2007 Bastianich Tocai Friulano

From the Friuli region in Italy and one of the wineries of Joe Bastianich, son of Lydia Bastianich (the famous Italian chef and cookbook author), and business partner of Mario Batali.

Medium bodied, with ripe, luscious pear flavors carried by a refreshing mineral flavor and zesty mouthwatering acidity that mixed together create a perfect wine to enhance food. The Tocai Friulano grape is also characterized by a slight almond edge.

We tried this wine to see if we could find something similar to a Friulano we loved in Argentina that is not yet imported to the U.S.. Not a match, but we'll try a few from California next.

We served this one night with baked halibut, and the rest of the bottle the next night with seared tuna.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 6 Dinner Menu

Our final (graduation) dinner. Tonight was the conclusion of our week in Burgundy. Jean-Pierre Cropsal (our teacher) joined us for our final dinner and a series of amazing wines.

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Traditional Burgundy Snails in Garlic Butter
Bâtard-Montrachet 2006 – Domaine Leflaive
Nice, balanced white wine with taste of green apples and butter flavors

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Fillet of Beef with Fois Gras and Truffle Sauce, and Mini-roasted vegetables
Clos de Tart 1998 – Domaine Clos de Tart
Clos des Lambrays 1995 - Domaine Clos des Lambrays
La Romanée 1998 – Domaine Bouchard
Three, great, red burgundies. Excellent examples of the fine wines of the area.

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Cheese Selection
Musigny 1992 – Domaine Moire Hudelot
Full, rich wine. Rated a 5.0.
Bienvenues Bâtard Montrachet 2006 – Domaine Leflaive
Citrusy, acidic, flavor of pears.

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Warm Chocolate Fondant with a Fresh Vanilla Pod Ice Cream

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Coffee and Cookies
Romanée Saint Vivant 1989 – Domaine Joseph Drouhin
A final treat from Jean-Pierre. Their contract with this vineyard expired and they are not allowed to sell this wine. It came from his personal cellar for our enjoyment.

Wine labels from this evening click here.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 5 Dinner Menu

Dinner this evening was one of the most entertaining of the trip. We dined with Laurent Ponsot, director of Domaine Ponsot, and his wife Claude. Laurent is quite a character - he has ridden across the U.S. on a motorcycle with his wife - twice. He is a private pilot and loves to drive his Corvette around the roads of Burgundy. In addition, he makes great wines in very small quantities.

The wines served this evening were incredible. All rated 5+ by the guests.

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Lobster Raviolis with a Shellfish Reduction
1er Cru Clos des Monts Luisants 1990 – Domaine Laurent Ponsot
Absolutely a delicious wine.

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Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms; Creamed Potato and Selection of Vegetables
Griotte-Chambertin 1998 - Domaine Laurent Ponsot
Chambertin 1999 - Domaine Laurent Ponsot
Great age to serve these wines (9-10 years old). Liquid velvet.

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Cheese Selection
Clos Saint Denis Cuvée Vielles Vignes 2002 - Domaine Laurent Ponsot
I've got to find this wine to order some - amazing with cheeses.

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Strawberries Marinated in Clos de la Roche

Clos de le Roche Cuvée Vielles Vignes 2003 - Domaine Laurent Ponsot

The strawberries were marinated in a bottle of this wine and refrigerated for 2-1/2 hours, then served with another bottle to accompany the dessert. Delicious and decadent without being too sweet or too heavy.

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Coffee and Cookies

Wine labels from this evening click here.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 4 Dinner Menu

Dinner this evening was one of the most memorable occasions since we started enjoying fine wine. We had the pleasure of dining with Aubert and Pamela de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, one of the premier domaines in Burgundy, if not the entire world. The wines were all outstanding. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime dinner.

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Salmon and Sole Terrine with a herbed mayonnaise
Echezeaux 2000 – Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Richebourg 1996 - Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

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Roast rack of Lamb with Herb Crust, Couscous, and Petite Ratatouille
Romanée Saint Vivant 1999 - Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
La Tâche 1990 - Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

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Cheese Selection
Romanée–Conti 1971 - Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

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Iced Strawberry Semifreddo with Tuiles and Strawberry Coulis

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Coffee and Cookies

Wine labels from this evening click here.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 3 Dinner Menu

Dinner this evening was with Christine and Philippe Drouhin of Domaine Drouhin-Laroze in the cellar of their winery in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin in the Nuits St. George region of Burgundy. They cooked the entire meal and served us the wines (all magnums). What a treat!

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Selection of Gourgeres, Stuffed Mushrooms, Terrines, and Quiche
Chapelle-Chambertin 2003 - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
Chapelle-Chambertin 2004 - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
Interesting to taste two vintages of the same wine. The 2004 was definitely younger - more tannins, yet a superior wine. 2003 was a very hot year.

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Casserole of Wild Boar (from their grounds) and Gratin Dauphinois
Chambertin Clos de Bèze 1996 - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
This wine was a 5+. Soft tannins, extremely long fruit finish. Perfect match for the food course. One of the top wines of the week.

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Cheese Selection
Latricières-Chambertin 2002 - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze

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Chocolate Mousse with Carmelized Apples
Bonnes Mares 2001 - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
A flat out fantastic wine. Aromas changed as wine sat in the glass. This wine should continue to improve with age. Wish I had a case of it.

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Cafe et Fine de Bourgogne - Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
Exceptional dessert wine. Very little produced.

Wine labels from this evening click here.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 2 Dinner Menu

Dinner this evening was with Veronique Boss-Drouhin, winemaker for Domaine Joseph Drouhin

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Langoutines with Orange Butter and Melba Toasts
Chablis-Les Clos 2002 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
This Chablis is one of Drouhin's very special white wines.
Corton Charlemagne 2003 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin

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Fillet of Pork stuffed with Spinach in a Cider Jus and Braised Red Cabbage
Corton Bressandes 2003 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
Charmes Chambertin 2000 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
The second wine is a classic. Still young with some tannins, but luscious cherry fruit and spices.

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Cheese Selection
Clos de Vougeot 2003 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
Grands-Echezeaux 1990 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
These two wines were exceptional!

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Red Fruit Tart and Coulis
Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche 1992 - Domaine Joseph Drouhin
This wine was a special treat. It is full bodied, luscious, and elegant. Many aromas and flavors come out over time as you enjoy a glass.

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Coffee and Chocolates

Wine labels from this evening click here.

Grand Cru River Cruise - Day 1 Dinner Menu

For each night of the cruise, we will list the menu and the wines served. We will include some of Caren's wine ratings and exceptional tasting notes.

Seared Sea Scallops with a Sweet Potato Puree and Hollandaise Sauce
Chevalier-Montrachet 2003 – Domaine Latour
Ruchottes-Chambertin 2000 – Domaine Bonnefond


Beef Bourguignon and Green Beans
Mazovères-Chambertin 2002 – Domaine Camus
Mazis-Chambertin 2004 – Hospices de Beaune
Both of these wines were outstanding.



Cheese Selection
La Grande Rue 1991 – Domaine Lamarche
Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet 2000 – Domaine Latour
The Latour was great with the cheeses.

Raspberry Pannacotta










Coffee and chocolates

Grands-Echezeaux 2000 (magnum) – Domaine Joseph Drouhin
In Jordan's opinion, this surprise wine from Jean-Pierre Cropsal was the star of the evening.

Wine labels from this evening click here.

A different type of restaurant

Tonight, our last night in Paris, we dined at Il Vino d'Enrico Bernardo. This restaurant takes a different approach to its menu than most. You order the wine, not food. Then the chef chooses the dish to serve it with.

We got real daring and ordered the prix fixe menu. With this option, both the wines and the food were going to be a surprise.

2007 J&F Lurton - Rueda "Viura y Verdejo"

From a multinational wine company led by the Lurton brothers, with estates in Argentina, Chile, France, Spain, and Portugal. We visited their Argentine property back in March.

This wine from their vineyards in Spain has aromas of peaches and apricots, and nice acidity. Excellent with our first course of a gazpacho with a langostine floating on top.

2006 Goillot - Bourgogne Aligote'

This is a light white wine from grapes grown in Burgundy. Due to the popularity of Chardonnay, very little Aligote' continues to be grown in the region. The wine has aromas of apples and lemon, and was served with broiled scallops.

2006 Cormòns - DOC Collio Merlot

This wine is from the Fruili area in Italy. It is 100% Merlot grapes. It was served with a course of baby lamb chops, couscous, and ratatouille.

NV Malvira "Birbet"

Made by a small producer, Azienda Agricola Malvira, in Piemonte in northern Italy, this is a sparkling red wine made from Brachetto grapes, ideal for sipping with certain dessert courses. In the glass, this wine is lightly carbonated with medium sized bubbles amidst a light red body tinged with brown. The bouquet of the wine is filled with aromas of tart blackberries, raisins, and lots of strawberries. In the mouth it is slightly effervescent. It was served with a dessert course consisting of a mold of chopped cantelope topped with a light vanilla ice cream.

2005 Domaine Joseph Drouhin - Rully

We ordered this wine with a light dinner of appetizers at La Pinox, the restaurant in the Renaissance Paris Vendome Hotel. Caren had oysters and a king crab roll (Vietnamese spring roll style) and I had escargot followed by seared ahi tuna. This wine is a luminous, golden green color, with a toasty, fruity nose, and an elegant body with floral and cinnamon notes. At the southern part of the Côte d'Or, a few miles South of Santenay, lie the vineyards of Rully. We are headed there in a few days and will visit the winery.

2005 Walter Hansel "Estate" Russian River Chardonnay

From the winery's website:

"Walter Hansel Winery is located in Sonoma County at the southern tip of the Russian River Valley near the Sebastopol hills. It is bordered to the north by the Santa Rosa Creek and to the west by a tributary of the Russian River known as the Laguna de Santa Rosa. This location is ideal for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as the nights and mornings are cooled by coastal fog yet the mid-days warm up to perfect grape ripening temperatures.

Walter Hansel was a lifelong wine enthusiast who had the vision to plant 250 vines in 1978. Stephen Hansel, Walter’s son, planted additional acres in the late 1980’s and began marketing wine in 1998. New vineyards and a new winemaking facility were added at the family’s estate in 1999."

We met Stephen in February when we called for an appointment at the winery during a trip to Sonoma. Down a dirt road, we found a small winery building, and out walked Stephen in business attire suitable for an office environment. You don't find guys like Stephen Hansel in the wine business very often. He owns several of the largest car dealerships in Sonoma, and wine is just his hobby.

He is a perfectionist, attending to every aspect of growing grape vines, harvesting, and producing wine. Even with all the high scores and press lately, his prices have remained incredibly low. Plus, he doesn't plan on raising his prices, or increasing production. All his wines come from grapes grown on his property.

The Wine Advocate - Robert Parker - 91 Points
The 2005 Chardonnay Estate’s tight, mineral-dominated perfume exhibits citrus-like notes intermixed with wet stone, subtle brioche, orange rind, and hazelnut aromas.

We drank this wine with a dinner of BBQ chicken, cole slaw, Caren's famous BBQ beans, and sliced melon. The wine was incredibly good.

Can't wait to compare it to White Burgundies from France. Hint - stay tuned for next week.

2005 Papapietro Perry Russian River Valley Zinfandel

So....here's the story. Caren's brother was in the same grade in high school with a girl (and Caren was in the same grade as her brother) who moved to San Francisco sometime in the 1970s for a job in the software industry. Caren recently ordered an alumni directory from her high school (why, I have no idea). In the directory, the girl who knew Caren's brother was listed as being one of the owners of a winery in Healdsburg, California. She is married to one of the founders of Papapietro Perry winery. We have been members of their wine club for a couple of years and visited the winery in April (before discovering the old connection). Small world!

This winery in the Dry Creek Valley area of Sonoma County specializes in Pinot Noir. They actually produce about nine different Pinot Noirs a year. They also produce a very good Zinfandel (tonight's wine).

The grapes for this Zinfandel come from three Russian River Valley vineyards; two of their Pinot producers, the Leras Family Vineyards located off Woolsey Road in Santa Rosa and the Elsbree Vineyards in Windsor, and Windsor Oaks vineyard in Windsor. They cold-soaked the grapes for three days and once the fermentation began they hand punched the grapes in open-top fermenters, a method not commonly used with Zinfandel. The wine was then aged for 17 months in Francois Frères oak barrels, just like their Pinot Noirs.

Deep garnet in color leading to an aromatic nose of delicate oak, cherry and white pepper. This is an elegant, full-bodied wine with pleasing complexity, with flavors of bright cherry, a hint of spice, and a delicate pepper finish.

We served the wine with a simple dinner of spaghetti and meatballs accompanied with a salad.

Sangria - Caren's Recipe

Last night, we had two other couples over for dinner and Caren whipped up her own version of sangria. Two bottles of Merlot, orange liqueur, sliced fruit, club soda, (perhaps a secret ingredient or two), and ice. It went well with Jordan's cooking:

Appetizers - hot jalepeno crab dip w/croutons, Caren's rosemary cashew nuts, Sherry's rumakis
Main course -BBQ steak, roasted corn niblets in chile lime butter and cracked pepper, salad
Dessert - Caren's Pavlova

2002 Baily Vineyard Temecula Valley Meritage

Made from Cabernet Sauvignon (58%), Cabernet Franc (32%) and Merlot (10%). Aged in French and American Oak cooperage for 35 months, this is a wine of elegance and finesse. I should have decanted it and let it breathe a bit before serving. It was much better after sitting awhile (and not because I was on my second glass).

Baily Vineyard is one of our regular stops when we visit the Temecula Valley area in southern Riverside County. This small wine area in Southern California isn't that well known or respected. Most of the wine produced by Baily (and the other two dozen or so wineries in the area) is sold directly at the winery or to their mailing list. It is rare to find it in a retail store.

Interesting that Baily does not use a cork to seal their bottles. They use a synthetic material called Nomacore that looks a lot like cork, but makes a much better seal to prevent any bottles from becoming tainted.

2002 Deerfield Ranch Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir

The nearly 40 year old Cohn Vineyard lies on a rocky slope above the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. The vineyard produces very low yields (that's good).

Deerfield Ranch is a small, family owned winery located in the town of Kenwood, just north of the city of Sonoma in the Sonoma Valley. PJ and Robert Rex founded this winery in the 1980s. Michael Browne of Kosta Browne wines is a consulting winemaker.

We visited the winery in February 2006 and tasted their wines with PJ while sitting at their dining room table and playing with their dog, Skywalker.

This wine is full flavored, berry aromas, soft tannins, low acidity, and a long finish. Most of the qualities you enjoy in a great California Pinot Noir. 360 cases produced.

We served this with grilled chicken and apple sausages, a pasta salad with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, and watermelon.

2006 Esterlina Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc

This winery is located on a ridge 1200' above the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. It is owned by the Sterling family who also own Everett Ridge Winery in the Dry Creek Road appellation of Sonoma County. This wine is full of bright citrus flavors, plenty of grapefruit, lime and lemon. With 100% stainless steel fermentation, it is a very refreshing, enjoyable bottle of wine. 385 cases produced.

We served it tonight with veal piccata, fettucine noodles, and green salad.