#SauvignonBlanc and #Sustainability. Hats off to @HonigWine

A number of years ago when I was working as a reporter for Reuters, I was assigned to cover an American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco. After a long day of sitting through panel discussions and programs, I knew I'd be facing a long evening in my hotel room typing on my laptop.

As a reward for what promised to be hours of writing, I felt I deserved a nice bottle of wine. Nothing on the room service menu did anything for me, especially since I was hoping for a great selection being in northern California. So I walked around the area and found a wonderful wine shop.

Since my hotel room had a little balcony, I knew I wanted a crisp white I could sip outside while I worked. I asked the salesman to recommend his favorite Sauvignon Blanc from California.

I'll alway remember his quick response: Honig.

I trusted his judgment and bought a bottle. It was everything I had hoped it would be, so beautifully balanced and refreshing.

When I saw that the Wine Merchant in St. Louis was hosting a tasting of Honig wines and that Michael Honig would be there, I couldn't wait to meet him. Michael is the grandson of the winery's founder, Louis Honig, who passed away a number of years ago. Michael took over management of the winery in 1984, when he was 22 years old. According to the Honig website, the winery was struggling at the time.  It said that Michael used an old meat locker for an office and a shoebox marked "misc" for an accounting system. Although he had no formal training, he began canvassing the streets of San Francisco, selling wine and delivering it himself.

It the years that followed, the winery became famous for its award winning Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon  -- the only two varietal wines it sells. But the Honig name is equally well-known for its leadership in sustainability both in the winery and vineyard.

In fact, Honig is one of the wineries featured in the 2014 book "Down to Earth, A Seasonal Tour of Sustainable Winengrowing in California." This absolutely beautiful book was written by Janet Fletcher and features breathtaking photos by the amazing George Rose, who has got to be the best in wine photo business. The book was published by the Wine Institute.

During the tasting at the Wine Merchant, I sipped the Honig Napa Valley 2013 Sauvignon Blanc that was on sale for $14.99 and its Rutherford Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, which was $22.99. Both were delicious. The Rutherford Reserve is aged in oak, making it rich and toasty.

I was able to review the Honig Napa Valley in my July 23 St. Louis Post-Dispatch column, which focuses on wine under $15.

If you're a Sauvignon Blanc fan, but aren't crazy about the pungent ones from New Zealand, do yourself a favor and try the Honig wines. You'll be glad you did.   

#wine #napavalley #sauvignonblanc #sustainability #wineinstitute #honig

Learning about #wine from #UnionSquareCafe

While I am absolutely terrible when it comes to remembering people’s names, for some strange reason I can often recall the label of a wine, where I was when I was drinking it and with whom. It's as if wines take on their own little stories inside my brain.

For example, last week my St. Louis Post-Dispatch column featured a sparkling wine produced by the New Mexico winery Gruet. In a related blog, I discussed having it for the first time at Tabla, the now defunct restaurant that had been owned by Danny Meyer. I remembered clearly that I had been sitting at the bar with my friend Marjorie when the bartender recommended the sparkling wine with the restaurant’s Indian spiced popcorn.  It was that experience that led me to start experimenting with pairing sparkling wines with all sorts of casual foods.

Since I had bought a bottle of Gruet for a July 4th celebration, it made me think about Tabla.  I couldn’t remember exactly what year the restaurant had closed, so I began to search the internet.  I found that it had closed in 2010, making it the first of Meyer’s restaurants to close after he launched his successful empire in 1985 with the famous Union Square Café.

As I was on the computer doing my research, a headline popped up that Meyer had just announced he was closing Union Square due to soaring rents in the neighborhood. Talk about a flood of memories. It made me realize how much I learned about wine from Meyer’s various restaurants.

Sometime early in Union Square’s history, a server recommended a Bedell Cellars Merlot from the North Fork of Long Island. The restaurant was a real champion of locally grown and produced foods and wine was part of its promotional efforts. However, I was extremely hesitant to order that Merlot because wines from Long Island were not particularly well known in the mid 1980s. In fact, Bedell itself is only about 30 years old. However, Union Square’s sommelier was on to something because Bedell wines are now highly respected and its Merlot became the first New York wine in history to be served at the inauguration of the President of the United States.

Another wine I can remember at Union Square is from South Africa’s Thelema Mountain Vineyards. It was a Sauvignon Blanc. It was June 23, 1995 and my mother and I were  celebrating her 73^rd birthday. The previous year she had survived a massive heart attack and emergency open heart surgery. Although the odds had not been good, she promised me she would live because she had to return to Union Square Café for her birthday. We chose the Thelema because my mother’s name was Thelma.

I wrote about the experience in a commentary that was published in the St. Louis Jewish Light.

At Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern, I remember tasting the 2010 "Viña Tondonia" Gran Reserva Rosado from Spain's Rioja region.  The year was 2011 and I was visiting my friend Marjorie Shaffer. Marj had tasted the wine previously and insisted I would love it. She was right.

This wine was  unique. A complex rosé that had been aged in oak, the wine  was a combination of two red grapes, Garnarcha and Tempranillo, and one white, Viura. It was by far the most delicious — and unusual — rosé I'd ever sipped.

So once again, thanks to Danny Meyer for introducing me and countless others to foods and wines we might not have ever experienced and enjoyed.

#wine #rosé #sparklingwine #dannymeyer #unionsquarecafe #rosado #gramercytavern #thelema #gruet #merlot #northforkoflongisland

#Sparklingwine for #July4-- remembering the #DannyMeyer restaurant Tabla

Danny Meyer, the famous New York restaurant owner who hails from St. Louis, once had a contemporary Indian restaurant called Tabla in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. Although the regular menu was somewhat pricey, you could eat for far less in the restaurant’s Bread Bar. One of the most memorable things about that bar was its popcorn, which came dusted with cumin, coriander, and chile pepper.

It was an addictive combination and my pal Marjorie Shaffer and I were hooked. With all the possible choices in Manhattan, we frequently found ourselves drawn back to the Bread Bar longing for that popcorn.

Although the restaurant closed in 2010, I can still remember the taste of the popcorn and the wine that one of the bartenders recommended as a match. It was the Gruet sparkling wine from New Mexico. I was pretty shocked the first time he suggested it. For starters, sparkling wine was not something I would have thought to order with popcorn. And then, New Mexico? Who knew they made sparkling wine in New Mexico?

But it was a great combination and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Gruet because of that. It also made me realize that sparkling wine goes well with all sorts of salty and fried foods. And because there are plenty of sparkling wines that are more affordable than Champagne, why not have them with your popcorn, French fries and bratwurst?

Our Tabla excursions happened when I was working as a correspondent for Reuters and I was so inspired by the popcorn and Gruet combination, that I wrote a piece about unusual sparkling wine pairings. The feature got picked up in numerous newspapers during 2002 and even got translated into Spanish. One of the reasons the story probably got so much attention is that it mentioned Hooters was offering a party promotion pairing Dom Pérignon with chicken wings.

I'm remembering this now because of upcoming July 4th celebrations. It seems to me that sparkling wines produced in the United States would be perfect for whatever you're doing or eating that day.  First of all, sparkling wines are festive and we should be toasting to our country's independence. Second, these are wines made in our country. Third, they go with everything and finally, they are affordable.

Personally, I prefer sparklers made through the méthode champenoise, which is the same process used to make real French Champagne. In this method, the wine goes through a second fermentation in its own bottle rather than in a tank. There are many excellent American sparklers made this way. Most come from the following California wineries: Schramsburg, Domaine Chandon, Mumm Napa, Gloria Ferrer, Iron Horse, Roederer Estate and Korbel.

Another significant American producer of sparkling wine made through méthode champenoise is Domaine Ste. Michelle in Washington State.  The Domaine Ste. Michelle "Michelle" Brut and the Gruet Brut are featured in my July 2, 2014  St. Louis Post-Dispatch column.



#dannymeyer #sparklingwine #july4 #domperignon #champagne #méthodechampenoise #hooters