My Wine Education

Guest Post: A Culinary Tour of St. Louis (or, where the locals eat)

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Kara Christopher, who has been a close friend for countless years.  Like me, Kara started blogging around the turn of the century. It's been a while! Kara lives in St. Louis and is, without a doubt, a foodie. She's also a foodie on a mission to get healthy, although you wouldn't know it from the culinary tour on which she's about to take you. St. Louis is a fun weekend trip - I've done it - and I highly recommend eating where the locals eat. Thanks Kara!
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While Shel is away in the wilds of Alaska, allow me to take you on a brief culinary tour of St. Louis. These are some of my favorite places, not necessarily the ones you'd be told to visit if you were in town for a weekend. Until now, at least.

I should probably tell you who I am, though. I'm Kara & I've been blogging about life, knitting, and everything else for a little over 5 years at StarMonkeybrass.com. The name is a play on the Beastie Boys Brass Monkey & came about because I like monkeys. I am a knitter, music geek, graduate student in biostatistics, and I like to eat. When I travel, I don't want to eat at chains, at least not ones that I can also eat at in St. Louis.

So let's say you find yourself in St. Louis for a weekend and you'd like a little guidance on where to eat. If you happen to be driving up from the south, I'd recommend a stop at Dexter BBQ for lunch. There are several locations, but the one in Cape Girardeau is about a mile off the highway and probably the easiest to find. I heartily recommend the sammich with slaw on it. *Drool*

Once you get into town and settle in on Friday night, you're gonna be hungry. I'm sending you to the Highway 61 Roadhouse & Kitchen in Webster Groves. Let's be completely honest: you're here for the fries. The Roadhouse Fries. They are a masterpiece in the world of potato products: waffle fries covered in pulled pork, a creamy cheese sauce, applewood smoked bacon, and scallions. And this is just the appetizer. I can recommend the burgers & pulled pork as entrees if you're feeling traditional. I love a good burger & the folks in the kitchen definitely know how to make one. I'd also recommend going with a side other than the fries since you just gorged on the ones in the appetizer. For a side, I'm a fan of the sweet potato pie. As tempting as it is to order the banana pudding for dessert, don't do it. You'll get dessert in about 20 minutes.

Once you've recovered from the pork-tastic goodness at Roadhouse, head back to Southwest City and stop off at Ted Drewes. There are two locations, but the original is on Chippewa. It's legendary around here and a Friday night is going to be busy. But it's so worth it - I swear they have the best banana split in St. Louis, although the concretes are what most people go for. My favorites are the Hawaiian & the All Shook Up (peanut butter cups & bananas).

Guest Post: Visiting the Suisun Valley Wine Country

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Jen Rizzo. Jen is a freelance motion graphics designer, part-time writer and Cincinnati transplant based out of San Francisco. She is a self-professed beer nerd living in the heart of wine country and spends her free time getting to know the area around her from the saddle of a thirty year old bicycle - she's also a good friend and I miss her. Thanks Jen!
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I moved to San Francisco from Cincinnati on Labor Day of 2008 and have made it a point to stay in the area for all the major holidays so I can learn how the city responds to them. I got to see the city empty out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, making it easier than ever to get a dinner reservation or sit at my favorite bar and not have to elbow people out of the way to get a drink. Of course, it didn't occur to me until two days before Memorial Day weekend that I lived in a major tourist destination. It was time to get out of the city.

This poses quite the challenge for me, you see, because I live in the Bay Area without a car. We're surrounded by all of this incredible terrain, and I see it all from behind the handlebars of a bicycle. This is great for being in the city, and it's very easy to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to get into Sausalito and toward the mountains, but anything beyond about fifty miles is certainly a breaking point for me. So, I consulted the power of the internet, specifically twitter, to decide my destination for me.

I'm not hugely connected in social media, and my twittering is sporadic at best, but I do have a number of wine connections as well as cyclists and San Francisco residents. My needs were simple: I had never been to wine country in the nine months I lived here, I needed to be able to do it without a car, and I wanted somewhere that was going to give me a good day of bike riding. Oh, and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to do it.

Napa was out. The tastings were too high and the hotels were either booked on the night I wanted to be there or astronomically expensive. Plus, my point was to avoid all the Memorial Day nonsense, and a tourist destination was not the place to do that. Our very own favorite wine blogger Michelle suggested Sonoma, but the bus from the city is really the only way to get there with bicycles, and it was going to take upwards of three hours one way.

Then a friend suggested a winery in Suisun Valley, a place I had never heard of. The hotels would be cheaper, he said, and the winery was only an eight mile ride from the Amtrak station. Upon digging around, I learned that there were in fact four wineries in Suisun Valley, and to visit all of them would be a perfect 25 mile loop from the train station, ending up at a hotel that was less than half the cost of a stay in Napa. Oh, and I could take two trains there in an hour and a half, and it would cost me less than $20 to get there, and bicycles were allowed the whole way. Sold!

We loaded up two messenger bags, two bicycles, and headed out for our trip. Two trains and an hour and a half later, we arrived at the Suisun/Fairfield Amtrak station.

 

For a brief moment, it was easy to forget we were in Northern California. It was cold and foggy when we got on our first train in the city, but by the time we arrived in Fairfield it was sunny and about twenty degrees warmer. The longest part of our journey was the first: an eight mile ride to Wooden Valley Winery.

Wooden Valley is a great place to start your journey. Their wines weren't my favorite (though quite enjoyable), and the experience was much less personal than some of the others we would enjoy that day, but their tasting room and visitor's center is huge. The walls list the story of the Suisun Valley: the brothers that founded the first winery post-prohibition, the families that moved in and made it what it is today. We were invited to taste five of their wines for free - something you'll be much harder pressed to find in the more well-known wine regions of Northern California. I had a full bag on my shoulders and no ability to carry more, so I wasn't able to walk away with any bottles to take home. Lucky for me, it turns out you can order direct from their website, and at a price point of $10-16, they make great value wines. I particularly enjoyed the 2006 Cabernet and their 2007 Riesling.

Guest Post: Kentucky's Jean Farris Winery

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Shannan Boyer, a local parenting blogger and one of the driving forces behind Cincinnati Women Bloggers - also one of my close friends! Thanks Shannan!
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Every summer our family packs up the car and heads down to Somerset, KY for a little boating on Lake Cumberland.  The drive down is about 2.5 hours long, giving us plenty of time to play car games and check out the scenery.  On our drive one of the things I’ve often noticed and have always been curious about were the road signs posted along I-75 for local vineyards.

Well this past weekend we headed down for our first trip of the summer and this time, rather than driving straight through to Somerset, we decided to be a little adventurous. We decided to pull off outside of Lexington and visit Jean Farris, a cute vineyard located off the very scenic Richmond Road.

Not having heard of Jean Farris, we had no idea what to expect as we drove down Richmond Road. When we finally arrived, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.  The drive up to the main building was lined with rows and rows of grapes.  It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

While normally my husband and I would have sampled a few of the wines before buying,  the bistro was not open at the time we arrived, so we went with our guts and purchased a bottle of their Riesling ($16).

From the label:

Cold fermented to preserve the bright tropical fruits and citrus notes. This lightly sweet Germanic white has a delicate balance, and soft floral notes.

Keep in mind I am no Michelle Lentz (ed. note: I think Shannan is doing just fine!), but I have to say that this was one amazing Riesling. I found it to have a sweet taste and could definitely identify the citrus notes.  The wine was smooth and I really enjoyed the fact that it didn’t have a dry aftertaste.  If you like dry wines, this would not be the wine for you. This wine was extremely easy to drink, and in fact, my husband and I finished the entire bottle in less than an hour – a feat for me – as usually I am a VERY slow wine drinker.

We are heading back down to Lake Cumberland soon and I will definitely be picking up a few bottles of their Riesling to have at home. Overall if I was using Michelle’s rating system, I would give Jean Farris’ Riesling a giant smiley face.

A local parenting blogger, Shannan Boyer resides in northern Kentucky with her husband and two young boys. When she’s not blogging about her family’s many adventures on her blog Mommy Bits, she and her family are likely to be found out exploring and enjoying all that greater Cincinnati has to offer.

Posts and Polls: Enter the Guests

Kevin and I get on a plane tomorrow morning, headed to the wilds of Alaska. Okay, not really the wilds. We're visiting one of my girlfriends in Anchorage then meeting up with Kevin's extended family for a 7-day Alaskan cruise. There will be much walking, hiking, and eating. We're finishing up the trip with a couple of days in Vancouver then heading home.

We're back for about a week and a half. After that, I head to BlogHer, where I'm speaking on a panel about food and wine blogging. That same few days, Kevin will be heading to Sonoma for the 2nd Annual Wine Bloggers Conference, and luckily he'll be live blogging from some of it. 

So first up, a poll. While in Alaska, I'll be in a place where the Internet can't always find me. However, I'll try to post occasionally. Verizon Wireless has kindly provided me with a complimentary MiFi for the trip - where ever there is Verizon, there will be Internet. But I'm not sure that even Verizon can reach the Icy Straits or the glaciers. I will be recording events as I can for our oft-neglected family blog. If you want me to post all about Alaska here as well, let me know in the poll below.

July? What July? We're gone for most of it. But I've got it under control! So that you still get information on a regular basis (when my MiFi isn't accessing a network that is), I've lined up a group of guest bloggers. They've already given me their posts (so that I don't have any surprises) and they are scheduled and ready to go. For the times Kevin and I are gone, you'll be hearing from our friends and colleagues, both locally and in other exciting cities.

I hope you enjoy their insight! They'll be bringing you different perspectives based on their locations, jobs, and interests.

You'll be hearing from

• Jay Erisman from The Party Source in Newport
• David Lazarus, oenophile extraordinaire and local blogger
• Kevin Keith, Wine Buyer at Liquor Direct, local blogger, and quite the wine academic
• Shannan Boyer, local parenting blogger and a wine drinker just like you
• Jen Rizzo, foodie, graphic designer, and recent San Francisco transplant
• David's wife Jan Lazarus, an oenophile in her own right and a dietitian with a unique outlook on wine
• Kara Christopher, fun foodie from St Louis
• Tom Streeter & Carla Gesell-Streeter, local beer bloggers who enjoy a good glass of wine

Thanks, and "see" you in about two weeks!

Cheers!
Michelle

TasteCamp: Lunch @ Shinn Estates

Saturday we had lunch at Shinn Estates, provided by Shinn, Macari, and Jamesport Vineyards. The food was excellent and all local- duck, arugula, mushrooms and couscous, asparagus and pasta salad, and I'm not sure what all else. I played vegetarian and stuck to the salads. 

There were a multitude of wines on the table, for which I might have scribbled tasting notes for a couple bottles. But first - the conversation.

The winemakers talked with us about sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming. They incorporate practices from all three into their vineyards, but have found that the Long Island land/climate prohibits them from going completely biodynamic/organic. Pesticides, for instance, still need to be used occasionally. For the most part, the vintners try to "trust in the land."

They pointed out that they feel lucky to have anything grow at all, considering that Long Island is just a "giant sandbar sticking 120 miles into the ocean."  I can't argue with that, but based on the sheer number of vineyards, nurseries, and farms I saw, growing doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. Long Island grape growing, however, is only about 40 years old.

To achieve sustainability, they try to be true farms (yes, folks, vintners are often "grape farmers"), with chickens, rabbits, cows, and horses all resident on the property. This allows for effective composting and fertilizing, all within the farm. Part of the sustainability is letting things like dandelions grow wild. I can't remember why, per se, but it makes for a lovely photo. You'll also notice that the dandelions grow in the area directly under the vines, so something is healthy there somewhere.

It was a really interesting conversation and, oddly enough, they even passed around a flower pot filled with, um, manure. Sounds worse than it was. This is what they bury in the horn at the full moon, or some such thing. I've always sort of poked fun at that practice, but they made mention that the horns add calcium to the soil, so I feel better knowing there's a method to the madness.

(Tasting notes and more conversation after the jump.)

TasteCamp: Paumanok Vineyard

On Saturday we visited Roanoke, Paumanok, Shinn, Bedell, and Lenz, with a myriad of tastings in between and during each visit. I managed to still be taking notes when we got to Paumanok (only 2 wineries in). We also got a rather nifty barrel tasting at Paumanok, straight from the wine thief (which is a tool, not a person).  This German family-owned winery was one of our favorites that we visited.

Nifty tidbit: Paumanok was the first vineyard on Long Island to move to screwcaps for many of their wines.

Tasting notes are after the jump.

TasteCamp: Thoughts on Long Island Wines / Wine Industry

I don't have as many wine notes as I would like from this weekend. Some folks were diligently finding every possible surface to write on, but after the first couple vineyards, well, I just gave up. However, I did have a writing surface for both Shinn and Paumanok, which were also my two favorite vineyards that we visited. I'll post tasting notes for Shinn, Paumonok, and Roanoke over the next few days and into next week.

Looking at the trip as a whole, I had two issues with Long Island wine:

1) Merlot merlot merlot. It's pushed on you, and I think it overshadows other grapes they offer that are just as good or, in many cases, better. Most of the time (with a few exceptions) I wasn't overly blown away by the Long Island Merlot you hear so much about. I had a great cab franc, some not bad sparkling wines, a few lovely cabernet sauvignons, and some great whites and rosés, which were a wonderful change after an overload of reds.

2) Prices. Egads!  I fully expected to ship home a case of wine, but I think we only brought home about five bottles - two of which were dessert wines. Why? Price vs quality. There are a couple of ways to look at this. Most of the wineries are content, it seems, to cater to a New York-area market. If that's the goal, and the locals are willing to pay the prices, then I suppose there is no issue. But if there is any desire to expand into a larger retail market, some of those prices have got to fall. At Roanoke Winery, for example, I was perfectly thrilled with their wines and made the assumption they were all around $20 or so dollars. When I found out they were in the $30-$40 range, well, I was shocked. As I said, some of the prices put a damper on my purchasing. Good for the pocketbook, but not so good for the wineries.

I was impressed with the commitment to sustainable farming we learned about at a lunch provided by Jamestown, Macari, and Shinn Estates. The lunch was all locally grown / farmed / fished and all three wineries, while not certified organic, are working towards it. In some cases, they are happily adding in biodynamic practices. I've said before that while I don't actually buy into biodynamics, I do believe that anyone who is going to pay that much attention to each individual vine and the soil is just going to grow great grapes. Their efforts at sustainability are admirable, especially since, as they pointed out, Long Island is basically a giant sandbar. Biodynamic-leaning Shinn Estates, with their wild dandelions lining the vineyard, was by far one of the prettiest I've seen, even just at bud break.

Our weather for the trip was lacking, until mid-afternoon on Saturday when the sun chose to peek out of the rain clouds long enough to allow us all to traipse through Shinn Estate's vineyards. But for those of you who thought I had a relaxing, beach-filled trip to the Hamptons, rest assured there was much use of the umbrella. It didn't really dampen the fun though.

I'd love to go back to Long Island - I know that much. When Kevin and I travel, we love to learn about the local wine. But we itch to explore everything else as well. Time to learn a little more about the area wasn't really scheduled in, so we found time where we could. Friday, before the festivities started, we ate at an historic diner in Cutchogue and visited a couple of wineries on our own (as well as the Big Duck roadside attraction in Flanders).

Before dinner that night, as well as early Saturday morning, we spent some time walking the adorable town of Greenport where we were staying. I'd love to visit again in the summer when all the little stores are open. Finally, we made a decision to be late to the Sunday tasting so that we could at least drive through the Hamptons and visit the gorgeous old lighthouse in Montauk, at the very tail end of the South Fork. As Roman Roth (winemaker for Wolffer Estate) said when we walked in late, "It's a very Long Island."

If you're up for a weekend getaway, it was an easy flight from Cincinnati to LaGuardia, and an easy 90 minute drive down the Long Island Expressway to get to the North and South Forks of Long Island.

TasteCamp East: Thanks for the Memories!

Wasn't that Bob Hope's sign-off song? It's appropriate here, and you're all lucky I don't embed an annoying midi to blare out the old standard.

Kevin and I thoroughly enjoyed TasteCamp.  From hanging out in vineyards during budbreak to eating great food and learning a lot about the Long Island wine industry, it was a non-stop good time.

We really want to thank Lenn, who organized the entire shindig from start to finish. Additionally, it was great of the wineries to host us, often feed us, and take time out from their own busy schedules to take a bunch of bloggers seriously. That was truly appreciated.  I can truly say the Long Island wine industry is thriving. All day Saturday the tasting rooms were dealing not just with a crowd of bloggers, but with separate throngs of willing tasters.

No matter where we meet - Long Island, Sonoma, or the middle-of-nowhere - there is nothing but great conversation and camaraderie when wine bloggers meet. It is always so wonderful to sit at a table of like minds. It's also fun to sit at a table where I'm not the only one pulling out a camera to snap a photo of the food!  I can't tell you how great it is to meet and catch up with these other astute, funny, and friendly bloggers.  When I teach blogging, I explain that you are joining a community. Wine bloggers exemplify "Community" in every way.

I think Long Island and Ohio - at least what I know of the northern Ohio/Lake Erie area - are in a similar place with their wine industry. Southern and Ohio and Kentucky aren't quite as far along, but seeing thriving local wine industries like this reassures me that our local folks aren't that far behind.

View all our TasteCamp posts.

Tomorrow I'll start the first of several posts about some neat experiences we had on the trip. For now, you can flip through my Flickr album below.

TasteCamp EAST 2009

Last year Kevin and I attended the Wine Blogger's Conference in Sonoma. This year, that conflicts directly with BlogHer, where I'm slated to speak on a panel about wine & food blogging. Kevin gets to go to California - but I'll be in Chicago.

 

So we're also attending the 1st Annual TasteCamp EAST in Long Island Wine Country. TasteCamp was the brainchild of my friend and Long Island wine blogger Lenn Thompson. He says,

The concept for TasteCamp is a simple one: getting enthusiastic bloggers together in a region that is new to them to taste as much wine as possible and speak to as many winemakers as possible over the course of a weekend. Most smaller, lesser-known wine regions in the world would love to get their wines in front of bloggers, but with TasteCamp, the bloggers will go to them.

It's a small group of us (about 30 bloggers and spouses), but we've got a full schedule. Our itinerary includes

• Welcome Reception and Wine Dinner at Raphael Winery, sponsored by Raphael and the Long Island Merlot Alliance
• Tasting at Roanoke Vineyards
• Tasting at Paumanok Vineyards
• Lunch at Shinn Estate Vineyards, sponsored by and featuring wines from Jamesport Vineyards, Macari Vineyards and Shinn Estate Vineyards
• Long Island Wine Council Tasting at Shinn Estate Vineyards featuring wines from 10 wineries we aren’t visiting
• Tasting at Bedell Cellars
• Tasting at Lenz Winery
• BYOB Dinner at Grand Cru Classes
• Tasting at Wolffer Estate
• Tasting at Channing Daughters Winery

It is a jam-packed weekend full of wine and blogger fun. Lenn's hope is that we can have TasteCamps all over the States. I have a head full of ideas for a TasteCamp OHIO in possibly 2010 but absolutely no idea how to organize it.

So that's where we'll be on Friday through Sunday. I hope to fill this blog with tales of the Hamptons (because we're pretentious, you know) throughout next week.

Cheers!

Las Vegas: Simon at the Palms

My first night in town, I met up with some of the more party-prone folks at the conference and we hit the town. Our conference was at the Rio, off-strip, so it was natural that we'd head to the nearby Palms. If you follow any celebrity gossip, you know that the Maloofs own the Palms and they've somehow made it a celebrity haven. All I knew was that I was hungry.

We ate at Simon at Palms Place. Palms Place is the adjacent Palms tower (every casino seems to have a special second tower now) that you access via the SkyTube. I thought the SkyTube would be quite exciting, but it's more of an airport people mover. Rather boring for such a trendy hotel.

Simon is on the 6th floor of Palms Place. It's adjacent to a gorgeous pool area - closed in the winter - and surrounded by palm trees and fireplaces on the outside. Inside it boasts stark, clean, and modern lines. An interesting features was a sort of greenhouse in a far room, which was obviously growing herbs and assorted greens.

The by-the-glass wine list was okay, but not overly impressive. I ended up with a 2007 Ferrari-Carrano Sauvignon Blanc because I knew I could trust it. It ran me about $11/glass. The wine list was small but focused. I particularly liked their selection of organic and biodynamic wines. The one that stood out was the "Clor Sacres" Savennieres from Nicolas Joly, which costs $75. To give you an idea of the markups, the bottles in the Spanish section cost about $20 over the retail price. I suspect that was the sweet spot on the list, and I'm rather encouraged by that.

The menu was eclectic. I'm not a food blogger, but I'd say it was nouveau American cuisine + sushi. Chef Kerry Simon brings in fresh, locally grown products and in many cases, organically grown. I've read that since, but it was also pretty obvious to me just from the menu. As many of you know, I'm a complicated eater. I'm picky and I have food allergies. There was plenty on the menu that I would eat, which I found refreshing.

I ordered an endive salad (sans walnuts) followed by citrus-braised short ribs with corn tempura and a bed of grits. It's the first time I've ever had grits and I doubt I'll ever find them quite so soft, fluffy, and un-grit-like again. It was excellent. Several folks at the table had ahi tuna and sushi, both of which received rave reviews.

As far as service, I found the front waiter (er, waitress) to be rather condescending and rather lacking in customer service. That said, the back waiter was excellent. We chose not to have dessert but noticed a table next to us enjoying a huge serving of Cotton Candy. No kidding. We grabbed it and joked around, so the back waiter brought us a small serving of our own Cotton Candy, no charge.

Overall, I rate Simon with a , despite the fact I was so turned off by our server. After all, the rest of our service, from the bus boys to the hostess, was excellent.

Following Simon, we trekked back to the original Palms tower and visited the Playboy Club, which was surprisingly old-school and classy. Yes, both the waitresses and the dealers were wearing bunny outfits. It was a throwback to the '60s and didn't bother me in the least. We followed that up with a trip upstairs to the Moon nightclub. It wasn't my thing at all (a little too techno when I'm all about Sinatra) but I did enjoy the retractable roof and the gorgeous views of the mountains and Las Vegas.

View a complete slideshow of the Palms, including Simon and the Playboy Club here or on Flickr.