The world’s most amazing wine tastings and events list

By Uncorked | Friday, November 21, 2008, 07:00 AM

Really, I’m not kidding. The MOST amazing wine tasting events list ANYwhere. It comes to Uncorked via the heroic efforts (and given the expanding nature of the list, that effort is getting more heroic by the week) of a Dayton-based listserv, and it’s yours for just a click of a mouse on “continue reading” below. Enjoy! And for information regarding Cincinnati-area wine events, go to Michelle’s My Wine Education blog.

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Nouveau Day — will you be tasting?

By Uncorked | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 10:43 AM

Today’s the third Thursday in November, which means it’s … Nouveau Day!

Is it just me, or have I been sensing less and less enthusiasm for the special day in which Beaujolais Nouveau and other nouveau-style wines from the new vintage are released?

Many local wine shops and grocer’s wine departments are tasting all day today and/or into the evening. Call ahead to find out your favorite shop’s plans, and let us know how the wines stack up to previous vintages.

Will YOU be tasting the nouveaus today?

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Restaurants turn to wine to ferment new ideas, attract new customers

By Uncorked | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 10:00 AM

The cover story in tomorrow’s Dayton Daily News Go! section is all about restaurants and how more of them are turning to wine tastings, dinners and other wine events to help them fashion their menus and wine lists — and to attract new customers.

Before we offer up a “sneak peek” at the story, you should know about the latest restaurant that didn’t make it into this story, but which is launching its first monthly wine tasting next weekend (after Thanksgiving). Boosalis Baking & Cafe at 9486 Springboro Pike in Miami Twp. will host a Holiday Wine Tasting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, featuring ” an eclectic collection of unique French and Italian wines,” owner Matt Boosalis said. The cost is $15, which includes appetizers. For more information, call (937) 424-0636. Now, here’s what will be published Friday:

Some are searching for new customers. Others are looking for a test market for new appetizers or entrees. Others want customer feedback on which new wines to add to the wine list.

Whatever their reasons, more restaurants in the Dayton area are using wine tastings and wine dinners to try to get new, fresh faces to cross their doorsteps.

A decade ago, diners could easily count on one hand the number of restaurants that held regular wine events. Now, the number exceeds a dozen and is growing.

Cena Brazilian/Mediterranean Steakhouse, in front of the Dayton Mall, is one of the most recent to join the trend, launching a late-afternoon tasting on a day not yet taken by any other restaurant: Sundays.

“We decided to do something fun for a Sunday afternoon for little money,” Cena owner Eva Christian said of her event that offers tastes of two wines for $10 served with free appetizers. The event allows Cena to introduce wines that are not on its regular wine list, and to test-market new appetizers and wines, Christian said.

In Vandalia, the inaugural wine-and-appetizers event in October at Mr. Lee’s Fine Dining was a smashing success, with the restaurant serving up 15 appetizers accompanied by four wines to a crowd of more than 40 people. The restaurant had intended to cap the attendance at 25, but the surge in reservation requests prompted a change of heart, as well as plans for similar events in early 2009.

Keith Taylor, chef-owner of Savona Restaurant and Wine Bar in Centerville, holds a monthly wine tasting in the restaurant’s bar. He launched the idea shortly after the restaurant opened a year ago, figuring it would be a “great way to get people to try new wines for a good price.”

Now, the tastings “really have grown and become like a party,” Taylor said. “People drinking, eating and talking to one another, making new friends.

“One of the benefits we have noticed is that people are staying for dinner after the tasting. On a couple of occasions people have met other couples and stayed and had dinner with one another. I have also experimented with dishes for the appetizers, and then gotten feedback from the guests.”

Jay’s Restaurant in Dayton’s Oregon District was among the trailblazers — along with restaurants such as l’Auberge in Kettering, The Winds in Yellow Springs and Anticoli’s/Caffe Anticoli in Harrison Twp., among others — in using wine to attract customers. Today Jay’s hosts wine luncheons, dinners and weekly Friday night tastings in Jay’s Kitchen Door behind the restaurant. While reservations are required for luncheons and dinners, the Friday tastings are drop-in events in which wine samples are priced based on the wine’s expense, and complimentary appetizers are served.

Amy Haverstick, co-owner and general manager at Jay’s, said customers have benefited from the knowledge of visiting winemakers at the restaurant’s special dinners — and they’ve also boosted sales of wines sold at retail.

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, which launched weekly wine tastings with appetizers in its bar just after opening at The Greene in Beavercreek, also hosts wine dinners with visiting winemakers and in conjunction with local charitable organizations such as CultureWorks. Seth Brown, operating partner for the restaurant, said the commitment to wine events “shows we’re not your typical steakhouse.”

The weekly after-work-Wednesday tastings allow the restaurant’s chefs to exercise their creativity in devising appetizers that pair nicely with the wines offered and allows them to find local sources for ingredients for those one-time appetizers, Brown said. Fleming’s tries to make the atmosphere as non-intimidating as possible, putting wine-tasting notes in writing on each table and having the restaurant’s wine manager, Diana Morrison, mingle with guests to answer questions, Brown said.

Sometimes, wine-tasting events can blur the distinction between wine bars and restaurants. On most Saturdays — and on other occasions when visiting winemakers arrange to host a public tasting of their wines at Cuvee wine bar in Bellbrook that he co-owns — chef Chris Cavender will put together a menu of small-plate appetizers to accompany the wines. The appetizers could include, as they did for a visiting winemaker’s appearance last month, cold poached salmon with chardonnay sauce or cider-roasted rack of pork chop with squash puree.

Art and Carol Chin held wine tastings and dinners frequently at the now-defunct Chin’s restaurant in downtown Dayton — and that tradition continues at their Tipp City restaurant, Chin’s Ginger Grill, which hosts monthly wine (and occasionally beer) tastings paired with test-drive appetizers.

“Our initial reasons for starting the tastings were to market ourselves and bring diners in,” Carol Chin said. “But we also do frequently use the tastings to try out new menu items.” (A wild mushroom dumpling I sampled several weeks ago at one of the restaurant’s monthly wine tastings “made the cut” and is now on the menu.)

In the end, though, Chin said the restaurant has continued the tastings “because they’re really quite fun for our customers and our staff, and they’re also a great way to make wine more approachable for a wide variety of wine drinkers, including novices.”

For a list of restaurants that have frequent or regular tastings, click on “continue reading” …

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McManis wines on tap tonight at Bruning’s

By Uncorked | Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 11:00 AM

Well smack my a*s and call me Sally, the very same McManis Family Vineyards that I wrote about doing so well at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo wine competition is the featured winery at tonight’s tasting at Bruning’s Wine Shop in Beavercreek, according to the listing on the Dayton-based wine listserv, to wit:

Bruning’s Wine Cellar

Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 5 - 8 pm McManis Family Vineyards 2006 Collection Viognier Chardonnay Pinot Noir Syrah Petite Sirah Cabernet Sauvignon

The tasting was of course set up well ahead of time, long before the Houston competition results were known.

For more on the winery, take a look at today’s post from Sacramento Bee wine writer Mike Dunne, who also served as judge at the competition.

And just to prove my colleague Mike really WAS there …

Mike Dunne, wine writer for the Sacramento Bee, judges the finalists in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition on Sunday, Nov. 16. (Photo by Mark Fisher)

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A little help, please, from my wine-and-dining-savvy friends

By Uncorked | Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 03:58 PM

I’ve compiled a list of Dayton-area restaurants that have regular or frequent wine dinners or tastings. Take a look at this list and help me out: Am I leaving anyone out?

RESTAURANTS THAT HAVE REGULAR OR FREQUENT WINE DINNERS/TASTINGS

— L’Auberge, 4120 Far Hills Ave. in Kettering, holds frequent wine dinners. (937) 299-5536, www.laubergedayton.com

— Cena Brazilian/Mediterranean Steakhouse, 2854 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, Miami Twp., holds weekly tastings from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays, (937) 438-2362, www.cenarestaurant.com

— Chin’s Ginger Grill, 965 W. Main St., Tipp City, holds monthly wine tastings with appetizers, (937) 667- 6664, www.chins-ginger-grill.com

— DiSalvo’s Deli, 1383 East Stroop Road in Kettering, offers a monthly wine tasting in conjunction with a special dinner. 937-298-5053, www.disalvosdeli.com.

— Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 4432 Walnut St. at The Greene in Beavercreek, holds weekly tastings on Wednesday after work, and frequent wine dinners. (937) 320-9548, www.flemingssteakhouse.com

— The Inn at Versailles, 21 West Main Street, Versailles, holds frequent wine dinners, (937) 526-3020, www.innatversailles.com

— Jay’s, 225 E. Sixth St. in Dayton’s Oregon Historic District, holds weekly drop-in tastings after work on Fridays and frequent wine luncheons and dinners, (937) 222-2892, www.jays.com

— McCormick & Schmick’s, 4429 Cedar Park Drive in The Greene in Beavercreek, holds occasional wine dinners, (937) 431-9200, www.mccormickandschmicks.com

— El Meson, 903 E. Dixie Drive in West Carrollton, holds frequent wine dinners, (937) 859-8229, www.elmeson.net

— Mr. Lee’s Fine Dining, 7580 Poe Ave., Vandalia, holds occasional monthly tasting/dinner, (937) 898-3860, www.mymrlees.com

— Pacchia, 410 E. Fifth St. in Dayton’s Oregon Historical District, holds occasional wine dinners, (937) 341-5050, www.pacchia.com

— Rue Dumaine, 1061 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, Washington Twp., holds weekly wine tasting with appetizers on Tuesdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., (937) 610-1061, www.ruedumainerestaurant.com

— Savona Restaurant and Wine Bar, 79 S. Main St. in Centerville, holds monthly after-work wine tasting and appetizers on the second Wednesday of the month, (937) 610-9835, www.savonadayton.com

— The Winds, 215 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs, holds frequent wine dinners and luncheons, (937) 767-1144, www.windscafe.com

Who am I missing, restaurant-wise, that has frequent or regular wine dinners or tastings?

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Houston wine competition produces some surprise winners

By Uncorked | Monday, November 17, 2008, 08:54 AM

HOUSTON, Texas — The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition held over the weekend (Nov. 15-16, 2008) produced some very surprising results.

And these were pleasant surprises, if you like spending small amounts of money for good wine. (And no, the results were not a surprise just because I served as a judge for the third year.)

The overall “Grand Champion” best-of-show award went to Vina Robles 2006 Suendero, a $50 Bordeaux-style blend (or Meritage blend, if you prefer) from a Paso Robles winery. Vina Robles’ online fact sheet for the Suendero mentions only the previous vintage, the 2005, which was a blend of 80 percent cabernet sauvignon and 20 percent petite verdot.

Then came the pleasant surprises.

The “Reserve Grand Chamption” wine that essentially came in second only to the Vina Robles was the McManis Family Vineyards 2007 Petite Sirah, a wine that carries a suggested retail price of $11.99.

The $12 wine emerged as the runner-up favorite among more than 1,800 wines submitted for judges’ consideration from 14 countries and more than 13 states (and this is no Texas wines competition — less than 10 percent of the wines entered come from Texas wineries). The McManis Petite bested wines that won categories such as cabernet sauvignons costing $25 or more, pinot noirs over $25, Italian varietals in all price ranges, etc.

That would be accomplishment enough for McManis. But wait, there’s more.

The McManis Family Vineyards 2007 Zinfandel won the best-zin-under $18 category (it too retails for a paltry $11.99), then went on to win the competition’s “Best Value” award among all wines under $15.

To have one winery in that price range win both awards — again, among 1,800 wines entered — is a stunning accomplishment, and the competition’s organizers have not seen the likes of it.

If I had been a little more on the ball, the results should not have been such a surprise. That’s because I have encountered the McManis Pinot Noir at a couple of wine tastings around town here in Dayton, Ohio in recent weeks and have always been impressed with its quality-to-price ratio. There aren’t many pinots of any quality in that price range, let alone good ones, and the McManis pinot is a very good one.

But did I run out and check out the rest of the winery’s reds? Noooooo. Asleep at the wheel again.

Here’s another pleasant surprise: the Vendange Sauvignon Blanc that retails for all of $4.99 won its category of barrel-aged sauvignon blancs (all price ranges), where it was most certainly competing against many wines that cost much more.

The champion wines will be awarded their hardware — in this case, custom-made buckles, chaps and saddles — in February at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Roundup and Best Bites Competition. A Championship Wine Auction and Dinner will then be held in March. Proceeds go to college scholarships, and those proceeds are Texas-sized: Last year’s wine auction generated more than $1.1 million.

Folks in Houston are serious about their wines. And this year, they uncovered some hidden gems for the rest of the country to enjoy.

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Yet another breathtaking wine-tastings-and-events list

By Uncorked | Friday, November 14, 2008, 06:26 AM

Reading this list of wine tastings, wine dinners and other events — provided to Uncorked by a Dayton-based wine listserv — and considering it in its entirety is quite humbling. All this for l’il ol’ us?

Well, yes. We’re worth it.

Alas, I won’t partake in any of this weekend’s Bacchinalia. I’m headed off to Houston for another year of swirling, sniffing and spitting for Rodeo Uncorked, the wine competition that is part of the Texas-sized Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. You may recall the rather interesting start to this gig two years ago: An Ohioan ventures into the heart of Texas — and why they’re still laughing at my expense.

So hold down the fort here, and enjoy!

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