The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

On Tuesday last week, June 22, Donato Enoteca - my favorite restaurant - celebrated 1-year anniversary. This place boggles my mind - it's not that it's the most haute or has the most exquisite wine collection or the most illustrious table cloths - there are others than will exceed it in all those categories - but it's the feeling I get when I go there. The combination of being welcome like family, the airy space, the always delicious, reliable, fresh, seasonal, extremely satisfying food, the wines selected with careful thought and respect for all parties involved, and the value offered at this place! It's the total package. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks that, as the place was packed on Tuesday night. In the restaurant business, surviving a year is a major milestone. Not only is this place surviving , it's blooming! Chef Donato offered a fixed menu for such a low price, it was practically a give-away ($34). I asked them why - Eric said "last year w

What inspires me? This!... A dinner with friends, a glass of white Burgundy paired with Crab Gratin, made from scratch from a live crab purchased straight off the boat in Half Moon Bay during crab season. Not grand cru Burgundy - that would be too rich for a crab, but a 1er cru or a regular village Burgundy from a great producer like Domaine Dujac or Domaine Leflaive - this pairing is bliss, which I pass on to you. In the upper reaches of Burgundy elite, few can touch Dujac . While better known for his Bonnes Mares - a red Burgundy grand cru, the owner/winemaker's Jacques Seysses makes classical, pure, crystalline white wine from the village of Morey-Saint-Denis for which a crustacean is an ideal culinary complement. Note from the dinner host, and his marvelous recipe: The dish that I served last year at the dinner was a variation of a recipe by Mark Franz of Farallon. His recipe (Crab Imperial Gratin) uses Crème Fraîche, mine does not. Primary Ingredients: red potatoes, peeled a

10:40am on Saturday morning, we made a brief pit-stop at Oakville Grocery for a croissant and a coffee. The place is a classic - the original Oakville Grocery on highway 29 (now there is another store in Healdsburg in Sonoma County) is a charmer, from their fleshy croissants to filling chimichangas to their cool Napa Cabs cave. Outdoor tables behind the store present a view onto the vineyards and mountains. This is a nice picnic spot when you are in the mood for something quick, cheap-n-good. 15 minutes later, Dan, AC, JJ, and yours truly IronC were greeted at Joseph Phelps with open arms for what was to become yet another great day in Napa Valley. We were here to attend an Insignia blending seminar, a rare opportunity to taste through the portfolio of component vineyard lots that never get bottled individually, and attempt combining them into a winning Bordeaux blend against the masters at Joseph Phelps. Insignia is world famous. Its 2002 bottling was Wine Spectator's #1 wine

I read a book recently - Bordeaux vs Burgundy, Vintage Rivalry. It got me thinking about wine blends. Ding ding ding... Ladies and Gentlemen! In the red corner, we have Burgundy, Barolo, Hermitage, Vouvray, Mosel. And in the blue corner - we have Bordeaux, Southern Rhone, and an army of Super Tuscans. The wine world is divided. Mono-varietal and multi-varietals. Every self-respecting wine region aims to produce flagship wines of great complexity. Complexity is the key word. The more different and non-straightforward aromas, flavors, textures, sensations a wine brings, the more interesting and enjoyable it is. Not to everyone, of course. In my opinion, as with most things in life, as we get older and more experienced, we evolve from simple to complex, we appreciate things that have more facets to them, more than what initially meets the eye, more... Continue reading the rest of this article on corkd.com .

A quick tribute to Nebbiolo is in order. Absolute killer combo: pork - courtesy of Village Pub in Woodside (home of the rich & famous ), and Gaja Barolo - courtesy of Iron Chevsky. Juicy pork chop with sautéed cherries, and cherry-loaded 2003 Gaja Barolo “Dagromis”. Oh yeah baby! The much-maligned 2003 (due to extreme heat wave in Europe) nonetheless yielded some decadent wines in the hands of competent producers, and there are bargains to be had! (Just ask Jeremy Parzen over at DoBianchi blog .) After an hour of decanting, this rich 2003 was bursting with intense aromas of pure concentrated cherries jumping out of the glass, balanced by requisite acidity and soft tannins, the wine drinking superbly, while your 2004’s and 2001’s are tucked away aging in the cellar. This Gaja will undoubtedly get more subtle and complex with a bit more age (~3-5 years), but it’s a knock-out right now. Gratuitously, I felt compelled to post the photo of the truffle decadence (shown below). The wine

"What are you seeing as far as wine sales?" I asked Enzo. "People buy more, but expensive wine doesn't sell." he said. "From producers to importers to distributors, all the way along the supply chain, prices are reduced. Good wine stores and restaurants pass the savings to the consumer but make up in volume." "What about all those expensive Barolos and Super Tuscans on the shelves of Beltramo's and K&L then?" "There are always people who buy them, but it's a very small percentage", sighed Enzo. "That's why Italian whites are such a great value, like these ones from Friuli made by Jermann." In early 1970’s Silvio Jermann instigated a revolution in Italian white wine-making. It happened in Friuli, the northeastern corner of Italy, next door to Slovenia. Jermann, a young man at the time, educated in not one but two renowned wine academies in Italy, defied the practice of making dull, uninspiring wines, and wa

I am a Silicon Valley exec by day, and a wine nut by night. A friend, Tanya Noel, a professional event organizer and a fellow Palo Alto resident, is launching a new tech conference called Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital - Europe & Silicon Valley , with a twist that suits the Iron Chevsky blog just fine - to combine technology & entrepreneurship with celebration of food, wine & life. As someone who has spent his professional career pushing the edges of technology innovation, and along the way learned that enjoying life goes far beyond C++ and IPO's, I find her cause inspiring and unique. Her inaugural conference takes place in the end of June in Tuscany in a small town of Viareggio , located on the coast of Ligurian Sea next door to the more famous city of Lucca whose surrounds include two fairly obscure and undoubtedly charming Tuscan appellations (DOC's) - Montecarlo and Colline Lucchesi . Chianti and Florence are within an hour's drive, and

How old is the oldest wine you've ever had? Serious collectors will eschew a 40 year old wine as nothing extraordinary, but for a semi-regular joe, this is quite a rare museum item. So, what's so special about old wine and what did 1970 Les Forts de Latour taste like? Read the rest of this article on Corkd.com .

Yours truly was hosting a barbecue for Memorial Day at Domaine du Chevsky last night. Meats were marinading, wines chilling. Massive food & wine debauchery ensued, and one pairing stood out above all, courtesy of Scott H., chef and wine guru extraordinaire. Before the meat hit the grill, Scott's prawn paella with chorizo sausage filled the perfect spot of the hungry crowd of gourmets! Accompanied by a lovely bottle of Tavel. Rosé! Yes, gents, you can get off your high horses and stop poopooing the pink. Tavel , of course, is the only appellation in the world dedicated solely to Rosé wine. ...We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to make an annoucement. The rest of this article now appears on Gary Vaynerchuk's corkd.com , where I debut today as one of the select group of wine bloggers. Corkd editorials are geared towards wine education of wine drinkers of all (beginner?) levels. Jon Troutman , the chief editor, oversees all corkd posts, whereas this site - Iron C