Tony Velebil
03-14-2011, 03:04 PM
Last night Traci and I met up her best friend from high school at the Slanted Door in San Francisco. I'm not a huge fan but the friend is from Texas and loves to go there. So 8 of us descended on the restaurant and had a good meal with terrific service and some nice wine.
Traci and I were early so a glass of wine in the bar was necessary before everyone arrived:
2003 Baumard, "Clos du Papillon" Savennieres, Loire, France
This was tasty...slight honey, a little truffle, lemon peel and nice acidity to keep it crisp. $13 per glass I thought a bit high but....
With dinner - this accompanied the oysters, daikon radish cakes and yellow tail
2008 Bott-Geyl "Les Elements", Riesling, Alsace, France
I think this was about $36 per bottle on the list. And very tasty. Most of the people there were very casual wine drinkers whose only request was the white wine not be sweet. Well they all loved this wine. Dry, aromatic, flowers, wet stone and lime. Very nice.
I gambled a little on the next pick to accompany the ribs...since they were casual wine drinkers I thought it would be fun to do 2 Syrah's back to back and see where the chips fell. I had never heard of Domaine Mucyn before but the price fit our range:
2008 Domaine Mucyn, Crozes-Hermitage
I really enjoyed this wine. It's earthy with iron and black pepper and just enough plum and dark cherry fruit to cut through the juicy acidity. Worked really well with the food and I was quite surprised to see that most liked it.
and then for the CA version
2007 Peay Vineyards, "Les Titans", Syrah, Sonoma Coast
Definitely richer than the Mucyn with more plush fruit, nice acidity, a little smoke, dark cherry and a hint of dark chocolate. It was very tasty and actually in a pretty good place drinking wise but could still benefit from more time. Some, predictably liked it better than the Mucyn because of the richer fruit. I liked them equally for different reasons.
After that we settled up said our goodbyes and headed back across the bay to Oakland.
Traci and I were early so a glass of wine in the bar was necessary before everyone arrived:
2003 Baumard, "Clos du Papillon" Savennieres, Loire, France
This was tasty...slight honey, a little truffle, lemon peel and nice acidity to keep it crisp. $13 per glass I thought a bit high but....
With dinner - this accompanied the oysters, daikon radish cakes and yellow tail
2008 Bott-Geyl "Les Elements", Riesling, Alsace, France
I think this was about $36 per bottle on the list. And very tasty. Most of the people there were very casual wine drinkers whose only request was the white wine not be sweet. Well they all loved this wine. Dry, aromatic, flowers, wet stone and lime. Very nice.
I gambled a little on the next pick to accompany the ribs...since they were casual wine drinkers I thought it would be fun to do 2 Syrah's back to back and see where the chips fell. I had never heard of Domaine Mucyn before but the price fit our range:
2008 Domaine Mucyn, Crozes-Hermitage
I really enjoyed this wine. It's earthy with iron and black pepper and just enough plum and dark cherry fruit to cut through the juicy acidity. Worked really well with the food and I was quite surprised to see that most liked it.
and then for the CA version
2007 Peay Vineyards, "Les Titans", Syrah, Sonoma Coast
Definitely richer than the Mucyn with more plush fruit, nice acidity, a little smoke, dark cherry and a hint of dark chocolate. It was very tasty and actually in a pretty good place drinking wise but could still benefit from more time. Some, predictably liked it better than the Mucyn because of the richer fruit. I liked them equally for different reasons.
After that we settled up said our goodbyes and headed back across the bay to Oakland.