Felino Malbec by Vina Cobos

sunset from our table at Merriman'sWe recently shared with you how wine made our Hawaiian vacation better by keeping “Vegas” and the cabana boy away, and saving us money.  Early in our trip we made a stop at the Wine Shop and loaded up on great wines to bring with us to dinner, which local corkage laws allows for you to do.  As California also has great corkage laws, we knew that paying retail, even with a corkage fee, was always a better deal than restaurant mark-ups.  The Wine Shop had an added bonus – partnerships with many great local spots that waived corkage fee for wine purchased at their store.  Awesome, as this fee ranged from $15-20. 

One of the restaurants on the list was Merriman’s Fish House, located in Poipu at The Shops of Kukui’ula.  Wow.  This place was awesome.  Great food, and atmosphere – not something you regularly find both of when dining on the islands.  The restaurant is set in an old Hawaii plantation house, with open windows looking out to the ocean, providing an excellent backdrop for sunset.  This is a “farm to table” restaurant, boasting that 90% of their products are locally grown or caught, using only sustainable methods.  Their fish selections actually list the boat in which it was caught.

While the wine list was quite extensive, and impressive (over 1,000 bottles in their cellar), we opted to bring with us a 2012 Felino Malbec, from Mendoza.  It was a perfect pairing to our very fresh and delicious meals. It is a blend of 93% Malbec, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3% Merlot.  We found the nose to be of herbs (like thyme) and a little white pepper.  The palate was full of dark berries, tannin finish with a little heat.  It was a great food wine, and paired well with our meals.

Merriman’s has the 2011 Felino Malbec on the menu for $56.  We purchased the 2012 for $13.95, and no corkage fee ~ Thank you Wine Shop! 

Where to find:

San Diego Wine Company - $15.95

Total Wine - $17.99

Specs - $16.62

How wine made our Hawaiian vacation better

Sally and I have just returned from relaxing vacation on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. We took a break from many things including work, email, and even Facebook. One thing we didn’t leave behind was our love of wine. That never seems to take a break.

It also turns out that wine made our vacation a whole lot better. Not just in the way you think. It turns out there are many hidden benefits.

Wine saved us money

One of our first stops when we got into town was The Wine Shop in Koloa. It’s a very cool store run by Dan and Ellen O’Connell that provides a great selection of familiar wine at all price levels. Many things are much more expensive in Hawaii than they are on the mainland, but The Wine Shop’s prices aren’t much higher than we pay in our hometown of San Diego.

Hawaii’s corkage laws vary by county. In Kauai County, where we were staying, local laws allow you to bring your own wine to dinner. We all know that restaurant wine can be very expensive, so bringing your own bottle is almost always a better deal.

But wait, there’s more!

The Wine Shop has worked out a deal that gets many nearby restaurants to wave the corkage fee. This means you pay retail for your wine and get to drink it for free in the restaurant. That little deal saved us quite a bit of moolah!

Stay tuned as we profile our various purchases.

Wine kept the cabana boy away

Drinking fruity rum drinks is a time-honored tradition when you are lounging on a tropical island. Knowing we had a bottle of wine waiting for us at dinner actually encouraged us to keep the daytime drinking to a minimum. This meant the cabana boy wasn’t constantly swinging by to ply us with $14 Mai Tais.

I’d expect our audience is split 50/50 on whether keeping the cabana boy away is a good thing. For the 50 percent that doesn’t agree with me, just think about how many empty calories are in one rum drink.

Wine kept us away from Vegas

Okay, this is a longer one, so bear with me.

We took a sunset dinner cruise one night along Kauai’s beautiful Napali Coast. Much of this part of the island is accessible only by boat and it’s renowned for its remote beauty.

A woman caught our attention while we waiting to board the boat. She was loud, obnoxious, and already seemed to have a few drinks in her. At one point, she leaned over a toddler drinking juice and made some crack to the mom about the juice having alcohol in it. Stereotypes come from somewhere, so we weren’t surprised to learn she and her husband were from Las Vegas.

We started referring to her under our breath as Vegas. We also decided to avoid her at all costs.

Kauai's Napali Coast

Staying away from Vegas on the boat turned out to be fairly easy. We found several very cool people to sit next to at the back of the boat and Vegas made her way to the top deck so she could talk the Captain’s ear off. Everything was going fine until the crew started serving alcohol just before dinner.

We were given a choice of beer, wine, or “sneaky-Tikis,” which were tropical rum drinks that were so potent they snuck up on you. Most of our group of new friends had a couple of beers or one sneaky-Tiki and then switched to wine with dinner. It kept the conversation social and we even had a nice conversation about Oregon Pinot with a couple from just outside of Portland.

Vegas, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough sneaky-Tikis. Maybe the Captain dared her to beat the ship’s record. Maybe they are extra sneaky when you have a few less brain cells for the alcohol to conquer. Maybe that’s just how Vegas rolls. Whatever it was, the booze made Vegas even louder.  

One of our group got up after dinner to use the head. She returned with a horrified look on her face. Apparently, she had seen Vegas descending the ladder from the top deck. Vegas was holding up her dress so she wouldn’t trip which made it apparent that she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Our new friend recounted the terrifying ordeal and said in a frightened voice, “I saw her Napali Coast.”

This encouraged a few more comments about Vegas since others had noticed her boorish behavior too. In fact, it turned out that the whole group of us had picked the back of the boat to deliberately avoid Vegas!

The point of this story is there’s no telling what would have happened if we had gotten soused on sneaky-Tikis rather than having a few social glasses of wine with the newly formed Vegas Avoidance Group.

A beautiful sunset from the back of the boat

The Legend of Tommy's Bottle

A few of our friends have asked us to write about whiskey and beer on this blog. After all, wine isn’t the only type of bottle we share.

I won’t promise this will become a habit, but here’s a story. It’s the Legend of Tommy’s Bottle. Ok, it’s not really a legend, but it’s still a story.

Last summer, Sally and I traveled to Scotland and Ireland. One of the reasons for our trip was to tour some Scotch and Irish Whiskey distilleries.

It turns out that wine and whiskey have a lot in common. They’re both made from a few basic ingredients. A master craftsman then takes those ingredients and coaxes out different flavors through careful processing. And, just like wine, when you go tasting you always angle for a bonus pour of something special.

Our “house” Scotch is Chivas Regal 12 year old. It’s a smooth-drinking blended Scotch Whisky made up of several single malts including approximately 22 percent Strathisla. Naturally, we had to make a stop at the Strathisla distillery, the oldest operating distillery in the Scotch Highlands.

We met a man there named Tommy who had worked in the distillery for many years. He loved his job so much that he took a job in the visitor center after he retired from making Scotch. Tommy was such a cool guy that we took a picture of him holding a bottle of Strathisla 12 year old that he had likely made.

It’s now hanging above our liquor cabinet.

We were told that so much Strathisla went towards Chivas production that they didn’t have enough to export it to the United States. This was too bad because Strathisla was really, really good.

In April of this year, Sally and I spent a week touring several California wine regions. Our trip included a few nights at the Albion River Inn, which is perched on top of a cliff overlooking the Albion River, about 10 miles south of Mendocino in Northern California.

Their restaurant features a bar with 150+ different Scotch Whiskies. With friendly and knowledgeable bartenders and a room within stumbling distance, it’s hard not to get into a little trouble.

We made friends with one of the bartenders, Megan, on our first night there. She gave us a tour of some of their more interesting and exclusive Scotches. One that stood out was a 1976 Strathisla single malt that was aged 27 years. It was incredible.

 

Drinking leads to stories. We told Megan about meeting Tommy at Strathisla and she shared a few stories of her own. I’m sure we raised a glass to Tommy at some point since we were probably drinking his Scotch.

Flash forward to last Wednesday night. Sally and I decided to hit up K&B Wine Cellars since they sometimes have some interesting and unusual items in their inventory.

Sally was scanning their liquor wall when she spotted a bottle of Aberfeldy. This is a single malt Scotch that’s one of the main ingredients in Dewar’s blended Scotch Whisky. It’s also another bottle we were told couldn’t be found in the States.

It was an exciting find so we decided to take a closer look at their Scotch collection. And what did we find? Sitting next to the Aberfeldy was a lone, dusty bottle of Strathisla!

We headed straight home, opened the bottle, poured ourselves a dram or two, and raised a glass to Tommy!

2008 Ehlers Estate "1886" Cabernet Sauvignon

Today is International Cabernet Sauvignon Day.  The “holiday” started four years ago, and it is really just a great excuse to celebrate, and drink, all things cab.  While a day early, last night we popped open one of our special bottles ~ 2008 Ehlers Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon.

My Dad was a fan of big, bold red wines.  He would say, the bigger, the better.  Ehlers is one I know he would have enjoyed.   Ehlers is a small, family operated winery that makes some big cabs.  The 2008 Ehlers Estate 1886 cab definitely stands up to that reputation.  There’s a lot going on with the nose, with great smells of black cherries, cocoa, and a little cinnamon.  The taste hits you with this little splash of bright fruit upfront and then gives way to the same flavors enjoyed on the nose – black cherry, cocoa, and cinnamon – tossed with a little leather.  Yup, leather.  The finish is bold, yet silky. Totally delicious. 

Of course, a wine like this deserves an equally impressive view (and meal).  We enjoyed our bottle while dining at Mr. A’s in San Diego.  It is arguably one of the the best views in San Diego – especially outside on the patio at sunset.  And of course, steak…. Well, veal chop for Jeff.

Ehlers not only produces great wines, they make a difference.  A portion of their winery proceeds directly support international cardiovascular research (over $30 million awarded). This dedication is represented in their logo – a heart within the E.

A big red wine, and supports a great cause.  What’s not to like about that?  

King Estate Pinot Noir

 Business trips are a great opportunity to discover new wines.  Granted, it usually comes when out to dinner (where I gained my nickname of half bottle).  But, every now and then I am very fortunate to receive a nice bottle as a welcome amenity upon arrival to my destination.  

I recently returned from a trip to Seattle, and my arrival experience at The Westin was well, quite personal.  When the plane touched down, I (along with most everyone else on the plane) powered up my phone.  The first email I received was a personal welcome from the GM.  She indicated they had been reading our blog, and that a bottle of King Estate Pinot Noir (sustainably farmed in Oregon) was waiting for me when I arrived to my room.  I was in Seattle for a conference, and this welcome kicked off the week perfectly!

The King Estate Pinot Noir has a lovely dark ruby color, and flavors of black cherry and pomegranate, and a light spicy finish.  It has very soft tannins, medium finish with lingering fruits throughout.  It’s a fruitier pinot for Oregon, but quite delicious. 

It was an excellent treat to end each night with a glass!

Thank you, Westin Seattle!