Croquette is Paris in Raleigh

For my daughter's graduation present we took her to Paris. It was reward for taking four years of French. She knew the language and many of the customs (like shopping at Printemps and requesting the check). Good thing too, or we would still be waiting on the dinner check.

If you would like to visit Paris in Raleigh I suggest you try Croquette Brasserie in North Hills. This place opened with two strikes against it, first it replaced South, one of my very enjoyable restaurants, second it is French. Many times I find French dish flavors are just too mild. Not exciting. But Croquette is casual and eloquent all at the same time. And some of the dishes are very good.

We have been a number of times and the mussels in chorizo sauce ($13) with frites are a winner. They are plentiful and fresh. The scallops ($9 for three) are super also, sauteed to a nice brown and just so. The wine is a bit pricey, but whose isn't these days. It is a French wine list, so brush up on your French wines and I have yet to find or be able to afford a big bold red on the list. They also have some carafe deals on the wine by the glass if you are not too picky about your wine and the beer ($4) comes in way cool glasses. Our friend was disappointed in the trout--too bland. But other dishes have been very good and flavorful, but don't ask us to remember them. We had too much wine.

The ambiance and the scene are very cool. If you don't think y0u are in Paris, I am sure you will think you are in Midtown Atlanta. And when the weather gets warmer, they open up the doors on the side to give a open air feel to the restaurant.

So make reservations if you want to eat in the dinning room, but you can always just hit and run at a bar table. It is a short drive from Apex, especially comparied to Paris, so the next time my daughter wants to go out to eat, I am taking her here.

Malbec is Great the Next Day

What is it with Malbec? It is better the second day it is open.

Oh yeah, I have been a Malbec fan for sometime, but I forgot you. Until I went to Hilton Head and stopped by the Wines Times 4 store. http://www.winetimes4.com/

Wines Times 4 uses the Enomatic Wine Server System, which is the fastest way to spend $30 on wine known to man. What you do is charge a card with cash and then walk around and spend from $2 to $20 for an oz. of wine. Well to make a long story and evening short, I got stuck on the Malbec. Oh, how I had forgot you. You rich luscious red with depth and body. They had a familia Marguery 2004 Malbec for $2.85 an oz. It was outstanding. So I have been in search of similar Malbecs for less.

The Fabre Montmayour may just fit this bill. At about $13 a bottle it is luscious, inky, rich, licerous wonder of taste. Other sites show older versions of this wine for up to $45. So find it and drink it.

One more thing. Malbecs often taste better the next day. This one really does.

Enjoy!

Bella Sanford!

Living in Apex gives you great access to Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. I have often thought, while they are further away, the 25 minutes it takes to drive to North Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill is no different than the 25 minutes it takes to go from one part of Manhattan, NY on the train to another part. So you must view the Triangle as your island. It is one city.

And while I had viewed the Triangle as mostly North, I had not thought about going South.

I was rummaging through some old cookbooks and ran into a card for Chad Blackwelder from the Wild Turtle restaurant in Chapel Hill (1996). The Turtle was long since closed, and we had enjoyed Chad's food (Mussels in Black Bean Ginger Sauce) and followed him to restaurants in Raleigh (Wicked Smile) and in Durham (Brightleaf 905), even as sous chef at the famed Magnolia Grill in Durham, but we had not made it to Siler City when he was at the Celebrity Dairy. (They make cheese from goats named after celebrities). http://www.celebritydairy.com/

A quick Google search showed that Chad had opened a restaurant in Sanford. The good news is that there is an autobahn from Apex to Sanford on US-1 South. No stop lights, no traffic, just as fast as you want to go over the posted speed of 65 MPH. Hello Sanford. Twenty-five minutes from Apex.

You cannot get lost in Sanford. It is impossible. Chad's restaurant feels like a red sauce Italian Pasta restaurant. (It was). But it is really down home. A place where everyone knows everyone and they get dressed up to go out on Saturday night. They visit from table to table and they stare at people not from Sanford. Oh yes, they know you are not their kind. Or kin. But don't let that stop you. The food is very good and very reasonable. Check out the menu on Chad's website. It doesn't change much. Also the Fess Parker Chardonnay was very yummy. The bottle was not big enough.

Steele Street is happening in Sanford. There is a tapas bar across the street and a drinking bar next door. If you go and they ask you who you are, just tell them you are a friend of Chad's from when he was at the Wild Turtle in Chapel Hill. It will confuse them to no end.

http://www.bellabistrodowntown.com/

Dynamite Wine Dynamite Price Cabernet Sauvignon

I like leather. Okay, leather in wine especially. That's the dominate flavor I taste in the 2005 Dynamite Caberbet Sauvignon Red Hills Lake County. It is a complete mouthful and at about $10 to $11 it is the deal of 2009 Spring (Harris Teeter, Kroger and other fine supermarkets). Not as full as previous years but very close. The reviews say they did some malolactic fermentation and age in oak. I agree. Very smooth. Very full. Ready to drink now. Not sure how it will age, but it might be fun to try in five to six years. The reviews say casis and toffee. There is definitely some toffee from the oak. Enjoy this wonder buy in Cabernet.

I luv Chardonnay but . . .

While preparing for our trip to Vinitaly International Wine Exhibition in Verona next month, my hubby has been bringing home a wide array of Italian wines. But let me rewind a few months . . . back in December . . . like for Christmas . . . Gary gave me a gentle suggestion in the form of a book entitled, "Anything but Chardonnay."

So . . . recognizing a moment of truth . . . I am truly in Chard warp . . . the quest began. Now to the present . . .

So tonight we indulged in a 2007 Albino Armani Valdadige Pinot Grigio from Total Wines @ $12.99 a bottle. Wow . . . a warm complete lemon pear - not tart and definitely not crisp like what you would expect with traditional PGs - very rounded. We paired it with a grilled endive & procuitto salad and mussels steamed in chorizo tomato broth. Unfortunately there are no leftovers tonight . . . Cheers and Buona notte! Barbara

Great Grapes-Great Wine-Great Guy

Well . . . now that we have your attention, we want to share with you our idea of fun on an unexpected sunny and warm early March Saturday in 'wine country' - Cary style. There is an amazing little wine store at Salt Box Village on Kildaire Farm Road - a stones throw away from Cary's Outback Restaurant - that is aah . . . so very fine. It's named "Great Grapes" and the owner Gene is someone you are (a) happy to meet (b) makes you feel like you have been friends since high school and (c) a human database of wine knowledge.

Back to Saturday . . . Gene had a tent sale outside and it was amazing. There were probably 40 different wines to taste and 7 great wine distributors engaging everyone in great conversation about their selections; taste highlights and serious wine adjectives describing what we should be tasting. But most of all, there were diverse and happy gaggles of wine lovers . . . doing what they best . . . tasting and enjoying the wine.

We enjoyed a wide variety of wines - especially the Amaroni, Zinfandels, Petit Sarahs and big cabs. So many different wines but decided on a few select ones that Gene still had in stock -- because folks were buying everything! Here are our take aways:

• Hey Mambo -- Bistro style every day drinkable red
• Michael David Petit Sirah from Lodi -- similar to Bonnie Doone; they have a lot of fun making their wines and reminded us of the time we drank Switchback's Petit S at the Triangle Wine Experience at Cosmo many moons ago
• Ass Kisser Fine Red Wine -- I hope everyone has an incredibly brilliant red neck friend that you think about when attending serious wine events. This is certainly the case of why we bought this wine (but we didn't buy a case).

So another Saturday; another great wine day; go see Gene and tell him the ApexWiners sent you! He has a new wine to taste just waiting for you to come experience! Cheers!

Childress Vineyards Christmas Candle 2005 Chardonnay

Okay, admit it, North Carolina wines get a pass.  Anything close to tasty gets great reviews, because North Carolina is so young (about 25 years) in winemaking.   There have been some very good wines from year to year and there have been some not so good wines.  

My sister and her husband gave us a bottle of Childress Vineyards Christmas Candle 2005 Chardonnay.  It is a big buttery, oakey chard in the Australian mode.  While it says North Carolina on the front label and made in North Carolina on the back label, there is nothing that says the fruit is from North Carolina.  I suspect if may not be from North Carolina but maybe, just maybe, Childress and winemaker Mark Friszolowski are better than we suspect and the grapes are from NC. 

Richard Childress is a NASCAR team owner.  I use to see him "race" modifies at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem when I was just  a wee tyke.  He has a beautiful winery just outside Lexington, NC.  It is on par with many wineries in Sonoma or Napa for beauty.  The label features a Christmas Candle picture painted by area star artist Bob Timberlake.  It is a marketing masterpiece.  I feel over marketed. 

This wine is on par with some of the best Australian big bold chardonnay's of the 1990s but not the crisp, french, unoaked chardonnays that so many wineries are turning out now.  My sister received this wine as a part of Childress' wine club.   I searched Childress' website and could not find a price for this wine, so I cannot tell you the value it offers.  I can tell you that you should keep you eye on Childress for offering great North Carolina wines.

Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Cab Lite. Bought this at the Kroger in Apex. $10.39 marked down from almost $14. No wonder. It is easy to drink but not memorable. Actually has an exciting cab nose, but the excitement ends there. Very tight upon opening and now that it has opened up nothing memorable. But very smooth. The nose leads you down the wrong path. It is not bad. No one would object to this wine. But the next day you will not wish you had more.