Vino Girl is moving!

Vino Girl and Winemonkey have joined forces in one big blog about wine! We have picked up and moved to -- Drink The Good Stuff!

The new web address is drinkthegoodstuff.blogspot.com

Visit our new home for wine news, wine recommendations, raves and rants as well as information about our upcoming website, The Bon Vivant Wine Guide. You will also find all of this site's content on the new site (with labels) so you don't have to go searching in two places.

Change those bookmarks and come on over and join the fun - Cheers!

Shaken, Not Stirred

I will warn you right now that this post has nothing to do with wine -- unless you count the fact that the whole experience made me long for a comforting glass (or bottle, or two...) of red wine on steady ground. If you have been following my blog at all you may recall that I was in Hawaii this past week for my brother's wedding, with a little R&R to follow. Yesterday was to be our last day on the Big Island of Hawaii and what a day it turned out to be! Apparently even Paradise doesn't come cheap these days.

It was just after 7am and I was awake (it's tough to sleep past 7am when your body knows it is 1pm at home) but struggling to get some more shut-eye. All of a sudden I heard a large boom and the building began to shake. Wake up call! Thinking that it must be an explosion, I lurched up in bed and peered out the sliding glass doors to see what I could see. Nothing. It was all very surreal. The next thing I (vaguely) remember is my husband screaming "it's an earthquake!” Should I crouch on the floor (I think I did) or is that for a hurricane, or a fire? All rational thought had left me.

"In the doorway", my husband yelled and grabbed hold of me. We made our way over to the bathroom doorway where it seemed we were both holding on to the door frame for dear life. The hotel was literally being shaken roughly -- back and forth, back and forth -- in a very jagged and violent motion. We were both breathing hard as if we had just sprinted in from the rain. It felt as if the rocking was going to go on forever. In reality, the quake lasted less than a minute. When the motion and the racket subsided, we looked around and saw that the television had catapulted out of the TV stand, the drawers were all flung open and our toiletries had been tossed off the bathroom countertop. Conspicuously, a large bowl that sat atop the TV stand had not moved an inch. Apparently we had just experienced a 6.7 magnitude earth quake.

It was difficult to know what to do once the quake had abated. We went outside as my parents were in the room next door. They were out there too, wondering what to do. Our plan was to get dressed quickly (in an act of absurdity we all put our bathing suits on) and head outside. No sooner had we made the decision than the building started to jerk back and forth once again. Now we were all grabbing our outer door frames. Not again! My mother screamed “I am getting out of here!” -- a call to action of sorts. When the aftershock (5.8 in magnitude) passed and we were all safely out on the lawn and on higher ground we all had a good laugh over the “every man for himself” nature of her proclamation.

The hotel, the Hapuna Prince, did a good job of getting guests out to a safe place on the property. Although there was not much communication about what was going on, they did provide plenty of water and, eventually, food, for everyone. Stories were shared and there was some camaraderie over the fact that we were right smack dab at the epicenter of the quake and no one was injured. There were a few more small aftershocks that we could feel and, although people were certainly rattled, the aftermath was relatively calm and panic free. Humor is always welcome in these situations and at one point an old man sauntered by and exclaimed, almost to himself, “I wouldn’t sit under any coconut trees, I'll tell you that.” Hmmm, good advice. Forget the wine, bring me a martini!

Jury Out on Rolland

I was just reading the article that appeared in the NYTimes yesterday about Michel Rolland. I will assume if you are reading this blog that you have heard of him. You probably also know that he is the most famous wine consultant in the world with some 100 clients spread out around the globe. I did see 'Mondovino', the movie that portrayed him as a pompous blowhard who spends a total of 5 minutes with each of his winery clients, pronouncing "micro-oxygenation" as the answer to every problem. Knowing that cameras and editing can make anyone look obnoxious, however, I have tried to keep an open mind about Rolland.

In the Times article, written by Eric Asimov, Rolland espouses that a wine's character comes from the grapes, a statement that is difficult to disagree with. He denies that he, along with industry bigs such as Robert Parker and Wine Spectator, are homogenizing wine but will concede that he prefers (and if he does then everyone must) a bigger, riper, more "modern" style. Rolland is proud that he helps his clients make wines that can be drunk younger and crosses swords with Broadbent and other English critics in general by pointing out that they are used to drinking older wine like "old people always looking back to the old days."

As much as Mr. Rolland says he is not trying to make wines that taste the same, it can be difficult to believe. There is that sense that wine is being stripped of its terroir and individuality to please modern palates. Are we getting that sense from the wine we drink, from the media? It's hard to say. As much as part of me wants to see Rolland as ‘Satan versus Savior’, I look at a partial list of his clients and can't help but be impressed: Chateau Angelus, Ornellaia, Araujo, and the list goes on and on. Moreover, winemakers I have a lot of respect for, such as Andy Erickson, can't say enough nice things about Rolland and his work.

On the other hand, the wine monkey and I attended a tasting of Chateau Ausone recently and you could literally tell when Rolland's influence came to fruition in the wines. Notes on the Rolland vintages included more terms like "ripe fruit", "friendly", "rich" and so on. He changed the Ausone style, of that I am sure.

He also talks a lot about ratings and making no "loser" wines. He seems indirectly to be referring to Corison as one of the "loser wines" that do not do well in the marketplace. That I simply cannot agree with. Cathy Corison's wine are beautiful and balanced, if not terribly fruit-forward, with a consistency that you only find from the best winemakers. As far as Corison not being successful in the marketplace I haven't seen the numbers but I have seen the wines on plenty of well-heeled wine lists around town.

So, the jury is still out for me in regards to Mr. Rolland, making Asimov's question of "Satan or Savior" more of an ongoing query. I guess all we can do is monitor the wines over which he has an influence and see what becomes of it all down the road. All I can say is, he must be doing something right at the going rate of $30,000+ for about 4 visits a year. Sign me up!

Considering Your Audience

My brother was married yesterday to a lovely woman at a beautiful resort in Honolulu. Everything about the day was just perfect, really. After the ceremony we had dinner at a restaurant called La Mer at the Halekulani hotel. The service and food at La Mer were exceptional. In case you are wondering what any of this has to do with wine, I am getting to that — I promise.

Wine was not pre-ordered with the dinner as it was not a foregone conclusion that the wedding guests (all 9 of us!) would actually want wine with dinner. My brother’s now-wife is Japanese and most of her family was in the United States for the first time for the wedding. Although there is big business for Bordeaux and other ultra premium wines in Japan, it is not an integral part of their culture at dinner time, even when compared to the U.S.

My brother seemed very surprised when he asked everyone at the table what they would like to drink and the choice was unanimous – red wine. I saw the sweat slowly creeping across his brow as he looked over the list and so I quietly asked him if he would like some help. The wine list came at me quicker that the waves on Waikiki beach and I knew the decision was now in my hands.

There are not many times when I am at a loss with a wine list but this was surely one of them. The list was pricey and full of big powerhouse reds from the Napa Valley, Bordeaux and Priorat. Thankfully for me, the extremely accommodating host at La Mer, himself Taiwanese, discreetly counseled me on the typical Japanese preference for lighter, fruiter reds (I would have asked my new extended family myself but my Japanese language skills are, well, nonexistent.) The maître d' explained to me that there are so many Japanese tourists in Honolulu that he by now knew which bottles generally were sent back and which bottles produced smiles around the table.

With his help I was able to pick a winner in a fruity, delicious Zinfandel that acted more like a Pinot Noir with a little muscle. Everyone seemed pleased and, at the very least, the wine accommodated our bowing and “Kampai!” and loosely translated toasts around the table.

In the end, I am once again reminded that it is best to carefully consider peoples tastes and not have a “my way or the highway” attitude when it comes to wine. And, besides, Fumiko and David were for certain the focus of the evening, the wine playing its small but vital part in the celebration. Omedetoh Fumiko & David DiDomizio!

Is Canada More Than Just Ice Wine?

I was out to dinner fairly recently with a Brit friend who has been living in Canada and getting ready to move back to the U.S. As the conversation moved to wine he mentioned that he was very impressed with Canadian wine to which I replied, “ice wine, right, good stuff.” He rolled his eyes at me and explained that he meant dry wines — wines from British Columbia in fact. Then it was me who was rolling my eyes. Who had ever heard of a good dry wine from our neighbor up north?

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find Canadian wines for sale here in the U.S. aside from the occasional ice wine. Having never tried a dry Canadian wine, I did some research and found that most of the dry wines are consumed by Canadians themselves. There has not been a big marketing push here, although there is a small U.S. market in the Border States. According to various reports, Canada’s wine industry is on the rise and a lot of experimentation is taking place to see what will grow best and which grapes will eventually dominate.

Perhaps the problem is one of perception versus reality. When most of us think of Canada we think of ice hockey, the Mackenzie brothers, frigid weather and long winters. Ice wine seems a natural fit but varietals that we know to grow in sunny locations such as Napa Valley seem far from realistic. In truth, both Ontario and British Columbia are protected by water masses that help to moderate the cold winters. The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia has a distinctly mild microclimate particularly well suited to growing grapes. Apparently Bordeaux varietals are thriving in Okanagan Valley, particularly the “right bank” varietals Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

I am in no way predicting that this is going to be the “next big thing” but my interest is peaked. This is exactly the reason I find wine so fascinating — there is always something new and exciting around the corner. So, do me a favor. If you see a dry Canadian wine on your retail shelf, pick it up and give it a try. I’ll do the same. Who knows, we might like it, aye?!

Aloha Means Hello

Vino Girl will be hula-ing over to Hawaii next week and, although I have nothing against a nice Mai Tai by the pool, I thought I would check in to the wine situation in the aloha state. I don't know about you, but I always like to know what I am up against wine-wise when I travel.

First I hit up Wine Spectator's Restaurant Awards List (not that I buy into that whole thing 100% but that is for another post) to see if any Hawaiian restaurants even showed up. My quick check returned 36 'awards' restaurants in Hawaii versus 322 in New York and 486 in California. Okay, I can live with that. Since Oahu is my first stop I dug a little deeper there. Generally speaking, the wine lists in Oahu focus on California wine and run about 200 - 300 deep as far as individual selections. Bring me an umbrella for my Riedel people!

Many of the restaurants do not showcase their wine lists online so when I was able to find one that did, I took a closer look. Hiroshi, a "meat & seafood grilling" restaurant in Honolulu received the award of excellence and boasts over 200 selections. The first thing I spotted was a 1996 Dom Perignon which, while not a daring selection, is priced at right around the restaurant average. The white wine list features some notable names such as Araujo and Kistler and red highlights include DRC La Tache (which seems to be a ridiculous steal at $550), Arietta, Turley, Ramey, Diamond Creek, Dunn, Stag's Leap Cask 23, Harlan, Spottswoode and three of the five Bordeaux first growths. A quick visit to winesearcher.com verifies that they are not robbing you blind with the prices either.

I am relieved to say that I won't have to settle for pineapple wine, or "Maui blanc" as it is commonly called, while visiting the 50th state. And if you think I don't already have my table reserved at Hiroshi then, well, you don't know Vino Girl.

Restaurant recommendations welcome. Mahalo.

Taste & Take Away in NYC

If you live in New York City you know that wine bars seem to be popping up faster than you can hail a cab these days. The concept of an authentic wine bar first entered my wine loving conscious in Italy. I can still remember sitting in an unassuming little wine bar just across the Arno in Florence called L'Volpe eL'Uva. It was perfect. Just a counter and some stools, a simple selection of bruschetta, cured meats and cheeses, and a great selection of wines, all of which were also for sale to take away. Besides the fact that the setting was ultra relaxed and the owners exceedingly friendly and helpful, the place was unique in that if you liked what you tasted, you could walk out the door with it (well, after you paid for it) and drink it with dinner. Perfetto!

While the ‘wine for sale off-premise’ concept is a bit more difficult to get around in NYC wine bars (damn blue laws) there are two new wine bars that have taken the notion and run with it.

VinoVino
This relatively new wine bar in Tribeca has two distinct entrances (the requirement for wine bars/retail stores in NY) but the place looks like one big space, a glass wall the only thing dividing the bar from the shop. VinoVino's decor is relaxed but fashionable with lots of dark wood and candles. The bar carries a decent selection of wines from various regions, mostly from lesser known producers. Choices include 10-15 selections each of dry whites and reds available by the glass or bottle, as well as a smattering of sparkling and dessert wines, sake and beer. The fact that the wines come from various regions and not just Italy is a plus to me mainly because most of the wine bars that get it right in NYC are Italian and, well, sometimes you just want some alternatives. The menu is simple -- cheeses, cured meats and pates -- and the simpler the better I say. All in all VinoVino is a great place to meet up with friends for a libation and a snack.

(Note: VinoVino also features jazz and tastings during the week but best to check out the calendar on their website and not subscribe to their e-mail newsletter until they tone it down and you can actually read beyond the design madness.)

CentoVini
CentoVini opened even more recently near the shopping madness that is Soho. The bar also has an annexed retail shop with a separate entrance. Although the wine is all Italian and the menu a little more involved, the wine selection is bigger and the food is genuinely Italian influenced. The décor is fashionably funky, as you might expect knowing that this is a joint venture between the owners of Moss design shop and I Trulli restaurant. A welcome addition to the neighborhood, Cento Vini is a comforting place to escape the insanity of Broadway during the day or to settle in after the tourists have left and enjoy a full bottle and a light dinner.