Turks and Frogs

What on earth do Turks and Frogs have to do with wine, you ask?
Well, on a recent trip to New York we found this cute little wine bar called just such in the West Village (323 W 11th St). Even had pictures of Constantinople on the wall. The staff is Turkish (of course) and their wine list is small but includes some Turkish wines! On questioning the waiter, he admitted that the Turkish wines were "not the best - try some of the others", we suppressed the adventurous spirit and settled for California and Australia. Owning such an establishment must be difficult - you want to serve good wine but the price per glass has to be attractive, so you've got to find interesting, good wines that show strong value. I think they hit the nail on the head with at least some of their selections. The Bleasdale, Generations, Shiraz, 2002 is a fruitcake, oaky, vanilla delight that is rich, full blown and quite mouth filling. Wow. The Dreyer, Sonoma, Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 is more of an earthy wine with notes of coffee and green peppers, not as juicy as the Bleasdale but still very pleasant. A "Good" wine. Both were about $12 a glass. We finished off with the rich, rich, rich Quinta do Castelinho 1962 Porto, a colheita. Figs, nuts, honey - this is complex and goes on and on....WOW!!

I couldn't resist stepping inside when I saw the Crush winestore in Manhattan. They stole my name, but I forgive them - what a display!! The place is cool and temperature controlled, feels like you're in a supermodern cellar. The only problem is you get a crick in your neck looking at the labels as the bottles are all horizontally displayed.

One last note - found the Pepperwood Grove 2005 Cab up here in Canada for $16, so gave it a whirl as I liked their Syrah so much (see previous post). This is nowhere near as good as the syrah, tastes mass produced (which I'm sure it is), slightly sweet and "bubble-gummy". Gets an OK, would not buy this again for the price.

Cheers!!