Hurricane Irene

As many of you may know that when Hurricane Irene came to town Jenn and I lost power for over 4 days. That necessitated a little bit of wine drinking (details shortly), but prior to jumping into that, we had one outrageous dining experience to discuss.

Brooklyn Fare Chef’s Table – Our friends Molly and Brian Kennedy told us back in March that they had their greatest (to date) dining experience at a restaurant in Brooklyn, of all places. It was at the Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare. They also said we had to go…fat chance, the place is in Brooklyn. It might as well be in Tennessee (e.g. Blackberry Farms!). In any case, Brian and Molly were on it and eventually came to us with a reservation, and a place to stay in NYC if we needed it. Hard to pass up.


Jenn did a very good job discussing the restaurant and the experience, so I’ll be brief. If you have the opportunity to go, don’t pass it up. Terrific food. The twenty or so one-bite appetizers were all amazing. The slightly bigger full courses were all excellent. It’s a fun, plan to meet your neighbor while you eat, informal place, but with some of the best food you’ll ever have experience. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed, nor any note taking, so food descriptions are hard. Don’t worry, though, its top notch.

Another great part about this restaurant, at least when we were there, was that it was BYOB. Supposedly, it won’t be much longer. However, in expectation of great food, I brought along two great wines, and they didn’t disappoint either.

1990 Salon Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne – I haven’t had a Salon in quite a while…probably because I have a limited supply, they really benefit from some bottle age, and the prices have tripled since I bought the bottles I have. In any case, I do try to keep up with others’ tasting notes on them. I was quite surprised to see a few people who had the 1990 recently say that their bottles were showing a great deal of oxidation, or those sherry-like, cooked fruit type flavors. Seeing that Salon is known for its longevity, this was worrisome. There is a saying, “there are no great wines, just great bottles”. Well, this night provided us a great bottle. Being 21 years old, this bottle of wine gave us both a freshness and acidity that went well with the food, but also all the hints of those complex flavors of nuts, honey, and pastry. Clearly one of the best bottles of Champagne I’ve had in a while, and hard to think of a better one in recent memory. So glad I have additional bottles, but also wish I had the kind of money to buy more. I originally paid about $160, but would expect to pay at least double that now.

Brian had brought 3 bottles of white wine, all from Burgundy, which I don’t fully remember. I believe one was a Philippe Colin, but don’t quite remember the other two. They were all excellent, and went with the early courses very well. As we started to get into the later courses, we switched to a red.

2005 Kistler Kistler Vineyard Pinot Noir – Kistler is well known for their Chardonnays, but I heavily prefer their Pinot Noirs. They are always very clean (meaning the flavors seem untainted and clear), elegant, but full flavored. They can also be a bit hard to come by as the winery makes you buy the chardonnays to get the pinots. On this night, I could not find any fault with this wine…it was simply delicious. I also had the chance to taste this side by side with a 2002 Rochioli Estate Pinot Noir (which my dining neighbor shared with me after I poured him a glass of the 1990 Salon), and while I thought the Rochioli was good, the Kistler was better. I bought this bottle direct from the winery for $80, and while I thoroughly enjoyed this wine, there are only Pinots I could buy for cheaper than I would enjoy just as much. Also, a quick apology to Brian & Molly as I noticed when taking this out of my inventory that I had brought this same wine to their home last year.

1999 Charles Heidsieck Brut Rose Champagne – prior to heading to Brooklyn, Molly, Brian, Jenn, and I all met at the Kennedys’ Murray Hill apartment for an aperitif. I have this wine six times now, all were bought for $50 a bottle from an online retailer, and this was possibly the best of the six. The color is always a bit on the orange side of pink/rose, and the flavor profile always seems to be less fruity and more vinous. However, this was the best balanced bottle between fruit and vinous flavors, as well as fresh versus secondary notes with good acidity. Overall, I think I prefer other Brut Rose Champagnes more, however, so would only look to buy this if the deal was good.

The day after Brooklyn Fare Hurricane Irene left us with no power and 5 inches of water in our basement and wine cellar. Thus, the following couple of wines were drank due to the worry that they were damaged due to having their corks submerged in water for a couple of days.

2007 Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir – No water damage here…cork was completely dry at the top, and the wine was excellent. I bought this direct from the winey via the mailing list for $50, and will continue to buy as many as they allot me. Great flavors of cola/sassafras, as well as cherries and other red fruits. Enough acidity to tackle food, but delicious on its own. Put Rivers-Marie on your short list of wines to try when you get the chance.

2007 Kutch McDougall Vineyard Pinot Noir – Another dry cork despite 4 days under water and no issues with the wine. A bit less acidic than the Rivers-Marie, but excellent flavor overall. Would tend to want to drink this in the next 3 to 4 years, and with this flavor profile, I expect the remaining bottles to all be delicious and go fast. Bought direct from the winery via the mailing list for $52.

2006 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir – Seems my worry of these bottles being under water was not warranted, except for maybe some label damage, as this wine again showed fine. I also bought this direct from the winery via the mailing list, but at $58 for an appellation wine instead of a single vineyard wine, clearly this bottle had the lowest quality to price ratio of the pinots drank due to Irene. This wine also had a slight touch of oxidation, so would look to drink these sooner rather than later.

2008 Sojourn Windsor Oaks Pinot Noir – Sojourn is one of those under-the-radar wineries that is turning out a lot of excellent wines lately. However, their pricing seems to be creeping up just slightly. This wine was $48 from the mailing list, but while it provided a better quality to price ratio than the KB, was my least favorite of the 4 bottles. Again, there didn’t seem to be any damage from the water soaking, but I was hoping for a fuller flavor profile. Could just be in a muted, shut-down phase, so I’ll try another one in 6 months to see where they are going.