NYC Trip

I went up to NYC two weeks ago for a wine tasting event (day job) and haven't had the time to write up my thoughts. Before I get to the art, I thought I'd do a quick post on the wine and food aspect of the trip.

First the wine- Best Wine Saxum Syrah (I can see why Wine Spectator has this as their #1 wine last year.) Very close were two Aussie Shiraz- Two Hands Ares and Mollydooker Velvet Glove. The Cheval Blanc was my favorite Bordeaux followed closely by Lafite and Haut-Brion. The Bruno Giacosa Barolo was awesome. I made a point of tasting a number of Pinot Noirs since it is generally not my favorite varietal but the Kosta Brown was fantastic (could this be the wine of the year this year?) as well as the AP Vin, Bergstom and Beaux Freres. For California cab- my pick goes to Staglin. I was very intrigued with the blend that Brian Loring was pouring.

For food, I had a couple of burgers from places that had been suggested. HB Burgers was fine. Its the bar and grill version of Heartland Brewing. Beers were ok, burgers were fine, Nothing special. Tried the Shake Shack burger on Friday. Again, a weaker version of Five Guys with good crinkle cut fries. BTW- when you are going to a tasting expecting to taste 60-80 wines, you need protein before hand. Of course, I spit at the tastings, there is no other way to taste that many. When I organized my notes on Friday morning, I realized that I had tasted 85 wines Thursday night. Anyway, For lunch on Saturday, we met a friend in Chelsea were we had lunch at the Half King- better burger than either of the recommended burger places.

On Friday, we had lunch at a Bobby Flay restaurant, Cafe Americain which was recommended to us by some folks at Food & Wine Magazine. They know what they are talking about- one of the best steaks I've ever had. The spice rub worked perfectly with the house-made steak sauce. Since I believe I make a great steak, I don't usually order them out but since Flay is a grill kind of guy, I figured I'd give it a go- and there was the protein thing too.

On Saturday, we ended up on Mulberry Street at dinner time. We found a place that didn't seem like a tourist trap, Da Nico's. There was no slick guy trying to hustle us to a table. They appeared to have plenty of regulars that the owners were greeting. The food was very good if not great but we had a lovely time. A nice, completely unknown to me, Nero was recommended by the waiter.

Surprise food experience- truly kick ass meatballs in the MoMA cafe!

Whaddya Know?

I read an interesting piece at Wine Spectator Online today by writer Matt Kramer. He is a fascinating wine writer, though I don't always agree with him (well, not very often at all actually) but I find his positions to be thought provoking, challenging to my own ideas.

The article begins by quoting NYT writer, Eric Asimov on the confidence beer drinkers have about enjoying the beverage vs the anxiety wine consumers have about wine. Where it gets interesting is when Kramer brings in Adam Gopnik's critique of "elitist" wine writers. Kramer does a good job of taking down Asimov and Gopnik's arguments but the analogy of wine writing to contemporary art criticism got me thinking.

OK, so having a dual life as a wine educator/retailer and a contemporary artist that actually reads Artforum. I think that just might make me qualified to chime in on this one.

I believe it is true that you can gain more pleasure through knowledge. Here I'm talking about wine, art, music, poetry, etc. I get more out of wine now than I did 15 years ago. I also get more out of music since I've learned more about how music is constructed. But one thing I find is true, I don't usually decide something that I did not like initially all of the sudden becomes better because I came to understand it more.

Around the age of 13 or so, I first read T.S. Eliot. I'm not sure that I understood much of it but I was intrigued by it. Over the years, I kept coming back to his work and by my senior year of college, I had dove deep into his world, creating a suite of paintings based on his life and work. Clearly, my appreciation grew with knowledge but from the start, I knew his work was great.

So take wine, many of my colleagues prefer wines that some would define as sophisticated. These wines may have mineral or earthy characteristics. As a guy selling wine, this is how I describe them to customers. To friends, I would say they tasted like rocks and dirt. No amount of elevated understanding will cause me to like these flavors. I know people that do naturally prefer wines like these, but for the most part, wine geeks "grow" to like these wines.

I'm pretty sure I know what Paul McCarthy is doing but I find his work to be ugly and well, kind of stupid. It has been a long time since art has shocked me, so let's go with stupid. Likewise for Jeff Koons. Never once did I think these guys were making great art. Money- yes. Art-no. Somewhere some tastemakers decided this was good art and we are expected to fall in line. In art, as with wine, I believe in trusting yourself.

Old Haunts

On our trip back home, Lori and I got to visit a few old haunts. Actually, our first meal away from family was a Chinese buffet. They have these all over the Norfolk area and we have become fond of one near my mother's place in Va Beach. Like so many of them, it is called something like "Lucky NO 1 Buffet." We like it because it has some unusual things- my favorite being something they call Thailand Chicken. Quite a medley of spices providing plenty of heat but still terrific flavor. We then went to see An Education at the Naro, an old art house theater- one screen, balcony, affordable snacks, may made by local places. The movie was good since it was a cautionary tale for parents of a "clever" cello playing girl. I got to see some old friends at the Ghent Total Wine where I was the wine manager when it opened. Finally, Lori and I ate at the site of our first "date," Orapax. I'm a sucker for their wings. The pizza was excellent with a perfect crust. I think they may have changed the sauce a little because it seemed a little darker lending it a little more robust flavor than I remember. Lori got the spanakopita which was much larger than we remembered. All and all, a nice day. We finished by driving down Granby street, where we opened the Praha gallery many years ago. What was a pretty edgy place after dark is now populated by nice restaurants, a campus of the area community college and boutique shops. I guess we could say we are pioneers. We didn't get a chance to check them out, but I understand there are some good galleries in Norfolk now.

Little Catching Up

I've been working a lot on some new pieces and I'm pretty happy so far. But I thought I'd catch up with some beer and wine thoughts.

First beer- thanks to Artomatic for turning me on the Flying Dog's Amber Lager. I really haven't been a huge fan of Flying Dog in the past. First, I'm not a fan of Ralph Steadman and the beers seemed a little uninspired to me. Well, they seem fresher now and this may be due to the fact that they are brewed just up the road in Fredrick, MD. This is said to be in a California Common style (think Anchor Steam) but to me it is simply a well made amber brew with nice malty aromas and flavors and a super smooth finish. It is like an amped-up Yuengling. It is my session beer for now. I still keep some Yuengling cans around in case I decide to make some beer can chicken.

The other night, I opened a Central Coast Syrah called Domain Alfred Califa. It was rich with layered dark fruits and subtle baking spices and a touch of earthiness. I rated it 92 points (Wine Enthusiast had rated it 93) but Lori thought it was too minerally. Thought the price has been dropped considerably, I will pass on purchasing any more for the cellar. There are plenty of wines we both like, such as the Sonoma Loeb Cabernet 2005 which seemed to be gone as soon as it was opened.

On Vacation

I had a pretty intense week at work trying to get everything in order to take next week off. I will have to take a couple of hours to run some reports on Tuesday, but other than that my attention is all on my family and making art. So Friday we tasted through about 20 Zinfandels in less than two hours- this is work so we do spit the wine- it is tasting and all of us drive home so drinking is not a good option. There were plenty of good ones- nothing really sucked (excepted a corked Mendo ZIn but that doesn't count). There were quite a few nice finds at the 8-12 dollar range. We also tasted a sample of a new Dogfish Head project- a really nicely balanced IPA at about 9% ABV.

Anyway- getting the reason for the post, Lori and I had a nice dinner (I grilled Rock Fish for her and a Ribeye for me). We drank two Titus wines with them- The Reserve Chardonnay and the Amphora Red Blend. Both were very, very good and with recent price drops due to the economy, relatively good values. I am a big fan of the Titus wines. I've hung out a couple times with Eric Titus who runs most of the family operation and his brother Phillip is simply one of the best winemakers working in California right now. I'm kinda bummed that another wine he makes, the Chappellet Signature Cabernet just got 94 points from Wine Spectator (last year's Pritchard Hill scored 96). I say bummed because I usually buy a few bottles of this wine each year and I'm afraid it is going to sell out quickly now. With the Disney trip this week, I didn't want to plop down the money for the wines right now. Let's hope I'm worrying too much about this and the wine will hang around a while. That said- you should get some.

Savor

Last night was the big Savor beer event at the National Building Museum. A group from work were planning to meet at RFD around 3:30 to make sure we got some food in us. We knew there would be food at Savor but we wanted to makes sure we had some solid stuff already in our bellies. Well, of course, the organizer of this meeting never did show but he did arrive at the event just in time for our first "Salon."

Sam Calagione led us on a tour of Ancient Beers in the Modern World. As could be expected from Sam, there were no notes or PowerPoint slides. What we did get was a sampling of 4 beers and some information on the history of brewing. This was a great session since I had never had two of the beers. It start with the 90 minute but moved quickly to the Midas Touch which was excellent with the aged cheddar pairing. Then why tried an even older recipe recipe, from China of all places, called Chateau Jiahu. I was enjoying these beers but really thinking that it is a shame Lori was not there, I think she would have loved them- all this was before the Theobroma which is based on a 500-1200 year old Honduran recipe. Now this baby was made with some very fine cocoa powder- paired with some Askinosie Chocolate (You must try this chocolate!). With the Theobroma, I knew that I needed to stop by the store and pick some up.

I'm guessing that crowds are simply following me around because the Building Museum was packed like Artomatic was on Friday. Some stand outs for me were Brooklyn's Local 2, Rock Bottom Highland Courage Scottish Ale, Saint Louis Brewery/Schlafly Oak Age Barleywine, Arcadia Cocoa-Loco Triple Chocolate Milk Stout (yes, I was in a chocolaty mood after the Salon).

There were a number of breweries that I simply love to drink though they don't excite the way those listed above do. I love high-gravity beers but I usually like to drink more than one so last night reaffirmed how good St George, Clipper City (Marzhon), Great Lakes (Burning River), Legend and Oskar's Blues are at crafting delicious "session" brews. Another brewer I enjoy, Smuttynose was only pouring Belgian-styled brews- It would have been nice to show one of their more straightforawd beers.

Opening Night

Last night, The team all went down to opening night at artomatic and were blown away. The place was so jammed- using the elevator was simply a joke and even the stairways were filled with people. We did trek up to the ninth floor and back down so at least a little exercise was had. We spent the last hour or so that on the 3rd floor near our work. Lori and I kind of hung back and let people look. We didn't have too many people stopping to look at our stuff- we're guessing that we are not flashy enough. Plus we have a very subdued floor. I did see a lot of people take my postcards but no comments (not even a "U SUCK") were left in the comment book. Heather on the other hand was working the crowd and really charming them. We keep our eyes out, looking to see if people were trying to get away but they really seemed to be enjoying talking to her about the work. We ended up staying to nearly 11pm. I forgot how infrequent the trains are later at night. We didn't get home until after midnight.

On the beverage front- good beer selection (Yuengling and three Flying Dog brews) and not a bad call on the wine (Barefoot) in terms of a drinkable inexpensive wine. Yep, I got beer. I may suggest that they offer a premium wine choice at a higher price to give wine lovers an option but then they may want me to volunteer as bar manager and I see that is a tough job.

Celebrate

As mentioned previously, Lori was anxious about us completing the AOM install. To celebrate, we met some friends at Night of the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian. The kids loved it as did the adults- pretty fun stuff- though not quite as good as the first. The movie didn't allow me time to cook anything special so we ate the pulled pork from yesterday- Since it takes about 6 hours to cook the Barbeque, I was able to cook it in between layers of paint. I look forward to making some good meals now that i won't be painting every waking hour. Anyway, this post is about wine isn't- well, I didn't have enough time to run by our store in McLean so I picked up a bottle of Beringer Cabernet Knights Valley. As usual this is a good, reliable Cab though I do miss those mid-90's vintages that were excellent- Well its still about the same price as it was then so I guess we can expect a little slip in quality. All in all, not a bad substitution for the Chateau Chevalier Cabernet (made by Spring Mountain Vineyards) I was planning on. Must remember to pick up a couple bottles next time in the store.