, paired with out Kampachi Crudo. The William Fevre 'Fourchaume' 2005 was good, but lacking real character. It had a reserved nose of chalk and an austere presence on the palate with some mushroominess, but all the fruit showed on the finish. Also - slightly bitter with perhaps too heavy an oak presence, especially noted on the finish. On the other hand, the Dampte 'Fourchaume' 2008 was spectacular! Very minerally aromas that had some mustiness. On the palate, lots of citrus, stone, earth, mushroom. Little to no oak presence at all. Super-long and elegant finish. This hit all the marks for me. Pie dough, chalk, apple and citrus - awesome! To follow, the Long-Depaquit 'Moutonne' 2005 by Albert Bichot was fine: green apple, lemon pith and juice - very fruit driven with nice acidity, but little earth to speak of. Some chalkiness as well, and well-integrated oak. The very disappointing Dampte 'Bougros' 2010 was a tragic follow-up to their 'Fourchaume'. California Chardonnay-like aromas and overblown oak. Hard to dig out the fruit under all this oak. Tastes like a well-made Sonoma Chard, but nothing like a Chablis. This was tragic...

Moving into the reds, we began with no less than a flight of Grand Cru red Burgundy from the 2001 vintage. 2001 was a mediocre vintage, at best, but these wines were showing beautifully. The Mongeard-Mugneret 'Clos Vougeot' 2001 had beautifully perfumed aromatics. Its core of cherry and mushroom supported an overlay of tart pomegranete and cranberry swirled with iron and a hint of campfire smoke. A noticably long finish on this as well. From the same producer, the Mongeard-Mugneret 'Grands Echezaux' 2001 was rife with mineral and earth notes: Must, tomato leaf, iron, beef, blood, sage all laying on a frame of cranberry and blackberry with hints of pepper. Supremely earth-driven and structured still. Next, the Nicolas Potel 'Romanee St. Vivant' 2001 was a disappointment after the previous two wines. The Mongeard-Mugneret Grand Crus showed such character and precision in addition to expressing what that producer had chosen to say about the vineyard site. The Potel was wishy-washy in this flight showing very little character or focus at all. At best, it was an attempt to be crowd-pleasing that ultimately resulted in a middle-of-the-road and uninteresting showing. Additionally, the oak seemed a little dominant.

And then I met the Meo-Camuzet 'Richebourg' 2001... One often speaks about those moments when Burgundy is so good that it stops you in your tracks and you realize what everyone is chasing. This was one of those moments. An exquisite example of balance, with undulating layers of seamless fruit and earth. Meat, perfectly ripe red fruits, steel, forest floor, pepper - all harmonious and elegantly intertwined. My last word from my tasting notes: "Wow". If you can find this wine, at around $700 you may think twice. I would make an argument that it is worth every penny and an experience not to be missed.

How does one follow these two flights? Move into one of California's Grand Crus and showcase a vertical of Phelps 'Insignia', of course! I poured a broken vertical of the 1980, 1990, 1992 and 1997 from Magnum. The 1980 'Insignia' was showing beautifully and in the "old style", with lots of spices, anise and some musty earth, but still holding blackberry and currant fruit. I found this even more youthful than anticipated with its present acidity and a strong spicy finish. The 1990 'Insignia' shows the signs of the modern-style, with lots of oak spice and ripe black fruits. Some leather added an interesting layer and the tannins were still strong, but with lovely acidity to keep it vibrant. Blind, I would not guess this to be as old as 21 years. The 1992 'Insignia' was not showing its best. The oak came across as sweeter and more pronounced and dominated some musty red fruit. With herbal, dusty character and too acidic on the palate, the wine comes across as austere and the fruit may potentially be falling out of this vintage. I've had varying degrees of surprise and disappointment with the 1997 'Insignia', but I was intrigued to taste it from magnum again. This was one of my better experiences with this vintage in recent years: Ripe black fruits layered with baking spices, some herbaceousness, and fig paste. The fruits are very ripe with black cherry, blackberry and currant. One of the better showings for the '97 which I still hold is sketchy and may not hold up in the long run.

The final flight was a collection of aged Malbecs. I took notes on these, but they were merely fodder to get drunk on after the previous wines, as far as I'm concerned. The highlight was a Bodegas Norton 'Finca Perdriel' 2001 that at least showed some Malbec character without being over-the-top (like a Rolland 'Yacochuya' 2001 that hosted 16% alcohol). I have nothing against Malbec, but this flight, that also included the Val de Flores 2002 and Alta Vista 'Alto' 2003 did nothing for me.

To wrap up the lunch, I poured some 1977 Warre's. 1977 is my birth vintage and I'm always excited to check in on the one style of wine I can still expect to show well from this year. The Warre's was showing exceptionally Cognac-like aromas of stewed cherry, orange rind, brown sugar and peach skin. A lip-smacking sweet attack on the palate with a red fruit core that turns Cognac-like again and expresses lovely layers of complexity. Nice stuff.

These kinds of days are the reason one does this job!

Drouhin Puligny Montrachet 2009

When we inherited all the wine back, our determination was to pour some of the items we had in quantity by the glass. Just to bring down our inventory a bit. This afforded some diners to try some really amazing wines at stellar prices. Single-vineyard Merry Edwards Pinot Noir, Palmaz Cabernet 2001, Lewis Reserve Cabernet 2003, Ramey 'Hyde Vineyard' Chardonnay, Arnaud Ente 'Clos des Ambres' Meursault, and many more. In some cases, we were practically giving these things away.

We've passed that period and are now settling on the wines we'd like to use for some time. One of these wines is the 2009 Joseph Drouhin 'Puligny Montrachet'. We had a supply of the 2005 in our cellar and decided to use it. The response was very positive so I decided to move forward into the current vintage. Drouhin is a big producer, but the wines are solid and seem to hit all the marks.

This Puligny is no exception. Very classic fruits - apples, pears and crisp lemon. The minerality is played way down, but it's in there. The oak has presence, but not out of balance at all. In my personal opinion, it's very "middle-of-the-road", but also a really delicious by the glass option. I'd certainly take it over any of the domestic wines and it works amazingly with our Dover Sole.

I hope to see you for a glass of Puligny on your next visit!

Building a Cellar

When the hotel shut down two years ago for the remodel, the powers-that-be made the decision to send all of the wines to an offsite storage. A service came in, boxed everything up and hauled it all away for a two-year hibernation. The sommelier who oversaw its departure would not be back and the new guy (yours truly) would see it all for the first time when it returned. Sound scary? It was...

The main storage for the hotel is an underground wine tunnel. It was originally a horse stable back in the day, but now houses some of the finest wines in the world. From white horses to Cheval Blancs... Not a bad trade! A series of stairs mark the entrance, making dollies and hand trucks near impossible to use. So everything goes in by hand pretty much - case by case.

And on this particular day - 1300 cases were returning to their home.

We were completely prepared to receive the 14,000 bottles of wine. We'd re-installed the racks, built a brand new shelving system and laid out a game plan to get it all put away. On a bright and beautiful Saturday, the truck pulled up and the team began the unloading process. I quickly snapped a photo of the first case of wine being returned.



As the guys were unloading the truck, we began opening the boxes. Up to this point, we'd been looking at an inventory sheet that listed these wines by label and quantity: Merry Edwards Pinot Noir-24 bottles, Pahlmeyer Chardonnay-32 bottles. To our horror, we discovered that the wines in each case were a complete mix and match. Each of the cases had a hodge-podge of wines in no particular order. This was turning out to be a more challenging project than expected...







The corporate beverage director and I turned to one another: "We're going to need more hands..."






As the cases continued to roll in and pile up, we continued to open boxes and assign bins. It wasn't long before we were buried in the tunnel behind a wall of wine. And getting each box put away was taking longer than anticipated. With eight to ten distinct wines in a given box, it required that many trips to each bin to put them away. That is, as opposed to taking twelve bottles to one bin and just putting them away. It was severely slow going.

We worked from 8am to 10pm for seven days straight. And this was just getting the wines into their basic organization. But after all the busted fingers, paper cuts, pulled muscles and sore limbs, we eventually got there. The wines were back in their safe little home under the rooms that have hosted the celebrity elite.


Tragically, not everything that came back was a Cheval Blanc. Sure - we have our share of '59 Margaux, '90 DRC Romanee-Conti and a healthy vertical of Petrus. But we also discovered 2004 Beringer White Zinfandel, 15-year old Sauvignon Blancs and
brown-hued Chardonnays. All-in-all, we separated out around 150 cases of wines that were potentially past their prime and undrinkable. Tim and I spent an afternoon in the tunnel just popping corks and tasting through the possible candidates for saving to see what we could salvage.

"It's moments like this that I wish people could see what I do for a living," I said to him as we were spitting wine on to the tunnel floor and pouring bottle after bottle down the drain.

We salvaged a little from that day. The 1991 Ferrari Carano "Tresor" was holding up fairly well - better than I expected. A 1995 Paoletti Sangiovese was a surprise. However, it was overshadowed by the pain of discarding cases upon cases of Domaine Ott and Tempier Roses. We poured out bottles of white from our neighboring winery in Bel-Air, Moraga, that had not held up. Moscatos, Champagnes, Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs past their primes, as well as some tragically oxidized white Burgundies. It was a painful process.

But the result was a wine list we could be proud of! We continually get comments on how great the list looks and how impressed people are with it. And this is just the beginning. We haven't even more than scratched the surface of where it's going. But it's a start!

A Trio of Cult Cabs

A lot of great wine rolls through the Bel-Air. Very often I don't have the chance to take any detailed tasting notes when sampling these wines. 1959 Margaux and Haut Brion, 1982 Cheval Blancgrea and 1973 DRC Montrachet are just a few of the greats that I wish I'd been able to jot down in my notebook. However, once in awhile, the opportunity comes to sit down to the end of the night and actually taste a few professionally.

On this day, we happened to have a collection of the great names in Cabernet Sauvignon from California: Colgin 'Herb Lamb' 2005, Bryant 2005 and Harlan 2001. When I was still budding as a sommelier, one of the great experiences of my life was sitting down to dinner with a friend who had opened the 1997 Colgin and 1997 Harlan for a side-by-side. While my personal taste doesn't necessarily run toward Cali Cab these days, the opportunity to taste these two mammoths side-by-side again was intriguing.

So, the Colgin 'Herb Lamb' 2005 was showing beautifully. I immediately noted red licorice on the nose which shifted to black fruits on the palate with this red cherry edge that seems to be decidedly Colgin (in my experience). Almost like a bucket of blackberries with a few Maraschino cherries thrown in for good measure. Plenty of spice and anise blended with the rich fruit that is supported by chalky tannins that somehow feel plush. I poured a taste of the Colgin to the guest who was drinking the Harlan so he could also experience the opportunity to taste them together. "I could drink that all day...", he said, before he knew what it was.

The Harlan Estate 2001 was a decidedly different animal. Much more brooding and complex. Bordeaux-like character, but distinctly Californian at the same time. The fruit shows more black/blue with amazing intensity. Perfumey on the nose with black currants, espresso, pencil shavings, gravel, fresh ground cinnamon, and some singed herbs. The complexity here is quite impressive and this wine is still very young in its evolution. It will be interesting to see where this wine is in another ten years. I would say this was my favorite of the three.

The 2005 Bryant was almost a blend of style between the Colgin and the Harlan. The fruit was ripe, but stayed lifted with this really refreshing acidity that helped the flavors of the fruit remain fresh. A little more herbal/rubber noted on the nose, but beautiful black currant and black raspberry and a plush texture. The amazing piece here was the seamless balance. One could get lost in this wine without any one thing standing out, yet there's a lot wrapped up in this package to discover if you want to dig in. And the finish here is long without feeling heavy. Very impressive.

As I said, Cabernet isn't always my first choice. I find I'm drinking them out of my cellar these days just to make room for Nebbiolos and Burgundys. If these wines were thirty bucks a bottle, I probably still wouldn't stock up on them for myself, but I'd be stupid not to put them on a wine list. Sadly, at upwards of $500 for each, it seems sad to me that most people will never experience these really well-crafted California Cabernets.

A New Chapter

After five great years with Jar, and many great wines, an opportunity came along that I could not refuse. My good friend, Chris Miller from Spago, had been trying to find a home for me with Wolfgang Puck. That position finally came along with the re-opening of the legendary Hotel Bel-Air. The new restaurant, known as Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, and hotel are being manned by yours truly. It's an incredible shift of gears from the comfy 80-seat Jar to a 103-room hotel with a fine dining restaurant, but a great experience.

The Hotel Bel-Air is an icon. It's been around since the 1940's and has been the temporary home of a vast number of celebrities. Marilyn Monroe's last photo shoot was at the pool. Nancy Reagan has been a regular for lunch for years. As you can imagine, the famous feet that have tread here are pretty vast.

I look forward to sharing some of the rewarding and challenging aspects of running this iconic property with you over the coming months or years.

A Birthday Pub Crawl in Napa/Sonoma

Even though it's been two months since all of this went down, I feel compelled to share this experience with you because it is often an overlooked aspect to wine country vacations.




Kara and I took a trek up to Napa and Sonoma for my birthday. Working in wine, and it being a celebration, I insisted that we keep the winery visits to a bare minimum. What did I want to do then?! Well, visit breweries, of course! We were fortunate enough to be staying in the guest house of our new friend Fritz, who owns Arietta winery. It was a beautiful little house right in downtown St. Helena.

Our first stop was in Healdsburg at Bear Republic. We dropped in for lunch and to drink through the line-up with some lunch. Their food in not particularly impressive and they miss the mark in many ways, but the beer is really good. In particular, the Racer X, which is their Double IPA was awesome. Unfortunately, they don't bottle it and make a limited amount of kegs. Overall, the beer was indicative of style and I would rate it highly for overall quality.

The real standout in this visit was a surprise. The brewery offered a couple of vintage bottles from 2002, only to be consumed on premise. I immediately ordered a bottle of the 2002 'Olde Scoutter's Barleywine'. It arrived with no label, was decanted for sediment and served in snifters. I thought it was drinking great. I would never really have thought to hold a barleywine for nearly ten years, but I would've bought a case to take home for after-dinner consumption, if they would have only allowed you to buy it.

We decided to relax at the guest house on that evening. A quick trip to Dean & DeLuca for some meats and cheeses (and some Pliny the Elder, which they have in great supply) brought us to the backyard. I also opened a slightly oxidized bottle of 1997 Chateau d'Yquem to enjoy. The color seemed a little dark for its age, but it still tasted like Yquem: honeyed apricots, citrus, orange marmalade and chamomille tea. Hard not to like even from a slightly-off bottle. I should also mention that the 1994 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was drinking beautifully and in its peak drinking.

For my actual birthday, after a hike with the dogs (who had tagged along for this trip), we drove over to Lagunitas. If this place were down the street, I'd be there all the time. It has a very Key West-feel with a huge patio and open bar. We tasted through the lineup here and I still really love their IPA and PILS. They're staples at my house, when I have the opportunity to get them.

And then my crowning moment of glory and real reason for the trip: Russian River Brewing Company. We took our seats at the bar and embarked on one of my favorite journeys - the Board at RRBC. Generally, it includes around 20 beers that are currently being poured on tap. My favorite surprise today was the 'Sound Czech Pilsner', which I brought home in a growler. They only brew this once a year in honor of one of their favorite bands. Pretty cool stuff! Like a true tourist, I left with a t-shirt, glasses, and growlers. Their pizza is pretty damned good, too.

We quickly dropped into our favorite little haunt in downtown Calistoga (that I can never remember the name of...) for a Bloody Mary or two. They really make one of the best Marys. I'm fairly certain they add some pepperoncini juice to the mix and use a hot sauce other than Tabasco. I'd highly recommend it, except that I can't even tell you the name of the place...

We did power through a few wineries' wines while we were there, of course. Pappapietro-Perry in the Russian River Valley was a nice surprise. I have traditionally liked their wines and they're very nice people. Any of the Pinot Noirs or Zinfandels are worth trying. In addition, we had some wines from Tor in Tor's living room. These are really nice California Cabernets, but perhaps a little pricey. And, of course, we tasted through verticals of Arietta wines. I've developed a new love for Arietta on this trip, having not had it for a number of years. They are nice wines, fairly priced, and their white wine called "On the White Keys" is really delicious.

It was decidedly one of our best trips to wine country ever. For the first time, Kara and I emphasized relaxing instead of working. I think I finally caught a glimpse of why the rest of the world comes to Napa and Sonoma. It's kind of nice. I'll have to make the effort again in the future.

Dom Perignon 2002

I've been waiting for this moment for a while now. The opportunity to dive into the 2002 Moet & Chandon 'Dom Perignon' has finally arrived. Sure - it's an obvious choice and sommeliers are not supposed to be obvious, but this is one of my guilty pleasures. To be quite frank, I don't feel bad about liking Dom Perignon.

I remember my first taste of Dom. It was 1990 and my step-sister had just been born. We were in the hospital room and my dad busted out this bottle. (I couldn't tell you what vintage - heck, I didn't even know what a vintage was back then...) He poured for everyone, including me, into one of those cheesy Dixie cups and we all toasted. I remember, even then, thinking it tasted chalky and like balloons. How does a twelve-year old describe minerality anyway?

To this day, I often choose Dom over the other mainstream prestige cuvees in blind tastings. There's something about the fine bubbles, crisp acidity, minerality and well-integrated yeast flavors that really speaks to me. I think they really nail the balance and the elegance in a premium-level Champagne.

On to the 2002! Well, what do you eat with Dom Perignon?! The answer is - ANYTHING!

In our continuing late night saga to gain fifty pounds (not really...), we dined on a smorgasboard of leftovers at 2am. The menu included a homemade Lasagna and Beef Stroganoff. Certainly not the first dishes you'd think to pair with Champagne, but the wine showed well, continuing my belief in Champagne's inherent versatility with food. The 2002 vintage is very floral aromatically, showing white flowers, honeysuckle, melba toast and chalky minerality. On the palate, the wine is crisp and lively, shows very dry, and integrates some more honeyed pear flavors with fresh bread. I've always liked this undescribable earthy layer to Dom thay I was really enjoying tonight with the mushrooms in the Stroganoff.

I once wrote in our "Sommelier Selection" page for Jar that it seems silly to recommend Dom Perignon on a list of quick picks because we all know it's good. I sort of feel the same way here. However, sometimes I just have to shout the obvious from the mountaintop. Here's to hoping you get to enjoy a glass of this delicious 2002 Dom Perignon as well.