The Wine Hacker.com

Soft, Elegant 2012 Hess Allomi Cabernet Graces a Perfect NYE Meal

Paging through the backlog of my tasting notes, one worthy wine that was the keynote of a fantastic New Year's Eve meal was the 2012 Hess Allomi Cabernet.   

A gift from friends for Christmas (the Worleys), this amazing wine was our contribution to a decadent feast at Santa Clara's Birk's restaurant.  How did we manage to get a table at Birk's for NYE?  Easy.  The day after Thanksgiving, we logged into Opentable and searched for a restaurant where we could get an early reservation that wasn't too far from home.  At our age, we wanted to go home and watch the ball drop rather than party hard.  

True to the Hess name, this wine was aristocratic, full-bodied, and flavorful.  When it was first poured into our glasses, the holiday lights illuminated its jewel-like clarity until it looked like the star from the top of the tree.  The nose was full of forward cranberry and black cherry fruit, with a spicy, black coffee finish.  

We both enjoyed red meat as our main course - I had a luscious prime rib with horseradish sauce and hubby enjoyed a medium rare filet with a wild mushroom sauce.  And I forgot to mention the "palate cleansing" appetizer the staff brought us between our salads and the main course - a lobster truffle tart.  Our wine choice stood up well with all of these rich and complex foods - it was soft and gentle enough to complement the lobster tart, yet stout and rich enough to stand up to the red meat entrees.  

The fruity nose promised a rich delight, and it did not disappoint.  We enjoyed a deepening berry jam flavor as we first sipped from our glasses,  and a rich, velvety texture that is simply not found in lesser wines.  The black coffee nose gave way to a rich, earthy background tone - with a clean finish and no aftertaste.  A light oak flavor rounds out the burst of flavor from this big, bold red - and complements the hint of black pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg in the finish.  

This beautiful wine is available from Wine.com for $31.99.   

Food Pairings:  A great wine to pair with rich and elegant foods, like lobster, steak, horseradish sauce, and black truffles.  In short, a wonderful special occasion wine.  

Music Pairings: We enjoyed it to Auld Lang Syne

Activity Pairing: What a great romantic evening wine!  Would also be wonderful while watching a classic movie, like Casablanca or Driving Miss Daisy.  

 

Wine, the iPhone, and Getting the Most for Your Money

If you are like me, you enjoy trying new wines.  This means pacing back and forth amongst the rows and rows of wines at Bevmo or the grocery store, trying to make sure you have something novel and interesting that doesn't taste like lark vomit.   But alas, no matter how much you try, lark's vomit does indeed happen from time to time.  This is not disasterous unless you are taking it to a dinner party, or worse, a home for dinner  with the boss.  

How do you prevent these tastebud terrors?  Use your iPhone and grab the Wine Ratings app from iTunes.   

Designed for use within restaurants, this app shows you a picture of the label and a rating very quickly.  It has the largest database of any wine app on the market, I have yet to find a wine that it doesn't contain.   

It also shows the average price, which allows you to see if you are getting a good deal or getting taken for a ride!  

I love the pairings guide, and the Quick Picks are very useful if you want to plan what you pick up before hitting the store.   Here is what you see when you click on an individual wine: 

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this app!   At $3.99, it was a bargain as it has undoubtedly saved me from many bad purchases.   

Historic MacArthur Park Restaurant in Palo Alto, and the 2007 St Supery Cabernet

On November 5th, 2011 - Bert and I got married at this beautiful location in Palo Alto, amidst friends and family , with great music, food and wine. We couldn't have asked for a more romantic location, or better staff than at MacArthur Park.   Last night, the restaurant held its annual Client Appreciation event for those of us who booked an event within the last year - and a great time was had by all.     

If you have never tried MacArthur Park's famous BBQ'ed ribs, I highly suggest heading there right now (assuming you are in the Bay Area and within driving distance - otherwise I suggest visiting here and making this a must on your itinerary) and ordering them - they are worthy of anyone's bucket list! The sauce is sweet, rich and pungent, with a bite but not too hot.  I could eat my weight in these ribs, but my committment to my waistline meant that I had to be "good" last night... That didn't stop me from having two small ribs, which I hopefully erased from my calorie count by going on a good run beforehand.   

Along with many small tables of appetizers, sausages, fresh fruit, and ribs - the restaurant also had tasting stations for many wonderful wines.    I have several to write about, but the "shining star" (or at least the best wine for accompanying ribs) was the 2007 St Supery Cabernet Sauvignon.   

This wine is extremely dry and needs to have a rich accompanying dish to help offset some of the heavy tannins - but with the ribs, it was exotic and delightful.   I tasted rich toasty oak flavors, along with tobacco, leather, and black current.  It remained complex and solid all the way from the fore palate to the back palate, with no loss of intensity and flavor.   A deep garnet in color - this Cab also had outstanding clarity.  

Food Pairings:   Ribs Baby!!   This wine was so amazing when paired with smoky ribs that my taste buds were turning backflips.   And these ribs are just the best.  Bert also tells me that it went well with very sharp Cheddar cheese.   

Music Pairings:  I would eat ribs and sip this wine slowly while listening to the King - BB King that is...   

Where to Buy: If you are local, head up to MacArthur Park and try the rib/wine combo.  If not, then click on the bottle below to purchase from Wine.com.  I haven't been able to locate another source (besides the winery itself)   - readers, if you see it anywhere else, let  me know!     

 

Girl's Night Out, and the Jason Stephens 2007 Cabernet - a Perfect Match!

Once every three months or so, a group of female Cisco managers (including yours truly) get together to network, share stories and enjoy great wine. This Thursday we met at our usual hang - Birks Restaurant in Santa Clara.   Networking and building relationships is very important in any industry, but especially so in the Silicon Valley and high tech, where schedules are packed so tightly that coming up for air just to eat dinner can be a real challenge. 

 

Although our little group was represented by only three of us, we had a great time sharing war stories, discovering that our paths had crossed many many years ago in prior careers, and just chatting!   Punctuating our gathering was a wonderfully rich, deep and complex Cabernet from Santa Clara Valley - the 2007 Jason Stephens Cab. 

Nicely "chewy" with structured tannins (but not too astringent), this Cab was complex and deep without being overpowering, kinda like the women drinking it!  Not surprisingly, I found that this fine Cab was a Gold Medal winner and rated at a 90  on the famous Wine Spectator scale.  Full of forward fruit, I also tasted fresh rhubarb and ripe elderberries along with a hint of leather and rich oak.   We really enjoyed our 300 calories (per my friend Marcia, each glass of wine is 150 calories, better make 'em count!) each, and highly recommend this yummy wine.

Food Pairings: I enjoyed this wine with a pita bread, wild mushroom appetizer and found that the earthiness of the mushrooms formed a nice complement to the wine.   It would also be wonderful with marinated New York Strip Steaks, a beautiful bacon wrapped meatloaf, or a nice tri-tip roast.   My friends found it also went well with a roasted chicken skewer - where the charcoal flavors would be a nice companion to the tannic structure of this Cab.