St. Louis Eats and Drinks

This Week's Wines January 31, 2007

There are times when a splurge is just the right thing, times when a large investment brings a large reward. I’m talking about spending a lot of money on a bottle of very special wine, but when the wine is to celebrate a memorable event or the anniversary of one, or maybe to mark a gathering of several generations of a family, it can be money well-spent.

"A lot" is open to a great deal of debate, but when I go into three figures for a bottle of wine at retail, that’s my definition.

However, in recent tastings, I found a pair of expensive wines that are simply outstanding, far superior to run-of-the-mill, or even very good, bottles. Joseph Phelps 2003 Insignia ($165) is one, Robert Mondavi’s reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, from the same ‘03 vintage ($125) is another. Both are Napa Valley wines that give credence to the old line that you get what you pay for.

Insignia is a Meritage (pronounced in American style, with the accent on the first syllable, to rhyme with "heritage") blend which means that it may or may not qualify to be named after its key varietal grape. Three-fourths of the wine must come from the lead grape to earn the name. And the wine is a blend of several red varietals. The ‘03, which is 84 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, could have been named for the grape, but Craig Williams, the Joseph Phelps winemaker, decided to keep the Insignia name a constant. The wine also includes 10 percent Petite Verdot and three percent each of Merlot and Malbec. Grapes came from various vineyards, most in Phelps-owned vineyards in Napa, some purchased from other growers. The growing year got off to a slow start, with an exceptionally cool and wet spring. Mildew problems caused early crop removal, and a smaller-than-usual harvest. July and August, however, were extremely warm and sunny, and a hot September polished everything off.

The wine was fermented in stainless steel, then aged 24 months in French oak barrels before blending and bottling a year ago. The wine is very rich, with an aroma of blackberries and coffee. Dark chocolate joins the berries and dark cherries on the palate and there is a long, soft finish. It’s a glorious wine in every respect, and will continue to improve for 8-10 years.

If the Insignia is a budget-breaker, there’s a 2003 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($48) which may not have the finesse of the Insignia, but it’s a terrific wine to accompany red meat, or dark chocolate, or strong cheese. The blend is a little different, with 85 percent

Cabernet Sauvignon, 11 percent Merlot, three percent Petite Verdot and one percent Cabernet Franc. The wine aged 20 months, which left it with a little more tannin than the Insignia, but still with impressive flavors and indications of improvement for several years.

And don’t forget the Mondavi, from grapes in the same neighborhood. The blend is slightly different, involving 89 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 11 percent Cabernet Franc. It’s slightly bolder than the Insigina, with black cherry and currants in the aroma and flavor, and some chocolate in the finish. Both of these wines should be decanted, or opened about an hour before drinking to allow oxygen to do double-duty, opening the flavors and curbing the tannin.

Winning wines. . . .

Recent tastings have brought some different, and interesting table wines, good accompaniments to meals, or to desserts, or just to quaff before a fireplace on a chill evening.

Some whites have made an impression, and I’ll look at them first, in no particular order.

Franciscan Oakville Estates: 2004 Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay fom Napa Valley ($33) is fermented using wild yeasts, a challenge for the winemaker, and this one was met easily. The wine is crisp and in the true Chablis style, with overtones of vanilla and a fine finish.

Oakville Ranch: 2004 Napa Valley Chardonnay ($35) is more in the California manner, showing big, buttery, slightly oaky flavors that are packed with citrus overtones. An excellent wine with grilled fish or oysters on the shell, or as something to prepare the palate for dinner.

Andeluna: 2003 Reserve Chardonnay ($23) from Argentina comes from vines at 4200 feet of elevation in the Andes Mountains. Aged in French oak for a year, the flavor of the wood is present, though not to an objectionable amount, and there’s a gentle feeling of butter on the palate, again in a just-right performance.

J. Lohr: 2005 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, Carol’s Vineyard ($18), and 2004 Chardonnay, Arroyo Vista ($25) are fine examples of Jerry Lohr’s wines. The former displays the crisp, mineral feeling of a good Sauvignon Blanc, with citrus aromas and a bright, fresh flavor. The Chardonnay is on the austere side, avoiding the palate-cluttering, heavily buttered tones of many California Chardonnays. A little oakiness keeps it in fine balance.

Dry Creek Vineyards: 2003 Zinfandel, Beeson’s Ranch is a rich, hearty Zinfandel from a small Sonoma Valley vineyard. There’s mint on the palate along with the expected flavors of plummy dark fruit, balanced by blackberry. Fine with rich roasts.

NEW WINE RETAILERS: A pair of new, and new-style, wine retail stores have opened in the St. Louis area, offering different places to visit for those of us who enjoy prowling the racks, looking at new and old friends, and hoping that something very special will just jump into our hands. Both are franchise operations.

WineStyles is in Chesterfield Oaks, on Clarkson Road south of the Highways 40 and 64, 636-536-0711.

Vino 100 is in Florissant, in the Jamestown Mall, 314-741-0899, www.vino100.com

-Joe

La Tortuga

There’s not much that pleases us more than finding a little, family-run restaurant that serves good ethnic food. And we’ve found just such a spot on Cherokee Street. There’s not much decor beyond some freshly painted walls in warm, pleasing colors. And the smile from one of the teenaged daughters who tells you to sit anywhere you like is even warmer. It’s a very simple spot, a neighborhood sort of place, but they seem comfortable with visitors like us. It’s casual to the point of a serve-yourself table for the three salsas, all obviously homemade. Which of the three was the hottest? That varied from visit to visit, but we liked both the one made with roasted peppers and the one with lots of cilantro.

The menu is fairly short, without much emphasis on the tacos and burritos that some such places have. They’re there, of course. We had a soft taco with barbecue, or barbacoa, lovely shredded beef full of juice and flavor, and a chicken tostada–they were out of the seafood on the menu–with beans and avocado as well as the expected lettuce and tomato. Gorditas are made from fat tortillas that always make us wonder if they were hand-patted, about half as thick as an English muffin and about that diameter. The tortilla is split and stuffed with a variety of fillings, including our choice, chiccharones. Most of the time, one thinks of chiccharones as "cracklin’s," the crispy bits of fried-up pork fat that serve as a snack or appetizer. But that’s not the case here, where the small pieces of fat are stewed in a savory sauce. They’re just a little chewy, but tasty; the impression was not of greasiness but of richness. In fact, it may have been the single richest thing we’ve ever tasted in a Mexican restaurant. It’s not difficult to see it as a dish to help someone through a long, hard day’s work.

Birria (below) at the House of the Turtle is certainly slow-cooked, beef that’s falling-apart tender, with a pleasant but not overwhelming degree of hotness. The refried beans alongside were a little different  in that they were a lighter color than usual; we think it may have been part white beans and part pinto, since the flavor was not as earthy as pinto usually is. Menudo, served with chopped white onion, oregano and minced chiles to be added as desired, was very traditional, its clear broth deeply flavored from the tripe. Interestingly, there was no posole, or hominy, the first time we’ve seen that. Good, but not as good as that birria.

Also a winner, and a real surprise was the enchiladas Michoacan style. The plate arrives with a leg quarter of a chicken sitting alongside a tangle of lettuce, tomatoes and a drizzle of crema, Mexican sour cream atop the enchiladas. The chicken had miraculously crisp skin and a very tender interior. If it had been duck, we’d have thought it was confit. The enchiladas were filled with cheese, topped with an excellent sauce showing a medium amount of heat. The real surprise was a showering of potatoes, diced, sauteed and seasoned with something that left them the color of carrots, over the enchiladas. The combination was swell.

Dessert is flan or tres leches cake. The latter certainly tasted homemade, the milk-soaked cake cool and surprisingly unsweet except for a thin layer of strawberry jam spread across the yellow cake, the kind of Mom touch that epitomizes this sweet little spot.

La Tortuga

2817 Cherokee St.

314-771-4130

Lunch & Dinner Thurs.-Tues.

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Fair

Smoking: Yes

Entrees: $6-$9

Rooster: Brunch

Downtown St. Louis, at least here and there, is beginning to resemble New York’s SoHo of the 1980's. The left-of-center home furnishings boutiques, the funky clothing stores (more, please!) and buildings that are finally beginning to show they’re homes and not just former business sites, all create urban fun. So Rooster, with its two storefronts, concrete floors with a pleasant mosaic and a collection of elderly mismatched mirrors, fits right in. Our resident historian, JP, adds that the building itself was once the site of Fahey’s, a saloon owned by the late Fat Fahey that served as a long-time late-night hangout for reporters and other dubious sorts.

Rooster does breakfast and lunch Tuesday-Friday, starting at 7 a.m., moves the opening hour back to 9:30 on Saturday and Sunday, and calls it brunch, one of our favorite meals. The big, sunny north windows encourage basking at this time of the year; come summer, it may be more of a problem. Orders are placed at the counter, but are delivered to the table. Coffee is serve-yourself from a couple of large vacuum bottles, fresh and flavorful, though we wish Rooster served fresh juice rather than the bottled kind.

The bulk of the menu consists of crepes, European-sized fellows probably 14 inches across and folded in quarters around the filling. We tried two, one savory and one sweet.  

A spicy chicken crepe did indeed have some pleasant heat, leaning in the Southwestern direction with notes of cumin and maybe a little chipotle pepper. The chicken itself was in good supply, chunks of a size that were easy to manage with only a fork. The lemon ricotta was less sweet than we anticipated, with a fair amount of lemon and the slightly crumbly ricotta giving a cheesecake-ish note.

On the non-crepe side of things, an egg sandwich came with lettuce and tomato on the hard-fried egg. Instead of the soft bread promised, it was on a sweet brioche bun, perhaps not the best choice, but overall, a generous and satisfying choice. Bacon on the side was crisp-chewy and meaty. At the next table, we saw fat, golden French toast and a bowl of oatmeal that was the real thing, not the vile instant stuff.

This is primarily a young crowd, not a surprise, given the neighborhood, and it’s a good option for morning food. To make things even more virtuous, the meat all comes from Missouri family farms.

Rooster

1104 Locust St.

314-241-8118

www.roosterstl.com

Breakfast & Lunch Tues.-Fri., Brunch Sat.-Sun

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Poor

Smoking:No

Entrees: $5-$9

Tamas Estates

When a young winemaker meets a medium-sized winery, his job is wide-ranging.

Chris Graves, whose first primary vintage from Tamas Estates is now on shelves, took over in 2005 with a string of responsibilities that included supervising vineyard management and helping design a new label. Tamas, based in Livermore, is part of the Wente Family Estates group

Graves’ 2004 red wines, made in the Livermore Valley from the Italian classic Barbera and Sangiovese grapes, and the admittedly semi-Italian Zinfandel, show excellent value and a bright future for the 26-year-old Graves. He’s a Californian who was born in San Jose, but grew up in the hamlet of Somerset, Calif., east of Sacramento in El Dorado County, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. His acquaintanceship with Zinfandel and Sangiovese began there.

"They were all around me when I was a boy," he said in a recent telephone conversation, "and it just seemed natural for me to work with them as I grew older."

Graves followed the well-trodden California wine trail to the University of California-Davis, earning a degree in viticulture and enology. He joined Wente in 2003 as an enologist, then moved up to his present post at Tamas in early 2005.

His first four wines include the ‘04 Barbera, Zinfandel and Sangiovese, each retailing at about $13, and an ‘05 Pinot Grigio, at $10. All are good values and the reds display classic Italian tendencies. The Pinot Grigio, too light to be on my favorites list, is a pleasant, if innocuous, aperitif, though I’ve found almost all Pinot Grigios to be that way.

The reds are a different story, and all are 100 percent of the varietal. Graves says his focus is on  fruit that is assertively forward, and the Sangiovese is perfectly placed in that category, with strawberry and raspberry overtones holding the point position in a group of red fruits. The Zinfandel is on the jammy side, but it is not overly rich. The balance is excellent, the nose showing the typical bramble notes that are a Zinfandel trademark. Barbera shows hints of vanilla in the midst of lovely grape flavors and less acid than many of the wines tend to display. All three will go well with pasta frolicking under a garlicky meat sauce.

All the grapes come from the Livermore area of Alameda County, which Graves calls ideal for the grapes. "We have cooler nights because of the breeze from the bay," he points out, adding, "The soil is stony, like Italy, but has good drainage so that the vines don’t get their feet wet. It isn’t the most fertile soil, so it makes the vines work a little harder, and that’s a good thing, too."

Like many California winemakers, Graves designs his to be ready for drinking while they’re still relatively young. He uses only stainless steel for fermentation, then ages the wine, albeit briefly, in smaller barrels of both French and Midwestern American oak.

Looking ahead, Graves termed the 2006 vintage to be very promising even though most of the harvest was later than usual.

-Joe

Barcelona Tapas

Everybody knows about tapas these days. If they know nothing else about Spanish food, restaurant-goers are familiar with the small-plate appetizer lists that offer nibbling possibilities, sometimes before, sometimes after, sometimes instead of a meal. They’re everywhere in Barcelona. Technically, they’re pinxos, pronounced "pinchos" in Catalan, but we almost never saw that word on a menu or sign.

Ordering tapas is easy, and it’s quite acceptable to make an entire meal of them. No one is surprised if diners call for the menu a second or a third time to order another round. What we would suggest, however, is making sure the guidebook tucked into your bag or pocket has a Catalan menu translator, or you may miss some of the most interesting items. Most books point out that it’s easy to go to the glass-encased counter and choose items.

Well, yes and no.

While the display of cold tapas is usually a full one, many of the hot items or those prepared to order, aren’t in view. In most restaurants, it’s difficult to get to the case, since it’s often part of the bar. The more popular the restaurant, of course, the more people are sitting or standing around the bar sipping and nibbling and gossiping. If you want a look at the case, wander up and look around, making mental notes. Then return to the table and indicate to the waiter. Pointing at an interesting dish at the next table is acceptable. So is sign language. And many servers manage a fair amount of English. After all, the British have been having holidays here for many generations.

Most of these restaurants also serve entrees, and it seems that the line at times becomes a little blurry, like the main-dish-size items that come round on the dim sum carts in Chinese restaurants. The point of the whole thing is to enjoy the food. None of the spots we suggest are anything but casual, filled with people relaxing and having a good time, no hushed temples of cuisine, so it’s easy to eat what you like without having to worry about what you Ought To Do.

The one dish not to be missed is razor clams, navalles in Catalan, navajas in Spanish. The long, narrow shells shaped like an old-fashioned straight razor make them hard to miss in a display. They are cooked to order, of course, grilled with a dab of parsley-and-garlic butter, their juices overflowing the shell. Brimming with flavor and a hint of ocean salt, they’re an absolute delight. We ordered them everywhere we went, and never were disappointed. Beans are usually excellent, sausage is garlicky and often spicy and we’ll deal with the potatoes as we go along.

Oh, yes, what to drink with tapas: Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine, is very good and reasonably priced. Like Champagne, it can be dry or sweet. Tempranillas and other wines can be tasty; the lighter, crisper styles work best, in our opinion. The pleasant surprise for us was sangria. It can be remarkably good, smooth and seductive. Spanish brandy rounds out the flavor notes and adds some body.

Taller de Tapas is a very modern restaurant in a very old building in the Barri Gotic, or Gothic Quarter. The tapas here are among the best we tried, including a superb version of patatas bravas, the sort of humble dish that sustains starving students. Fried potatoes, virtually greaseless and tasting deeply of potato in a way that one seldom finds in the U.S., come with a spicy red sauce and a garlic mayonnaise. Crisp, smoky grilled sardines soared. Roasted sweet peppers and eggplant arrived with sherry vinegar and olive oil, draped with some anchovies. Tiny lamb chops, also grilled, joined with fresh tomatoes and steamed potatoes, the better to finish up the remaining garlic mayonnaise. For dessert, we found a lighter version of cannoli that floated off the plate. Expert service, despite big crowds; also an area with outside tables, as well as a second location at C/Argenteria 51 in the Born neighborhood.

Taller de Tapas

Placa Sant Josep Oriol 9

93 301 80 20

Open daily

Cerveseria Catalana is within walking distance of Casa Mila, the fabulous Gaudi apartment building, and reminded us of nothing so much as a bar in Clayton on Friday night. It’s full of the young and  handsome, although there were a number of happy family groups also enjoying themselves. While there are, as the name Cerveseria implies, lots of different beers, this isn’t a bar mainly for drinking, but for the selection of tapas and sandwiches. (The people watching is pretty fine, too.) The chilled roasted eggplant and peppers we spoke of above is a classic Catalan dish called esqueixada; different cafes serve it different ways. It’s common to find it with fluffy, mild bacalla, or codfish. Here it was a sandwich with anchovies, another frequent ingredient. We also tried another variation, served with a warmed goat cheese, a swell pairing. Grilled cuttlefish, much like a large squid, was tender and flavorful. The local sausage, this one rather salami-like, also came as a sandwich. Dessert, a strawberry tart, was unimpressive.

Cerveseria Catalana

C/Mallorca 236

93 216 03 68

Open daily

El Portalon, also in the Barri Gotic, displays an interior that was once a stable. We tried our first pa amb tomaquet, a very traditional Barcelona dish. Thick slices from a rustic loaf of bread are toasted, then rubbed with a garlic clove and a tomato cut in half, so the tomato pulp goes into the bread. It’s topped off with olive oil, Spanish, of course, and served warm. When done right, it’s delicious; when done poorly, there’s still some charm to it. Shrimp in garlic is another traditional tapas dish, and mushrooms done the same way are, too, and both were worthwhile. Fresh anchovies, not salted or preserved in oil, were flash-fried. No bigger than a little finger, they went down like popcorn. Botifarra, a light-colored fresh sausage, came with white beans and won Joe’s heart. Ann swooned over a pork cheek braised until tender and then browned to considerable crispness. Cockles, the tiny shellfish, arrived in a tomato sauce. El Portalon has a much more neighborhood-y feel than the sleek Taller de Tapas; we were the only English-speaking diners in the room.

El Portalon

C/Banys Nous 20

93 392 11 87

Closed Sundays

Mangia Italiano

Good food, low cost–and a European parking experience. What more could you ask for a casual evening’s entertainment?

Mangia Italiano, in the food-happy South Grand neighborhood, expanded a few years ago, with a second dining room that’s partly non-smoking. But it’s still a laid-back, slightly artsy sort of joint that features the pasta that’s made in-house. (It’s also sold retail at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, and at the restaurant, but we find that a call in advance is a good idea if you’re interested.)

One of the best appetizers is the fig salad, dried figs poached in port and split to be topped with tangy blue cabrales cheese from Spain. There’s a little balsamic vinaigrette over it, the whole thing a remarkable dance of tastes. A caesar salad was fresh and crisp, with a well-seasoned dressing and housemade croutons. Unfortunately, the salad does not come with anchovies, nor does the kitchen have some on hand to satisfy those who yearn for the hairy little fish. Still, even the anchovy-deprived admitted that the salad was delicious.

Entrees are mostly under $12 and offer excellent value. The lasagna is swell, but we have a soft spot for the butternut squash ravioli. No, this is definitely not something post-modern and chi-chi. It’s an old Italian dish, from Mantua, although it generally is presented as tortelloni over there. It’s sauced with butter and a sprinkling of fresh sage, along with a little pepper to zing it up ever so slightly. It’s rich and soothing, real comfort food and a great combination of sweet and savory. The pasta itself is delicious (the house-made quality again) and it’s a superior dish.

The list of specials is fairly long and detailed; careful attention pays big dividends. On one visit, however, they were $15 and $16, and prices were not part of the server’s description. Still, they remained a good value. Conchiglie, shell-shaped pasta, sprawled in a lobster broth with tiny langoustine tails (basically crawfish) and real crabmeat, along with some bacon, the whole thing topped with chopped radicchio. A few edamame were thrown in, too, just for fun. The whole dish, in fact, was great fun, tasty and intriguing. This wouldn’t seem to be a logical place to eat a pork chop, but logic, as Ann mutters sometimes, is a crutch. The thick, juicy chop was topped with an apple chutney. Nearby was a sweet potato puree that tasted so buttery it could have been put on toast. Roasted broccoli was the second vegetable, a technique we’d never tasted before, and even well-known broccoli-loather Joe was very pleased. Roasting changes the consistency, makes it chewier and concentrates the flavor, making it more like, say, brussels sprouts (which he does like, and very much, thank you). All in all a fine plate of food.

We’re always on the lookout for something different on the dessert menu. At Mangia one night, it turned out to be chocolate truffles, half a dozen drizzled with raspberry puree and white chocolate and filled with nuts or chocolate chips. We suspect this was one of those restaurant moves that made lemonade out of lemons. They were more like really chewy brownies rolled into balls, but they were rich and chocolate-y, just the thing to finish off a glass of primitivo, that Italian red wine that’s related to zinfandel.

Surprisingly crisp service from the deeply casual-looking staff, too.

European parking? Well, it turns out that South Grand has installed a new style of parking meter which we’ve seen only in Europe, although some American cities reportedly have them as well. On each block, there’s a machine. Park the car, go to the machine, insert money, take the ticket the machine spits out and put it on your dash, making sure any passing meter maid can read it. Get used the routine; it appears to be the wave of the future.

Mangia Italiano

3145 S. Grand Blvd.

314-664-8585

http://www.saucemagazine.com/website.php?e=157

Lunch & Dinner daily

Sunday Brunch

Credit Cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: fair

Smoking: Yes

Entrees: $6-$16

Gingerbread Pancakes

And a good 2007 to all. We began the year with some thick-sliced bacon, cooked slowly until it was very crisp, and gingerbread pancakes.

I began my search for a good recipe for them several years ago, when we were in Springfield, Mo., while Joe was doing something on behalf of the Missouri Arts Council. We found a spot called Aunt Martha’s Pancake House. The name alone was enough to draw us, and it turned out to be a good choice. Aunt Martha herself sat alone at a table off to one side, doing the books and counting up receipts. Her gingerbread pancakes were fabulous, and I’ve never found a recipe quite as good.

The December 2006 Gourmet offered this one, described as "adapted from" the Magnolia Café in Austin, Tex. The flavor is excellent, although they were a bit thick for my taste. Next time I’m going to try grated fresh ginger in place of the dried, add a little more liquid and use cake flour, if I have any on hand, instead of all-purpose. They would be fabulous with blueberries, too.

I use an electric griddle, one of the few single-use appliances I am glad I own. They’re inexpensive, and worthwhile just for the two of us. Never mind how handy it is when the family comes to visit. Even if you only make pancakes four times a year, it’s worth it. And get the largest cooking surface you can find.

This recipe goes into the permanent collection at our house. They’re delish.

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

½ tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

3 large eggs

1/4 c. packed dark brown sugar

½ c. well-shaken buttermilk

½ c. water

1/4 c. brewed coffee (not espresso, says the magazine)

6 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted and cooled a little

Oil for the griddle or cooking spray

Begin preheating your griddle, or a frying pan over moderate heat.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and brown sugar until they’re smooth. Add the buttermilk, water and coffee; whisk again. Combine the flour mixture and the egg mixture with that whisk, and add the melted butter; stir until smooth.

When the cooking pan is hot enough that a drop of water skitters across the surface, brush it with oil or spray. Use a 1/4 c. measure to make the pancakes. They don’t bubble a great deal the way traditional ones do, but you’ll see a few. Just peek underneath; when they’re golden, turn them over and cook the other side.

Makes about 12 4-inch pancakes.

–Ann