A Gin For Los Angeles

Mulholland Gin is called "The Spirit of L.A." on the label, and those who know about the history of Los Angeles are not surprised. William Mulholland built the aqueducts that allowed Southern California to siphon off Northern California's water.  There'd be no San Fernando Valley without him.

The label also says "In good times and bad, all will drink. If not water, then Mulholland." I'm for that, even though Mulholland Distilling is all the way over in Downey, not in the Valley. It's described as a new world gin made with botanicals of cucumber, lavender and lime. It's distilled from 100% GMO corn and hits Navy strength, at 48% abv, 96 proof.

Walton Goggins and Matthew Alper collaborated on this gin, as well as a vodka and a whiskey. Goggins is a familiar face, having acted in some fairly notable television series. Alper has spent time on the other end of the lens as a cameraman and photographer. His brother founded OTTIMINO Winery while his wife is in sales at Frog's Leap Winery.

The cucumbers in Mulholland Gin come across strongly, with lavender, juniper and vanilla notes right behind. It's a very aromatic gin, and has a flavor that’s refreshing on its own, although the alcohol level reaches up to about my limit. Still, it’s a great martini gin. I liked it better nice and clean instead of my usual dirty style. It may not be as thirst-quenching as water, but it's a damn sight more interesting.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Italian Wine Dinner In Torrance

Italian wine producer Tenuta San Guido came to Southern California recently, to Torrance, in fact. It was a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with the winery's tasty offerings and to discover a wonderful Italian restaurant in a neighborhood that is a little off the beaten path.

Primo Italia's wine is looked over by sommelier Grace Giovannetti - her husband Lou owns the place.  Their restaurant is only about eight months old, but is already a big hit with the locals, as the dining room was packed and the wine dinner was sold out. Rat-pack music is piped into the front room, while the wine event is held in a private back room by the wine cellar.

The five-course Tuscan-style dinner from Chef Michelangelo Aliaga featured food that was farm fresh, homemade and wood-fired. Chef Aliaga said, "Tuscany is a rustic, hunting area and these dishes are authentic." He served Florentine-style tripe, fish pancotto and pici pasta with hare ragu. The latter was two days cooked, with red wine. Venison with fruits of the forest was followed by grandmother's cake, "Torta Della Nonna."

Tenuta San Guido is in the Bolgheri region of Tuscany, and they specialize in the so-called "Super Tuscan" style of wine which utilizes Bordeaux grape varieties, grown in Tuscany. The Marchese Mario Incisa was introduced to the wines of one particular vineyard near Pisa in the 1920s.  He strove to create his own "thoroughbred" wine and used cuttings from that special place.  It marked the birth of the Super Tuscan style.What the marchese called the "Nose of Bordeaux" comes from the gravelly soil in the area. He produced wines for two decades that didn’t leave the property. They were for private consumption only.

Here's what we drank:

Salviano Orvieto 2015 - A pale gold wine from Umbria, the nose displays minerals, citrus and I swear I got seashore notes in this landlocked Italian white. Great acidity in the mouth, with lemon zest.  It was wonderful with tripe and bread, although the acidity fought a bit with the spicy tripe. Grapes include Trebbiano, Grechetto, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Le Difese 2014 - 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Sangiovese here. The nose shows roses, cassis and minerals, with a palate of black fruit, licorice and earth. Lovely acidity and tannins. It went well enough with the seafood stew, but I preferred the white.

Guidalberto 2015 - 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 10% Sangiovese grapes. Big red fruit, sage and eucalyptus aromas meet flavors of red fruit and soft tannins with an herbal note and finish. It was a great pair with the pici pasta.

Sassicaia 2013 - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc grapes. Red fruit and minerals on the nose are joined by a bit of herbal note, white pepper and cedar aromas. The palate is smooth and rich, with savory minerals, quite elegant. It was remarked on by several around me at the table that it was hard to believe the wine was only four years old. Perfect with the venison. By the way, Sassicaia has its own appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia D.O.C.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Château de Pommard Dinner

Château de Pommard has been a Burgundy institution for nearly three centuries.  The Micaults, the Marey-Monges and now the Famille Carabello-Baum have all gotten dirty feet and purple hands in the vineyards and cellar of the domaine.

A recent dinner at L.A.'s Katana Robata introduced me to CEO Michael Baum and winemaker Emmanuel Sala, pictured.  Baum's family are the first American owners of a wine-producing château in the Côte d'Or.  They have brought a more open attitude to Burgundy from their California roots. They even had a music festival this summer, Rootstock.  Baum didn’t come to Los Angeles to talk about tunes, though.

He came to talk about wine, specifically what his part of Burgundy is doing to educate people to the wonders of the region. Baum said Château de Pommard has launched six immersive wine experiences designed to "untangle the web that makes Burgundy the most envied wine region in the world."

He must be a real character in Burgundy. Not only does Baum carry a Silicon Valley pedigree, and looks a little like Bill Mahr, he even speaks highly of Oregon's Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. As for the guy in the cellar, Sala's 28 years in winemaking has led him to "focus more on soil than wine." Here's what we tasted during the dinner:

Bourgogne Chardonnay 2012 - Peaches and minerals grace the nose, while the palate shows nice heft with citrus and fresh acidity. Made from grapes that came from 25-year-old vines, this blanc aged for 24 months in 15% new oak.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru 2013 - Softer than the 2012, it pairs better with Asian dishes and shows more earthy qualities than minerals.

Maranges Premier Cru "Les Loyères" 2013 - Medium ruby in color, this one has a gorgeous nose of soft black raspberry and tea. Very soft tannins make for an extremely elegant drink. It's as mellow as it gets, from a challenging vintage. Baum says, "To make beautiful wine, you have to like bad weather." The wine pairs perfectly with tuna carpaccio.

Vivant Micault 2013 - From the oldest vines in the clos, there's black tea ahead of rustic minerals on the nose. A gentle structure is carried forward on the palate by an even stronger note of tea. It's a great pairing with shrimp tempura.

Clos Marey-Monge 2012 - A very earthy nose full of black tea leads to a bit more tannic structure on the palate, but it’s still smooth. Raspberry, mineral and a bit of cola are notable. I found it reminded me somewhat of California Pinot, and it went well with spare ribs and pork belly.

Simone 2013 - More cola notes come around on the nose here with the expected black tea and minerals. The palate showed the biggest of the evening's selections. Muscular, but still elegant. This was paired with the chocolate lava cake at dessert, and pleased the crowd.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Two Wonderful White Wines

It’s always nice to discover a casual place with a carefully curated wine list. With a few minutes to kill in downtown Los Angeles, I looked around and spied "Pitchoun!" It is described on the signage as a bakery with a French flair, so I stepped in for lunch.

It’s run by Frédéric and Fabienne Souliès, who hail from Provence and Monaco, respectively. The name of the place is a term of endearment used by French grandparents, say, in referring to their grandkids. It’s like "kiddo," or something similar. A little pinch on the cheek.

My Niçoise salad was the usual mix of tuna, tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, olives, radicchio, delicate greens, bell pepper, celery, cucumber, green onions, anchovies and vinaigrette. It was tasty, but it’s the wine I was attracted to. Oh, by the way, they also serve Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant at Pitchoun, so they got high marks from me before I even saw a wine list.

Sean and Nicole Minor started their own winery 12 years ago, after years of experience with some fairly big-name outfits. Minor's wine consultant, Will Bucklin, is similarly well-traveled. Minor's Four Bears Chardonnay has a golden tint and offers apples and apricots on the earthy nose. Minerals define the palate, with bright peach and pear forming a taut and focused flavor profile. It’s lean, but not mean. The acidity is quite nice, almost bracing. It always stuns me to find such nice freshness in a wine with so round a mouthfeel. Alcohol sits at 13% and some of the juice underwent malolactic fermentation, to soften the feel a bit. It finishes clean and snappy.

In the extreme southwest of France, in the Bas Armagnac AOC, is the Domaine de Menard. It has been a source of grapes since the 1920s, but not until a decade ago or so did the family begin wine production under their own name. They grow Petit and Gros Manseng and harvest the grapes late to produce a sweeter style of wine. The Gros Manseng is not a full-blown dessert wine, but does have a pleasant taste I think of as semi-sweet, or off-dry.

The Domaine Menard Gros Manseng also shows golden in the glass, offering a pungent slate of earthiness and wet rocks. The semi-sweet palate has apricots, honey and plenty of minerality. This wine, too, has a full, creamy mouthfeel as well as generous acidity and a clean finish.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

The Nielluccio Grape From Corsica

A restaurant with a good wine list is something to cherish. In Los Angeles, where I find favorite restaurants closing up shop with increasing regularity, that is doubly true. Little Next Door is billed online at "the best French restaurant in Hollywood," although it’s not actually in Hollywood. The Third Street location puts it right along with many other eateries in the food-rich area, but it is definitely not just another resto. It’s casual and fancy at the same time and offers an outdoor seating area that is predictably popular with the L.A. crowd.

The wine list is understandably French-heavy, but there are some gems from other areas, too. I spied a Moroccan wine, which I had tasted some months ago, in the wall-display behind our table. For this meal we both enjoyed a pink wine from Corsica.

Corsica is a French island in the Mediterranean, just north of Sardegna. It is a French territory, but it has a lot of similarities to Italy due to its location. There are nine wine regions on the island.

The Domaine Poli rosé is labelled on the list as l'Île de Beauté, which means "island of beauty," I'm told. It's a faintly copper-colored rosé made with organically-grown Nielluccio grapes. That variety is widely planted on Corsica and used primarily for rosé. It is also speculated that it might actually be Sangiovese in disguise. The wine has a fresh nose and a palate to match, with lovely acidity. Grapefruit and strawberry flavors mingle delightfully.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Los Olivos Tasting Room: Carina Cellars

A great day trip out of Los Angeles to Santa Barbara wine country should always involve bagels in Camarillo, the Santa Barbara Farmers Market, lunch at Sides and a final glass at a pastoral setting. Take care of those incidentals and the wine will take care of itself.

At the Carina Cellars tasting room in Los Olivos - the one they share with Tensley Wines - I chatted through the tasting menu with Sandy. She is very knowledgeable on wine in general and in particular the wines made by Joey Tensley. We had an enjoyable volley of comments about dirt versus earth. It’s just a matter of PR preferences, I think.  The word earth looks better on a label than plain old dirt.

Rhone varieties rule at Carina, but they also produce some Zinfandel. Even a Tannat, which is unusual in this part of the world. Grapes are sourced in Santa Barbara County and at their Paso Robles estate

I tasted through a half-dozen or so wines that were quite impressive, and after a bit of deliberation I called the 2012 Clairvoyant as my favorite. It’s a GSM - Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre - but it’s heavier on the Syrah. It retails for $28.

The wine is very approachable, with dark fruit, mostly currant. There’s a hint of savory, but the crowd-pleasing fruit is the star of the show.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Landing A SoCal IPA

The best thing about the craft brewery explosion is the abundance of truly magnificent IPAs out there. It seems hard to even imagine a world with only the big American lagers, which is the world where I started drinking beer.

Hangar 24 is a Redlands, California craft brewery. It's way out in the part of Southern California that we call the Inland Empire, east of L.A. by an hour if the traffic is flying. The brews of theirs that I have had are impressive, and that's saying the absolute minimum. Normally, when I have one of their creations I gush.

Hangar 24's Iconic Double IPA is brewed with four American hops - Centennial, Citra, Columbus and Simcoe - five malts and local Inland Empire orange blossom honey.

The color is gorgeous, deep and rich gold. The nose is all about oranges and pine cones. On the palate, it's lush and flavorful, with a lot of bitter and a smidge of honey.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

L.A. Winemakers Conduct Paso Robles Stormwatch

Stormwatch is made by the Riboli family, who run the oldest winery in Los Angeles, San Antonio Winery. They are celebrating their centennial this year. The Ribolis use grapes from their estate vineyard in Paso Robles for this one on their San Simeon label. Winemakers Anthony Riboli and Arnaud Debons crafted the wine in L.A., but they now have a winemaking facility in Paso Robles.

The Bordeaux grapes were grown in Paso's El Pomar district and the wine was aged 18 months French oak. It retails for $70.

It's a Bordeaux-styled blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, 21% Merlot, 16% Malbec, 11% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc. Personally, I would have flipped the Cabernets, more Franc than Sauvignon, but what do I know? It's not like anybody ever asked me to figure out the final blend for them. And that's probably a good thing.

The Paso Robles Cabernet - Sauvignon, that is - smells earthy as usual. Paso Cab has a great aroma, I think. Full of mineral, limestone and dirt. This one gets an infusion of mocha, chocolate, and sweet smoke. The palate is robust and tasty. Let's mention those tannins right off the bat. They are not to be ignored. The fruit is rather demanding as well, with big, dark berries, as ripe as you want. Herbal notes that sing bring some anise along into the oak spice. The finish doesn't know when to stop, and we can be glad about that.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Wanted: More Torrontés

It’s a wide world of grapes out there. There are many grapes in this bountiful vineyard of a world that I have not sampled in the form of wine, many that I have. Many are there that I return to over and over, and many that I ignore for long stretches of time. Torrontés, I’ll try to do better by you in the future.

Sometimes, oftentimes, the premier white wine grape of Argentina does not find its way onto restaurant wine lists. It’s rarely on a "general consumer" type of shelf. When I go to specialty wine stores, it seems I’m always searching down another aisle. Maybe I just need to hit more Argentine restaurants for dinner.

I was at Gaucho Grill in Brentwood recently, about to dig into their superb Argentine cuisine for the first time in a while. Gaucho was once an easy roll on the craps table of dinner in L.A., but they closed the one most convenient to us, and it became geographically undesirable. I’ll just have to drive a little longer from now on.

The Atlas Cumbres Torrontés 2015 from the Lagarde Winery made me realize how much I missed the grape. The wine is made from 100% Torrontés grapes, sourced from a third-party vineyard in Cafayate, Salta, in the northern part of Argentina. There is no malolactic fermentation and and they employ only pure steel tank aging. They also let the wine age for up to two years in the bottle. It carries alcohol at 14.7% and sells for about $12 online.

This Torrontés is lightly tinted and smells of beautiful flowers, minerals and citrus. Perhaps my favorite white wine aroma is that of wet rocks in a stream, and there’s plenty of that here. On the palate, citrus meets peaches amid a low, earthy note that anchors the wine like the best bass player you ever heard. It’s perfect with sea bass and grilled zucchini and blended nicely with Gaucho’s new chipotle-infused chimichurri.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

L.A. City Council Honors San Antonio Winery

New SoCal Wine Trail

Trick Or Treat In L.A.

The horror of Halloween disappeared 12 stories up at a friend's apartment in a tower at Park La Brea. Safely ensconced far away from the echoing cries of the neighborhood ghosts, goblins, pirates and princesses, we drank some good wine. We looked out through the descending darkness at the Hollywood hills, sniffing and swirling as we enjoyed no trick, just treat.

As is her wont, Elaine directed me to the chiller to "pull out anything you see that you like." Elaine really decorates for Halloween. I had to make my way past the mad butler, the angry granny, the spiders and the shrunken heads to get there, but I arrived at the small box and just reached in a pulled out a winner.

Linne Calodo was started in 1998 by Matt Trevisan in Paso Robles' Willow Creek District. Sustainably farmed vineyards produce the grapes he uses to make his blends.  Trevisan, I’m told, is quite selective about who gets his wine. I heard an anecdote that he sometimes refuses to supply a restaurant with his wines if they have snubbed him in the past. It sounds like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld… "No wine for YOU!" But whether it’s true or not, I admire his allegiance to his wines.

Linne Calodo Sticks and Stones 2014 is a Paso blend of Rhône grape varieties: 71% Grenache, 12% Syrah, 9% Cinsault and 8% Mourvèdre. Alcohol sits at a lofty 15.8%  

This wine has a really pretty nose that sports a floral cherry sensibility. On the palate, expansive dark fruit are joined by savory touches of leather and cigar. Great tannic structure shows well in this big and brawny wine.

We also opened a bottle from the Santa Ynez Valley of beautiful Santa Barbara County. The Consilience Grenache 2012 is a Sanger family wine. The alcohol number is a typical 14.5% abv.

There is a beautiful cherry nose here with lavender notes. A very floral palate also displays cherry with a leathery thing going on as well as coffee flourishes.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Restaurant Wine Tricks

101 Cider House: India Pale Cider

We had a hankering for some healthy food recently - yes, that does happen now and zin - so we went to one of the longest-running vegan food restaurants in Los Angeles, Real Food Daily. It features a menu full of items you’d find in many restaurants, but they are made meatless, eggless and usually anything but tasteless. There are lots of soy-based products to take the place of meat in dishes like lasagna, tacos, tuna salad and barbecue. Yes, meatless barbecue. Welcome to Los Angeles.

I broke the water tradition I usually employ at RFD and went with an alcoholic beverage to pair with my La-La lasagna. It was a hard cider from L.A. suburb Westlake Village. 101 Cider House uses "apples and quince grown up and down the 101" freeway that runs along the California coast like a fault line.

The version I had - they make a handful of different varieties, all sour - was called India Pale Cider and is dry-hopped. It hits 6.9% abv on the alcohol scale.

It’s a cloudy yellow - the probiotics, I'm told - with a quickly dissipating head. The nose is fruity and crisp, with a strong sense of apples. It is reminiscent of Prosecco or Albarino, except with a more floral element. It's super dry, very refreshing and loaded with citrus, apples and hops. There is also a lovely, dry finish.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

L.A. Producer Up For "Winery Of Year"

Moruno: Spanish Wine, Food And A Little SBC Vermouth

"Get something you've never tried before," said my wife as we scanned the wine list at Moruno, the Spanish restaurant in L.A.'s Original Farmers Market. It’s a great place, with delightful Spanish dishes and an adventurous wine list that leans heavily in the Iberian direction.

Since most of the plates we get there are new to me, it makes sense to go with a grape that’s under my radar as well. Hondarribi Beltza, f’rinstance. I have heard of Hondarribi's white counterpart, but was unfamiliar with the red version. It comes from a place called Bizkaiko.

Located in Spain's Basque Country, on the nation’s north coast, the Bizkaiko Txakolina region is a collection of more than 80 little communities all growing wine grapes. They make Txakoli wine largely from the white Hondarrabi Zuri grape. This wine is made from the less common red grape, Hondarribi Beltza, grown primarily in the coastal town of Bakio.

Gorrondona Bizkaiko Txakolina Hondarribi Beltza 2015

The waitress at Moruno offered the red Basque wine, and I could not resist. The wine's nose brings dark fruit layered with black olive and bell pepper. Its palate is just as savory, with some earthy blackberry in the balance.

The red Txakoli wine was great with the artichokes a la plancha - salty, caramelized exterior with a tender inner.  The music that was playing in the restaurant during our meal got high praise from my wife - big Eddie Kendricks fan.

But Wait, There's More...

I hate to relegate this to a postscript, but I asked for a taste of a vermouth that Moruno has on the menu. It's made by Steve Clifton of Lompoc's Palmina Wines and comes in both red and white. It's on tap in the restaurant from five-gallon kegs. The label images come from Palmina's Twitter feed.

The organic Vermina vermouth is a collaboration between Clifton and L.A. restaurateur David Rosoff. It’s part of Rosoff’s effort to bring European bistro dining to Southern California. Clifton reportedly digs around himself in Santa Barbara County to find the herbs he uses in the vermouth. According to the L.A. Weekly, the white vermouth is a blend of pinot grigio and malvasia wines, while the  red vermouth adds a touch of Sangiovese for its color.

It has a nose of violets and botanicals and shows wonderful freshness on the palate with a strawberry flavor that is carried along by the slightly medicinal notes of the botanicals.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

L.A. Wine Trips

Picnic Wine: Lambrusco Al Fresco

Wine At The Hollywood Bowl

Having wine at the Hollywood Bowl is not mandatory but, c’mon. It’s basically a picnic with a concert thrown in. How can you not want some vino to go with the experience?

The Bowl, squeezed in between Hollywood and the 101 Freeway, is an outdoor amphitheater with wooden benches for seating and restaurant markups on wine, by the glass or bottle at the concessions stands. People really like to bring their own food - yes, you are allowed to BYO - and that goes for wine, too.

We got a group together for an appearance by Brian Wilson at The Bowl, during my wife’s birthday month. Life is short - we celebrate for 30 days, not one. We organized a dozen-and-a-half friends to join us for the event, which is no small trick in Los Angeles. At one time, we lived two blocks away from some very good friends and saw them twice a year. It's tough to coordinate with one couple, let alone eight.

Whether the draw was the former Beach Boy or the promise that we would bring wine, I couldn't say, but it fell together easily. The tickets were bought and distributed and a sandwich tray was ordered from the fabulous Rocco’s Deli in Los Feliz. The hardest part was lugging the food and bottles up the street from the parking lot. It's uphill all the way.

In keeping with a loose “Italian” theme - my wife is of Italian heritage, the food was made in that style - we brought a couple of Italian Lambruscos, one that was languishing at home and the other we picked up on the way to the concert.

The Manicarti Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Vigne Cà Del Fiore (that’s a mouthful) is subtitled, “Vino frizzante secco, sparkling red.”  It has an easy-drinking 11% abv number and hails from  the “sunny hillside vineyards” called Vigne Cà Del Fiore.  It is frizzante, or just a little bubbly, in the glass and it dissipates quickly.  Deep purple and grapey-smelling, there is an earthy note to it that is absolutely alluring. It comes from the Emilio-Romagna area of Italy, which also brings us such delights as Parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Chilled, it’s exactly what I would like my summer to be.

I felt a bit like a Lambrusco missionary, as one in our group, probably the most wine-centric other than myself, had never HEARD of Lambrusco. She loved it, and I was happy to have done my job and produced one more Lambrusco drinker

On a side note, Rocco’s Deli, On Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of L.A., has been hiding over there for some 40 years.  My wife and I had been going to a pizza place called Rocco’s for years, run by a guy from Staten Island, only to discover we had the wrong Rocco. The aromas and attitudes in the place brought my wife right back to her northeast Pennsylvania roots. She had been looking for a place like this for decades, only to find it right under her nose. The eatery so completely addressed her homesickness that it actually made real tears appear.  Their sandwiches are, indeed, to cry for.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

New Paso Winemaker For L.A. Winery