PALO CORTADO - Good stuff if you can get it.

The past few evenings I have been enjoying a nip of Barbadillo 'Obispo Gascon' Palo Cortado. For those of you who may not know, Palo Cortado is somewhere between an Amontillado and Oloroso; i.e., it retains the livelier acidity, saltiness and citric tones of Amontillado while simultaneously suggesting the deeper, darker flavors of Oloroso. And of course there is a walnut nuttiness that lasts for days and extra days as my Guyanese drummer friend might say.

Palo Cortado is basically a sherry aged under flor (white growth caused by yeast indigenous to Andalucia). As you may know a natural, thick tuft of flor growth in a barrel of sherry is destined to remain fino sherry, whereas amontillado sherries are finos with lesser flor growth and additional fortification. An amontillado which loses its flor becomes a Palo Cortado and is fortified even more, as an oloroso would be (to 21-22%). Olorosos are sherries which have never developed a protective layering of flor.

As only 1-2% of all sherries produced are palo cortado, they're fairly rare and not inexpensive. The Barbadillo retails for $35 where I work. For the quality of the wine, palo cortados, like all high quality sherries, are some of the best deals in all of the classic wine regions. Relative to the exorbitant prices of Bdx, burgundy, top-notch Baroli and other Italians, and very likely Champagne in the near future, sherry, along with German riesling, Rioja (traditional), and the Loire valley, are where many of the deals are right now for wines to buy and age for a while.

A Country for Psychos with Creepy Haircuts

WOW....

That's a cool shop Wednesday (vol.I-Cole Hardware)

This may or may not become part I in a series of Wednesday posts leading up to Christmas, posts which will highlight stores I love to visit, or maybe memorialize shops which were loved in their time and have since closed. I'd also like it to be a forum for my 2 or so readers to chime in about places they love to shop. There is something about the neighborhood shopping experience that, whether it's a wine shop, a corner market, a clothing or record boutique, provides a local and satisfying way to support our consumerist urges in a way that also supports others. So let's embrace the creative entrepreneurial spirit, celebrate responsible capitalism and get things started.

When I was a little half-pint, I always enjoyed trips to the Pikesville hardware store. I had no idea what most of the items were that they were selling, nor was I especially curious about what they were. I just loved that there was a store with so many bizarre gadgets and random stuff, all crammed together in a tight space, with a shifting array of rust, metal and topsoil aromas permanently circulating the air. It was the polar opposite of growing up in my parents' home, where everything was incredibly tidy and generally lacking any strong smells. Ours was a home where projects usually involved cleaning or cooking, rather than any sort of home repair projects or fabrications. So the disorderly collection of foreign stuff with which to do foreign home projects always held some sort of distant appeal for me.

My neighborhood hardware store is now a local bay area chain named Cole Hardware. It has all the goodies that I remember from Pikesville Hardware, though in a more organized and logical layout. I went in for a 10mm socket attachment with which I replaced my 43 year old brake pads on my bike. Since this is a San Francisco hardware store - and a savvy one at that - they have a decent selection of kitchen gadgets, environmentally friendly cleaners, and a whole lot of food as you're waiting in line to check out. Not just your usual selection of candy, there is also green & black's chocolate, cliff bars, vege. beef jerky, ice cream, whatever you need. More shops should take a cue from Cole's: stock cool, unexpected stuff in addition to your usual mix of products. People appreciate that shit. At least I do....

My lone Loire Valley Disappointment in the past several months

The 2005 La Grange Tiphaine l'equilibriste Montlouis had all the makings of a great wine: it is produced from old vine Loire Valley Chenin Blanc, by a talented winemaker (Didier Delecheneau), in a very solid vintage in Montlouis. Unfortunately I found this dessert wine to be out of balance. Way sweet, not enough acidity to balance it out, and even hot. At 12% alcohol for a Chenin Blanc dessert wine, the heat - now that I take the alc into account - does not surprise me. The flavors were of cooked apples in a lot of allspice, cinnamon and sugar. There was a spiciness that immediately made me think of botrytis, as well as a pungent brand of Montlouis, funky horseradish type of minerality which I find in Chidaine's Montlouis wines. It is one of the rare types of minerality that sometimes KO's me and is just too much. Riesling from Rangen in Alsace has had a similar effect, as has a red wine from the Mt Etna region in Sicily. Maybe it's the volcanic soil in those two wines? Anyway, I had l'equilibriste with apple pie at dessert, hoping that the sweetness of the pie would balance out the wine as is often the case with dessert and dessert wine pairings, but not even a delicious home baked apple pie could save this poor Chenin Blanc. Oh well. I still quite enjoy La Grange Tiphaine's Bel Air Sec, Les Cassieres, Rose and Cot. And I still need to try his Becarre Cab Franc.

Tryptophan makes you sleepy ( a brief photo essay)

These three pics may be all I can dig up, but we'll see...Enjoy.

A solid newbie and an oldie but goodie: Dinners at Maverick and Zuni

There are few things I enjoy more in life than going out to dinner, and fewer things still that I enjoy more than going out to dinner with my family. This week I really lucked out and enjoyed two nights out at two restaurants, one at a cool new spot in the Mission named Maverick, and the other at a well-established San Francisco restaurant - Zuni.

MAVERICK

Maverick's concept is not unique - present modern American food prepared from fresh, seasonal ingredients in a modern, cleanly and sparsely decorated setting - but the execution in the front of the house and, for the most part, the back of the house, is what separates this restaurant from many lesser establishments. As I was heading from work, dealing with traffic and even a speeding ticket, I arrived late. I needed a drink. My father had ordered a bottle of 2006 Robert Sinskey Pinot Blanc, which was so-so, but probably will show better after another 6 months or so in the bottle.

We shared a few salads which were all tasty and fresh, in particular the fried squash blossoms with toasted cumin and coriander yogurt sauce and arugula. The wine list was compact and novelly arranged according to Old World (under the header 'The Roots') and domestic ('The Vines'). Clever. There were more choices on the domestic side of things, and fortunately some good ones. I went with a 2005 Palmina Mattia, a Refosco/Cab Franc/Merlot blend from the a couple different Santa Barbara AVA sources. This wine was probably my best restaurant wine selection this year, just in terms of my (and everyone else's) pleasure drinking it and the overall value. No tutti-fruity Cal-Ital here, this is serious wine that had a fresh, pure black currant, blackberry fruit quality to it not unlike a nice young Chinon. It was similarly silky as well, lacking only some of Chinon's herbal and earthy savor. As for the rest of the food, sides were well prepared, especially the mac and cheese (nothing fancy, no goat cheese used, just good 'ol tasty mac and cheese). Sauteed cauliflower was fine and the rapini tasty, though super lemony. My braised veal shoulder, accompanied by a flavorful reduction including chanterelles, parsley root, pearl onions, kale and fingerling potatoes, was the driest piece of meat I have eaten all year. It's too bad, the flavors were quite good and the dish would have been a winner had it not been so dried out. Oh well. Maybe it was a sign that I should stay away from veal dishes for moral reasons, as I used to? Deserts here are quite good - we had a chocolate cake and an apple tart with cinnamon caramel ice cream and creme anglaise. Our service was very professional, if a little quirky. Our server insisted on 'priming' each wine glass with the wine about to be served. Maybe this is a new trend in restaurant wine service? Anyway, good food, solid wine list and reasonable prices all add up to a solid neighborhood restaurant.

ZUNI

I did not realize how large Zuni is. The street entrance leads towards a long copper bar, staffed by people who really know what they're doing and how to welcome you to their spot. Once again, I was running a bit late meeting my parents for dinner. I met them and ordered a glass of Henriot Brut Souverain, which they comped. Maybe it was Thanksgiving generosity, or more likely my dad was working the schmooze earlier. Either way it was a nice gesture, and the Henriot was a tasty drink - crisp and a bit austere as always, lemony with a touch of red currant fruit. Not exciting champagne, but reliable and a great apertif. Zuni looks sort of like an upscale version of a large brewpub, with high expansive ceilings, lots of open space and distressed wood floors. Upstairs, the space is very cleverly broken up into several different smaller dining areas, which helps to keep the noise down and adds a sense of privacy. Our table was directly above the oyster bar. To start we had a bottle of Roland Schmitt Sylvaner, which was round, slightly creamy and tasted like baked apples and a hint of peach. Tasty and cheap. I had an order of roasted sardines, which were fine but not a standout. Salads were fresh and lightly dressed the way I like 'em. For the main course I had ordered a bottle of 2005 Lapierre Morgon - which was a good bit richer and more generous than I had anticipated it. Also considerably lower in acidity, which is too bad. One of my favorite cru Beaujies I have ever had was a Desvignes Morgon 'Javennieres' from the same 2005 vintage; it was much tighter but also a much more interesting wine.

For my main I ordered the much heralded roasted chicken to split with my mom - it was just ok. Back when I lived in DC, I would often judge a restaurant based on how flavorfully and originally they could prepare a plain old chicken dish. It was fun, and actually a good indicator of the overall quality of the cooking. Well, once again the chicken test worked, as I found Zuni to be pretty good, but not all that great. Definitely a good lunch spot, though. For dinner it's ok as well- if the location is convenient - and if someone else is handling the tab.

KRS-One, Marley Marl, Red Alert + Fat Joe Live

The holiday season is time for reflection, sharing our histories and, most importantly, dialogue. I stumbled upon this KRS-One/Marley Marl video and could not have found a better selection for the times. Unfortunately it's not posting to the blog for some reason, but here is a live clip which hopefully will post ok. The video, which should come up as one of the video links above, features the teacher KRS-1 doing what he does best, set to a visual backdrop of hip-hop history. It is a very solid song and video; even further, in the face of current (corporate) hip-hop's overriding sense of degradation, individualism and pessimism, this video is an empowering, communal, and optimistic statement.