Saturday. January 11, 2014
Today was Margie's January Wine Activity. Both of the places we went today were recommended by another person to Margie. So she was in the dark just like the rest of us. I felt she was not overly happy with the recommendation.
We started out at Phantom Cellars in Anaheim. They make their own wine and apparently make beer and ales also. By time I arrived several people were having a glass of ale before the tasting. We tasted 4 house wines with a small plate of cheeses and meats. Their wines are decent but nothing special. Have no idea of the pricing because I was not interested. The manager kept saying that they get their grapes from high end Napa growers. Never saying what vineyards they come from which I would think if they were that high end you would want to name drop. I was not overly impressed with the whole situation. A total lack or coordination. A lack of information. One person trying to handle our large table, the walk ins and the bar area. At the end of the tasting he put 4 carafes of their wines on the table for "blending". Nothing to measure with just pour and eyeball it. I have done several wine blendings before but this was not even close to what it should have been. Frankly I don't feel that this whole tasting was too professional. More like your neighborhood bar. At least they had 3 televisons on the wall and they did turn on the football game when asked.
I found the place dark, uncomfortable and awfully noisy for a wine tasting bar. Towards the end I had to get out of the building. I will not return to Phantom Cellars again.
We left and went down the road to Luigi's D'Italia restaurant on State College in Anaheim. Their ad in the OC Register states that they were voted one of the top 5 Italian restaurants on Orange County. I don't agree. The food was good but not great. The service was good and Luigi came out and said hello. We had 13 for dinner and they split us up in two tables. This had happened before at a restaurant and I am not in favor of it. Makes it seem like we were two separate groups.
I had the seafood with linguine. The seafood was fresh but the sauce was watery. It lacked seasoning. I did have a salad before dinner and it was good. The lettuce was very crisp and the dressing was good.
I did not try most of the wines. But the Barolo that Ray & Barbara brought was very good. A sparkling wine from Temecula I found strange. Others seemed to like it but I am so glad I took a very small pour since there were no dump buckets
2006 Vigna Delle Sampietrana Negromano Riservia, Italy
2009 Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva, Italy
2008 Guido Porro Vigna S. Caterina Barolo, Italy
2012 Acquiesce Viognier, Lodi
2010 Perry Creek, Petite Syrah, El Dorado County
2006 McKeon-Phillips Nancy's Fancy, Syrah Reserve, Santa Maria
2009 Perry Creek, Fairplay Farms, Zinfandel, El Dorado County
2912 Lewis Cellars,Chardonnay, Russian River
NV Lorenzi Bella Mia, "champagne" ???, Temecula
NV CA, Napa
2010 Brander Merlot, Santa Ynez
2011 Doffo, Don Armando
2011 Weins, Zinfandel
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment