Winesday

Rene: First whiff of the wine smells like cinnamon and a humidor. On the palate, this wine is heavy but flighty, jumping from spicy flavors to the almost overwhelming taste of cherries. This is a very smooth wine that would be perfect in front on a fireplace after a long meal. Unfortunately, it rarely gets cold in enough in New Orleans for a fireplace. This wine wants grilled lamb, but something with more bite than simple lamb chops. How about the grilled lamb ribs from Patois. That'll do.

Peter: This wine is rich but not overly tannic, with a slight burn down the back of the throat (Ed. Note: Say to yourself, "That's what she said"). The first flavor profile that comes to mind is cocoa. Thinking red meat (shocker, I know). Had a few veal and beef cheek dishes lately, thinking of the one from Sylvain that is the dinner menu.

Joe the Wine Guy: With great structure, depth, and concentration, the 2006 Three Palms Vineyard Merlot from Sterling Vineyards is intense with ripe black cherry aromas and expansive flavors. On the palate you get mineral, mocha, spices, rose and toasty oak. You can find it at the Renaissance Arts Hotel and Mandina's; this wine retails for around $30.

A Vintnerview with Michelle Gueydan

Michelle Gueydan left New Orleans after high school for college in New York. After college she worked for then gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner and then a job as a private event manager eased her into the wine world. She returned to New Orleans where she is in an integral member in three wine related businesses. At Swirl, she is a "wino" helping customers choose a wine to take home. As the principal in VinoSolutions she outsources sommelier expertise to restaurants and home collectors to organize and build their wine holdings. Recently, Gueydan partnered with Brian Dias to start NOLAWineSpeak, a wine education company. Twentyish questions on the clock....

I was in college in upstate New York. Had done most my partying in high school so when I got to college found partying sort of boring and focused more on studying. Close to college was the Finger Lakes region which makes a lot of wines, so one day I just volunteered to help pull leaves at a vineyard. It was there I first learned wine could be art and not just pink stuff that got you drunk.

I had been working for a few years as the event planner for a guy who owned a real estate asset management company. My boss also did a lot of philanthropic work with Quincy Jones so we were always planning dinners of some sort. Or we were flying to a dinner and talking about wine while reading food and wine magazines. So originally pairing was something of a foray into an unknown world, but I still knew very little about wine. After a series of events on the Mediterranean, I hadn't slept in a week. I was sitting on a yacht and the steward came over and asked if I'd like a glass of wine. I said sure, whatever you have. She brought a white wine that was so perfumey and unctuous that I asked what is this. She said Chardonnay and I didn't believe her. From then on, wine became a side passion and then an obsession.

Well, that bottle of Meursault on the yacht. But I don't remember the producer or vintage or anything like that. The other bottle I chase and will never catch again was a 1905 Chateau La Tour. I was in Colorado helping my boss organize his cellar before leaving to start a job in a tasting room in Alexe Corton when I got a call that the French government would not allow an American girl such a prestigious job. So I was pretty despondent and my boss cheered me up by asking, "What should we open?" I told him the 1905 La Tour was leaking a bit. So he pulled down that bottle, a 1929 Mouton, a 1950 Haut Brion, and a 1961 Petrus. Of all those bottles, the 1905 was far and away the best with the fruit still prominent after over 100 years.

I never thought I wanted to come back to New Orleans. All of my family here has died, so there was nothing to come back to, until Katrina. And then I felt a really strong urge to come home. At the time, I was the sommelier at the Inn at Little Washington. Came down here and got a job with John Besh as sommelier at August. In general the position of sommelier in New Orleans is not as supported as a free standing position in a restaurant as in other cities. In other cities, if you are the sommelier on the floor, it is your job to help guests select wine and manage the wine list of the restaurant. As a sommelier in New Orleans you are expected to be a manager as well. So I've had this idea of a sommelier education program to make more sommeliers truly sommeliers in New Orleans. But it was just an idea until I met Brian. The goal is to see be progressing with our wine thought in New Orleans. And that is what we want to do with NOLAWineSpeak.

I can't stand formulated wine descriptions. The one I hate the most is gooseberry. I didn't have the slightest clue what a gooseberry tasted like when I started learning about Sauvignon Blanc as tasting of gooseberry. I still dont know what a gooseberry tastes like. But people use that term as if everyone is eating gooseberries all the time. Other thing I hate is wine descriptors that are awful images but used in a positive context like "wet dog" or "barnyard". Who wants to drink a wet dog?

Best way to ease the tension with customers who are apprehensive about wine is just to start a conversation with the guest. Find out what they are interested in, what they are in the mood for, what do they normally prefer to drink. Sometimes people ask me what I like to drink and I tell them it depends on the day.

Rose. Across the board there is no wine better suited for New Orleans cuisine. A dry rose, with good fruit, good weight, and good acidity is nearly perfect match for the spiciness of our food. Always enjoyed rose, but I really started liking them with food when I moved back to New Orleans.

I hate the single palate based point systems which dominate the wine world. There is value in ratings that are group efforts but just go to off a single palate? I don't like that. I went to Bourdeaux to barrel taste the '05s. We were tasting 200 wines a day and there were a lot of us. But every winery was waiting for the scores of Robert Parker before prices could be set. You could sense the stress in the room and in all of the producers while awaiting Parker's judgment.

If I made a wine, it would be an eclectic, off the beaten path varietal that would challenge me to make it into a single varietal bottling. Turning something that is usually just blended with other grapes into its own wine that is what I love and it would be a limited bottling all hand sold.

Windows on the World. Extremely Pale Rose. A great book for the intro level person is The Wine Bible. Karen MacNeil does a very good job of adding fun tidbits and making wine an interesting read. All that said, I prefer to read magazines and newsletters like Decanter and Food and Wine for wine info. Mostly because wine is always changing and books are sometimes outdated by the time the fifth chapter is written.

I like that people are more adventuresome with their palates. Nowadays, people are open to try other varieties other than Chardonnay and Cabernet. On a winemaking level the focus on sustainability and artisinal approaches are things I really like.

To enhance enjoyment at home, try new things but try them with food to make the daily task of having dinner a grander experience. Really try and think about how the flavor profiles of wine and food could work together.

Yes, but I have been pretty fortunate in that I've normally been offered a taste and not have to think, "Man, I wish I could drink that." But I found that while at August, visitors, New Yorkers specifically, thought their expertise outshined that of any local sommelier. So they would often not offer me a sip.

Vietnamese - Riesling. Tex-Mex- Tequila, my second favorite thing to drink. American Chinese - An Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Crawfish Boil - Rose.

I've pretty much drank through most of my collection I had built up. Former employer called and said he had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to know what the most expensive bottles in his cellar were because he was going to drink them, chemo be damned. So I thought, why am I holding all these wines that one day I may never be able to drink? I had First Growth Bourdeaux and Italian wines that I drank. I still have some 1982 Margaux, Lafitte, Mouton, older Pahlmeyer. But what do I drink? My heart is in Burgundy, my pocketbook in Spain. I drink Tempranillo and Albarino. Also, drink a lot of boxed wine. James Moises is releasing a boxed Oregon Pinot (at right) that is pretty amazing in my book. Higher quality boxed wine with no chance of spoiling is on the rise.

Boucherie. Nathaniel (Zimet) and James (Denio) have managed to build a wine list that presents wines off the beaten path at an affordable price point that don't intimidate. And then of course, Commander Dan at Commander's Palace. From a revered wine list stand point, Commander's Palace best in town. From a consumer's point of view, Boucherie.

Boucherie, Cowbell, Herbsaint, and Coquette. Ohh and can I add Patois, I can't just pick four restaurants?

Hall and Oates - Chardonnay. Not because it is cheesy, but because it is a wine that was really popular back in the day. Mozart- German Gerwurtztriminer. Dr. Dre- Australian Shiraz.

Most memorable food and wine experience was at 2941 Restaurant in Virginia. The wine was a Madeira. The dish a soup sort of similar to our version of turtle soup but not quite the same. Madeira was new to me and the combination of it with the food created a third flavor, different than either the soup or the wine  which enhanced both the soup and the wine. Just a great pairing.

Desert Island wines? That is tough. 1905 Latour. 1990 E. Guigal La Landonne. Aged Vouvray-Huet would be first choice, but it doesn't matter. I just love aged Vouvray and we need more of it. Sake Daiginjo. Meursault, nothing specific because I like to many producers.

Winesday

NOWFE is almost in full swing so what better time to start drinking wine than right now.

Rene: Wow. Just a nicely balanced red wine. Dark fruit, tannins that won't give me a headache tomorrow, and a long finish. Give me something substantial. Something medium rare. Preferably the hanger steak with red wine and marrow reduction at Restaurant Patois. With a side of fries. I'd be happy with that.

Peter: A little spicy. A wine with spice always puts me in the mood for Spanish fare. Thinking of a bowl of lamb meatballs with mint from Restaurant Madrid, which works out perfectly because I can bring my own wine. Or how about a trip to Barcelona Tapas for a double order of patatas bravas with the fiery sauces.

Joe the Wine Guy: That is a 2007 Uppercut Cabernet Sauvignon straight to the jaw. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder being Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. This cabernet has aromas of dark fruit, espresso, violet, and spice while smooth blackberry, black cherry, and cocoa coat the palate. Small nuances of caramel and toffee are there as well, the result of new oak barrels. This wine goes best with meat-grilled ribeye or braised short ribs. A bottle of Uppercut will set you back about $19 in the store and you can find it on wine lists at Bouche, Ste. Marie, Mike's on the Avenue, and Byblos.

The Post-Katrina Top 20: #10 - #6

We have cracked the Top 10 in our survey of the best new food and beverage improvements in post-K New Orleans. If you missed #20 through #11, you can find them here.

#10: Patois - If success were measured by TV face time, Patois would be the highest rated restaurant in the Michelin guide. But before every character on Treme was vying for a table at Desautel's, owners Leon & Pierre Touzet and Chef Aaron Burgau won the affection of diners with this local dialect of French cuisine. Like so many restaurants these days, the menu at Patois is subject to the seasons. Pheasant, duck, and rabbit are mainstays treated with different interpretations, while the popularity of the grilled lamb ribs have assured that dish will remain the same for a long, long time. Patois has also expanded locals' options for a casual yet refined brunch, when the offerings reach far beyond eggs benedict, such as the egg, pork belly, and fried green tomato sandwich.

#9: Rare Cuts - Ordering a steak at a restaurant seems an exercise in futility. Most steaks require little more than salt, pepper, and high heat to turn out an impeccable product. Saying, "Filet, medium-rare" doesn't give us an opportunity to really grade the kitchen. But we still love meat which is why we can't get enough of the thick, dry aged rib eyes from Rare Cuts. Look, you returned from Katrina. Rebuilt your house. Installed a chef's dream kitchen with granite counter tops, Sub Zero appliances, and a Viking range that would make Thomas Keller weep. Let Rare Cuts help you put that kitchen to good use. Choice and Prime steaks, lamb, pork, chicken, foie gras, and more abound at this meatporium. Three locations, Mandeville, River Ridge, and Uptown (Nashville and Magazine) mean you are never a far drive from a great cut of meat.

#8: Green Goddess - From a carnivore's dream to a whimsical place where vegetarians and omnivores can coexist in harmony. Inside a tiny space on Exchange Alley, Chefs Chris DeBarr and Paul Artigues draw from both local influences and their own worldly travels. From India to England and Vietnam to Acadiana, the menu knows no boundaries. And with an original cocktail menu, extensive wine list, and full cheese tasting to boot, The Green Goddess rivals nearly any fine dining experience in the city.

#7: Le Foret - Chances are, given the uncertain state of the economy, you have cut back your dining budget. Maybe you are cooking at home more, roasting your own chickens and pureeing potatoes. So dining at another "casual" dining spot featuring comfort food does not seem to be a good use of that shrinking dining budget. Enter Le Foret, the newest member of the pantheon of top fine dining in New Orleans (other members, Stella! Herbsaint, and August). Remember when you were a kid and your parents would go out to dinner? It seemed magical, special. They would get dressed up, eat at fancy sounding places, and come home giggling. A night on the town means something again as Le Foret recaptures the celebratory, magical element of dining out. At Le Foret you will dine on foie gras souffles floating in a glass smooth puree of butternut squash. Or a plate of escargot topped by a crown of puff pastry. The chef's tasting is the best bet in order to allow you to experience the full panoply of Certified Master Chef Jimmy Corwell's talents. Plus, when you leave the hostess will slip you a little cellophane package filled with a Madeleine. It is enough to make you giggle all the way home.

#6: Boucherie - White table cloths and $30 entrees be damned, Chef Nathaniel Zimet took his mobile Que Crawl concept to brick-and-mortar when he took over the former location of Iris on Jeannette Street. After originally focusing primarily on smoked meats, the menu at Boucherie has since expanded into far East flavors like curry leaf marinated duck breats and grilled yoghurt marinated paneer in curry. But Zimet's long time fans need not fret, because classics like parmesan and garlic butter fries, the pulled pork cake, and Krispy Kreme bread pudding still stand strong on the menu.

Jazz Fest Food

When it comes to Jazz Fest, there are two kinds of people: those that go for the bands and those that go for the food. Place us in the latter category. Every festival goer has his/her favorite foods (mine meat pies for me, cochon de lait po-boy for Peter), and chefs are no different. This article in the Jazz Fest Bible put out by offBEAT Magazine, gives you a chef's eye view to eating right on da grounds.

The food at Jazz Fest is so extensive and diverse that one would need to attend everyday in order to try it all. But if you had to pick just a few things to eat at the Fair Grounds, what would they be? Is crawfish bread really worth waiting in line for? What's the most underrated food available? Is there anything wrong with just drinking Miller Lite all day and baking in the sun? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Whatever you are eating this weekend, remember to bring your pancho because it looks like it's going to be a wet one.

Sunday Brunch

When I wake up on Sunday morning, the last thing I want to do is cook. Problem is that going out for brunch usually requires enduring long lines at the more casual spots or settling for mediocre food from the JV kitchen staff at the higher end places. And then there is Patois, which offers a well executed and sophisticated brunch menu at reasonable prices (most entrees are in the mid-teens) in a fine dining setting. Still, a collared shirt and jeans fits well within the dress code.

And they open at 10:30 so you can make it back in time for Saints kickoff.

The Folk Singer started with the gnocchi with crabmeat and chanterelles, which is perhaps the most popular item on the dinner and lunch menus at Patois. I thought the gnocchi were a bit heavier and more dense than my preference, but it's still a very good dish overall.

You know what's better though? The grilled lamb kofta kabob salad. The succulent ground lamb paired well with the rich Ryals goat milk feta and the tangy preserved lemon and tahini dressing. Better than anything I have had in a local Mediterranean restaurant and worth every penny of the $13 price tag.

For the main event, I chose the fried rabbit loin paired with poached eggs and topped with an Italian sausage cream gravy. Tasty? Yes. Rich? Extremely. Too rich? Possibly. Regardless, TFS trumped me with the breakfast sandwich special: fried green tomatoes, guanciale, and fried egg on brioche. IN-credible.

Patois Brunch - Birdie

Patois, Part Two

The Social Chairman's fiancee moved to New Orleans recently and has graciously agreed to become the PR Director for the blog. Which brings our staff to 4; only one person less than the total number of readers we get on a daily basis. To celebrate, the Social Chair, the PR Director, Lindsay and I all went to Patois.

We arrived to a packed house at 7:45; luckily we had a reservation. We sat down and ordered some drinks. The Pau Boy Pierre is a slightly Vietnamese-influenced version of the Pimm's Cup. A Pinot Noir for the PR Director and a Lillet Rouge for I and we set about the task of ordering.

Lindsay and PR Director played it light on the first course, a wise decision. A plate of tuna carpaccio arrived. Interesting, a more fashionable and welcome take on Tuna Tartare, but a good, clean flavored dish; maybe a little bland. But fresh bright pink tuna needs little more than a splash of olive oil and a squeeze of citrus. A market salad with sunflower seeds and hearts of palm, which was running as a special, displayed the bounty of late summer/early fall.

Social Chair got the gnocchi with bacon, cream, black pepper, and crabmeat. This dish really displays the classical roots of this restaurant. Tender, soft gnocchi are married to sweet, succulent gems of crabmeat with the creamy, salty sauce acting as the minister. Great dish, always on the menu with slight variations.

I got the pork belly salad which showcases the kitchen's creative takes on classical preparations. This salad is nothing more than a Lyon Salad; but here it is slightly retooled. Pork belly, a fried egg, frisee, a light sherry vinagrette, and some charred bread in a really beautiful plating. Simple, yet more elegant without becoming stuffy. The dish succeeds not only on the flavors, but also the contrast of hot and cold elements. The execution of this choid-froid dish gives a diner slight feelings of schadenfreude towards other diners who ordered something else.

Lindsay got the mussels in a smoky tomato broth with pommes frites as an entree. The mussels were a little sandy and the fries a little soggy. Which reminded me of being on the beach in a rain storm. PR Director got the cumin-scented seared tuna; sliced on the plate the tuna had a perfect ring of cooked tuna encapsulating a rare interior. Social Chair, ecstatic about living near the sea again, went for a wild caught speckled trout over haricots verts. His temptation to pass around his dish lost to his desire to eat every last bite.

I went with the braised short ribs, despite Lindsay's helpful reminder that I had previously said I would not order braised things in restaurants because they are not as good as the same dish cooked at home. She was, as usual, right. I was offered a steak knife from our very helpful waiter, but told "You wont need it."

Well, I kind of did. The fat of the meat had not sufficiently melted away, which resulted in a tougher finished product. The pasta rags and purple peas served were very bland and needed more salt. But perhaps the biggest problem was the different textures and shapes of items on the plate-the round peas, long, flat strands of pasta, and chunky meat-made it almost impossible to get a complete bite on the fork.

Desserts were wonderful and playful: a banana cream pie and some amaretti zeppolis with a Grand Marnier dipping sauce. The zeppolis arrive in a paper cone taking the diner out of the restaurant and putting them back at a county fair.

Service is truly top notch. Always willing to lend a hand with a menu suggestion or wine pairing, the wait staff is extremely knowledgeable not only about the offerings. But they also seem to be keyed into a similar philosophy, which to me appears to be, "together we can make this a great place." Its getting there if it is not already.

Birdie-Par.

Local Dialect

Something familiar about this place. Mirrors on the walls, elegant yet casual, good food, attentive service; can't quite put my finger on it.

Last Saturday Lindsay (Lady tired of "such a lame nickname") and I dined at Patois. Patois, on the corner of Laurel and Webster, is a French word denoting a local dialect. That certainly is apparent in both the food and the restaurant itself.

The interior evokes memories of a Caribbean house with neutral colors, high ceilings, and large windows. A bar area leads to a raised dining room which gives ample opportunity to people watch.

We began with some cocktails, and why not? Lindsay had The Contessa which combined candied ginger and champagne. I had the White Lily which blended together egg white, gin, muddled cucumber, and sugar. What resulted was both creamy and refreshing. The sea cap white froth with traces of almost cerulean undertones provided visual stimuli to match the palate pleasing perfection of this drink.

The menu focuses mostly on interpretations (but not deviations) of French bistro fare. To begin a Lyon salad. Frisee, a fried egg (fried perfectly), a few chunks of Benton's bacon, and a light vinagrette. Pierce the egg and listen for the songs of angels. Then a take on spaghetti carbonara; nuggets of gnocchi tossed in a black pepper cream sauce, parmesan cheese, and pork belly. Dear God, what have I done to deserve such earthly delights?

I spied via the mirrors our waitress walking from the bar area with a sheepish expression. I had a feeling of what that countenance meant. Sure enough, the wine we ordered was not available. Luckily, she suggested another wine to go with our entrees (and truth be told probably a better wine). 2005 Domaine Ligneres a wonderful, full bodied but not heavy red.

I got the duck. It rocked. Set atop a bacon, apple, and potato hash and some brussel sprouts (what a great idea), was a perfectly seared breast of duck. The dish evoked memories of Thanksgiving and Fall, football and sweaters which helped considering it was August.

Lindsay got the hangar steak with a mushroom and marrow demi glace. The dish was good but over time the salt began to dominate almost rendering the dish inedible. I add here that I am a salt fiend. A slight misstep.

Cheese plate for Lindsay. Three exceptional cheeses from St. James. I had the berry sorbet which was even better than I thought it would be. The sorbet was luxurious and thick, sweet but not cloying, and had a hint of tartness. Perfect palate cleanser so I could steal some cheese.

One can tell a lot about restaurants with how they do the little things. Coffee service sets good restaurants apart from great ones. The coffee used at Patois is from the Coffee Roasters of New Orleans. These almost mythical bean roasters remain elusive to my attempts to get some French roast, but I will find them. I feel very confident in saying that this is the best cup of coffee in New Orleans.

Service is efficient, friendly, and clumsily elegant at times. A spill of wine on the table cloth was met with a c'est la vie attitude. Not bad at all, rather it shows that this restaurant wants to be serious about food but also willing to have fun.

As we were getting ready to leave I saw an interesting sight. A maitre'd from Galatoire's (who I believe is also a Gooch) waiting patiently for a table. And then it hit me. The maitre'd at Patois (and an owner along with his father Leon and Chef Aaron Burgau) is Pierre Touzet. Pierre's grandfather, Leon, is from the same town in France that Jean Galatoire is from. Leon worked at Galatoire's. Pierre and Brian Landry grew up together and graduated from Jesuit the same year. The mirrors, a special with "crab butter," the service, the elegant, bistro food...Patois uses a similar gameplan to produce equally wonderful results.

Patois is a restaurant with its own distinct identity. However it uses, and I should add to its advantages, references to the familiarity and the memories of New Orleans diners to trigger Proustian reactions. All of it, the surroundings, the service, the food, the memories leave one happy and well fed. They could not have picked a better name for their version of a standard.

Birdie, with an eagle lurking.

Note: Patois will be closed for two weeks at the end of August. This is normal. But I suggest you be in line when they reopen.