Mano a Vino - Eat, Drink, Write - Great Wine, Food, Beer and Places

A great time at The Tavern on Jane Street, NYC

My friend Greg Calbi and I met up for drinks and had The Standard Grill on our radar but the place was packed and we weren't going to wait two hours. We wandered over to the good old Jane St. Cafe or The Tavern on Jane Street as it now known.

More than anything I loved the warm atmosphere, but the food and drink more than satisified.

Michter's US1 Single Barrel Straight Rye Whiskey for the perfect Mad Men Cocktail

When I tell people I love Rye Whiskey they usually look at me in wonderment. Isn't Scotch or at least Bourbon the whiskey of choice they ask. I say no, I'm a Rye man. I love it because It carries a 60's panache, a time when men drank Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, and serious Gin Martini's. 

This particular Rye, Michter's US1 Single Barrel, carries an even older history. It is made by a recipe of a distiller who produced Rye in America since 1753.  

A Good Wine for Montclair Greek Restaurants Valle Dell' Acate Zagra from Sicily

I picked this wine for a dinner at Stamna the revered and maligned Greek restaurant on Broad Street in Bloomfield near Montclair.

I believe that best food and wine pairings arise with food and wine of the same region. There are certainly exceptions to this rule, but it still holds that wine makers of the world usually make their wines to go well with their local cuisine.

Using this premise I usually try and bring a Greek wine when we are planning to enjoy that cuisine. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that Greek wines have gotten much much better over the last couple of decades the good ones are still not that readily available.  

So my second choice is a Mediterranean wine like this one from Sicily which is on the same latitude as many of the great Greek wine growing regions. It is called Zagra and is a beautiful blend of 70% Inzolia, 30% Grillo which are indigenous grapes of Sicily. It is produced by the highly regarded winery Valle dell'Acate and imported by Polaner Selections a source of wines that I usually like.

A surprisingly good and inexpensive Riesling from Pannotia Vineyards

I found this gem at the Shoprite Liquors in Little Falls. They have a pretty good selection of wines but I go there because they have the best price around on my beloved Tito's Vodka 1.75 litre bottle, just $32 and change.

As I was wondering around the store I noticed this wine on sale, it was billed as a Riesling from South Carolina. I enjoy tasting wines from other States and I have never seen anything from South Carolina. There are good wines coming from Virginia and Texas these days so for $5.99 I decided to give it a whirl.

While the wine was very good it turns out that Pannotia Vineyard, is a virtual vineyard and the wine is actually made in Germany, probably by a very good weingut.

Happy 2010 - Have a Great and Wonderful Year