On Saturday, Jean and I hired a babysitter so that we could: 1) work on an impending NIH grant proposal and 2) go out for a much-needed relaxing dinner afterward. Dinner was had at one of our local fine dining establishments, one with a Specular "Award of Excellence" for its wine list. With our first courses (prawn cocktail and salad of mixed field greens, caramelized pearl onions and grilled wild mushrooms) we got:
2003 Loimer "Lois" Grüner Veltliner
nose: initially reticent, developing good varietal (green pea) character with some minerality in evidence palate: lightweight GV, decent concentration, crisp and refreshing
A good match with the prawns and a good aperitif wine, this showed fine acidity for an '03 white. Not a complex GV by any means, but a very decent wine for the price ($22 on the wine list). It went down all too easily, considering that we were moving to red for the main courses.
With our main courses (rigatone with duck, onions, portobellos in red wine-veal stock reduction for Jean and pink peppercorn-encrusted ostrich for me), we got:
2002 Feudo Arancio Nero D'Avola nose: simple, grapey palate: medium body, soft tannins, fruity, simple
We were so intrigued to see a Nero D'Avola on a wine list in Indiana that we decided to give it a whirl. Another factor in our decision was that, since we'd already consumed 2/3 of a bottle of the Lois, it didn't seem prudent to spend $60 on the '03 Ridge Lytton Springs, especially since there are several bottles of it in the cellar. There was nothing wrong with this wine, but it failed to excite either of us.
Overall, a very pleasant meal and we managed to remain sober throughout the meal, despite splitting two (!) full bottles with dinner. Some thoughts on the wine list: our dilemma began with no Champagne offered by the glass, an option that we often employ when getting white wine appetizers with red wine main courses. We decided to therefore get a white to start with, and the Lois was the pick of the litter in that regard. However, it was disappointing to see that there were almost no half bottles on the list, and that the year of the Lois was listed. The red selection was less interesting than that of the whites, but again only one half bottle (of a St. Supery Cab) and no year on the Nero D'Avola. This wouldn't be at all suprising for our community if it weren't for the Spec Award -- it just goes to show you how little they mean these days.
Mark Lipton