The Wine Kitchen Table

The First Rose' of Spring

2011-03-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Opened the first rose' of spring this past weekend because the weather demanded it. The beautiful sunshine and dreamy breeze would not take no for an answer. So we opened a beautiful rose' from Anjou in the Loire region of France. Being from this particular portion of France, this wine is 100% cabernet franc and as light on its feet as a Dancing with the Stars winner. The color was visually stunning, the flavors were soft, playful and screamed for semi-reclined eating of the finest meats and cheeses available while basking in the glow of the spring sun.

Things to do while enjoying a bottle of rose' on a spring afternoon...

Change out your spark plugs... real men and/or women only.

Tear up bills in front of your 8 month old.

Prune actual rose bushes.

Test drive a new hammock. The use of a straw here is suggested.

Feel the world spin under you while you lay in the grass.

Have lunch at the Wine Kitchen with someone you have been meaning to have lunch with since you saw them over the holidays and promised t0 get together more.

Viscosity Breakdown

2011-03-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

Good wine not only tastes good but feels good – in your mouth. (Take it easy with the sexual innuendoes will you.) What I mean, is that often times a good wine will have a rich luxurious texture that you can feel as it rolls around on your tongue. (That is enough you perv, we are trying to have an intelligent discussion about how a juicy wine feels good on your tongue.)

Gylcerol and alcohol are the main drivers of a lush wine's plumb texture. The more of each will equate to more a wine feeling more or less like a silk sheet. A wine with a large amount of viscosity will give you the sensation that you have more wine in your mouth than you initially sipped. When a wine is referred to as “full bodied” it is usually thought to have a good amount of viscosity, aka, glycerol and alcohol, aka plumpness.

Like most things in life, too much viscosity becomes a bad thing quickly. When a wine is so rich and dense that it comes in a squeeze bottle, it might be time to dial back a little bit. Balance is the key here. A wine with good “balance” will have a unit of acidity to balance each unit of viscosity. Without this balance, a wine will tumble from the scales of delicious into the abyss.

Stay balanced my friends,

PS – don't drink motor oil.

The Right Music for the Job

2010-07-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Today I was doing a small bit of manual labor. As I began my work I thought, "We need some appropriate music to accompany the laborious labour that is about to go down." For some reason manual labor sparks a sense of good ol'fashion Americana for me, so I though some Creedence Clearwater Revival would be the best bet for work that may result in a callus.

Working and rocking to Proud Mary just felt right. It was the appropriate music with the appropriate work to the max. Don't get me wrong, like CCR a lot, but I would not say they are my favorite band or even style of music, but at this exact moment, they sounded better than they had in a long time. This made me think about how the appropriate thing at the appropriate time is a perfect thing.

People always ask "What is your favorite wine?" and I give some answer like, "It depends." Even to me that sounds like a copout and dodging the question, but it is true. Sometimes a big Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and a steak the size of mailbox is the best thing mankind has created. Just 24 hours later, a plate of fried chicken and a sparkling wine from New Zealand - make me think all other wine and food combinations are fools gold. And it may not even be a great wine and food pairing that makes for a great food and wine experience. One of the best food and wine times I have ever had involved Ben's Chili Bowl and an '85 Lynch Bages standing around in an old friend's kitchen. While the chili and the wine went together like long walks and the beach, it was the company and mutual appreciation for the wine that made such an occasion memorable.

So the moral of this tale is - do not limit yourself to one favorite. Listen to CCR while changing your oil and Motown while you clean the house on Sunday. Drink a rose with a piece of grilled fish and a merlot with a french dip sandwich with lots of horseradish. Laugh about long ago high-school hijinks with a cold bottle of Gruner Veltliner.... and whiskey chasers.

Or... how about the best idea, drink pull-tab Coors (The Banquet Beer) with some friends on a flight to somewhere.

2010-05-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Wine as an intellectual exercise.

Wine does taste delicious and has provided refreshment and libation for centuries. Wine is nothing more than bottled farming. The only difference between oranges and wine is the process of fermentation. Why then do fermented grapes inspire such devotion and overall nerdiness? It must have something to do with the effects that fermentation has on the brain. Let us then explore the idea of wine as a mental exercise.

A wine that inspires quiet contemplation is something indeed. I recently had a wine that did/does just that. The 2008 Donkey & Goat Roussanne. This is a white wine grape from the northern portion of the Rhone wine region in France. The grape is notoriously hard to grow as well as work with in the winery. This only adds to the chin scratching after each sip. Why would someone attempt to grow this grape then make something delicious out of it when there are other grapes that are easier to grow and manipulate? Why would someone climb the highest mountain when they probably live near a fairly well sized hill? Because, we as humans can and want to always push for something.

The first sip of the Donkey & Goat Roussanne presents a crosswords worth of riddles and possibilities. Five across – Lemon. Eleven down – honeysuckle. One swallow and already a puzzle?

The wine beguiles with such fresh fruit up front, such creaminess in the middle and the most toasted nuttiness to finish. How could one thing be so many things?

This question begs the question, should wine be mental exercise? Should you spend more than a moment pouring over each nook and cranny of a wine? Is it silly to examine a wine and seek out something new or unexplored? Oh so very Lewis & Clark like. Can drinking a wine be something that stretches your imagination, inspires the desire for greater understanding of how it came to be so delicious? Can a wine literally be described as “transcending?” Should leisurely playing with a plastic toy test your brain power and become a world wide measurement of acumen?

I say yes on both accounts. Wine is a pretty neat thing and on occasion (Looking for subtle nuances and the secret meaning of life in the tepid glass of red wine being served at your cousin Henry's wedding reception at the Moose Lodge is silly.) metaphysically delving into a glass of wine and taking a look around is worth while. Having your preconceptions challenged and expanding your opinions is what makes life interesting. So if you can do that while enjoying a lovely libation, I say by all means nerd out on that glass of wine. The next great American novel might be in there floating around.

2010-05-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Spring Break 2010 Wine Dinner
(May 17, 2010 at 7pm)

Chef Chris Carey helps us ring in the spring with a fresh and delicious menu highlighting the new flavors of this glorious season. Each course will be paired with an equally lively Italian wine.

Amuse Bouche - Tuna Tartar with tamari vinaigrette.

Second Course - Sake and maple marinated sablefish with a citrus soy glaze.

Third Course - Veal tenderloin wrapped with Speck served with ramps morels, English peas and a light veal jus.

Fourth Course - Brillat Savarin cheese with strawberries and a balsamic glaze.

Fifth Course - Blueberry brioche bread pudding.

Call the restaurant to reserve your seat today. 703 777 9463

Romance in the Wine

2010-04-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Why wine is like a romantic comedy.

Like a lot of things in life, good wine and good romantic comedies are about balance. In this discussion let's use the comedy portion of a romantic comedy film to relate to the sweetness in a wine and the romantic portion to relate to the acidity in wine. I find specific examples to be the most effective examples so for this example we will use: Vouvray – a white wine from the Loire region in France made from the Chenin Blanc grape and “Along Came Polly” as its equal in a romantic comedy.

Now. Any good romantic comedy worth its salt will have a good balance of comedy and romance sprinkled throughout to help assuage a broader audience and move the movie along. There will be tender moments with overwrought dialogue concerning love and relationships balanced by situational comedy and maybe even a flatulence joke thrown in for good measure. In the same vain, any wine worth discussing out loud will have a pitch perfect balance of residual sugar (aka – sweetness) that creates the full round texture and depth of flavor offset by acidity (aka acidity) that adds the structure and running theme that ties all the rest of the wine together.

To sight our specific example- all the scenes with Philip Seymour Hoffman, especially the basketball court scene, are the comedic interludes that fill in the gaps and round out the underlying romance in the Along Came Polly. The residual sugar in Vouvray does a similar thing by taking the edge off the naturally high acidity in the Chenin Blanc from this area in France where the soil is basically all limestone. The extra sugar left in all most all Vouvray acts as momentum builders to the crisp theme of acidity that holds the wine together and runs straight through the entire movie. This thematic structure created by such pure acidity in the wine is represented in the budding romance between Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. Acidity and romance aer what make the movie and the wine what they are.

Just like some romantic comedies can be completely off balance and end up in a piling heap of cinematic disaster like Gigli, a wine that is out of balance is is a clumsy drink to say the least. Even wines that have a good bit of sweetness need a lot of acidity to provide the freshness and tang on the finish so the wine doesn't taste like your trying to swallow a love scene between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.

Doing Laundry is Fun

2010-03-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

This week Chris, our chef, did his version of dishes from one of the world's most famous kitchens, The French Laundry. We used recipes from Thomas Keller's French Laundry cook book and relied on Chris' own trip to the culinary mecca for others. Each dish was a universe worth of flavor and balanced like a dumb-truck on a pin needle. Here are a few pictures and comments that do not do each dish the credit it deserves.

Oh and the wines were pretty good as well. The wine played a supporting role in this dinner. The wines job was to let the flavors of the dishes shine through and accentuate each delicious layer of taste. To that extent, the wines were perfect.

Below is a salmon croquet. The supple flavors of the fresh salmon and the creme fraiche were perfectly accented by the toasted sweetness of the cone.

Below is Angilote, rich with it's brown butter, sweet with it's sweet potato filling and a fresh savory note from the sage cream sauce.

Then it was on to the the delightfully tangy delicate nature of an olive crusted rock fish

The final savory course was a double lamb from Fields of Athenry served over a casoulet of fresh spring beans and a red wine sauce so rich with marrow butter it could make you give up donuts for a year.

Dessert does not always have to be heavy and chocolate, although it is encouraged to be. This desert could have floated away on a flower petal, but with enough flavor to occupy your taste buds for hours.

Tender vs. Delicious

2010-03-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

If someone said you could eat something that was either delicious or tender, which would you choose? For me it is easy – I always take delicious. One is a adjective to describe how something tastes and one is an adjective that describe how something feels. Granted feeling and texture play a role in how much we enjoy something we eat, but I think how something tastes plays the greatest role.

Steak is a great example of the delicious vs tender debate. The prized filet mignon is one of the most tender cuts of beef, but in almost all cases lacks that distinct deliciousness that makes a steak a steak. This is why you often see a filet wrapped in bacon (delicious) or a porcini crust (also delicious). Ask any butcher what cut they would always keep for themselves, nine out of 10 would not pick a filet. Maybe a flat iron, skirt steak, or NY Strip which have a tremendous amount of flavor at the expnse of overt tenderness. Or maybe the sainted ribeye which has 10X more flavor than a filet and may be just as tender.

Don't fight against delicious for the false flavor of tender. Yes delicious can be tender and tender can be delicious, but if you are serious about your delicious – put tender on the back burner.

This is just a warm up for the smooth wine vs delicious wine debate.

New Awesomeness

2010-02-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

We have put a new dish on the menu that is classical, simple, rich and don't forget exquisite. We have added pommes aligot (phome - aligo) as a side to our new braised veal breast.

While the veal breast is so very delicious after being braised for five hours with cinnamon and castelvetrano olives, it is the pommes aligot that steals the show. This is a classical French dish from the Auvergne region. This recipe calls for equal parts potato and cheese with some cream thrown in to ensure the scale is tipped from decadent to a certain primordial richness that speaks directly to the core of being a human. It is that good. Come into the WK and find out for yourself.

Wine Myth Busting 101

2010-01-25T17:56:00.001-08:00

Swirling a glass of wine then looking intently at the glass and commenting on how great the legs look on a particular wine makes you sound like you know what you are talking about and opens the door for yet another sly double entendre at a cocktail party. But alas, those legs don't quite mean what you think they mean - in either sense.

Those "legs" or the less sexy name "tears" dripping down the inside of a glass of wine are simply an indication as to the fact there is alcohol in the wine. More legs indicates more alcohol and not much else. If you measure a wine's quality by the level of alcohol in the wine those legs might mean something to you. But if you measure a wine's worth by what it tastes like, then... Open up and say ahh.

If you were interested the nerdy explanation for wine legs follows below.

The scientific explanation for wine legs is a result of the varying evaporation rates and different surface tensions between alcohol and water (The major components of wine.). The wine crawls up the glass as you swirl it because alcohol has a lower surface tension rate than water and pulls itself up the side of the glass. Then as the alcohol evaporates faster than the water, because of its lower boiling point, the water forms droplets and falls back down the inside of the glass. Or something like that.

Drink what you like.

The Thrill of Disappointment

2009-08-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight I experienced one of the many things that can happen when you open a bottle of wine. Instead of being met with the scent of something exciting and new, I was met with something that smelled old and tired. Sometimes a bottle is full of wine that has become less than pleasant. Whether it is from 'cork taint' (aka 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA)), oxidation or any other various wine maladies, a bottle of wine can sometimes be far from perfect just on a technical perspective. We are not talking about wine that is subjectively good or bad. We are talking about wine that has a fault the size of the San Andreas Fault (aka largest fault in the World) and is not good on any level.

To me thought it is this chance that gives wine a certain I don't know what, (aka je ne sais quoi) that makes it a bit more beguiling than other beverages. If you want to be rewarded when you open a bottle of a wine with a something much better and/or interesting than you had originally thought or hoped, you must also be willing to suffer the disappointment of a promising bottle gone bad. To know the thrill of victory is to know the sting of defeat. With wine sometimes you end up with a freshly opened bottle of wine and empty glasses as the wine in the bottle has ceased to be and will offer up none of its intended promise. Then sometimes you open a bottle of wine you have never had before or an older wine you know and you are swept off your feet by a wine that could bring a tear to your eye and a heavy relaxing sigh after each sip. If you are going to drink wine and hope to have new and different experiences you must be willing to understand that you take the good, you take the bad (aka The Facts of Life).

Little Green Bottle

2009-07-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you don't finish a bottle of wine. Sometimes you even plan to not finish a bottle you open. Then sometimes you finish more wine than you should. The solution for the latter is for another time. The solution for what to do with left over wine is our topic for today.

The best, most cost effective and simple way to preserve an opened wine is to remove it from its current bottle home and put it into a smaller bottle home. Like empty nesters selling their four bedroom colonial for a two bedroom rancher. When I know I am not going to finish a bottle of wine when I open it i break out my mini green bottles first thing. (This happens more often than not, as the Mrs. and I disagree on wine choices.) I use the litte 8oz green bottles (pictured above) that were previously ginger ale bottles. These small green bottle are perfect because they prevent wine deterioration and make for a handy single serving size. Fill each of the 8oz green bottles as close to the very top of the bottle as you can, at least up to the small neck of the bottle. Now only the smallest portion of wine is exposed to oxygen as possible. Oxygen and wine's relationship is like the friend who comes to visit for a few days that turns into a few weeks.. At first oxygen makes wine seem bigger and better than it was, until it has been around too long, then it becomes the wine's mortal enemy. So keeping oxygen away from wine until you want them to cohabitate is essential in preserving wine. The fridge is the place for all unfinished wine regardless of color and creed. The cool air temperature in the fridge also helps to reduce the wines proclivity to self destruction much like it does for any and/or all meat, produce and cheese.

So in review:

1 Fill small green (8oz) bottle with extra wine to the tippy top of the glass jar. (Put the top on the small green bottle.

2 Refrigerate said jar.

3 When you get home pour yourself a glass out of the well preserved wine.

4 Say hi to the family and change your clothes

5 Drink well preserved wine.

Enjoy.

A Necessary Option

2009-07-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes necessity is the mother of unusual choices. After a long day, sometimes a glass of wine and something to eat is a necessity more than an option or choice.

Thusly tonight I had the pleasure of a pot of Amy's Organic Mac N' Cheese and a glass of Barefoot Chardonnay. As you can see by the awesome golf ball stopper, the Chardonnay had already been opened prior to my arrival and drinking. (It was used for a pork shoulder recipe.) You can also see, if you look closely, that a spoon is the preferred utensil for mac n' cheese. Mac n' cheese is best eaten out of the vessel it is cooked in so as not to miss a morsel of cheese.

Sometimes wine is just for drinking with no further thought than that. Sometimes you drink a wine because it is cold, has some alcohol in it and provides a certain amount of refreshment. In those circumstances the Barefoot Chardonnay was exactly what the doctor ordered. Fresh fruit of apricots and pineapple with a little bit of vanilla cream. The wine was as refreshing as a yellow Gatorade after a mile run on a summer Virginia day. That's it. That's all the wine was designed to, and so it did.

Drink whatever the hell you like when ever you like. If for some crazy reason you don't finish it, use a fun bottle stopper and put the wine in the fridge (Yes red wines as well. The fridge works its preserving magic on red wine just as it does red meat.) until tomorrow.

A Forgotten Vineyard

2009-07-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

There are few things more depressing than a forgotten vineyard. All that hard work going into planting the vines in perfectly straight rows, training them and then carefully harvesting the bounty of grapes. To then just leave it and walk away is a sad a sad thing. Almost like starting a blog and semi-diligently logging posts, then leaving it fallow for so many months with no new attention paid.

Well we are here to reclaim our lost blog. We will hack out all the underbrush, retrain the vines and began anew. So please have patience as we begin our process of reclamation and regrouping to produce a better and more well maintained product.

Name Calling

2009-04-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

There is a job in the wine world that requires an individual to examine, analyze, research and pass judgement. No, not wine critic, but ampelographer. An ampelographer is a person who's job is to be concerned with the proper identification and classification of grapevines. The word ampelographry comes from two Greek words: ampelos for vine and graph for description.

These ampelographers examine the various physical characteristics of a grapevine, then attempt to give the vine a proper name that represents the vine's lineage and individual characteristics, chardonnay or syrah for example. Until the 1940s ampelography was considered an art. Then Pierre Galet created systematic criteria for the identification of vines and the science of ampelography was born.

It is important to know what variety of vine is growing in certain vineyard so this particular vine can be raised right and cared for appropriately. Plus people like to know what it is they have in the bottle of red wine. Some grapevines require more water and less sun, and some require just the opposite. If you didn't know what kind of vine you were caring for it would be like trying to raise your son or daughter by always saying “hey you.” Somewhat effective, but certainly not optimal. People and grapevines like when you know who they are.

Most of the time, name calling is juvenile and silly and sometimes, your an ampleographer, and it's your job.

The Chance for Opportunity

2009-04-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

When wine makers spend countless hours tending to a vineyard or mind numbingly meticulously cleaning the wine making equipment in the winery, they are creating their chance for opportunity. Winemakers put all their energy into creating just the right conditions to produce a wine they can be proud of and most importantly, customers will want to drink. All of the hard work and sleepless nights only create the chance for greatness. Mother nature could, at any minute, completely wipe out a vineyard whose grapes were just days away from being perfect for harvesting. Even if the grapes are harvested at the perfect time and gently pressed to create beautiful juice, the vagaries and unpredictable nature of winemaking can create something more akin to vinegar than first class wine before the winemaker even has a chance.

If the winemakers plans go off without a hitch. The timing was perfect, the grapes behaved just the way they hoped and now they feel the juice is the best it could be. So they put all of what they have worked so hard to create into a $1,500 new French Oak barrel. Then sit and wait. Maybe taste the wine at different intervals. But they will not know if their efforts have been a success until the wine has run its full course in the barrel and is ready for bottling. Even then, how long will their wine take once it is in the bottle to finally reveal its true character? Two years? 12 years? Only time and patience will tell.

All any good/sane winemaker can hope to do, is create the chance for opportunity. Working so hard for something, just so you can put it a bottle, wait for a few years, then find out what anyone and everyone thinks about your work, is a tough way to make a living. It's like taking some silly computer test for work, school or at the DMV. You have taken the test and you push the “Done” button and cringe as you wait for the computer to spit out your score. Take that feeling and multiply it by about a factor of 100 and you will have some idea how cringe worthy making wine can be. But there must be something magically alluring about making wine, because people have been drawn to making wine for thousands of years.
Maybe it is the very thing that makes winemaking so maddening and difficult that also draws people to it – the great chance for great opportunity.

When 1 + 1 = more than 2

2009-02-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Some things in life are much greater than the sum of their individual parts. A symphony produces much bigger and richer sound than any and all of its instruments played alone. A great team, in any sport, is always better than the sum of its individual talents. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich trumps a plain old peanut butter sandwich or simple jelly sandwich every time. Freshly popped popcorn, an ice cold fountain cherry coke and a great midday movie theater trip is at least 10X better than the sum of all of those individual things. Point being, sometimes a special combination of different things add up to more than they should.

The perfect pairing of wine and food is just such an occasion where 1 + 1 = >2. We discovered a perfect example of this at tonight's WK Wild Game dinner. We had a 2005 Chianti Classico ("Classico" in this sense means it comes from a sub-region within Chianti which contains the original Chianti area as outlined in 1716.) Riserva ("Riserva" in Chianti means the wine was aged at least 28 months.) from Savignola Paolina. With the Chianti we served a wild boar ragout with house made parpadelle noodles.

The rich gaminess of the ragout was a perfect match for the robust and tangy cherry flavors of the Chianti. The Chianti and wild boar, a traditional paring in Tuscany, created an experience as much as they did a meal.

Even cold ragout in a takeout container, eaten with a plastic fork while standing up and looking over TPS reports at 1am becomes a culinary delight with a generous glass of the Savignola Paolina Chianti Classico Riserva 2005.

Try something new with something new - it may just be the next big thing.

Dynamite and Wine

2009-02-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

Join us this Wednesday (Feb. 11) as Tarara Winery in association with Flavor Magazine wil be tasting some of their delicious wines with us from 5:30 to 7:30. The event will be complimentary and promises to be a great opportunity to taste wines from one of the most well known wineries in Virginia.

Founded in 1989 by Ralph J. "Whitie" Hubert and wife Margaret. One of Whitie's first things he did was create a cave to put his winery in. Anyone who starts making wine with dynamite is alright by us.

Sunshine and Rain

2009-01-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

Every wine ever made comes from grapes that must have two things, sunshine and rain. Approximately 1300 - 1500 hours of sunshine during the growing season and 27 inches of rain throughout the year to be approximately exact. Although it is not impossible to have both sunshine and rain, (Any wealthy leprechaun knows that.) it is most unlikely to have them both at the same time. Cloudy and rainy aren't the ideas one conjures up when they think about "wine country" anywhere. There is a larger point to be made here with regard to sliver linings and gray clouds, but that would be hackie. So let's just say this, everything good that wine represents has a few gloomy rainy days all bundled up inside.

Best Wine Improver of All Time

2008-12-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

There are countless gadgets, widgets, "scientifically proven instruments", howdoyouwatchyoucallits and other stuff that can supposedly improve a wine that might otherwise need improving. I am all for the advancement of science and technology but some "advances" just seem silly. Like spending $25 on a piece of metal that when dipped in your $6 bottle of Cabernet makes it taste like a $20 Cabernet.

My first thought is to buy a $15 dollar bottle and save your self the silliness of dipping a piece of metal in your wine.

Plus, I can suggest something that will improve the quality of any wine you purchase. Guaranteed. Any wine, from a $5.99 1.5L bottle of something with a neon frog on it, to a 1947 Cheval Blanc (Arguably the greatest wine ever made. So I hear.) will almost instantly improve once this thing is added. You don't have to dip this thing in the wine, strain your wine through it, wave it around the bottle in figure eights or any such other ritual hazing of your wine. I'm not even selling it or saying you can only get this from a special place where you have to know a secret signal. No, what I offer is something you hopefully do every day. Laughter is the most powerful and secret wine improver in the world.

Laughter is what makes any wine seem more "smooth," "lush," or "soft." Laughter gives wine all those special things that we look for in a good bottle, enjoyment, appreciation and relaxation. So save your money and wine gadgets for a re-gift next year. Invite a few friends out for a glass of wine and laugh out loud with your head back and knee firmly slapped. Best glass of wine you will have had in a long time.

Optimism is Delicious

2008-12-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Why would anyone try something new unless they were optimistic that they would like it? There are a number of answers to this question, (My boss does it. "They" say it is good for you. I just watched an hour and a half commercial on why this rotisserie thing is awesome.). I still think unabashed optimism is what propels most us to try something new or different.

I have always found Tuesdays to be the best days to try something new. Tuesday is the day of the week that is often lost in the daily morass of week to week life. Monday is Monday and cases of the "MOONdays" abound. Wednesday is "hump day." Thursday is almost Friday and Friday even has its own acronym. Then it's the weekend! Tuesday is the day with no more meaning attached to it than it is the day between MOONdays and hump days.

So use your Tuesday to try something new and different with a bright eyed optomisitc outlook that this the new thing will be really great once you have tried it. There are no limits to to "New Stuff Tuesdays." You can try a new way to get to work or a new sandwich at lunch. If you tie your left shoe before your right usually, try it the other way. The only key is to approach a new task with wide eyed optimisim that whatever new thing you are trying, it is going to be totally awesome. You may get burned a few times like when you try a lunch of iceberg lettuce and ketchup, but more often than not your optimism will be rewarded.

Salsify is a great New Thing Tuesday item to try. Salsify is a member of the Goatsbeard genus of plants. You should try alone on that fact. It is a long tuber that has a sweat earthy flavor with a little tang of an oyster. It is delicious in a puree, especially with fish. Even more so with a perfectly cooked piece of Artic Char. You could try the Salsify with the Artic Char and really send Tuesday over the moon.

Try something new. Start a movement.

Peach Pit

2008-12-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

Usually, when a wine maker writes something on the back of their wine it ends up being foolish, condescending and just plane "crap." Most of these wine bottle blurbs are written through careful marketing studies and focus groups.

Then, then you read something on the back of wine bottle like,

"Sometimes fruit is simply found on the table that way. Other times it is purposefully arranged. Peaches are half cut open; their white insides clutching their pitted stones. Next to them a scrolling lemon peel, and behind them spotted pears in a perfect "Still Life". On one hand, there is the desire to feel the flesh of the fruit on the tooth; on the other, the sense of how much better it may be tomorrow."

This delicious little vin-yet is on the back of a bottle of Dominio IV Viognier, "Still Life." It may not tell you the Ph of the wine or the Brix at harvest or even which way the slope faces where the grapes were grown. What it does artfully do is give you a greater sense of the person who made the wine and an subtle allusion to the flavors in the wine. You can almost see what the wine might taste like. If nothing else, this wine bottle paragraph is a pleasant surprise, like a good fortune cookie. So sit back and enjoy both the prose and wine making from the fine folks at Dominio IV. Simply delicious.

The Importance of Being Earnest

2008-11-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

We are finally OPEN.

So come one and all and enjoy the simple pleasures of great food and great drink in our relaxed setting. We have attempted to break down some of the foibles and hypocrisy of the wine world at large in our effort to let the true enjoyment of wine shine through.

Nothing is more earnest than a plate of crispy pork belly and a glass of rich, lush and spicy Barrel 27 Syrah on a blustery fall day. Such simple and assured flavors are undeniably delicious and spread contentment from the stomach to the face in a soulful smile. Earnest indeed.

We opened our doors on Saturday of last week. We were very pleased to have a full restaurant all evening. We will be open tonight Wednesday 11/26 from 4pm until 9pm or later if need be. Starting tomorrow we will be open for lunch everyday at 11:30am except Mondays when we will be closed. Please come by and have a glass and something to eat.

We hope to see you soon.

The WK.

Funny Monkey Videos and Sparkling Wine

2008-11-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

The thing about most any monkey video and most any sparkling wine is they make you smile and laugh a little on the inside. Both can add a little something fun and/or delightful to any and all occasions. As a matter fact you don't need an occasion for either. Just the right frame of mind, access to youtube.com and/or an icy cold bottle.

Another thing about monkey videos and sparkling wine is that they sometimes need clarification. For instance "monkey video" can many times be used when referring to a video that actually consists of orangutan doing a magic trick. While both monkeys and orangutans are part of the primate family they are distinctly two different fun loving knuckle walkers.

In much the same vane, while all Champagne is by definition a sparkling wine, not all sparkling wine is necessarily Champagne. Semantics some say. I say if you are enjoying a video of a primate of some type ridding a bike and/or a sparkling wine that just so happens to be made within the designated region of Champagne France (Thus earning it the name "Champagne."), enjoyment should be the key. Though it is nice to give the right performer credit.

Sparkling wine and a video of an orangutan pushing another orangutan over, a pairing for the ages.

Wash Your Hands

2008-11-04T20:54:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you need a little extra time to give your hands a good scrub, splash some water on your face and look into the mirror and think today is the day that I will create my own opportunity. I find it best to do this after coming in from walking the dogs or grabbing the paper first thing in the morning. Sometimes it is even good to do at a time when you might not feeling you have time because things are moving so fast in the middle of your day.

We are moving ever closer to throwing our doors open and providing two and a fake sinks in Downtown Leesburg where people can gather their thoughts and scrub their hands. We hope people enjoy our hospitality, atmosphere, wine and food and take advantage of our gratis soap and water and mirror.

Sparkling wines are the sinks and soap of the wine world. The tiny bubbles and crispness of most sparkling wines scrub your tongue and make it ready to go about another sip or bite of food. The effervescent nature of sparkling wine can also lead to self introspection similar to looking at yourself in the mirror. Go fourth, wash your hands and drink a glass of sparkling wine. Your immune system, tongue and self awareness will thank you.

You Gotta Have Faith

2008-10-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Walls are becoming less white and vines are starting to creep across them. A sure sign that The Wine Kitchen is coming closer to opening.

Many times when you are planning to open a new business you reach points when all hope seems lost and there is no way to move forward. Then either through diligence, hard work, luck or just something you don't even understand, the previously insurmountable obstacle crumbles and you move forward again. This happens more times than you could imagine, but each time it seems like this is the "one thing" that might stop your new business in its tracks. The only thing that keeps you moving forward is a strong belief in what you are doing and surrounding yourself with people who believe in your ideas and their own abilities.

When it comes to wine sometimes it can pay off to trust yourself or someone else and pick a wine you might not normally try. Today's illustration of just such an idea is Musar Cuvee Rouge 2004 from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. This is a great red wine with soft easy drinking fruit of a pinot noir, but with a little more stoutness that gives it a darker side. Having only ever missed one vintage in its history, through all the wars, uprisings, and political upheaval in Lebanon, this winery also illustrates what dogged determination, trust and faith in what they do can accomplish. Give it a try or something else you have never heard of or be able to pronounce and see where it takes you. Trust me. nj

So Fresh and So Clean

2008-10-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

If we were opening Leesburg first (and probably last) Martini Bar we could stop right now, hang up some chandeliers audition lounge acts and we would be off and running. Fortunately though, we will be Leesburg's first authentic wine bar with a comfortable home kitchen atmosphere. While both a martini bar and our wine bar are good fun and have their place, exhaustive market research has shown wine bars increase the local happiness quotient of the surrounding populace in the longer term. We aim to please so we toil on to create the happiest little wine bar in the Galaxy.

Today we are drinking a rose (Le Goat Blush) from Bully Hill Vineyard in upstate New York. It's a fun wine. Good for that post lawn mow pick me up.

(Some, or all, of the "exhaustive research" above was made up.)

Building Waiting

2008-09-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

We at the WK table are waiting while the building is still going. It is a process that consists of fits of work and not work. It can be exhilerating and mind numbingly slow all in the same day.

But despair not my friends as progress is being made as evidenced by these photos. I'm pretty sure that ladder moved a little.

What wine you ask pairs best with the ups and downs of build out? Well I have found, through exhaustive research, the perfect wine accompaniment to the thrills and spills of construction, Los Rocas Garnacha from Spain. This wine fit's the "build out" budget coming in at under $15 and has enough going for it to keep the mind occupied for a brief while. The grapes for this wine are harvested from 70 to 100 year old vines from high altitudes. There is enough fruity fruit upfront on this wine to make it not so serious and good for just relaxing. But after a few more minutes in the glass deeper and more nuanced flavors unfold giving the brain enough to do to move your thoughts away from any immediate concerns. Who doesn't like a fund deep thought? All good after a day of pacing and phone calling. That is what a good wine is good for.

Breaking Down to Build Up

2008-09-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Through the magic of time lapse photography we are able to witness a travel back in time. As the layers, and layers and layers of "material" (Notice the large pile from just half a wall.) were pealed off the interior walls of what will soon be a great wine bar, a the building's past was revealed. A few small toys and 5 and 10 cent placards found in the walls verified the neighborhood scuttlebutt that the building at 7 South King St. Leesburg, VA was once a five and dime.

We at the WK think the only way to ensure your future success is to understand where you come from. We will attempt to incorporate some of the building's history into our own little business at 7 South King St. Sadly, although many of the 30 wines we will pour by the glass will be extremely affordable, the five and dime pricing will not make the transition to The Wine Kitchen.

By taking this old space down to its bones we will be able to reveal some of the building's old character and charm. Pairing things down to their essence will be a consistent theme at The Wine Kitchen. We will always seek to create a place where wine can be appreciated for its simple beauty. After all, when you break it down you can get from grape to wine in just a few steps: grow grapes, crush grapes, wait, put juice in a bottle and drink juice out of the bottle. It's as simple as that.

The Beginning of the Begining

2008-08-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

This post marks the beginning of the beginning of the The Wine Kitchen Table. This blog will chronicle the beginning and development of the best wine bar this side of the Mississippi, that just happens to be in Leesburg, VA. Stay tuned for updates and running commentary on the beginning and evolution of The Wine Kitchen here are The Wine Kitchen Table

There Will Be Wine...