Here are some wines I picked up at Capital City Package store at the corner of Collier and Howell Mill. Now, a few people commented on a recent post, saying they tend to glaze over when I post about wine. But one person did elaborate, saying I tend to talk a lot about wines that aren’t readily available around town. Guilty.

As mentioned in my recent Le Caveau post, I do want to purchase more wine in Atlanta – develop a relationship, talk to someone in person who knows more than I, and support their efforts (and our local economy).

Capital City is under new ownership since the end of this past summer, and over the last few months they’ve made significant renovations and capital improvements, including a much larger wine selection. The person managing the wine program is David Metz, whom I’ve had the chance to talk with a few times about these changes, and he’s pointed me in the direction of some cool wines, such as the Zind Humbrecht selections above. Dave is very friendly, knowledgeable (he’s sportin’ a fly CSW), with a broad interest in many types of juice, from more popular large production California wines, to quirky small scale Italian producers, or maybe you fancy the lush but acidified sweet Grand Cru riesling from Alsace that I purchased (and drank) this past Friday. It was really excellent.

For you ballers, Capital City has installed a separate fridge for some big time 1st growth Bordeaux from the early 80′s and 90′s. I’m eyeing the ’81 Haut Brion, my birth year. If you refresh this page 130,000 times I’ll get enough ad revenue to afford it. Get clicking!

Moving on from cooking, we guzzle on over to booze. Mostly wine, some spirits. If you are not a wine geek, or aspire to be one, it may be best to just skip this post. And I realize listing some of these wines is a touch braggadocio, but let’s be real, food blogging is often virtually akin to whipping it out next to the tape measure.

But for serious, a lot of these potables had a special meaning to me, be it for the wine itself, or for the experience surrounding the drink. Most were consumed with friends; kind cohorts with greater means than my own, who for some reason seem to enjoy my company well enough and allow me to share a drink. These experiences have had a direct impact in my taste preference, and my spending habits, and I’m thankful. I think. Let me check my bank balance…

1. ’99 Drouhin Clos de Mouches – I bought a couple of these for a very fair price and both were acidic and wonderful and I’m sad I didn’t buy a case of them. My brother made a fine French meal to eat with it.
2. The Castro Monk at Ecco – Benedictine and bourbon. Ironic and tasty.
3. ’99 Chateau Musar - The highly famous and highly volatile wine of Lebanon, everyone should try it once. Most people love them or find the Brett and VA offensive. I have a high tolerance for both.
4. Magnum of ’02 Sauzet Puligny - For whatever reason, mags drink differently and are perfect for parties, such as this one a friend had during the High Wine Auction. I think we blew some California wine peeps minds with spicy fried chicken, moonshine, BBQ hash, and killer wine.
5. ’96 H. Lignier Morey-St-Denis La Riotte – Katie and I shared this at Eleven Madison, probably my favorite meal ever. I’d never had a Hubert Lignier wine at that time, and I ache to try another.
6. The Canary Islands – I had just read about Canary Island wines prior to my visit to Terroir in NYC. It was a somewhat simple wine, but it’d be delightful with certain seafoods, rich in mineral and acid, from the volcanic soil of the islands.
7. 1991 Rousseau Chambertin – A mind boggling wine, and silly enough as it may sound, an even more gorgeous label. I have this bottle in candle form now.
8. Edmunds St. John ’87 Les Cotes Sauvages - Old school California wines that can age, and very affordable. Steve Edmunds makes some very cool wines.
9. 91 Chapoutier Ermitage – In magnum. I’m not worthy. Northern Rhone Syrah as art.
10. Paleo margarita at urban pl8 – No sugar, no mix, just stellar tequila, lime juice, agave syrup, and a splash of soda water. Fantastic. None of that sweet corn syrup crap.
11. ’99 Vilmart Cuvee Creation – Drunk on a hot day this past summer, the most refreshing Champagne in recollection. A great day for hanging out outside, grilling and boozing.
12. ’91 Ridge Monte Bello – My new benchmark for California wines, it is up there with the best of any Bordeaux style wine. Really game changing regarding my opinion of California. I only hope there are people making wines now which will show like this in twenty years.
13. ’92 Gagnard Delegrange Batard – Ughhhh why does white Burgundy torture me so?? The reason I keep going back to the well.
14. The Socialist at Pura Vida - Award winning, Paul rocks.
15. In Beaune – Katie and I toted this bottle around the Cote de Nuits, drinking it almost warm from paper cups as we sat on the wall outside Clos Vougeot, eating cheese, bread, and meats from the Beaune market. A memory I cherish.
16. Rasim – A delicious dessert wine we sampled at Comerç 24 in Barcelona. Our waiter explained that the chef had a special relationship with this producer, who offered work to people with mental disease and retardation.
17. The orange and wild wines of Le Caveau - just fun stuff.
18. Indian Summer – Refreshing and tight bourbon cocktail at Woodfire Grill. Blake’s new creation didn’t have a name until about fifteen minutes into my visit at the bar.
19. Lopez de Heredia – this year was my introduction to these fantastic wines from Spain. Gah, more money down the gullet!
20. “The contest” – a simple Leroy
Bourgogne vs Montrachet. Well of course the Montrachet was better, but I purchased a ’99 and ’02 of the purportedly plebeian Village wines, and they were both damn good. Goes to show, great producers can make age worthy and enjoyable wines with unclassified grapes.
21. St. George Gin – I tried these at the Quality Wine Show. I didn’t like gin after some bad experiences in college, but these new artisan styles are smooth and aromatic and quite badass.
22. ’97 Roty Charmes-Chambertin – Not so great vintage, excellent producer, in magnum = ohmamma I like the red Burgs.
23. ’08 S. Riffault Sancerre – Oxidized, metallic, acidic, juicy, and downright weird. I love it. I have a few in my cellar, but also drank it at L’Agape Substance in Paris on my honeymoon.
24. ’85 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo – Dammit. Yet another type of wine to love and drive me to the poor house. 2011 was the first year I was exposed to great barolo. They age softly like Burgundy, with a haunting streak of tar and bitterness.

While I have a full blown wine problem, I admittedly don’t buy a lot of wine locally. Over the last few years I’ve been able to really hone in on what I like, and I’ve found a few online distributors who specialize in these wines. One also acts as middleman for collectors who are selling some of their cellared wines, which provides me the chance to purchase wines with some age on them. I’ve tasted some real fine 07-09 red Burgundy, but it generally takes a first class premier cru Burgundy at least ten years before I have a tasting experience that makes “it” move.

An obvious downside of buying online is the lack of face to face discussion, and learning opportunities that occur with local retailers. I’m happy to report that after last week’s visit to Le Caveau in Chamblee, I’m genuinely enthused about building a relationship with this local purveyor of tasty, real, special, and otherwise geeky wines.

I must admit, I’m acquaintances with the owner Eric, whom I’ve met a couple of times in booze related social settings. So I’m not just plugging a good buddy, though we do share the bond of two men who’ve bought each other drinks at last call at The Cheetah.

My wine budget is mostly tapped out for the next month or two, though I did snag a few cool items last week. 2000 R. López de Heredia white Rioja. 2005 Radikon Jakot, a funky, fun, and oxidized Italian orange wine. And 2002 Puro Movia sparkling rosé from Slovenia. All three of these wines are fairly geeky and relatively rare, but the Puro is the sort of wine many sommeliers have never even heard of – a sparkling wine which has not been disgorged.

Quick lesson of Methode Champgenoise, which is the traditional method of creating sparkling wine: the grapes ferment like any other wine, but when bottled there is yeast and sugar added. This results in a secondary fermentation in the bottle, which develops flavor and creates Co2 pressure. The bottles are held in a rack pointing downward, and the bottles are rotated so the dead yeast (the lees) settle in the neck (this is called remuage). Then the neck is frozen, the lees are removed, sometimes a sweet wine called dosage is added to fill the neck, and the wine is capped. This process is called disgorgement.

The Puro below has not been disgorged, hence it is shipped and stored upside down so the lees will settle in the neck. To open this wine, one must fill up a tub of water, and open it under water. The highly pressured bottle will shoot the lees out as soon as it’s opened, and one must quickly pull the bottle out of the water to avoid losing wine. Of course, there’s a youtube video of this process.

Sorry for the long story, but this sort of stuff is exciting to me. And do check out Le Caveau if you are into wine, or want to know more. Eric is very passionate about the subject, and he’s already introduced me to some very cool and delicious stuff. He has everything from Italian to Burgundy to Riesling, and many of them are quite affordable ($10-$20). Le Caveau has some wine pairing dinners coming up, as well as frequent tastings too. Below are some killer bubbles and dessert wines that he was pulling for tastings last week. Check their Facebook page for upcoming events.

Le Caveau Fine Wines (Facebook | Twitter)
Seel also : Decatur Wine & Food Dude on Le Caveau 

I’ve amassed a bunch of crappy iphone pics (and crappy good camera pics) to share with internet-land. Operation photo barf commencing.

How about the above bar near Lake Burton? I’m considering opening a satellite location in College Park.

The wines I’ve tasted lately have continued to be an embarrassment of riches. Le Montrachet (right) is one of the most prized vineyards in the world, while the Leroy (left) one of the best producers. But this ’02 Leroy is simply a bourgogne (unclassified grapes, not necessarily from a particular vineyard). The Grand Cru is clearly better, but the lowly Bourgogne held its ground. And it costs 1/5th the price.

Columbia has food truck parking lot get-togethers, just like Atlanta. And just like Atlanta, it’s hot, and the lines are long and the food takes a while.

Georgia Tech football has been fun. Can’t beat a night game in Midtown.

The Quality Wine & Spirits / Inland Seafood show was a few weeks ago. This is Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO. They make good chardonnay and pinot noir that you will see around town.

The Jon-David Headrick table was where all the cool kids were hanging.

These St. George gins were amazing. Gotta find me some of these.

Two dogs waiting on their owner at Octane.

Really nice white blend. I had this in South Carolina, but the Au Bon Climat wines are recently available at Holeman & Finch bottle shop.

A few tacos from the new location of Verde. The shrimp and grits special on the left was tasty, and the schlong looking buffalo chicken was way better than it looks below. Pulled pork was surprisingly tender with a few chunks of bark. When I want “fusion tacos”, I much prefer Verde to Taqueria del Sol. I hate standing in line.

Playing around with the Tartine Bread pizza dough recipe with Rowdy. This was late night. He can make them look way prettier than this.

My former roommate got married last weekend, this was his groom’s cake.

Wine lunch at One Eared Stag. This one was one of my favorites.

And this one.

And this one too.

Bone marrow at OES.

Catfish at OES was extra dirty tasting (it IS a bottom feeder), but the creamed cabbage it was served on…beat still my arteries!!

Pork sandwich.

Salt and pepper shrimp. Best thing I’ve had in a while.

Crab cakes a friend sent from G&M as a wedding present. MASSIVE lumps of crab, very little batter. I made a yuzu kosho mayo to go with them. If you don’t have yuzu kosho, buy some, it’s citrusy and spicy and powerful.

Two winners from Tim Gaddis’ (Star Provisions) cheese week. The goat cheese feta from Carrolton made me never wanna turn back to the mass produced stuff at the grocery store.

I’ve been cooking bomba (Spanish) rice in the paella style, then scraping up the rice from the pan once the socarrat (the crispy layer on the bottom) has formed. Then I eat it with normal fried rice accompaniments, or just a splash of soy sauce and sriracha. It’s uber crunchy and the short rice is so resilient with good chew and absorbs flavors like no other. I don’t want normal long grain fried rice anymore.

It is a special place, hallowed land for the true wine week.

Added bonus, ya ain’t gonna find stretch limos idling next to ten million dollar tasting rooms.

We drove all over the Cote, stopping for impromptu picnics, just taking it in and getting a feel for the geography. I loved it.

Full slideshow here.

This bottle of Jean François Mérieau Touraine “Bulles” was purchased at the recently renovated Capital City Liquor Store, at the intersection of Collier and Howell Mill. It’s my neighborhood go-to spot for beer and liquor, as they have a good selection of both. They have some decent wines too, though I wouldn’t purchase anything expensive or old there. It’s too hot in there and many of the “top shelf” wines have been aging at a not-too-comfortable 78 degrees for five years. Putting the most expensive wines on top of the wine shelves in a non-temperature controlled environment doesn’t really make sense to me, with heat rising and what not. But that’s a conversation for another day.

I saw this wonderful Loire sparkler on sale for $14 so I picked up a couple. I’ve had it by the glass at Miller Union, which I specifically ordered because I recognized the producer, who makes a really excellent gamay and viognier, though I’m a little less enamored with his sauvignon blanc. All are less than $20.

They’re excellent examples of delicious, affordable, and easily quaffable wines from Jon-David Headrick Selections, an importer out of Asheville who specializes in these sorts of wines from the Loire Valley.

People often tell me they’re intimidated when choosing a bottle of wine at the store or when dining out. I think identifying with a particular importer like JDH is a risk adverse way to introduce yourself to new wines. I like acid, minerality, clean flavors, and an affordable price tag. Apparently so does Jon-David. When I see his name on a bottle, I know there’s a good chance I’m gonna enjoy it.

I sort of do the same thing when I see Becky Wasserman, Kermit Lynch, or Peter Weygandt’s names on the back of the bottle, though their portfolios are quite large. You’re still throwing darts on occasion, but it’s like taking off the blindfold.

In Atlanta there’s a large selection of Jon-David Headrick wines at Perrine’s wine shop. In Atlanta they are distributed by Quality Wine and Spirits, and in Alabama/South Carolina by Grassroots Wine Wholesalers (Harry R. and James A. deserve a shout out). Actually, if considering casting an even wider net when discovering wine, if I know that a wine is distributed by Grassroots, I’m 74% more likely to order that wine. I wish that restaurant wine lists could tell me who imports and distributes each wine on the list, that would be cool. iPad feature?

The shift toward moderation probably began with The Great Recession, as diners have sought comfort and a sense of value, but I think it also has to do with the rise of foodie-ism. Those interested in thoughtful and well executed food are seeking out accessible restaurants they can visit on a regular basis. Even at bars sub-par food is no longer acceptable. And so we’ve been given restaurants like Holeman & Finch, Bocado, Abattoir, hell, even Heirloom BBQ. The culinary zeitgeist has shifted.

When I had a meal at Park 75 in the Four Seasons in Midtown recently, I found it notable that I was excited to throw on a suit and get ready for a fine meal with friends. It’s a feeling I can last recall in my hotel room in New York City, putting on my coat and making sure my tie is just right before walking down the bustlings streets of the city, entering into the tranquil and wondrous environments of Eleven Madison Park or Le Bernardin. But I couldn’t recall the last time I dressed up for food in Atlanta, and it set the tone for the meal I hoped to come.

The food, in fact, was tremendous, as were the fine-tuned servers. I won’t go on and on about each dish, but I thought this post was worth sharing, as I’d been thinking about the way I usually dine and how good of a time we had that evening. More often than not Katie and I sit at the bar when we go out to eat. I love the casual nature, chatting with the bartender, perhaps splitting a single appetizer and entree between the two of us. But there’s nothing quite like going to a restaurant where the service is so attentive but unintrusive you never realize your fork has been replaced.Without asking they’ve gauged the exact pacing of your meal, so each dish arrives right at the moment that seems most appropriate. Service of each course becomes a show, and the food is not only delicious and well executed, but a visual treat as well. And the next thing you know, amongst the conversation and laughter, you feel like dinner had only just begun, but three hours have passed by and the meal is over.

It had been a while since I’d had a meal like that in Atlanta, and I would to thank Park 75, Chef Gerstenecker, and sous chef Sydney Jones for the wonderful dinner.

caviar, potato blini, salmon

ricotta stuffed squash blossom, honey, chive cream

corn chowder

tuna sashimi & lobster crudo

vegetable risotto

lemon thyme seared halibut (photo by atl_legend)

wagyu skirt steak (photo by atl_legend)

steak was with grilled mushrooms and truffled potatoes

caramel Bavarian (photo by atl_legend)

a walk through the kitchen

doughnuts

the prep list back in the kitchen

wines were had

pinch me

My good buddy/former roommate got engaged right before I did, and is also getting married a few weeks after me. We share most of the same friends from college so the other weekend we had a dual bachelor party in New Orleans with ten friends or so.

Trip number two was this past weekend to Tampa. As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of the unexpected and best outcomes of having this blog is that I’ve met a bunch of food and wine enthusiasts in the area, many of whom have become good friends. For a while we’ve been trying to put together a trip to Bern’s, the indisputable mecca of wine, so this was as good an excuse as any.

Both trips were a blast. I don’t know how people work in New Orleans. It feels like that whole dirty city is on permanent vacation. In both locales we had great food, drinks, and debauchery. Everyone survived though; no injuries, no arrests. All my friends were extremely generous, and I can’t thank everyone enough for such a great send-off. A bunch of non-incriminating photos below.

We spent entirely too much time in the casino in New Orleans. I actually won a little bit, which was a pleasant surprise. Apparently my math skills improve when inebriated at 2AM.

We did the weekday fixed menu at Restaurant August the day we arrived in NOLA. Service was impeccable, most food was excellent. Everyone loves the egg shell amuse.

Tomato salad.

Brandade agnolotti.

Lamb belly.

Chef Besh filming the CBS early show. That’s my brother/best man.

Had a seriously dangerous fruity drink and a stunning bar-style burger at Port of Call. It’s a small dive, and a nice respite from the French Quarter, where most of our sinning occurred.

Soft shell crab benedict at Stanley. Actually not as good as last time I visited, though previously it was April so I think soft shell crabs were in season then.

Tampa offers lots of entertainment options. Faces changed to protect the guilty.

The dessert room at Bern’s has an amazing list. 54 year old Russian Black Muscat – why not? Lots of 30-50 year old Scotch and Cognac too, if you roll like that. I’m not going to post the list of wine we drank with our two dinners, but trust me, if you like wine you’d sorta wanna kinda kick my ass.

We lunched at Arco Iris, below is boliche, sausage stuffed beef round.

Pork chop and onions.

Chicken chicharron (chopped up, fried chicken, not pork skin)

Oxtail

A friend recently gave me this as a gift. Obviously, it’s a wine bottle cut in half, then converted into a candle by Perrine’s wine shop on the Westside. I think it’s a great idea. There are some special bottles that I’d like to save, such as this ridiculous ’91 Rousseau with an incredibly gorgeous label, but it looks a bit uncouth to have empty wine bottles sitting around the house. I think the candles look much more presentable and one can commemorate a special occasion for around $20-$25, depending on bottle size. They have some bottles cut and ready for purchase, but the lovely Perrine just told me you can bring your own bottles and they’ll take care of you.

There something so satisfying about the appearance of a cold beverage as it sweats in the seatbelt scalding summertime in Atlanta. You know just by looking at it that it’s going to be cold and refreshing. I sat outside with a friend this past Sunday, ate some smoked wings and enjoyed this amazing bottle of ’99 Vilmart Cuvee Creation. Light bubbles, crisp, acidic, and a little tart, this straw color stunner drinks like effervescent Burgundy. I was told it can be found at H&F bottle shop. Cellartracker prices are around $90 so I’d assume it’s a little more than that locally. (We always pay more here in Georgia, all those hippies in California make wine so they are unsurprisingly less prone to taxing and regulating it).

Related, at a recent party the host had this great spread of icy booze. It’s one of those buffet carts you’d see at a Chinese restaurant, repurposed as a highly portable booze train. I bet you could find one of these cheap at a restaurant supply depot kinda place. It’s not the sort of thing a high quality restaurant would need, and not really visually appealing, that is, until you fill it with champagne and beer.