Baltimore, MD

One of many purveyors of fried chicken at Lexington Market. Wes-sa-yeed (west side)!

These were apparently really tasty; I can't speak from experience, though. Note the Utz potato chips in background.

The USS Constellation is permanently docked at the Inner Harbor.

Art Car, AVAM (American Visionary Art Museum) style

These are just a few of many, many "vacants."

Baltimore's famous form stone is easy to maintain if a wee bit tacky. Here it is painted Ravens purple.

The burgeoning Latino population as shown by a strip of storefronts north of Fells Point.

Park Heights and Glen Ave, right in the middle of "La Rue de Shul": 20 synagogues in just a two mile radius in Northwest Baltimore/Baltimore County

This is where you get your kosher meats and groceries.

This is a unique throwback: gift shop, stationery/ school supply stockist, 60's era pharmacy and lunch counter all combine at Field's. I still go primarily for the delicious black and white milk shake, made from vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Touristic Pursuits in Washington DC, February 2010

Images behind the bar at Proof. Solid wine list put together by Sebastian Zutant.

Madame's Organ - for better or for worse, a fixture on 18th St in Adams Morgan

Pita full of falafel and delicious toppings from DC's (and likely one of the the US's) best purveyor of falafel: Amsterdam Falafel Shop

Look at all those wonderful fixins!

Walkway from the East to West Building at the National Gallery of Art

Komi, home of very good, creative, Greek inspired cuisine. Seafood, crudo in particular, shines.

Reserving a parking spot in Cleveland Park via the chair method, a mid-Atlantic regional tactic

United States of America, nation of neon and TV, or, as Michael Franti once said, "Television, the drug of the nation."

Knowledge of Pie: What I've learned making pizzas 5 weeks in a row

- Wet, slightly sticky dough, though more difficult to work with, makes tastier crust

- Mis-shaped pies, even perhaps with unsightly holes or crimped up areas due to a poor transfer to the oven, still taste good

- Women who work with dough in a professional kitchen make prettier pies than men who sell wine in a sometimes professional wine shop

- Mixing the right ratio of ingredients in a relatively consistent kitchen environment, using the same method and proofing the dough at least 8 hours (ideally, though, a day or more) makes a reliable dough

- Selecting and combining toppings is the most fun and forgiving part of the pizza making

- That's besides eating the pizza, of course

- Tomato sauce free pizzas often make for the most tasty and memorable pies (don't worry, Nat, the first pie will always have some sauce)

- A simple pizza can be a beautiful thing, for example: olive oil, sea salt, sliced red bell pepper, and a liberal sprinkling of ground espelette

- Enthusiastic, hungry pizza devotees are your biggest boosters of confidence and morale

Thanks to everyone who has participated in our ongoing, weekly pizza nights. There will be much more pizza to come, of course.

Peace and Speedy Recovery to the Guru

This is one of my favorite Gangstarr joints from what is possibly my favorite Gangstarr record, Moment of Truth. The combination of DJ Premier's super sparse production, Guru's legendary monotone, and the message of upliftment to the masses/ admonishment to the powerful that he puts forth in 16 bars all add up to a quintessential Gangstarr track. Join me in wishing Guru a most speedy recovery.

Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas Vertical

Roadside lunch, Galician style: caldo gallego, bread, and the house wine (unfortunately, not Do Ferreiro)

This was fun. One of the tables at De Maison Selections' recent San Francisco trade tasting featured the wines of Do Ferreiro, poured by winemaker Gerardo Mendez. Of particular interest was a vertical of Do Ferreiro's Cepas Vellas, their famed single vineyard bottling produced from a 200 year-old (yes, 200!), one hectare vineyard composed of sandy, broken down granite, sitting very proximate to the ocean. The 2007 was all lime and brine, intense and impressive. 2006 was a totally different animal, very saline but smoky as well - almost Islay in Galicia type smoke. 2005 was broad and ripe, but still fresh, though the 2004 was as ripe but with better acidity - the most generous, expressive, and delicious wine of the tasting.

I asked Gerardo which was the oldest vintage of cepas vellas he had recently drunk and he told me it was the 1999, which still showed very fresh and lively. I'm not surprised. And I'm not sure if better albariño is being made anywhere else in Rias Baixas. Do not look for the 2008 Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas as it does not exist; extensive hail damage destroyed much of the fruit. However, when the 2009 is released next year, I think I might have to grab some and start my own vertical.

Site vs Elevage

A view down to the barrel rom at Cune's Viña Real winery in Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa

I attended a seminar this morning titled, "Tempranillo: Site vs Elevage." It preceded a De Maison Selections trade tasting, and was conducted by the erudite, always interesting Andre Tamers. You may recall that he was one of the people I had briefly interviewed last year for a piece on the state of Spanish wine. Without getting into too much detail, Andre pointed out that Rioja was traditionally based on the premise of house style, a la Bordeaux, or even more so, Champagne. Just as in Champagne, in Rioja there are some larger companies who both grow their own grapes as well as purchase fruit from all over the D.O. Then, different bodegas have different methods of vinification and aging; traditionally in a slightly oxidative manner involving extended aging in American oak, a few rackings a year, and bottle aging. In Andre's view, this type of blending and aging process creates wines that are overly oxidized and lack individual personality. OK, he did not explicitly say that so as to let attendees make up their own minds, but reading between the lines (as well as tasting through his Rioja portfolio) that is most likely where Andre stands.

Perhaps, according to Andre, the future of Rioja lies not in a bodega's skill at blending fruit from different sites, even different sub-zones separated by many kilometers (as has been the traditional model) but rather in estate bottled, village and vineyard designated wines. As Andre said, "Gevrey doesn't taste like Chambolle. " That is obviously due to differences in soil types, climate, aspect and a whole host of other factors - in short, terroir, or "terruño" in Spanish.

So the point was to show 3 flights of Rioja of various ages (joven, crianza, and reserva) based on which villages the wines were from, and to try to taste the different character of each site. Thing is, though, it was very difficult to do this given, you guessed it, the wine's dramatically different elevage. Was the 2005 Viña Real Crianza's spicy, strawberry fruit characteristic of Tempranillo from Laguardia, or of fruit that is perhaps picked a bit earlier than is fashionable these days? And the sweet, black cherry and fruitcake flavors of the 2006 Luberri "Biga" Crianza were because the wine's fruit hails from Elciego, or due to the French oak, some of it new, and possibly other methods in the winery? Maybe the grapes were picked later and riper? There was at least one surprise as well, at least in terms of fruit sourcing for the 2005 Bodegas Muga Reserva. Andre had picked it to show what a Tempranillo based wine from Haro tastes like, though it turns out that one of his producers disputed the grapes exclusive Haro, Rioja Alta provenance, as he regularly sees the Muga truck in villages in Rioja Alavesa.

As with any academic learning experience, far more questions were generated than answers. Some questions I pondered after the tasting:

Is extended aging in American oak, when well employed with good quality fruit, an intrinsic part of Rioja's terruño? Is that a good thing?
Is it realistic for Rioja, which lacks the tradition of village and vineyard branded wines practiced for centuries in Burgundy, to try to re-brand itself in this way?
Why is Rioja either traditional or modern?
Is anyone experimenting with different sizes of oak for aging and fermenting, larger foudres for example? Or perhaps new barrels without any toast?
Is 100% tempranillo based wine from Rioja the best vehicle to express the region's diverse terruño, and is it the best path to take for the region's many crianza and reserva bottlings?
What constitutes good, reasonable and attentive farming and viticultural practice in Rioja versus elsewhere?

Thank you to Andre Tamers of De Maison Selections, as well as his staff and the folks from Estate Wines for putting this together. In particular to Andre, whose knowledge of Spanish wine country, paired with a real curiosity and sense of humility, made for a terrific seminar which emphasized learning about a region over merely pushing product.

The Mos Mighty Muscadet

Photo courtesy of The Ten Bells, New York City

There is something just so incredibly likeable and exciting about Muscadet; once you find it you're not likely to ever shed the excitement you have while craving it and then downing a glass (or more) of it. There is nothing pretentious about the wine, there is plenty of it available, and everyone from the most jaded of wine drinkers to someone who enjoys wine uncritically will agree that Muscadet quenches thirst and flatters a variety of foods. When made well from top vineyard sites, Muscadet is both deeply satisfying and intellectually stimulating in a way that few wines can be. In the case of the true grand cru vineyard sites of the AOC, I do not think I stand alone in arguing that there probably is no better white wine value in the world. Here are two such wines I have been slowly following over the past two days, and will continue to do so over the next several.

2007 Pierre Luneau-Papin L d'Or Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie
Their top cuvee. Any info on the domaine and wine that you might need are readily available on Joe Dressner's site. 30 hectares is a lot of land, but in these hands I trust how that land is used. There is an effortless, seamless balance in this wine that is tough to verbalize and simply should be experienced. Having had examples of this wine - not often, but on a few occasions - going back to 1989, and seeing how well and consistently it tends to age, it's worth mentioning that while metrics such as acidity, tannin and residual sugar are important indicators of a wine's development, ultimately a young balanced wine from great terroir will age a long time. We are not sure how this happens but invariably it does. There is no better indicator of wine ageability than a solid track record.

2007 Domaine de l'Ecu Expression de Orthogneiss Muscadet & Maine Sur Lie
While the Luneau Papin L d'Or is muscadet minerality and typicité personified, this particular bottling from Guy Bossard always seems something quite other. Bossard's vines are located in Le Landreau the same as Pierre Luneau-Papin. Shortly after I first opened this, it was rich, comparably fat, and seeming to lack in the type of acidity and rocky minerality that I come to expect in most Muscadet. A few days of sitting in the fridge after opening, however, and the singularity of this bottling really comes through. This may seem strange (it certainly does to me) but the aromas and flavors suggest more red fruit than white, and I even get a sort of Pinot Noir like character out of it, albeit with white wine acidity and texture. Richer and fleshier than the norm for Muscadet, to be sure, the Expression de Orthogneiss still has loads of finesse, a Burgundian sensibility as well as gravitas that sets it apart. Domaine de l'Ecu has been farmed biodynamically since 1986.

For less than $25 for each of these, I will likely pony up for at least 6 bottles of each, and ideally a case so that should I be tempted to drink a few, I will still have some bottles remaining.