Greetings from Washington, DC

Apologies for the most recent lapse this week. I have been in our nation's capital, taking in all the wonderful art (reassuring to know our taxes are occasionally put  to good use), and of course eating and drinking lots of good stuff.  More on the DC experience tomorrow.  Well we're almost in Bmore.  Will say hi to John Waters and Snoop for all of you....

Hip-Hop Friday Whose Line is it anyway edition

A special, goofy, winter themed edition for your viewing pleasure.

OWOS Wine Label Hall of Shame

A new occasional series on wine labels which perhaps should have never been. Or, depending on your point of view, were meant to be. Here is one that somehow got by the folks at this venerable Dry Creek Valley winery. A bottling destined for the OWOS Wine Label Hall of Shame. As a co-worker of mine once said, this one has earned a hallowed place in the Hall of Shame, "first ballot, uncontested."

Poulet au vin jaune et aux morilles

Photo Courtesy of Le Placard D'Elle

Chances are, if you are reading OWOS, then you can either translate, or posit a guess as to what the title means. Simply put, the magic that happens when you slowly cook a chicken with cream, a bottle of sous voile Jura white wine (or, sherry) and morel mushrooms is a marvel of regional French culinary experience.

Care to double down and drink some appropriate whites with your traditional Jura dish? Sounds terrific, in fact I would highly recommend you do just that. In my case a few weeks ago, the selections were 2000 Houillon/Overnoy Savagnin and 2000 Houillon/Overnoy Savagnin. Same vintage, same grapes, one sous voile (literally, "underneath a veil" which is in fact a white-ish layer of tufty yeast similar to flor in sherry country). The "voile" protects the wine from oxidation while adding a nutty oxidative note. It's confusing, I know. That having been said, the sous voile version actually tasted even brighter, more energetic, more alive and crackling with Savagnin acid goodness than its non oxidatively made counterpart.

If all this makes little sense, then I'm right there with you. To summarize: Jura style chicken with vin jaune and morels, delicious. Jura style chicken with vin jaune and morels served with top notch savagnin, religious. This will take you to church, synagogue, mosque and Buddhist temple, simultaneously.

Thank you, Guilhaume and Claire for your hospitality.

BEER, BEER, BEER, BEER...[sung to your tune of choice]

(L) David McDuff of McDuff's Food and Wine Trail and (R) Cory Cartwright of Saignee

I'm looking forward to whatever beer blogging project Saignee and MFWT (not to be confused with MFSB, also of Philly) are cooking up. These are two knowledgeable people when it comes to wine, food, and of course, beer. They also write with the best of 'em, so gents don't keep 'em waiting too long now, alright?

In other beer related news, I must admit that any 'coverage' (if you want to use that term in connection to any 'reporting' that happens here) of SF Beer Week was fairly non-existent on these pages. Sadly, I did not check much of anything out. I did go to Humphrey Slocombe for a tasting of all of their beer flavored ice cream on offer that day. The Lagunitas Brewing Company Hop Stoopid and bacon combo was solid, the others, well, they just tasted too much like beer. I think I (re) learned a valuable lesson: Beer is delicious, ice cream is great, but beer flavored ice cream does not really do it for me.

SF Beer Week is an extraordinarily busy time for participating venues. Apparently, Russian River Brewery ran out of Pliny the Younger early one night. That likely would have happened independent of any SF Beer week promotion, however I'm sure that the extra hype did not help matters. I wanted to check out Pi Bar's Russian River Brewery event, as it's close to my neighborhood and it seemed like a great way to taste many of the "-tion" beers. It was packed, though. It looked as though there was hardly any room to stand and, if necessary, use hand gestures (which I admittedly use more than many others). I would have dealt with it, but a certain pretty girl who spent all day on her feet in a kitchen baking nixed the idea and rightfully demanded a bar with a place to sit. We went to the Dovre for a terrific, proper, 20 oz pint of Guiness. Don't these look delicious?

So though I did ramp up the beer consumption last week, I did not make it out to any events. While SF Beer week is a wonderful way to support local brewers, promote their efforts, and galvanize the local beer afficionado community, I would make the suggestion to its organizers that it may not be a bad idea to tie in even more venues, to give people the option of communally celebrating without feeling cramped in any participating venue that one might visit.

Beer Day (Situations) - Fatt Snak

Never know what you'll find on Youtube. I searched for beer and hip-hop, and found this very pleasant surprise from north of the border, East Vancouver to be exact. A bit dark and moody and a really nicely done track. As anyone who knows me will attest, I am not easily impressed, but this I find to be very impressive stuff indeed.

Saturday's Winners, Loser and...?

Mostly winners, with one notable exception courtesy of Bordeaux, France. Without further ado here is what I tasted (and in some instances, drank) this past Saturday at work and then at Terroir.

WINNERS

Anchor Steam San Francisco

A local classic. Not the best or most exciting beer, but pretty darn tasty.

2006 Domaine de Tournelle Savagnin Arbois

Great acidity and freshness. This one tastes a bit more like white Burg than I remember.

NV Foreau Vouvray Brut

Solid sparkling Chenin. In the realm of Vouvray with bubbles I still prefer Huet when I want richness and complexity, Pinon when I want something bright and delicious, but Foreau is still very good.

2005 Jacques Puffeney Chardonnay Arbois

Classic Puff-puff: very broad, generous, persistent, and Jurassic like 5.

2005 Jacques Puffeney Trousseau Arbois

My sole/soul red for the evening....

2005 Domaine Rollin Pernand-Vergeless "Sous Fretille" 1er Cru

This wine showed better than when I last tasted 5 months ago, less oaky, and better put together. Still not as much to my liking as their 2004 villages, though.

LOSER

1999 Cos d'Estournel St.Estephe

I hereby pronounce this wine dead. Mort. Unfortunately, tasted several times over the past year, with consistent impressions.

WINES IN NEED OF MORE TIME

2000 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape

A tough wine to taste, especially after several glasses of higher acid white. I did not find that the wine budged much over the course of an hour. Grenache continues to form a major blind spot in my tasting experience. As I remarked to Jake of Cherries and Clay, who was in SF prior to heading back to his hometown for the Olympics, if I have a difficult time appreciating Rayas then it must be official: I have no love for grenache.

2006 Henri Gouges Cotes de Nuits Village Clos des Porrets St George

Very tight and unyielding right now. I'll check back in on this bottle a bit later this week.