Top 10 Wines of 2013

I drink a lot of wine, and over this past year have been able to share many great bottles with an array of people. In part to remember for my own sake, and also maybe one or two of you out there might be interested, I have narrowed the best down from memory to ten wines from this past year. Four white, four red, and two sparkling one being true Champagne and the other from elsewhere. If you get the chance to taste these wines, do it!

Whites

Gerard Boulay Sancerre Chavignol 2011-

Tasted in the Spring soon after its arrival, this wine instantly hit me. It was a nice Spring early afternoon turning to night, and upon opening the aromatics were intense and beckoned you to pay attention. Ah! How could a ~$30.00 wine be so grand and great!! Flint, smoke, cool Loire air, turning into mineral with nice acidity. In my mind I could picture the Loire River, meandering through vineyards and seeing a house in the distance billowing smoke from its chimney, with that and the fresh river air, the nose was made. Impeccable. The way Sauvignon Blanc should be.

Clemens Busch Marienburg 1er Felseterracen 2008-

Consumed after harvesting this historic and breathtaking vineyard, Felseterracen is the Busch family's prized plot. 80+ pre-phylloxera vines terraced between two dramatic gagged stone formations on an intense slope of the Marienburg Mountain. Light blue slate makes up the soil. Electric laser acidity in the mouth! Think the scene from Moonraker where they are fighting in space with lasers. No malolactic here. Acidity and coolness gives way to minerality that is unmistakable. This will be even more amazing with age.

Scholium Project Phillips Farm "Rhododactylos" 2011-

Named after the Goddess of Dawn, with the colour to match. Chef Tucker at the Clifton and I had ordered an eight pack of wines from Abe at Scholium following the brilliant New York Times article on the winery and Abe, and were slowly working our way through the wines after work. If you have ever had or seen his wines before, you know that the labels are all similar in that it may say the name of the wine or vineyard site, but doesn't tell you much more than that. Tucker and I would mostly go in blind with them, and read about them after to figure out what was special about the wine and where and from what it was made from. We popped this bottle, and began tasting. Almond, a little oxidative, but acidity and the clutch to make you want more. So mooreish, quaffable, attention grabbing, just, utterly unbelievably delicious! I hadn't any idea what I was drinking, I just knew that I loved it and could drink it till eternity's end. After a quick search, with disbelief we were drinking 140 year old vine Cinsault, from California! Wow! Made with a little skin contact, Tucker called it from the beginning that there was bit of tone in the pigment of the wine, a slight sparkle of orange-ish to pink, to drink until dawn.

Donnhoff Grauburgunder Trocken 2011-

Surprising. Cleansing. Refreshing! Made from the greatest winemaker in the world in my opinion, this was drunk in the wee hours in the morning at Maision Ilan in Nuits-St-Georges, Burgundy. We had been sorting all day (Monts Luisant if memory serves..) and were finally getting cleaned up. We had gone through a bunch of bottles that day, including other wines from Donnhoff ('08 Oberhauser Brucke Eisweine,) but this was really singing and so, so refreshing and delicious. Nothing to think about and nothing out of place, just a clean straightforward wine that was firing on all cylinders at the moment on a damp cold night in Burgundy.

Reds

Henri Gouges "Clos des Porrets" Premier Cru 1957-

A word to the wise, when opening something as epic as this don't wait till the end of the night. Last night working at Maison Ilan with Ray Walker, whom works out of Henri Gouges old house and cellar. He left a few bottles that were there when Ray started renting the place, this being one of them. Drank on the same day as my mom's birthday, from her birth year. Jaw dropping. Still intact.  Brown leather, dark old red cherry and deep anise-y spices ground into a mortar and pestle. Potpourri.  Still some acidity. How much longer could this live on for?!

Olivier Cousin Grolleau Vielles Vignes 2010-

First meal out after days of intense harvest work and little to eat in Burgundy. It was luxurious and needed to have a warm meal, and we decided to go to "Les Comptoir des Tontons" in Beaune following a recommendation from my friend. I have been seeking out Cousin's wines for sometime after reading about his fight with the government over AOC rules and him scoffing the system. This wine was 18E!!! on the list and I forced the table to agree to ordering it. (We were in Burgundy after all, and they were just as educated in wine as me, so I had to be forceful to get what I wanted!) Right as this was being poured the first courses came, and the pairing was a hit. I had ordered a braised tripe dish that was sitting in a pool of gelatin rich jus, and the wine ceremoniously stood right alongside it. This wine was pure funk. Black olives and gripping tannin followed by steel and copper. Dark and deep looking in the glass with an edge of neon purple on the lip. So fun to drink, a brilliant and just great wine from an honest farmer in the Loire. So utterly cheap! A reminder that great wine doesn't have to be expensive to be life changing. Search it out!

Domaine Fourrier Gevrey Chambertin aux Echezeaux Vielles Vignes 2008-

Taken blind against 2? other wines during an afternoon in Burgundy. The other was a Henri Jouan from same vineyard site and year?(memory is foggy). The Jouan was nice, easy going, bright fruit and easy to digest. (As I soon came to perceive all of his wines as.) The Fourrier on the other hand was in a tough spot. It had so much to tell, so much power sitting in the glass. It wasn't expressing it at the time, but it was there. It was emanating and contagious. On that day I was singular being the only one that enjoyed this more than the Jouan, and it was without a doubt in my opinion the clear winner. It was so intense, so focused, perhaps confused at this time, but the wine was a thinking and one day will be so brilliant. It makes me excited to this day, and confused at the same time. I hope to revisit it one day in the future, and see how far along it has come. These are the wines that make you love wine, ones that don't show everything, they seduce you and for the true wine lovers, make you come back for more. 

Domaine Francois Berthaeu Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2010-

Blind, same day as the Fourrier above. Enamored. Pure pinot. I hadn't a clue what was in my glass, only that it was the purest and most beautiful expression of pinot that I had ever tasted. Cherry, anise, and herbaceous. The room fell silent and the air was tense-everyone was pulsing. This wine was beautiful. 

Sparkling

Vigneto Saetti Lambrusco Rose 2011-

Man oh man this wine is utterly delicious. Drank on multiple occasions. Beautiful pink hue, strawberry but a bit darker. Flush mousse with yeast acid driven pink and red fruits. My god this is just a beautiful and delicious wine, drinkable everyday and reminds you why you love wine so much. A true crowd pleaser! 

Jerome Prevost La Closerie "Fac-Similie" Extra Brut Rose 2010-

I have a giant crush on this producer, and last year searched out this rare bottling for my birthday present to myself. The regular "Les Beguines" bottling is absolutely beautiful and search worthy, and this is no exception either. 100% Pinot Meunier, I wish we had decanted this or given it more time and attention. Nonetheless a beautiful rose Champagne, bread, yeast, and ripe red stone fruit and roses on the nose. Oh my is this a fantastic wine. I hope to taste one day a bottle with some age on it, and I hope in 2014 I will get the chance to taste this again. Heaven is found here. Who doesn't love rose champagne???

Success

What is success in life?

Money? A good/great/acclaimed job? Happiness? Material things?

Is it nothing more that a fleeting moment of reaching a milestone? What do you do when you reach it, quit working, or work harder, longer?

Rough Start

With in the beginning getting use to the kitchen once again, coupled with the time change and accelerated pace and long days that I wasn't accustomed to, its been a rough start. Add on to that my hands having multiple cuts infected on em, (mostly my left, since last Friday) from stupid nicks that happen when you are working in a fast pace environment. I've never had an infected cut in my life! Why oh why now. The biggest is on my left pointing finger, a pretty vital finger that slows me down a bit, makes me look quite clumsy cause I can't open a container at a fast speed with an ever tender opening finger.

Maybe I'm just being a pussy, but its been a difficult first two weeks. And now the past two days having not been able to work due to the infected finger(they have to be very cautious as of late since the noro virius outbreak), its left me stranded with not a single person I know about and in a city where everything is beyond fathomable prices! (Average coffee 6-8$, beer 4-8$, minimum on a cheap meal 22$+.) It's been nice weather but with a slight fever and achy body re:finger, I've slept a lot(which is great because you're not spending money when you dream!).

In the end, if I get offered a job I will be happy, but know it will be a long road ahead. 17 hours a day is a lot! Week after week. Never being able to get ahead. It will be good for me and the future, but will take its toll on my body and likely my heart for cooking. Maybe this is just a beginning outlook, maybe things would become more routine and easy over time.

If I don't get offered a job, it will suck because of the time, money, and work that I put into getting here. But there are many other things out there, and "easier" paths to take. But I don't want to disappoint! A shitty situation.

All in the little things

Subtlety-the further down the path, the more the little things become all the more important. The fine tuning. Nuance! Awareness of temperatures, weather, seasons and aromas. No longer is the mere completion the end, but the evolution and mere touches a step forward. Take it all in. Absorb. It will all come together.

Hey!

Why is everyone in this world and even more so in the restaurant world so cynical? And arrogant? And condescending?

Think before you say stuff next time. If its not positive, don't say it, ass hole.

Humility

Perhaps the greatest thing I learned in 2012 is humility. Acquired and toned through my time at The Clifton Inn, primarily through our guiding father Tucker Yoder, it has been a lesson and principle that I will not lose site of or forget any time soon.

So much of the world seems to be run by arrogance and boasting of ones self, and then you find those whom live quite a comfortable life yet complain or want things that are total luxury. If only we could all thing about those who don't know what they are going to eat next!!!! Or those washing dishes in New York City at a slamming restaurant for minimum wage everyday.

Caffeine? Alcohol? Fine coffee, fine wine? All luxury. Simple pleasures that we all don't need everyday, but imbibe on because we can.

Put's it all in perspective, think about others before complaining about yourself next time.

And think about those working for minimum wage or low pay, while cooking for the wealthy and extreme opposite next time.

The restaurant business is upside down in all ways possible.

Fall is here..

An excerpt from a letter I penned earlier today, perhaps a little poetic but frames my current state of mind...

"I have forgotten how much I love fall and how much nostalgia comes with it! I can smell it in the air. The trees are nearly at their breaking point, about to erupt into the beautiful shades of orange. The summer tomatoes are nearly done, and we are starting to see varieties of pumpkins and squashes arrive on our cutting boards. My desire has changed from refreshing dishes to heartier, and I find myself grabbing for more spices, namely the omnipresent fall spices. White wine is being exchanged for red, and warm soups are running through my mind. And I find that I am needing to bring my sweaters to Charlottesville."