Pampas Steakhouse

During our stay in Atlanta, we had an important birthday to celebrate, and this little guy loves steak. Therefore we looked for a really nice steakhouse, and ended up at Pampas in Alpharetta. This is an Argentinian steakhouse, where the meat is grilled over open fire. It looked a bit dark and stuffy when we entered, but the reception from the staff was very welcoming, and the service excellent throughout the whole evening.

The wine list was not extensive, but well put together, with some interesting bottles. To accompany our appetizers, we started out with a nice white wine from Willamette Valley in Oregon. It was called 2009 Illahe Pinot Gris. Illahe is a small family winery in Dallas, Oregon. Only about 500 cases were made of this pinot gris. This is a nice, crisp wine with plenty of acidity, but matched by some nice fruit, including pears, apples and citrus. It was enjoyed by all the wine drinkers around the table.

With the steaks I wanted to try a good Argentinian Malbec, and there were quite a few listed. I asked our waiter for advice, and he strongly recommended 2007 Luigi Bosca Single Vineyard Malbec. This wine comes from the area called Lujan de Cujo, which was created as an exclusive "DOC", similar to the European system, back in 1989. The grapes come from over 70 year old vines on the Vistalba Estate. It has matured in oak barrels for 14 months before release. It is a dense, flavorful wine, dominated by cherries and plums. The finish has some mocha and a hint of sweetness, with well integrated tannins. Obviously it went very well with our steaks. I complemented our waiter on an excellent recommendation. Pampas Steakhouse is definitely a restaurant I want to return to, both for the steaks, the wine and the friendly service.

www.illahevineyards.com

www.luigibosca.com.ar

Frogtown Cellars

Our last stop on the Dahlonega Wine Trail was Frogtown Cellars. It also sits on top of a ridge, with a great mountain view. It has a nice bar for tasting, and also a great deck where you can grab a hot sandwich for lunch. This is also the place where our tasting got more serious. I had never been here before, but Lisa assured me that these were the best wines, so we opted for their premium tasting, both white and red. In total we got to taste 19 different wines, so I will not bore you with comments on every single one, but just give you the highlights, from my perspective.

We started with the whites, and one of my favorites was the 2008 Frogtown Chardonnay. It is fruity with both citrus and apples, but also nicely rounded with creamy but not overpowering oak. I also liked the 2009 Frogtown Inclination. This is a mix of the grapes Chardonnay, Viognier and Vidal, which has fermented in French oak barrels. It is the type of full-bodied, flavorful white wine that I really like. You get toasted bread, along with fresh citrus, apples and pears. My third favorite was the 2008 Frogtown Viognier. This Rhône grape seem to do well in the Georgia foothills, and delivers a wonderful fruit mix of peach, melon, and a hint of honey.

Now over to the reds. The first one out was 2008 Frogtown Sangiovese, and that provided an excellent start. You get wonderful tart cherries and some raspberries, and you almost think you are in Tuscany. I also liked the 2008 Frogtown Norton. This uniquely American grape, which is called Cynthiana down the hill at Three Sisters, is very generous with big and somewhat sweet berry flavors, and it almost reminds me of an Italian Amarone. Frogtowns version is very good. The best wine of the day though, was hands-down the 2006 Frogtown Family Reserve Merlot. This is a full-bodied, smooth, balanced wine with dark fruit and some hints of chocolate. It was ridiculously expensive too, but I had to have a bottle with me to Sweden. Wines are the only souvenirs I need.

We took a quick break in the tasting to grab lunch on the deck, with the nice mountain view. Then we came back to the bar for dessert, that is dessert wine. The white, called 2006 Frogtown Cachet, is an "icewine" made from Vidal grapes, but it was not up my alley. I liked the 2008 Frogtown Grandeur a lot better. It is a port-style sweet red wine, made from 100% Tannat grapes. I had to buy two bottles.

We also got a chance to taste one wine that was not even on the list. It is called 2008 Frogtown Propaganda, and it is a traditional Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It was really good, so now I am very happy that I already have a 2005 Propaganda in the cellar, a gift from my wife a few years ago, when she was visiting Atlanta on her own.

We were guided through the tasting by Chauna Utterback. She did an excellent job, and the banter across the bar counter was just as entertaining as the wines. You can see from the photo above that she takes her job very seriously. Thank you Chauna! We promise to come back, despite the somewhat long trip from Stockholm.

www.frogtownwine.com

Chardonnay flip-flops?

For a serious wine tasting tour like this, you definitely need a designated driver, especially since I am horribly bad at spitting. This poor soul gets to taste much less than the rest of us, and therefore needs a little extra encouragement and reward. Today that came in the form of these wonderful flip-flops. We got them at Three Sisters of course, and we had a long argument over whether the grapes are Chardonnay or Vidal. What do you think?

Three Sisters Vineyards

Three Sisters was the first winery to be established in this area since prohibition. It is a real family affair, owned and operated by the Paul family, and you will meet two generations behind the bar counter in the tasting room. This is simply a fun place to visit. The walls are decorated with funky art, newpaper clippings and local crafts. The wines are also fun. I have been here several times before, and I have always enjoyed it. Since I already have some of Three Sisters' more serious wines at home in the cellar, I focused on the fun and slightly off-dry reds this time. We started with Chestatee Red, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon that has seen some French oak. It is a very fruity and easy-drinking wine, with some residual sugar. Definitely not for the fancy dinner, but something to sip on the porch.

Next in line was Fat Boy Red. This is a mix of the uniquely American grape Cynthiana or Norton, with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It has been maturing in toasted American oak. In the tasting room they serve it with some dark chocolate, and it is not a bad combination actually. I bought a few bottles and it worked very well to sip while cooking dinner, and it could even match a spicy thai curry. At Three Sisters, they say that it is a good "swine wine", meaning that it goes well with the traditional southern smoked pork BBQ.

We finished the tasting with Blood Mountain Red. This is a rather sweet red wine, that is served chilled along with salty cheetos snacks. A lot of fun for sure, but not really for my palate. This is a very warm and friendly place to visit, and the wines are fun (just look at the label above), if not always seriously good, but I will definitely come back here again.

From Three Sisters, we continued our trail up the hill, only half a mile on a small gravel road, to end up in Frogtown, so more to follow.....

www.threesistersvineyards.com

Dahlonega Wine Trail

This blog entry, and perhaps a few more to follow, will be in English, so my friends in the US can read them. After all, you only get that far with Google Translate, and it is far more fun to be able to read the original text. I hope Swedish readers can follow along as well.

Our US travels have now taken us from Pensacola to Atlanta, visiting old friends. When we lived in this area, some seven years ago now, there were only a handful of wineries established in Georgia. That number has now grown substantially, and the site http://www.georgiawinecountry.com/ lists no less than 46 wine producing establishments in the state. It has grown to quite a local tourist destination in the North Georgia foothills, and many wineries offer elaborate tasting rooms, lunch and dining facilities and popular Sunday brunches. Several interesting wineries are located around the historical goldrush town of Dahlonega, and the local Chamber of Commerce has even produced a brochure highlighting five wineries on the "Dahlonega Wine Trail". This morning we took off with the ambition to visit at least three of these.

The first stop on the trail was Blackstock Vineyards and Winery. It is beautifully located on a ridge with a fantastic backdrop of the Georgia foothills, where the Appalachian mountains begin. The winery features no less than two separate tasting rooms and it has a pretty commercial feeling to it. I tasted four wines here, a Viognier, a Sangiovese rosé, a Merlot and a Touriga. To sum it up succinctly, I did not care much for any of them. They were not bad, but just uninteresting, and simply not worth the bottle price. The best part of the tasting came at the end, when we were served their port-styled Touriga dessert wine, in a cup made out of dark chocolate. That was pretty yummy. The next stop on the trail, Three Sisters, was better, but that deserves a blog entry of it's own. More to follow.....

http://www.bsvw.com/

Sista besöket hos Anna's Wine

Idag blev nog sista besöket hos Anna's Wine. På onsdag bär det nämligen av till Atlanta igen. Det är utan tvekan en av de trevligaste vinbutiker som jag har stött på, så det blir tråkigt att inte längre kunna avlägga ett dagligt besök. Gårdagens chardonnay från MacRostie var så god att jag behövde ytterligare en flaska att ta hem till Sverige. Sedan inhandlade jag 2008 Baileyana Firepeak Vineyard Chardonnay från Edna Valley. Jag har tidigare druckit vin från Baileyana då vi bodde i USA, och kom ihåg att jag gillade det, så det är dags att återuppta bekantskapen. Därefter blev det besök framför zinfandel-hyllan igen. På rekommendation plockade jag med mig 2009 Marietta Zinfandel från Sonoma.

Till slut kunde jag inte heller hålla mig ifrån ytterligare en Ridge. Denna gång blev det 2006 Ridge Paso Robles Zinfandel. Detta är en 100% zinfandel, och druvorna kommer från Benito Dusi Ranch alldeles utanför staden Paso Robles, söder om San Fransisco. Ridge har köpt druvor härifrån ända sedan 1967, men vingården etablerades och planterades redan 1923, redan då med 100% zinfandel. Nu får jag en riktig liten Ridge-samling med mig hem.

www.baileyana.com

www.mariettacellars.com

www.ridgewine.com

Hummer och Chardonnay

Hummerfesten förra helgen gav mersmak, så idag var det dags igen. Jag stegade givetvis också in till Anna's Wine, för att hitta lämplig dryck till skaldjuren. Anna hälsade nu glatt på mig, och deklarerade för alla närvarande att: "He's a regular!" Det kändes bra att vara utnämnd till stamkund redan vid tredje besöket.

Jag stannade vid chardonnay-hyllan, och Anna kom genast till undsättning. Jag berättade att jag behövde något till gratinerad hummer. "Do you like 'em oaky or not?" frågade Anna. "A little oaky is OK", svarade jag. "Then you should try this!" Anna räckte fram 2008 MacRostie Chardonnay från Sonoma Coast. "It's deee-licious!" Gissa vad jag köpte. Det blev även på Annas inrådan en flaska från Russian River Valley, 2007 Gamba Zinfandel. Den får följa med i packningen hem.

Väl tillbaka i huset sattes vinet på kylning, och hummervattnet på värmning. Till min stora glädje blev både hummertillagningen och vinvalet till stor belåtenhet. MacRostie Chardonnay har en fräsch doft med både lite citrus och gröna äpplen. I munnen snarare krispig än smörig, så ekfatsbehandlingen har skett med fin touch, och bara lämnat några delikata vaniljaromer efter sig. Vinmakaren beskriver själv vinet som "key lime pie, both crispy and creamy", och det stämmer faktiskt riktigt bra. Det här var riktigt gott, definitivt ett av de bästa vita viner som jag druckit i år. Även Wine Spectator gillar det. I det senaste numrets genomgång av 2008 års Chardonnay-viner är MacRostie listat som Top Value, med 92 poäng. Inte illa! Jag måste köpa fler flaskor.

www.macrostiewinery.com

www.gambawinery.com