Friday, February 8, 2008

Tumbling Home with the Tumbleweeds



Back in Baker City with another new foot of snow and it's back to work! NYC was fabulous and I'll be dreaming about our dinner at Gigino's for months! We had a great time at the David Letterman Show and it actually airs tonight (Friday) with guests Lenny Kravitz and Colin Farrell. The highlight of the evening followed Dave's show as we had a fantastic dining experience at an authentic Italian trattoria.
We took the subway to Tribeca and found the restaurant I've been wanting to go to since seeing it used as a setting for the Danny Aiello movie 'Dinner Rush". It was perfect! We had a great waiter, a wonderful bottle of Rosso Conero Riserva '01 and I had the best fresh sardine appetizer I've ever had in my life! They just melted in my mouth - I even considered ordering a second plate for dessert but opted for the Limone Tart (Gail chose the Tiramisu, of course!) If you find yourself in Tribeca looking for authentic Italian cuisine in a charming location, I highly recommend Gigino's! I'll definitely go back on my next trip to New York City! http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/gigino-trattoria/

We had a great breakfast our last morning in the city at the Brooklyn Diner and they had Charles Smith's Holy Cow Chardonnay on the shelf at the bar - I am so jealous!! I've been trying to get that wine for months, and here I find it in Manhattan! I am just going to have to drive up to Walla Walla and bring it on back I guess.

Gail and I were lucky enough to be guests at "Taste Walla Walla" - how cool to attend a WW wine tasting in NYC, aye?! It was a kick to see Rick and Darcy Small (Woodward Canyon), as well as John Abbott (Abeja) and Caleb Foster (Buty) all dressed up and in the big city.

We were able to taste several new producers from the valley as well as all three wines from Spring Valley Vineyard, the producer of that magical Syrah called Nina Lee (the owners grandmother was a Vaudeville performer-turned farmer and her photo graces the label), the wine has a wonderful berry pie flavor with sweet tannins, really tasty! Standouts were the Lagniappe Syrah from Gramercy Cellars (BIG standout, this wine has the magical 3% Viognier added and has amazing complexity and has simply perfect balance) and the Merlot from Otis Kenyon (incredibly rich cocoa notes in the finish and a fabulous story that I'm sure we'll tell often when we get this into the store!)

We'll be making arrangements to bring in some new WW wines and try to coordinate a tasting for spring - in the meantime, don't miss out on the Abeja Chardonnay at BELLA, it is quite honestly the best Chardonnay I've ever tasted from this continent. We've also got a good supply of Woodward Canyon, Spring Valley as well as the reds from Abeja.

Anyways, one final note and then I'm off to pack boxes of truffles for Valentine's Day... the video attached is from our drive home yesterday as we herded hundreds of giant tumbleweeds east along Interstate 84. If I understood a bit more about all this techno stuff, I would have attached the music, but the best I can must is a bit from the the lyrics from Tumblin' Tumbleweeds..

Cares of the past are behind ** Nowhere to go but I'll find

Just where the trail will wind ** Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds



2 comments:

Ryan said...

Bev,
Looks like you guys had a good time

Greg Harrington said...

Thanks for the props! Let me know when you are coming to WW and we can taste some barrels in the cellar.

Greg Harrington
greg@gramercycellars.com