Capital Grille Introduces the Generous Pour Summer Wine Event

The Capital Grille is a well-known steakhouse with multiple locations in the DC region; Tysons, downtown DC and Chevy Chase. It's a common place for business luncheons or client dinners but also a great date night spot. White linen table clothes, dim lighting, knowledgeable servers, dark wooden fixtures, The Capital Grille just gleams with class and elegance.

Led by Master Sommelier, George Miliotes (www.twitter.com/TheWineExpert), the wine selection is fantastic. They serve a lot of large, robust California Cabs to pair perfectly with the filet mignons and sirloin steaks. The Generous Pour event is held at all Capital Grille locations from July until September 2. What's this event, you ask? With the purchase of dinner, you can add the wine selection for $25! The wines available to taste and order include a bubbly, two whites, five reds and a sweet dessert wine. Not bad! Especially when you're looking at $50+ for a bottle or by the glass at $10+. The Generous Pour event is a great way to try numerous wines and pair them with different dishes.

Bryan and I visited for dinner last night specifically for the Generous Pour event. I mean, how could I not? We were promptly greeted and escorted to our table. The server, "Coach", was very attentive and walked us through the menu and wine selections. I can see why his nickname would be "Coach"! He welcomed us to the Capital Grille with a glass of Lunetta Rosé from Italy. I love starting any event, evening, celebration with bubbly, there's just no other way. Pale pink in color, this sparkling showcases crisp, refreshing flavors of berries. It was a perfect starter to our meal.

Soon after, the appetizer arrived; fried calamari with sauteed jalapenos and red peppers. Instead of just placing the appetizer in the middle of the table and we serve ourselves, Coach served each of us a small plate which was a nice touch to a shared appetizer. The calamari was crispy and the breading was flavorful. I love the addition of the peppers, it really kicked it up a notch. The effervescence of the bubbly was perfect with the fried breading and spice. We were also served the Gary Farrell Chardonnay from Carneros. An oaky, vanilla chardonnay with hints of lemon, this was another great pairing with the calamari. The butteryness was a great accompaniment to the spicy peppers.

While we were waiting on the entree course, we were able to taste the Villa Mt Eden, Grand Reserve, 2007 Pinot Noir, a light, smooth red wine from the Russian River Valley in CA. This was the perfect time to place this wine in our tasting. The appetizer was complete, the meal had not yet arrived and this Pinot was perfect on it's own. Strawberries, cherries, and oak were prominent on the nose and palate. Both Bryan and I enjoyed this wine over simple conversation.

Then our entrees arrived, filet mignon for me and the bone-in Kona crusted sirloin for him. We were also served two sides; mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. And of course more wine was on the way! We had the Ferrari-Carano Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley with our steaks. Wow, what a big CA Cab. Bold flavors of cherry and oak paired with smooth tannins and a long finish. This was the perfect wine to pair with our robust, juicy steaks. Speaking of steaks, my filet was to die for! Cooked perfectly medium-rare, I barely needed the knife and the texture was divine, melt in your mouth. The Kona crusted sirloin had a coffee rub and was rather large. Also, cooked medium-rare, the sirloin was a little more tough, compared to the filet obviously, but had great flavor.

Once the Ferrari-Carano Cab was finished, Coach brought us a glass of the Conn Creek Anthology from Napa. This is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from 13 different vineyards. It's a large, earthy wine and the nose was very pungent. This dark Cabernet paired well with the end of our entree course. A little too big to drink on it's own though.

Glancing at the list of Generous Pour selections, a 2009 Chateau du Pin caught my eye. A 2009 Bordeaux?! Yes, please. This wine was the classic blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Lighter than the previous glass, this one showed beautifully. The Merlot helped round out the big Cabernet traits. The finish was smooth. Granted at this point, my palate was beginning to get tired but I enjoyed a glass of the Bordeaux all on its own.

Lastly came dessert. We ordered a cheesecake with berries and also the flourless chocolate cake. The wine pairing was the Kanu Kia Ora Chenin Blanc from South Africa. Dark gold in color, this sweet wine was the perfect pairing with the flourless chocolate cake. Both were decadent! The cheesecake and berries were a nice finish to our meal as well.

All in all, this was a fabulous meal with great food, wine and service. Coach did an amazing job walking us through the meal and we never had an empty glass! If you have a chance to visit Capital Grille in the next month or so, don't miss the Generous Pour event. We had quite a bit of wine and only at a cost of $25/person. I was pleased with the wine selection and every one was a great accompaniment to our meal. If by chance you go to Tysons, ask for Coach!

"Let the pouring commence" ~ Capital Grille

Cheers!

An Afternoon in Canandaigua, NY

New York is the 4th largest producing wine region in the US; behind California, Washington and Oregon. New York is known for producing a lot of Riesling and sweeter style wines. My fiancé is from the Finger Lake region and in the past 3 years we have yet to visit NY wine country. Bummer :(

That changed over the weekend. On a spur of the moment trip to Western NY, we took a few hours out of our Saturday to travel to Canandaigua Lake. One of the Finger Lakes, about 30 minutes southwest from Rochester, Canandaigua is a picturesque lake with only a few wineries scattered about. We chose Canandaigua strictly because of it's location to Rochester.

Our first stop was Wilhelmus Estate Winery. The tasting room is rather small, only able to host about 10 people at a time. The vines were also a little bit hidden so the view wasn't what I expected. Wilhelmus produces 10 wines and the tasting allowed you to select 5 to taste. I selected the Cayuga White, Traminette, Cabernet Franc, Corot Noir, and the Noiret. I chose those wines because I really wanted to taste what NY was all about.

Cayuga White is the variety of grape, a hybrid made by Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. (You will see this is a trend in NY wines). Cayuga White is a hybrid of Sevyal Blanc and Schuyler. Wilhelmus' Cayuga White was crisp but had a little too much acid for me to enjoy it.

The last two reds really grabbed my attention as well. Corot Noir and Noiret are both hybrid grapes made by Cornell University. Corot Noir is a hybrid of Seyve Villard and Steuben, crazy I know. The employee told me its a hybrid of hybrids, consisting of DNA from about 27 different varieties. This wine has the characteristics of a northern French red with depths of flavor and this was what I ended up leaving with.

The last red is the Noiret. Again, another hybrid made by Cornell University of numerous hybrids. Big tannin structure with bright red fruits and a hint of spice on the finish, this makes for a great pizza wine or a tomato based dish. He explained this wine as a "fruity Sangiovese".

After leaving Wilhelmus, we ventured to the New York Wine and Culinary Center. Wow, what a place! One building consisting of a tasting room of New York wines, beers, AND spirits; a large cooking classroom, dining rooms to host events, gift shop and also the upstairs was a bistro overlooking the lake. Great concept to promote local wine.

Inside the tasting room, there was a wrap around bar with retail shelves surrounding the perimeter of the room. Not only could you taste wines from all over the state, you could also buy the wines right there!

The tastings were divided among white flights, red flights, sweet flight, beer flight or spirit flight. I gravitated towards the dry white flight which consisted of 5 wines from all over NY.

 The wines in the flight were Martha Clara Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (Long Island), Eveningside Vineyards Dry Riesling 2011 (Niagara Escarpment), Salmon Run Pinot Grigio 2010 (Finger Lakes), King Ferry Winery "Treleavan" Reserve Chardonnay 2010 (Cayuga Lake) and Leidenfrost Sonata NV (Finger Lakes).

I enjoyed all of the whites, however, the Chardonnay was too oaky for my taste. The Sauvignon Blanc was a favorite; light, crisp with grapefruit and stone fruits on the palate. Perfect pairing for a summer afternoon.

After taking a stroll through the gift shop, I just had to pick up this little souvenir :)

All in all, it was a short trip to NY wine country BUT marrying into a family of NYers in the Finger Lakes, I'm sure it won't be my last. I'm excited to try wineries around Seneca and Keuka lake as well. Until next time...


Cheers!

Conclusion: I'm not very good at blind tastings

Blind tastings. Pretty intimidating for the casual wine drinker. Hell, it's pretty intimidating for those who have dabbled in the industry and passed certifications! But I'm no professional.

The Young Winos and Weygandt Wines co-hosted a blind tasting last night where we featured Loire Valley wines up against the same grapes from different regions. People were allowed to bring their own bottle of  popular Loire grapes to compare. All wines were in paper bags, keeping them completely anonymous to the tasters, labeled only by numbers.

Tasting sheets were provided so we could guess each wine as we tasted. There were 12 wines total, from all over the world. As we tasted we didn't know if it was in fact a French or a New World wine, that was completely up to us to guess. Grapes, styles, wine terms were all being thrown around loosely as we talked about what the wine could possibly be. Having no guidance other than knowing that the grapes are grown in the Loire Valley made it hard to narrow down for most of us! Loire Valley is the most diverse region in France, growing nearly 15 different grapes. It's also very diverse due to the fact that it is a large region with many different types of soils and climates. This didn't help in guessing the wines.

However, it was great to discuss with other Winos their thoughts on what it could be and why. A lot of knowledge was shared and questions answered. We were learning from each other, exactly how wine tastings should be, in my opinion.

Once all of the wines were revealed, many of us were wrong in our guesses but hey, that's ok! I didn't expect to be right, I expected to learn things I didn't know, taste different wines side by side to see how they compare and maybe come across a new variety!

All in all, those things were accomplished. I had never tasted Pinot D'Aunis (that I know of) and luckily that was Number 3 as a rosé. Pinot D'Aunis is a lesser known grape variety that is grown in the Loire Valley and this particular wine was from the Touraine region, on the eastern side of the Valley. One wine that got a lot of attention was the Celler Escoda-Sanahuja, a Chenin Blanc from Spain. This Chenin Blanc had the weirdest nose I've ever smelt. Strong aromas of burnt popcorn were prevalent and others noted "woof" as their remark. Needless to say, this was a rather harsh white wine and no one knew what grape or where it was from. Who knew it was a Chenin Blanc?!

Conclusion: I suck at blind tasting especially when the options are endless! Maybe I'd be better with multiple choice options ;) I do, however, love that it's a great learning experience from fellow winos and professionals alike. The only way to improve...DRINK MORE!

Cheers!

Full tasting lineup