A quick vegetarian rant!

First of all this has nothing to do about wine, so disregard the title of the blog for the next few minutes. :-)

I have been hearing good things about Karsens in Carytown, but unfortunately I couldn’t seem to find a menu online. Well yesterday the Times Dispatch did an article on Karsens and within the article posted the restaurants website. So I was all excited to see what entrees they had on their menu – for a Vegetarian.

And to my amazement (not really), and confusion another fine dining restaurant in Richmond has not one single Vegetarian entrée on the menu. Come on people, this is ridiculous and it totally baffles mine and Megan’s mind that any restaurant not to mention fancy ones don’t have ONE vegetarian option. I am not asking for 2, 3, or 4, just 1. And yes I know if you go there with other people, usually the chef can whip something up, but sometimes not.

This is not a stab at Karsens, just at fine dining establishments in general that commit the “crime” stated above. Their menu does in fact look delicious for someone who eats meat and fish.

I think that current statistics claim 15% of the population is vegetarian, that is a pretty good number of restaurants goers. So fine dining establishments here in Richmond and across the country listen up, I want to give you my money so get creative and give me a veggie entree option!!

Thank you for letting me rant! Ha ha!!

Friday Night Tasting at the Wine Cellar - 10.6.2007

Hello again everyone - here is the list of what Jeff will be serving up this Friday for his FREE tasting at the Wine Cellar.


1. GROTH SAUVIGNON BLANC 2006 $20.45
2. AQUINAS PINOT NOIR 2006 $11.95
3. ROBERT MONDAVI PINOT NOIR 2006 $12.45
4. FRANCIS COPPOLA CLARET 2005 (CABERNET) $19.45
5. VILLA MT EDEN GRAND RESERVE CABERNET 2004 $14.45

See you all there!

5-8pm this Friday Oct. 6th

October is Virginia Wine Month

So with grape harvest in Virginia wrapping up, there are many winery open houses and festivals to help you celebrate the fact that October is Virginia Wine Month.

Click the link to the Virginia Tourism site to check out a complete list of what is going on this month around the state.

A small plug to the family winery right here in Richmond (well Midlothian is close enough) Woodland Vineyard. We are having a open house on Saturday October 13th from 12:00 to 5:00. Click HERE for more info! Also Woodland Vineyard is going to be participating in Powhatan Festival of the Grape this year so come check us out as well as all of the other participating wineries.

Friday Night Tasting at the Wine Cellar

Check out tonights wines that the Wine Cellar will be serving up. September 28th


1. BARNARD GRIFFIN FUME BLANC $11.95
2. BARNARD GRIFFIN CHARDONNAY $14.95
3. HOGUE CHENIN BLANC $12.45
4. BARNARD GRIFFIN CABERNET SAUVIGNON $19.95
5. BARNARD GRIFFIN MERLOT $19.95

Tonights wines are all from the Columbia Valley in Washington State.


See you tonight 5-8, and FREE as always!

Friday Night Dinner at Pasta Luna

This past Friday Megan and I ate at Pasta Luna on Southside for dinner. It had been over a year since we had been back due the last time being a horrible dining experience from the service that was horrible to the rigatoni that tasted like it had a pound of salt on it.

We recieved a coupon in the mail that offered a free entree and let us know about a new menu for fall. We figured that was enough to give them another shot. We were wrong.

Well that is a little harsh, our service was a lot better and for being as young as she was our waitress Cecilia was very good, a welcome change. We ordered a bottle of Rufino Aziano Chianti Classico Frescobaldi for $36 which was very nice. The wine had good cherry fruit aroma, tobacco, leather and blackberry flavor on the finish. A comment on their wine list, it has been shortened since the last time we were there and is now way overpriced with limited selection.

We ordered the Insalata Gorgonzola to start which was pretty good, but they could've used a lot less dressing in our opinion. For the entrees I ordered a porcini mushroom stuffed gnocchi with a roasted walnut cream sauce. The entree is supposed to come with a lobster cream sauce but since we are vegetarian I switched it up. The sauce worked out well and the gnocchi which was okay but slightly bland, with the porcini filling deserving better seasoning. Megan ordered the asparagus and tomato tortellini with brown butter sage sauce. On sight the butter sauce looked closer to my cream sauce than anything else, and upon tasting it there was no real evidence of sage and it was way to creamy for our taste. The tortellini itself was definitely premade, which they do say on the menu that it is imported from the finest italian chef, Bertolli for $3.99 tastes better. The most odd part of Megan's meal was the fact that it had nothing in it that resembeled asparagus or tomato and in fact it tasted like sweet potato. We let our waitress know this and aksed if there was another tortellini that we may have gotten by mistake. In fact that is the only tortellini on the menu and that she had had it before and thought it did taste like sweet potato or pumpkin. She did apologize for the dish not being what we expected.

For dessert we had the Tiramisu which was actually really good, as well as ordered 2 cups of coffee that took a while to come out. When the coffee arrived it was definitely burnt, a nice carmalized, cooked on the bottom of the pot taste, very dissapointing.

When we got home we checked the menu on the website to see if they had another toretllini that the waitress didn't know about. In fact they have a pumpkin tortellini with butter sage sauce but not the pasta that Megan ordered with apsaragus. GO FIGURE!! If they are going to update the menu, make sure the kitchen knows about it.

After this "great" review and our experiences in the past I really wonder how they keep being rated the best Italian in all of Richmond, which they proudly display on a sign outside of the restaurant. Is it the location on Broad street that is winning all of the awards? There are quite a few Italian restaurants in Richmond both casual and fine dining that blow away Pasta Luna on flavor of the pasta dishes. Now we are vegetarians and don't eat the meat or seafood dishes, so maybe that is where there excellence lies.

Overall our dining experience was fine but the meal coming in at $72 with our free entree before tip wasn't worth it.

Those of you that have a great experience, enough to garner it the best Italian in Richmond, please post your comments.

Nutritional Labeling on Wine Bottles

How many people do or don’t want to see how many calories are in a glass of wine? Did you know that if a wine is less than 14% alcohol wines don’t need to list the specific percentage level, and that they need only label it with “Table Wine”? Do you think wineries should be forced to put the above on their bottles, or you really don’t care?

Thanks to an article in Wines and Vines News entitled “Time to Comment on New Label Rules” I was reminded that this is a current issue in wine legislation. And good news the deadline to comment on the issue has been extended 90 days. YAY!

From the article:

"The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is extending the deadline to
January 27th 2008, for public comments on notice No. 73 about these additional labeling and related advertising rules.”

There is a link on the bottom of the article at Wines and Vines to comment electronically so please do so if you have issues or suggestions around this legislation.

Honestly with wine and beer for that matter I don’t think or care about the calories that I am consuming. That is a big departure for me since when I buy food at the grocery store I am very conscious of labels, one because I am nutrition freak and two because I am a vegetarian. You would be surprised at how many things processed chicken parts can slip its way into. :)

I guess with wine, I feel as if it is an indulgent experience so I don’t want to be reminded that I am consuming X amount of calories. That goes for cheese and peanut butter cookies too. Haha

Friday Night Wine Tasting

At The Wine Cellar 9.21.07

This weeks Friday night FREE wine taste will include the following wines from France


1. CHATEAU LA GRASIDE WHITE BORDEAUX $13.65
2. ROUZ PERE & FILS SAINT-VERAN WHITE BURGUNDY $16.95 (DRY, CRISP CHARDONNAY)
3. ROUX PERE & FILS PINOT NOIR RED BURGUNDY $13.95
4. RPUX PERE & FILS COTE DE BEAUNE VILLAGES $21.95 (VERY GOOD RED BURGUNDY - PINOT NOIR)
5. CHATEAU LABOSCQ MEDOC, RED BORDEAUX $15.95 ( CABERNET, MERLOT, CAB FRANC & PETIT VERDOT)

See you all there 5-8.

Friday night tasting at the Wine Cellar this Friday September 14th.

This Friday Jeff is offering up some BIG REDS from California.


1. TEN MILE BROKEN ROAD RED $12.95
2. TWENTY BENCH NAPA CABERNET $20.95
3. PARCEL 41 NAPA MERLOT $20.95
4. HULLABALOO NAPA ZINFANDEL $20.95
5. REGUSCI STAGS LEAP DISTRICT CABERNET $49.95

FREE AS ALWAYS FROM 5-8pm.

See you there!

SPECIAL FREE TASTING AT THE WINE CELLAR

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2007, 5 - 7 PM COME MEET
MITCHELL TAYLOR, WINEMAKER FOR WAKEFIELD WINERY
FROM THE CLARE VALLEY, AUSTRALIA.


WAKEFIELD PROMISE LAND UNOAKED CHARDONNAY
WAKEFIELD ESTATE SHIRAZ
WAKEFIELD ESTATE CABERNET
WAKEFIELD ESTATE DRY RIESLING
WAKEFIELS ESTATE OAKED CHARDONNAY
WAKEFIELD ST. ANDREWS CABERNET


THESE WINES ARE JUST BEING INTRODUCED TO VIRGINIA!
PLEASE STOP BY AND MEET MITCHELL, AND TASTE HIS WINES.


5 - 7 PM AND FREE AS ALWAYS!

More Wine Tasting in the Piedmont Region of Northern Italy

Our second and final winery (cantina) that we visited was Rizzi in the Barberesco zone in the small town of Treiso, north of Alba. This was about a 15 minute drive from where our bed and breakfast was that you saw in the previous post about our Italy trip.

Again we had the great opportunity to tour and taste with the winemaker himself and get great in depth, first hand knowledge of how the wines were crafted.

We started our experience at Rizzi with a tour through the vineyards on property surrounding the winery. Ernrico (yes the young winemaker at Rivetto was also Enrico) pointed out to us the varying crus that Rizzi owns that you could see from where we were standing, and vineyards within those crus, from which would be tasting the wines. Check out the picture below that outlines their different Crus which are all in Treiso.

Since Rizzi is in the Barberesco zone that is the primary wine they produce which is from the Nebbiolo grape as was the Barolo. In addition they produce Dolcetto, Chardonnay (which is not typical for the region), Barbera, and Mosacato (or Muscat).

So what did we taste –
These first 3 wines we tasted with Enrico in the bottling room overlooking the vineyards.

Chardonnay 2006 – very nice Chardonnay. (All stainless, no oak) apple, pear, stone, wheat, and a slight tropical aroma. They did an outstanding job on a varietal not typical for the Langhe region.

Dolcetto D’ Alba 2005 – we thought it was slightly tannic for a Dolcetto, but still quite smooth, with flavors and aromas of raspberry and cherry. Good structure.

Barbera D’ Alba 2005 – Lush, very similar to the Dolcetta, more full bodied, chocolate/espresso flavor on the finish. MMM

These next 6 wines we tasted in the barrel/cask room. As you will see from the pictures, the primary aging (12 months) is done in huge Slovenian Oak Casks while the secondary aging for another 12 months is done in large cement tanks with ceramic linings. We tasted 2 vintages (2006 and 2005) of Barberesco from the 3 different Crus/Vineyards. We tasted them vertically by vineyard. Before the notes, let me say this was an awesome experience…drinking with the winemaker, out of the casks, tasting developing vintages and being able to see the progression….simply awesome. After we tasted these two vintages from the 3 Crus, we tasted the currently bottled 2004 from the Pajore Cru/ Suran Vineyard

Here are the notes

Nervo Cru – Fondetta Vineyard
2006 – not much on the nose, very tannic, but blueberry flavor on the palate
2005 – huge difference from the 2006, blueberry again, chocolate bar, dirt aroma, this would be really nice to bottle now, smoothing out well!!

Rizzi Cru – Bricco Boito Vineyard
2006 – very tannic, tight blackberry aroma/flavor, slight coffee nose,
2005 – more earthy, real dark fruit coming thorough a lot more, cocoa on the mid palate opened up a lot compared to the 2006, GOOD!! Nice Long finish

Pajore Cru – Suran Vineyard
2006 – real young, more fruity than the Bricco Vineyards, leather aroma, tobacco flavors, too tannic
2005 – smoothing out, still get the tobacco flavor, nice black cherry pie with a slightly burnt crust aroma – good finish, nice wine.

This is the giant cement aging vessel

Bottled Pajore – Suran Barberesco 2004 – WOW! Soft and supple texture in the mouth, full bodied overripe strawberry aroma mixed with hay, currant preserve flavor, nice structure. We are taking this home!! MMMMM

As a special treat to us, Enrico allowed us to taste one of Rizzi's dessert wines, the Frimaio Vendemmia Tardiva. This is a late harvest Moscasto (Muscat) with about 8% Residual Sugar, definitely a sipper! One of hte most extraordinary things about the wine is the label, the graphic on each label is hand painted by Enrico himself, so each bottle is different. How aweseome is that!

Frimaio Tasting Notes: apricot, floral, and canned peaches on the nose, similar flavors on the palate, full bodied in the mouth but not cloying, flavor lasts a long time after the wine has left the mouth. THis would be fantastic with some really strong cheese.

Two of Enrico's hand painted Frimaio bottles

Well needless to say all the wines were awesome, but we couldn't leave with everything. We decided to buy 2 of the Chardonnay which were really good, and so inexpensive, about $8 US dollars. We also bought two of the 2004 Pajore Barberesco and two of the Frimaio dessert wine.

Definitely give Rizzi a try, you can find their Barberesco here in the states...currently that is the only wine they export. And if you happen to be in the Piedmont region of Italy give them a visit.

Friday September 7th FREE wine tasting at the Wine Cellar in Midlothian

This week Jeff and his crew at the Wine Cellar will be tasting some great wines from Washington State.
I am excited about the Northstar Merlot, we have a bottle at home in the cellar that I got for a gift that I have been chomping at the bit to try.


1. 14 HANDS CHARDONNAY 2004 11.45
2. CHATEAU STE. MICHELLE HORSE HEAVEN VINEYARD SAUVIGNON BLANC 2005 $16.55
3. CHATEAU STE. MICHELLE INDIAN WELLS CABERNET SAUVIGNON, COLUMBIA VALLEY $19.45
4. NORTHSTAR MERLOT 2002 COLUMBIA VALLEY $34.95 (SPECIAL PRICE REDUCTION FROM $50.95)
5. CHATEAU STE. MICHELLE INDIAN WELLS RIESLING 2005 COLUMBIA VALLEY $17.25

Tonight from 5-8, see ya there!

Friday August 31st Tasting at the Wine Cellar


Here are this weeks wines that will be tasted....for FREE. Unfortunately I will not be there this week. Don't feel sorry for me, I will be at the beach.


1. RANSOM DRY RIESLING WILLAMETTE VALLEY $18.45
2. MONTINORE PINOT GRIS WILLAMETTE VALLEY $15.45
3. FORIS PINOT NOIR ROGUE VALLEY $17.95
4. MONTINORE PINOT NOIR WILLAMETTE VALLEY $20.95
5. PANTHER CREEK PINOT NOIR WINEMAKER'S CUVEE WILLAMETTE VALLEY $28.45


I know I promised the second part of our Italian wine tasting about a month ago, look for it soon I promise, plus a trip to some Central Virginia wineries and more updates to my CORKD tasting notes.

Free Friday Night Wine Tasting at The Wine Cellar

This Friday, 8.10.07

1. LYETH CHARDONNAY SONOMA, CAL.$11.75
2. LYETH SAUVIGNON BLANC SONOMA, CAL. $11.75
3. LYETH MERLOT SONOMA, CAL. $11.74
4. JADE MOUNTAIN MOURVEDRE CONTRA COSTA COUNTY $15.95
5. LYETH MERITAGE SONOMA , CAL. $16.96


Friday from 5:00 - 8:00pm

See ya there.

Tasting Wine in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy

In late June, Megan and I went to northern Italy for her sister's wedding in Valenza, and we could not pass up a chance to do some wine tasting while we were there! We stayed at a bed and breakfast in the small town of Sinio which is right in the heart of the Barolo wine region aptly named Hotel Castello di Sinio. It was fantastic and beautiful as you can see from the picture. One of the proprietors is a chef and she is a fantastic one at that. Our first night there we had an amazing dinner on sight, with a great wine from the winery that we were going to visit the next day, with vineyards that we could see from our dinner table.

Hotel Castello Di Sinio

Just a quick mention of wine tasting in northern Italy. It is slightly different than we are used to here in Virginia and California and so on. Wine tastings are done by appointment only but are very welcome. It is usually done with the winemaker and lasts for over an hour closer to 2, and include touring the winery and vineyard and a fabulous private tasting.

The next morning we made the “long” ten minute drive across the way to our 1st of 2 wineries that we would visit in Piemonte. Rivetto is located in the Barolo wine region of the Piemonte in Northern Italy. The major grape there is Nebbiolo, also grown are Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis, Moscato to name a few.

Our wine guide through Rivetto was Enrico, one of 2 brothers that currently run winery operations. He started our tour in the vineyard (see pics below), showing us all 90 acres and pointing out each individual lot and what grape variety we were looking at.

(Top photo)Vineyards at Rivetto

(Bottom photo) Dolcetto vines at Rivetto with the town of Seralunga in the distance

Next we headed into the winery, which as you would imagine looks like other wineries you may have visited. One slight difference is that in Piemonte they tend to use large casks in addition to the smaller 60 gallon oak barrels (barriques) that in the US we are used to seeing. In this case, the casks are made of Slovenian oak (see below) which do not impose a huge oak flavor on the wine, they are a more neutral oak, similar to French Oak that has been used for several vintages. They impart the softening characteristics that barrel aging provides but not the wood notes.

Now onto the wine….

The wine tasting was done in the “tasting room” which was really more of a dining room, similar to the tasting room at Caymus for those that have been. Enrico opened 4 bottles for us to try, after a quick rinse of the glass we were on our way. Now, also, these weren’t your normal tasting room ½ ounce tastes, these were good 2+ ounce tastings so that you could really get some wine in your mouth and swirl it around.

Wines Tasted

2005 Dolcetto d’ Alba – very nice, easy drinking red wine with bright raspberry on the nose with a soft cherry finish.

2004 Barbera – (60 year old vines) 1 yr. in bottle – extremely smooth, raspberry, vanilla, strawberry and plum.

2003 Barberesco (I know you are thinking…he said they were in Barolo how can they make Barberesco…they have Nebbiolo vineyards in the Barberesco zone) – strawberry, dirt and earth, anise on the mid palate, long finish. MMMM

2003 Barolo “Leon” – (the Leon is the vineyard designate) – Blackberry, earth, huge tannins, long blueberry finish. This thing rocked!!

Enrico getting our wines ready to taste

Megan tasting some Barberesco..yummy!

The wines were all outstanding, not a bad one in the bunch that is for sure. I am definitely becoming a huge fan of Piemonte wines.

All of this was free, the whole experience lasted about 1 ½ hours, we left with 2 bottles of the Barolo “Leon” and 1 bottle of the Dolcetto. We would have bought more because they were an absolute steal compared to the price that we pay for good Barolos here, but we didn’t have enough room in our bags. The experience was fantastic, very personal, excellent wine, we weren’t rushed and it was Megan and I with the winemaker, free to ask all the questions we wanted to with plenty of time to day dream about having a winery of our own in Piemonte…..

Check back soon for winery number 2 on the trip-- Rizzi from Barberesco!

2007 California Wine Harvest

As if we need another reason to drink California wine, it looks like it is going to be an aweomse vintage.

Check out this article
Napa Grape Growers Predict "Exquisite" 2007 Harvest

Free Friday Night Wine Tasting at The Wine Cellar


THIS FRIDAY NIGHTS WINES ARE FROM d'ARENBERG FROM THE McCLAREN VALE REGION OF AUSTRALIA.

HERE IS THE LIST:


1. THE STUMP JUMP WHITE 2006 $11.95
2. THE OLIVE GROVE CHARDONNAY 2005 $18.45
3. THE STUMP JUMP RED 2005 $11.95
4. dARRY'S ORIGINAL SHIRAZ/GRENACHE 2004 $20.45
5. THE FOOTBOLT SHIRAZ 2004 $20.45

TONIGHT FROM 5:00-8:00PM

SEE YA THERE!

Wine Library TV

I am a huge Wine Library TV fan for those of you that don't know, and an even bigger fan of the "movement" that Gary Vaynerchuk and his band of loyal Vayniacs (me included) are involved with. Changing the wine world...that is right. Check it out to see what we mean.

But the main reason that I am writing today is because Gary was on the Conan O'Brian Show Last night, and was freakin' hilarious. Check it out here... Gary on Conan.

Check out his show, it will enlighten you on the way wine can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone. Plus it is just damn funny.

Friday Night Wines at the Wine Cellar


Don't miss this weeks (or any weeks) free Friday night wine tastings. Here is this weeks list.

1. FERRARI-CARANO PINOT GRIGIO 2006 CAL. $21.45
2. GAINEY SAUVIGNON BLANC 2005 CAL. $10.95
3. FOLIE A DEUX MENAGE A TROIS ROSE 2005 $12.45
4. ARNOLD PALMER CABERNET SAUVIGNON CAL. $12.95
5. VALLEY OF THE MOON ZINFANDEL 2005 CAL. $15.45


Also.....MOLLY DOOKER WINES JUST ARRIVED FROM AUSTRALIA!
MATR "D", THE BOXER, 2 LEFT FEET, THE SCOOTER MERLOT,
AND BLUE EYED BOY SHIRAZ.

Hope to see you all there.

CORK'D Wine Reviews

Don't forget to check out the constantly updated list of wine reviews from my daily drinks on the right side of the blog from Corkd.com. I am not always quick to update my corkd account but I have been dumping in a bunch of tasting notes so check it out if you want.


Coming soon....review of 2 wineries in the Piemonte region of Italy. One in Barolo zone and one in the Barberesco zone.

Friday Night Tasting at the Wine Cellar


Hi Everyone:
Here is a list of what will up for tasting this Friday for FREE at the Wine Cellar in Midlothian

1. CANELLA PROSECCO DI CONEGLIANO $16.45
2. A-MANO FIANO - GRECO 2006 $11.45
3. TOSCOLO CHIANTI 2005 $12.45 NICE & LIGHT
4. SANTA ANASTSIA PASSOMAGGIO $REG $24.95 NOW $18.95
5. A-MANO PRIMITIVO 2003 $11.65 (ZINFANDEL?)

See ya there!