Wine Tasting By The Glass - Stonehorse Cafe

A restaurant with a strong wine program can provide the setting for a by the glass wine tasting, and potentially turn you onto your next go-to bottle. Recently at Stonehorse Cafe, three of us shared the following wines and observations.

Cultivar Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 - This was the unanimous favorite. Very dark and powerful, with spicy sweet finish, and requisite vanilla note. $28 (retail)

Coppo L'avvocata Barbera d'Asti 2012 - My top pick, but I'm a Barbera fan. Red fruits and a spicy effervescence. $14

Scarpetta Barbera del Monferrato 2012 - We all agreed on this for our bottle with lunch. Fruity, though darker, with earthiness. $16

Telmo Rodriguez LZ Vinedos de Lanziego Tempranillo 2011 - Jammy with smoke. Very pleasant and lengthy. Only one of us was a fan. $18

Recuerdo Malbec 2012 - Full of dark berries and currant, a little grassy. $16

Chateau La Hase Bordeaux Blend 2012 - Very mild, suffering against the bigger and fruitier opponents. It had no chance in this lineup. $14

Tasting several wines the glass can be an informative and fun social experience, and our impromptu session led us to a few bottles to seek out for the full experience. Take advantage of your dining out opportunities to experiment, and find the next big wine on your list. 

Wine Picks For Your "Thirst"

I recently tasted newly released wines in the portfolio of Thirst Wine Merchants. Here are my standout picks: 

1. Bodegas LAN Vina Lanciano Reserva 2007 - Spicy, chewy Spanish Tempranillo/Mazuelo blend. SRP $25
2. Sean Minor Point North Pinot Noir 2012 - I'm a big fan of their Carneros Pinots, and their Oregon offering is a winner! SRP $22
3. Hourglass Estate Sauvignon Blanc Estate Vineyard 2013 - Delicious, gravely with a mouthful of citrus. SRP $40
4. K Vintners Clifton Hill Syrah Wahluke Slope 2011 - Bold (of course) with smoked meats and spices, and it sticks around. SRP $40
5. Feraud-Brunel Cotes-du-Rhone Villages 2011 - Solid Cotes-du-Rhone, with tobacco spice and leather. SRP $18

Fearing's Restaurant, Dallas - Wine and Service Experience

The opening page of the wine list at Fearing's

Service is the factor that makes a restaurant experience stand out, for better or worse. With so many good choices of what and where to eat available, how you are made to feel throughout the dining event carries almost equal influence on your satisfaction as the meal itself. I will write about excellent service received around wine and fine dining events, beginning with Fearing's Restaurant in Dallas.

I was greeted promptly by my lead waiter, and I described my plans to have Dean's renowned Tortilla Soup and several wines by the glass. I expressed a desire to try Texas wines, and the Inwood Estates Tempranillo-Cabernet was suggested. Before I even considered asking, he offered to bring me a taste. The bottle was presented, and a generous taste was poured into the large Riedel glass. My waiter conversed about the wine while I finished the taste, which lasted several sips, before pouring  the full glass. He talked further about Texas wines, explaining that more and more are being produced. "Not at the level of California," he said, "but quality." The dark, spicy, and leathery Inwood Estates blend was just what I had hoped for, and complimented the tortilla soup nicely.

I was thinking about a lighter wine to follow the blend, and asked my waiter what he would try. He mentioned a Pinot Noir, paused briefly, then said, "Let me check in the wine cellar and see if we have anything open." I was intrigued. He returned with a new bottle of Pinot Noir and a previously opened bottle of Caymus Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet, 40th Anniversary 2012, both of which he poured "tastes" of in appropriate glasses. Then I was excited.

He explained that the Caymus had been open for two days, but that it was still good, and he was right. I noted that only the cork was used to close the bottle, no vacuum or synthetic plug, and that it had been climate controlled. After I was visibly impressed by the initial swallow, he emptied the remainder of the bottle in my glass, what I describe as a full pour-plus. He said, "Often people order wine and don’t finish it, so we save it but can’t drink it ourselves. So, we give it to you." The wine still had a lot going on, and was velvety, inky, and vibrant. This was a quality wine that had received skillful preservation.  

Next, it was time to taste the Elizabeth Rose Pinot Noir. It was lighter, as I had requested earlier, and refreshing with a subtle earthiness. This was a screw-top bottle, which I was impressed to see as a featured wine. I asked my waiter how he liked working with the huge selection of wines at Fearing's. He enthusiastically described how he gets to taste all the wines, "new ones, too", and how it was critical that he know the wines so that he could properly describe and recommend them. 

Afterward, I retired to the lounge area, and Wine Director Paul Botamer, whom I met earlier, arrived with a bottle of Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva 1983 dessert wine. Paul poured me a glass and told the story of the wine's thirty years of barrel aging. The wine was a delicious treat of dense smoke and chocolate. 

Overall service at Fearing's was outstanding. Four servers worked seamlessly to care for me, I enjoyed constant attention early, and then was allowed to enjoy the wines. I never had to look for a server, and all were conversational and knowledgeable. Their collective demeanor as they fluidly cared for a variety of patrons and party sizes put me at ease. I took note of reactions from other tables, and all appeared similarly satisfied. It felt superbly balanced.

The wine service was exciting to experience, and the standout aspects of the wine program were many. The glassware, and the generosity of pours into them. The presentation of bottles, even for wines by the glass. The openness about the philosophy behind the wine program, from staff training to handling leftover wine. Most of all, there was an eager willingness to satisfy my desired wine exploration. It was evident that Fearing's expects to deliver a memorable and satisfying wine journey.

Wine Picks from An Evening of Wine and Roses 2014

Many tasting notes will originate from my home base of Tulsa. Recently, I attended An Evening of Wine and Roses, under a sunny sky in the Tulsa Rose Garden. After tasting almost fifty wines, here are my favorite discoveries:

1. Poggio al Tesoro Sondraia Bolgheri 2011 (Premier Tasting) - Intense, delicious, and begging for beef.
2. Highway 12 Carneros Highway Pinot Noir 2012 - A lively Carneros.
3. Bodegas Faustino I Gran Riserva Rioja 2001 (Premier Tasting) - Earthy and rustic, with a multitude of awards.
4. Bodegas La Candalaria Cubo Tempranillo 2011 - Straightforward value pick.
5. Tempus Alba Malbec 2011 - Balance of spices and jams.

Honorable Mention to Black Sheep Finds Holus Bolus Syrah 2011 from the Premier Tasting, and its inky octopus label.

Among restaurants, Mahogany Prime Steakhouse was the winner, serving up their standard event dish, a medium-rare, thickly-shredded prime rib. Old School Bagels offered a tasty dessert treat with samples of several of their mountainous cookies.