We found ourselves back at the Lebanese Taverna this week with our out of town guest. It's one of our favorite "go to" restaurants as the food is always excellent, the wine list is surprisingly deep and interesting and it's close to our current apartment. Many of the dishes contain lamb or beef, so I thought a Zinfandel would be a good choice, since restaurants seem to always want to know your drink order before you even have a minute to look at the menu. But I knew I was having the lamb and beef shwarma, so..... ;)
I chose a 2003 Kenwood Yulupa Zinfandel, which from visiting their website, I gather is a series that was created especially for restaurants. And really, that's not terribly surprising, as it was a decent, easy to drink with your dinner wine. My notes say that nothing about it stood out, but it was food friendly and worked well with the meal.
Stats for this bottle: cost us $27, was 14.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. On those nose I got raisins and figs. In the mouth is was smooth and fruity, with black currants, a little black pepper and some plum. I have to quibble with the restaurant though, which is my only fault for the Taverna, and something I have experienced each time I visit. The red wines are simply served too warm. We had a beautiful day, and room temperature was warm. Really warm. And I think it took away from the wine. Plus, our server filled our glasses to the brim, which always makes a wine harder to enjoy.
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Sometimes I think that the waiter is instructed to pour a full glass so you will be finsihed with that bottle before the end of the meal and need to order more. And of course, me, the more you pour, the more I drink. I tend to like half glass pours myself as you can see the color, stick your nose into the glass to get a good whif of the aroma and then add some air by swirling if needed. ( Isn't swirling just a cool word !)
3/29/07, 2:20 PM
I usually just ask for a bucket of ice to cool down the bottle a bit when that happens.
Then you drop it in there for 10 minutes and you're off...(most places can accommodate that pretty easily).
3/29/07, 7:27 PM
winedeb, I prefer less in my glass, otherwise, being the klutz that I am, I always manage to swirl the wine right out of my glass!
Joel-now there's an idea I hadn't considered! Thanks so much for the tip, I will definitely try that next time I have the issue.
3/29/07, 8:24 PM
I guess I have eaten in restaurants enough that I have managed to develop some reflexes to handle server behaviors (I used to travel a lot on business). For example, if I see them reach for the bottle, my hand is already covering the glass and I'll say "not yet, thanks". Or as they are pouring I'll say "that's good!" or something like that to stop the pour.
Also, a wise person once said that "red wine should be served at room temperature, if the room is in a Scottish castle." You will sometimes get puzzled reactions to ordering the ice bucket for red wine. Ignore them...;-)
4/1/07, 5:04 PM
El Jefe-I have already tried the ice bucket thing since this post and my server was very willing to bring it, but after only a minute or two he tried to take my bottle out and tell me it was chilled enough. I thanked him for his attention and promptly stuck the bottle back in the bucket! 2 minutes was not long enough to chill it!
4/2/07, 12:14 PM