Italy's DoctorWine Makes a Santa Barbara House Call

It might seem much to call oneself DoctorWine*, but that's what Daniele Cernilli does. It's not just because his autograph looks like an EKG printout. It is because he's written this two-pound tome of a soft cover book (I weighed it--that's what kitchen scales are for, right?), The Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine 2017, that's got more snapshot knowledge of one country's vinified output than it would seem possible to hold. We're talking facts and Facebook pages, ratings and reviews (that is quantitative and qualitative takes), head notes that establish context, cultivation, regional differences. It's a trip to Italy without an airline beating you up.

Even better, Cernilli brought a host of Italian winemakers to California last week, and in addition to visiting LA and SF, they came to little old SB too (it's good to have wine country). Les Marchands hosted a lunch for press to meet the Italians (it's good to be press). He began by saying, "My English is very far to be perfect," and I knew exactly what he meant.

His sense of what's delicious night be perfect, though, as we got to enjoy:

Pinot Grigio Colli Orientale del Friuli DOC 2016 from Torre Rosazza

Not "mother-in-law" pinot grigio, if you know what I mean, this has some body and a bit of acid bite with lovely floral and pear notes. A fine pour alongside salad.

Chianti Classico DOCG 2013 from Querciabella

The good Doctor pointed out how this wine had "more acid, more elegance than other sangiovese" from Tuscany. It still seemed a bit tannic to me at just 4 years old, at lunch, paired with summer corn chowder with cherry tomatoes, bitsy fingerling potato, equally teensy lardon, and chipotle creme fraiche. As Cernilli pointed out, it's a classic with a "t-bone, rare of course."

Saia Nero d'Avola Sicilia DOC 2014 from Feudo Maccari

This Sicilian wine, from near Siracuse where some refreshing winds blow out from the Greek isles, evidently, was one of my favorites (the Doctor gave it a 95). Rich, full, velvety tannins, plus what he aptly pointed out was a note of capers (think a bit vegetal but with a sense of place and purpose).

Asinone Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG 2012 from Poliziano

This dream Poliziano was no cheap trick...(sorry). Doc gives it a 97. Not just a berry burst delight, but named after a poet--Angelo Ambrogini, who went by the nickname Poliziano, a variation of his place of birth, Montepulciano. Ah, Italy--poetry and wine go hand-in-hand back to the Renaissance.

Barolo Classic Multi-single vineyards DOCG 2013 from Pio Cesare

DoctorWine called it a "more rustic pinot noir, not in its DNA but in its taste and character," and that seemed fair. 100% Nebbiolo, it had a lovely floral quality for all its tannic structure (two years of barreling aging too).

Roggio del Filare Rosso Piceno Superiore DOC 2012 from Velenosi

To confuse things, if you don't know Italian viticulture well, while the town of Montepulciano mostly grows sangiovese, there's also a grape montepulciano, and that's the feature in the wine from the Marche. Turns out a poet made up the word roggio, too, to describe the brightness of the sun in vineyards. The sun does wonders for this wine--bright and complex, cherry and plum, with hints of tar and oregano.

Tenuto Nuova Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2012 from Casanova di Neri

This beauty comes from what is supposedly called the heart of Montepulciano and the only horizontal valley in the area. The result is a more international-style wine, what the Doctor calls "the most powerful sangiovese in Tuscany."

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOC 2007 from Bertani

Nobody said this at the lunch, because, you know, lunch, but the infamous Hannibal Lecter line from the book is "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice amarone" but the producers changed the line thinking no one would know what an amarone was. (Lecter, a connoisseur, did.) North of Verona by Lake Garda, the producers take the grapes and let them dry naturally. They lose water and weight, and then go through a long fermentation, too, to get this warm and deep wine with some raisiny notes but also mint and cocoa. The Doc said, "It's particularly good with blue cheese."

All thanks to Allison Levine from Please the Palate for putting this Italian Invasion together.

*And, of course, being old and being a DJ, every time I see the name I hear this.

Sip This: Charles Heidsieck Brut 2005

If you don’t have a reason to celebrate, invent one so you can pop the cork on this elegant yet ridiculously pleasing champagne. From an acclaimed vintage, and just rounding into its form (if you are patient, wait), this 60 percent pinot noir/40 percent chardonnay blend caresses your olfactory buds with brioche and roasted nuts, and then lusciously leaves your mouth full of tart green apple, bright citrus zest, and more of the deep yeasty notes that brioche hinted at on the nose.

If you want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Tickled at Taste

Sure, we all love the quiet, the chance to pass far from the crush, the hope there's some land and air that's ours, as much as moments are. Small towns. Hurrah! But if I told you I wanted to take you to dinner, you'd hope to hop into your hyperspace machine and head to the big city, figuring you need that cosmopolitan edge, that sense of happening, of buzz. Small towns we go to for a sense of zzz.

Unless, it seems, that small town is Plymouth, up in California's Gold Country. For we had the lucky chance to go to the very tasty Taste recently, where the food would make any city chef proud, the service was a proper mix of professional and pleasant that city waitstaff, busy for their break in whatever their real business is, sometimes can't be bothered to accomplish, and the setting was country chic without any need for quotation marks or excuses. Plus parking is easy and we were able to walk in at 7:30 pm on a Friday night without reservations!

Since it seemed every table around us was doing it, we opted to split a serving of the appetizer mushroom cigars (see the photo above), phyllo wrapping crimini, shiitake, oyster mushrooms, fresh herbs, with the cigar than perpendicularly posted onto your plate with a dab of mashed potato. Needless to say, there's a reason the photo is of my plate in the middle of getting devoured, as I forgot my journalistic duty just wanting to chow down. Earthy goodness.

Then, I ordered my main doing the opposite thing--checking out the sides of the dish and then letting the protein slab be a sort of surprise. Here's what caught my eye: Up Country Farms shishito peppers, grilled peaches, house made chorizo, cornbread crouton. Sounded like summer in a place that knew what summer is at its best. That yumminess sat around a Beeler Farms pork chop, cooked a bit more medium than I would have ordered, but I would have been wrong, in this case. So moist, with some good crispiness, too. And, they didn't do that death by piggie product thing that happens so often when you order chops--there was plenty to eat, but I didn't feel like I had bought my next two evening's dinners, too.

Chryss wound up with Ora King Salmon with roasted marble potato, haricot vert, butter toasted almonds, whole grain mustard beurre blanc that knew exactly where to draw the mustard line, a dish with classic roots and contemporary delivery. I say wound up, as she hoped to order the local trout special, but it got bought out between her order getting taken and the chance to fire it. The clever solution? Next to her salmon, Taste gave her all the sides that were to come with the trout, too, so she got the dish fishless. A clever consolation.

And while the mains were city-priced ($33 and $35 respectively), that is without having to add to the bill buying sides, at least. The wine list, leaning towards Amador County as it should (isn't it nice when restaurants support their local wine country? hint hint), was very fairly priced, though. I couldn't resist one of the by the glass offerings, a 2011 Scherrer Pinot Noir from the Platt Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast that was a mere $12. A bold beauty at low alcohol, it was a perfect match for both the mushrooms and the pork, but what would you expect from Fred Scherrer, who did time as Dehlinger's winemaker.

Sip This: Kings Carey 2016 Rosé of Grenache

This is wine done to bare-bones goodness, from its seemingly hand-drawn, homespun label (courtesy of Philadelphian Hawk Krall) to its direct, refreshing, delicious strawberries washed in light lemon loveliness in the glass. It’s made, in small lots, by James Sparks, whom you should know from Liquid Farm, which produces one of the county’s best chardonnay.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Downey's to Dish No More

I had the great opportunity to sit down with John Downey a few weeks back and discuss, as he and Liz are shutting Downey's down after 35 years in a matter of weeks. (They're keeping the last night a bit of a secret to avoid a rush.) Alas, it was impossible to include everything we discussed in the Indy article I'm about to link to, but here's some of the extra info that I couldn't work in to that.

What's next?
"At 68 I find this really physically taxing. I know I look 40, say it," and he pauses for his very English joke to land, "but I beat the undertaker. I never wanted to be carried out from behind the line feet first."

Despite his jokes about mortality, one way he has stayed in shape over the years is hiking, including conquering Mt. Whitney. "I definitely have one Whitney left in me," he insists. "One of the retirement goals is to be in the eastern Sierras in the fall. For 35 years I haven't been able to be away from the restaurant that long, especially that time of year."

****
So here's the start of the Indy article:

“When we knew we were going to close, we thought we’d just disappear into the sunset,” John Downey said about his recent announcement to retire. “Liz [his wife and stalwart in the front of the house] and I thought after a week people would say, ‘Downey’s, didn’t they used to be on State Street?’ Instead the outpouring of support has been overwhelming; we’re honestly touched by it. We take it as a validation of our work the last 35 years.”

If you want to read the rest, you know the drill, go to the Independent's site.

Friend and Dear Friend and a Restaurant's Encouragement

Given my love for Wallace Stevens' "The World as Meditation," how could I not be taken by Odys + Penelope? (And if that isn't the wonkiest beginning of any restaurant write-up, show me its competition.) We had the opportunity to hit the restaurant on the way back from San Diego a couple of weeks back just in time for DineLA. And while I always feel like taking advantage of such promos leaves a bit of a "R" for rube tattooed on your forehead, we'd been wanting to go to O+P since it opened, as we were fans of Hatfield's back in the day when fine dining was still a phrase you could utter and not watch your business model crumble. (Come remember with me now....) That super smart room, the full-view kitchen with so many chefs moving in such precision, the delicious-gorgeous food. We only had it once and missed it ever afterward.

So we looked forward to see what Quin and Karen Hatfield had in store for us at their latest spot. It's somewhat big yet still intimate, partially as the scent of smoke from the big grills in the kitchen hold you in its elemental arms. And right away what seems the least impressive wows you--we haven't had a salad we liked more in ages than their Sugar snap pea “Caesar” with creamy Parmesan slaw and roasted pepitas. Talk about reinventing a wheel that had gone a bit flat. The sliced up snap peas, so bright and crisp and just the right sweet, playing off the right-angled Caesar notes of garlic and anchovy, then the slaw a sort of salve, plus the necessary crunch from the pumpkin seeds. We shared one, wishing we had two. (Not that the grilled Argentinian white prawns with ginger chermoula disappointed, especially with their charcoal depth.)

Fighting FOMO, we went off the DineLA menu as we had to know what the bread-like goodness going out to so many tables was (we've also been to Sycamore Kitchen, and know Karen Hatfield bakes better than nearly anyone). Turns out they were cheese puffs--think gougeres with attitude as they're twice gougere size--and at least four times as yummy, somehow flaky, puffy, and cheesy all at once. What's more, they come with a smoked tomato romesco (that grill is hiding in so many dishes) that was so rich we didn't use the leftover white prawn butter we made them keep on the table for the cheese puffs.

Mains were both also crazy good. Chryss had early summer on a plate, oak grilled salmon, English pea and basil puree, cherry tomato salad, and grilled corn, each element of the dish perfection (it made you want a side of corn, for instance). Grill grill grill. I had the house made pappardelle, pork belly Bolognese, fried sage, supposedly the restaurant's most popular dish. I can see why: that sauce had what seemed like ages of flavor, if that makes sense, rooted in meat generally too good to be reduced like this, and that grill was in there somewhere doing its fiery magic. And someone can make pasta, too, that perfect tension that says fresh.

I could go on about the desserts, like a straightforward yet immaculately prepared chocolate budino with olive oil, sea salt, and a stunning take on the Oreo that should make Nabisco cry (or sue) and a coconut-cashew lime "pie," (it's kind of deconstructed, over the flakiest of tart shells) with local raspberries and toasted coconut ice cream that's all flavor in your face. Or the just inventive enough cocktails, or the helpful, timely, friendly, unobtrusive service. It's a place about comfort edging very close to something like fine dining, but then quick to say, "Servers wear jeans!" or "Smoke is like camping--how casual is that!" You're sure to say, "I need to go back."

Sip This: Daniel Cohn 2015 Bellacosa Cabernet Sauvignon

Daniel Cohn’s family sold its B.R. Cohn Winery, famed for its cabs and olive oil, a couple of years back, and instead of just counting his cash, Daniel decided it was time to start anew. Enter this flagship of his own brand, Bellacosa, a cabernet sauvignon sourced from vineyards throughout the North Coast appellation.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.