Two of my recent discoveries – although they’ve been around for a while – are two butcher shops here in town.  One, John Mull’s Meats, has been around, it’s said, for nearly thirty years since this part of town was on the outskirts of the middle of nowhere.  The other, The Butcher Block, is on Rainbow just south of the 215 near Robindale.  It’s relatively new because that area was mostly desert and dirt a few short years ago.

While my culinary adventures take me to a lot of places, Larry’s Meats had been my butcher shop of choice because it’s close to the day job and have super fresh meats, including game.

This time, I’m going to brag on The Butcher Block.  They will occasionally get in some actual veal bones, and I just got a bunch for stock. Yes, I’m tackling Demi Glace.  In their deli case, however, they have a lot of other items, and I purchased some homemade venison sausage.  Three sausages set me back ten bucks, but, hey!  It’s an adventure!

Pan seared in a tiny bit of my own version of blended oil (grapeseed and EVOO), and finished in the oven, they were stunning.  Like a famous brand of potato chips, I couldn’t eat just one.  With a salad of fresh veggies lightly dressed with olive oil, fresh lemon (yes, my Meyers are ripening), fresh garlic, and salt, they made a great dinner.

The wine (did you think I talked about all of this without bringing up wine?!?) was one that I was initially reluctant to open, because I wanted to save it for a special occasion. However, because of the encouragement of the Wineaux Guy, I did so (see mushy, loving smile) and was glad that I did.  The wine was a 2007 Hug Cellars Boulder Ridge Vineyard San Luis Obispo County Pinot Noir. Whew.

I dunno.  Something about “Hug” and “Deer” just seemed to fit.  But I digress.

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At first I was overjoyed! An article about tasting the best Zinfandels, rated by the well-respected group at Snooth!

I’m a Paso Robles Zinfandel fan, and I grabbed some popcorn as I prepared gleefully for the carnage. Paso Zins were going to kick some serious Napa butt, right? But as I read through the article – with horror, I might add – that was not to be. Not because Paso Zins were bad. They just weren’t invited to the party.

Oh, they weren’t left out completely. EOS 2007 Zinfandel - which is 15% Petit Sirah – and Candor with a NV Zin, were, like the new kids in the neighborhood who are a little strange and smell funny,  just allowed to stand in the corner. They were nodded at, and their rich, influential brethren weren’t even considered. Kind of like how I choos

Overlooking the city of Paso Robles.

e ex-husbands.

I was stunned. There were 28 wines tasted, and the top ten spots were gobbled up largely by the Napa/Sonoma group. Don’t get me wrong…I know that they have good(ish) Zins up there. But geez, Snooth! What were you thinking!?!

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I love old Las Vegas, which is more meaningful now since most of it is gone, imploded in the heady days of the late 80s, 90s, and early in this decade.  We’ve seen the likes of the Aladdin, the Stardust, the Sands, and the Hacienda disappear into Vegas’ past.  We’ve seen the beautiful Desert Inn yield to the twin bronze glass monoliths of the Wynn and Encore.  In the rush to constantly reinvent itself, it seems as if Vegas lost a little of its soul.

And then there’s the Tropicana.  When I first went into the Tropicana some 25 (!!!!!) years ago, it was a dark and smoky place with the usual casino carpeting, table games, and omnipresent slots.  But what really got my attention were the guys in suits – the pit bosses – unobtrusively supervising behind the tables. Each one looked as if he could have been an extra in The Godfather.  It was great.  Vegas’ storied history at its finest.  Today, the pit boss is just as likely to be a small woman in heels as he is a burly guy in a suit, and the table games area is now bright and airy.  It’s not until you walk back into the old section of the hotel that you really feel that you’ve gone back in time to the glory days.  Let me explain.

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Whatever characteristics different Pinot Noirs (or would that be Pinots Noir?) may have, there are a couple that I expect no matter what:  Black cherry and smoke.  And this Abiouness delivers to my happy Pinot Noir soul.

I first bought this 2005 Abiouness Pinot Noir Hudson Vineyard at Khoury’s several months ago – nearly a year.  Issa told me that the distributor had a case (or two … can’t recall), said that the winery was closing, and that it was his (the distributor’s) job to dump the wine at a clearance price.  Well, I hadn’t heard of the label before, so I bought three bottles on the spot.

What a mistake!  I should have purchased all that he had!  The first bottle was eye-opening because I was drinking a quality Pinot Noir that hadn’t required a Williams Selyem-level investment.  It was rich and earthy, almost Oregonian in nature but with more structure and fruit.

I opened another bottle about two months later (someone else had come in and wiped out Khoury’s entire inventory so I was stingy with my remaining bottles), and the experience was the same.

Well, the last bottle made me weep (not literally, but it sounds good and literary).

The characteristics I found in the first bottle doubled in this one.  Rich, sparkling garnet in the glass, it exploded with black cherries, smoke, earth, and dark fruit on the nose. The texture was a mouth delight – as rich and as silky as you’d expect from a quality Pinot Noir.  The front end showcased the fruit, with mineral earthiness and smoke making a long and delightful finish.

The first two bottles were great, don’t get me wrong.  This one (time to rest? bottle variation? planet alignment? full moon? sun spots?) was absolutely outstanding, and I stretched that bottle out over two nights.  It lost almost nothing the second evening.

I wish I could tell you to go out and buy all you can! Screw the house payment! Bribe whom you must! Unfortunately, this is not available anywhere, not even on Snooth.

The only regret I have is that I didn’t purchase more … like I need more wine!  But the one varietal I will drink at any time with hardly an excuse, is, of course, Pinot Noir.  And this Abiouness – although it may have taken a few years to get there – really showcased what the varietal is all about.  I enjoyed every drop and feel that it could be a benchmark for what a good, solid Pinot Noir should be.  I would compare it to the equivalent vintages of Kosta Browne and Williams Selyem, although this Abiouness had to age a bit longer before it could belly up to the bar with the big boys.

Oh yes! I don’t want to leave out the most important part of this review. Abiouness Wines is NOT out of business!  Nichole Abiouness contacted me shortly after my first review of this wine last year and was surprised at the story.  After several email conversations with her and a little investigation of my own, it appeared that there was some apparent distributor skulduggery afoot, and both Abiouness and Khoury’s ended up being the fall guys in this one.

And in case you didn’t already guess, this is a George Clooney wine. All the way.

Stay tuned for more!

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Why in the world would I make up something like White Zin in South Africa? Actually, it’s been around for a while.  But, as in many traumas that we experience in life, I had blanked it out of my memory.  A series of events over the last several weeks brought this dismal (my opinion) fact back to my consciousness, and I’m finally addressing it head on.

When the Wineaux Guy and I went to the Paso Robles Zin Fest last month, the one wine that we didn’t taste was the Zinfandel Rosé.  And it’s not because we turned up our respective noses to it; it’s because we just didn’t get to any of them in the crush (haha) of people and while tasting the wines of some fifty-plus wineries.  Even our livers are limited.

Being in the middle of all of that Zin and all of the followup postings reminded me of a South African wine writer who visited the United States some time ago and was enthralled with a new, slightly sweet, refreshing wine made from uniquely American grapes.  You guessed it. White Zinfandel. What? You didn’t hear my scream of anguish as  I read those words?!?

Well as it turns out, Zinfandel is a new star in Africa and as of two years ago, one producer began making White Zin as a serious part of their very respected portfolio of wines.  Not only that, but apparently there are a bunch (haha) of up-and-coming young South African winemakers who are doing to White Zin what we wish that American winemakers had done years ago; they’re tackling it head on to make it a serious contender in the Rosé – and overall wine – world.

Gasp.

Let’s go back to the first winery I was speaking of just a minute ago.  Its name is Blaauwklippen, and they began their White Zin experiment with the 2007 vintage.  What’s interesting – at least to my eyes and is the complete antithesis of American White Zin producers – they are using a green bottle and though I’ve only been able to look at it in pictures, the wine actually looks, well, *white*!  One more bit of trivia is that while the words “White Zinfandel” appears on the label, they describe it as a “Zinfandel Blanc de Noir” in their written material.

All of my searches could find only this one winery with a current vintage, but more are certain to follow if the success of Blaauwklippen is any indication.

And I’m going to do the unthinkable – tell the story about the Rosé tasting that the Vegas Wineaux Wine Club had last year.  I know I had it *somewhere* in the lost files , but I’m writing this as a reminder.  We had a Sunday brunch blind tasting of six different pink wines, one of which was a (aieeee!) White Zin.  It’s pretty fair to say that quite a few of the members of the club are palate snobs…myself included.  So the pressure was on.  Without naming names, less than half of the participants figured out which one was the White Zin.  ’Nuff said.

Tonight I’m going to be enjoying turkey breast, a salad, and a nice, budget-friendly Pinot Noir.  Not a drop of White Zin in sight.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of America’s best-selling wine varietal in this blog.

Later on I’ll tell you about the site that has many recipes based on White Zin.  Oh the humanity!

Stay tuned!…

Oh! I almost forgot!  I got some of my information from this really terrific little site called Stellenbauchery, a South Africa Wine Adventure, the diary of a young American woman named Julia Burke who relates her adventures living in South Africa during the current harvest season as an intern.  This story is South Africa’s take on White Zin – Zinfandel Blanc de Noir – is a terrific read, as is the rest of her blog.  Too bad her internship is coming to an end.  She makes the adventures there fun.  I’m telling you – it’s a movie in the making!

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