Category Archives: Andrew Chalk

by Steven Doyle | June 9, 2014 · 11:22 am

Wine Ad Verbiage — Romance or Rubbish?

wine by Andrew Chalk

Reading some wine advertisements makes it hard to remember that we are talking about fermented grapes. I have read about wines that supposedly contained sunlight, family dreams, history, magic and genius. Put charitably, this copy is trying to convey the feelings that went in to making (or are derived from drinking) the wine. However, sometimes you come across copy that is simply bullshit. Such was the case this week with the ad. for Manuscript Pinot Noir in Modern Luxury. Continue reading →

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by Steven Doyle | June 6, 2014 · 9:53 am

Texas Sommelier Has 27 Texas Wines on His List

Steven-Krueger by Andrew Chalk

La Cantera Hill Country Resort is an absolutely spectacular sight in the southern Hill Country just north of San Antonio. The vast resort has a popular world-class golf course, private villas (casitas), six pools and a flagship restaurant Francesca’s at Sunset. As well as being close to the most rapidly improving culinary scene in the state, the resort is also part of it. Its extensive dining facilities make it one of the area’s largest customers for community-supported agriculture, Texas ranches and line-caught fish. And that commitment to Texas product does not stop at the edge of the plate. The resort also has one of the most extensive and carefully curated selections of Texas wines in the state.

While attending Culinaria this month, I took a look at the April release of the monthly-updated list and asked its creator, Steve Krueger, Resort Sommelier, about the Texas angle. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Francesca's at Sunset, La Cantera Hill Country Resort, Sommelier, Steve Krueger, Texas, wine

by Steven Doyle | June 5, 2014 · 9:42 am

Del Frisco’s Puts a Prime Steak Into Summer

filet

by Andrew Chalk

It’s $49. it is three courses. It is Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House’s “Prime Pair”. At a media event last night I sampled it at their north Dallas location (although it is happening at all of their locations except New York).

The basic idea is a prix fixe menu centered around a ‘prime pair’ of 8oz USDA prime filet mignon and a ‘surf’ dish. You choose either scallops, crab cake or shrimp. I had the scallops, which were seared to perfection with lemon and garlic accompanied by the piquant bite of fried capers. The filet, grilled a perfect medium rare, was soft and sinewy without a hint of chewiness. Included in this main course is a choice of one side – château potatoes, baked potato, spinach supreme, sautéed mushrooms or Louisiana’s answer to creamed corn, maque choux. I had the latter, which overdelivered. Serious lagniappe. Continue reading →

Asador To Host Summer Harvest Dinner Series

asador by Andrew Chalk

This just in from the folks at Asador, the restaurant in the Dallas Renaissance Hotel:

Asador will host a series of three harvest dinners beginning with a wine dinner on June 13 followed by a beer dinner on July 11 complete with a cocktail dinner on August 8. Dinners will feature local ingredients from Hudspeth and Tassione Farms, Mozzarella Company and Empire Bakery. For $60 per person per dinner, guests will enjoy five courses served family style including dishes like Seafood Agnolotti, Roasted Tenderloin and Antelope Short Ribs paired with wine, beer or cocktails. Reservations are required and will fill quickly, please call 214-267-4815. For more information about Asador, please visit their website. Continue reading →

The Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley Show That They are Producing Better Zinfandel Than Ever, as Well as Other Varieties

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by Andrew Chalk

Many readers will have visited Sonoma County in northern California wine country and sampled the Zinfandels made in the sub-region named Dry Creek Valley. The 70+ wineries there are so small (median production is only about 4750 cases) that most sell all that they make at the “cellar door” (either in a tasting room or through Internet orders). Additionally, 150 grape growers sell fruit to these winemakers and another 80+ wineries besides. This direct sales link is vital to small wineries as it vastly reduces their costs of distribution. One result, is that there are many good wines that do not make their way onto retail shelves here, or do so only at a restricted set of outlets (basically the finer wine stores in town).

To taste the gamut of Dry Creek wine making you really need to visit the area (and the ideal time is the weekend known as Passport To Dry Creek Valley each April). Notwithstanding that, sometimes the growers go out to their customers. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, wine, Zinfandel

by Steven Doyle | May 30, 2014 · 10:24 am

Following in Big Footprints – The Modern Grgich Hills Estate

IMG_20140515_135923 Violet Grgich, Proprietor and Vice President, Operations, Grgich Hills Estate

by Andrew Chalk

In 1976, wine experts blind-tasted some of the most storied wines from France against similar styles from upstart California in. The mainly-French expert jury in what came to be known as The Judgement of Paris announced the California wines to be the winners. It was a shot heard round the world (I remember it being reported on the front page of British newspapers at the time) and California wine’s time on the global stage had come.

One of the most remarkable victories in a set of remarkable victories was in the white wine category. A 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay came top, beating out four Burgundies. That wine was made by a young croatian-American, Mike Grgich. No flash-in-the-pan, Grgich won the Great Chardonnay Showdown in 1980 with the very first vintage (1977) of wine from his own winery (then called Grgich Hills Cellar) in Napa Valley’s Rutherford area against 221 competitors. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Chardonnay, Dallas, Grgich Hills Estate, wine

by Steven Doyle | May 29, 2014 · 11:03 am

An Evening At Pakpao With Chef Jet Tila

pak3 by Andrew Chalk

Have you eaten at Pakpao, the edgy Thai restaurant in Dallas Design District? If so, forget everything you know. Go back, and if you haven’t been, go. They have a new menu and a new chef in an unusual arrangement.

They have just entered an agreement with the man who may be the most famous Thai chef in the country, Jet Tila. He, of Cutthroat Kitchen, Iron Chef (he narrowly lost to Masaharu Morimoto), No Reservations, half a dozen other shows on the likes of Food Network, plus a restaurant empire that stretches across the country, is now an equity partner in Pakpao with Richard and Tiffany Ellman and their Apheleia Restaurant Group (Pakpao, Oak, and Belly and Trumpet). The intriguing thing, for me, is that he said in 2014 that “I am interested in creating concepts, not just one-offs”. Does that mean that Pakpao, to become a two-off with the opening of an offshoot in Plano this summer, is destined to become a national chain? The P.F. Chang’s (the 49th largest restaurant chain in the U.S. by sales, $930M, in 2011) of Thai food? Only time will tell. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Chef, Dallas, Design District, Jet Tila, Pakpao, Restaurant, Thai

by Steven Doyle | May 28, 2014 · 2:00 pm

Campuzano Offers Fun, Tex-Mex, and More

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by Andrew Chalk

Down on lower Oak Lawn Avenue, where an eclectic mix of shops, bars, professional associations and other small businesses dot the street, there is a new kid in town. Before you yawn when I tell you that it is a Tex-Mex restaurant, let me agree, up front, that any new Tex-Mex has the onus squarely on itself to justify its existence in a town already stuffed to the gills with this food genre. Campuzano acquitted itself well at a recent media event. Since opening last August it has acquired a regular clientele at both lunch and dinner by delivering Tex-Mex favorites and dishes that go just a little beyond the regular rotation in a consistent, well-prepared manner. Continue reading →