Last night we took some friends to dinner. It was a pleasant night, so we chose to eat outside at Solera in Irvington, the Westchester branch of a nice NYC Spanish place. We enjoyed the breeze off the river with an assortment of hot & cold tapas -stuffed piquillo pepper, sauteed wild mushrooms in garlic, poached octopus with olive oil paprika, variety of cold seafood and vegetable salads, chicken croquettas, more. Ordered a bottle of Cava to accompany the tapas, a '99 Juve y Camps Reserva de la Familia, but they were out. Instead we got another cava, the NV Marques de Gelida Brut (Penedes). Good acidity, just a hint of yeast, apple and nut flavors. On the sweet side for Brut, but a pleasant match for the assorted tapas (but at $28 a bit overpriced for a wine that probably retails for $6-7). B/B-
I ordered a rib-eye with a chimichurri sauce, sautéed "Catalan" spinach, and haricots verts. I seldom send food back, but when you order meat rare and only in the exact center is there any sign of pink....I summoned the waiter, he took one look and scurried to replace. Meanwhile I had some of Betsy's lamb chops (appropriately medium-rare). With our main courses we had the 1999 Remelluri (Rioja). Sweet toasty oak nose (though not at all overoaked), with some herb and spice notes. Medium-bodied, balanced acidity. Fairly rich palate of red berry fruit with a underpinning of spice. Not really as vanilla-ey as a lot of Riojas seem. Decent QPR if retails around $18-20 ($45 on list). B/B+
BTW, when my steak was brought out second time, it was perfect.
With a cheese plate (cabrales, manchego, and idiazabal) I enjoyed the last sips of the Rioja along with a glass of Taylor Fladgate 20-year-old Tawny Port. Intense flavors of dried red fruit, with a little orange peel and caramel. Really quite good. B+
A good meal that I quite enjoyed, with excellent company. Small bitching moment- I rounded up from the 18% figure printed on the CC receipt (which was reasonably generous,as we had to flag waiter several times). I noticed today that my tip was 20%- on inspection, they obviously figure the 15%, 18%, and 20% guidelines from the with-tax total. The difference was only $3, it's not really the money, I just find that's pushing it.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre at best. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Dale
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