Trestle on Tenth with frogs

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Sharon Bowman

Sharon Bowman
Went there tonight for some supremely tasty chow and necessarily non-French wine, due to the provenance of the co-diners.

As a result, had a 2010 Lioco Demuth Vineyard Anderson Valley Chardonnay, clocking in at 12.3% abv, and which while not EARTHSHATTERING to your reporter, was good PR work, as the frog element considered it confoundingly restrained and lovely for wine of its ilk and region. I drank it too.

Then, I grew more daring. A 2010 Bloomer Creek Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc was a playful pup. Oddly big, pleasingly grainy-textured, it was a total hoot. An OVNI, as the frogs said. It was a happy-making thing. Not quite New York Chinon, but its own curveball for our part of the world. More again, if you'd please.

And I will say that the food that Ralf Kuettel is making at ToT is just such the slam dunk.*

And the friends each had a glass of Northern Spy Ice Cider (which I tasted; well, it's, um, American, for sure... no, no, it was "interesting," but ice cider is a limited range). I had a digestif of (mumblemumble) Austrian fancy distiller wild plum brandy. It made me wish for an ice cube or water to get it to open a little more, but we were too talky and I didn't ask for any modification of an aqueous nature, so I had it as it was. I still muse on the use of the goutte that is so concentrated, tightly coiled in its flavors and high in its alcohol. Musings from others welcome.

*Yes, I am using different sports metaphors. It must be the cold.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
I still muse on the use of the goutte that is so concentrated, tightly coiled in its flavors and high in its alcohol.
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Guy de Maupassant said it best:

"The table was laid in the great kitchen that would hold a hundred persons; they sat down to dinner at two o'clock; and at eight o'clock they were still eating, and the men, in their shirt-sleeves, with their waistcoats unbuttoned and with red faces, were swallowing down the food and drink as if they had been whirlpools. The cider sparkled merrily, clear and golden in the large glasses, by the side of the dark, blood-colored wine, and between every dish they made a "hole," the Normandy hole, with a glass of brandy which inflamed the body and put foolish notions into the head. Low jokes were exchanged across the table until the whole arsenal of peasant wit was exhausted. For the last hundred years the same broad stories had served for similar occasions, and, although every one knew them, they still hit the mark and made both rows of guests roar with laughter."
 
Had us a bottle of the 2010 Bloomer Creek CF last night and wholeheartedly endorse our reporter's take. There are was something new worldish about its friendliness, but a nonglouglou, unsycophantic kind of friendliness, that kept pulling you back for more, without imposing or nudging. Not much in the way of Cab Franc specificity, at least as I know it, just a warm and fuzzy red wine happiness.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
something new worldish about its friendliness
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Hmmm. Remember that this is a part of the world in which until very recently, each vintage was in danger of freezing Vitis vinifera to death.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
something new worldish about its friendliness
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Remember that this is a part of the world in which until very recently, each vintage was in danger of freezing Vitis vinifera to death.
Click to expand...

The impression was all the more surprising given its reticent 12.4% (place must have spoken more loudly than latitude; just teasing). But I am disappointed that you are not at all impressed that a bottle of this über-domestic wine managed to find its way down here on the strength of your review.
 
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