Sunset Rentals -- Hilton Head

The living room
View of the beach from the balcony

We rented an apartment for a week in Hilton head from a company we have used before, Sunset Rentals. The cost for the week's rental in August was approximately $1,200, and that included everything (tax, clean up, and cancellation insurance.) The fourth-floor apartment was in South Forest beach and had a master bedroom with bathroom, second bedroom, second bathroom, kitchen, dining/living room, and a balcony. We could see the ocean from the bathroom and the master bedroom. There was a telephone set up for local calls only.

Sunset Rentals was really efficient. They send you e-mail with codes that allow you to get in, and you never have to see anybody.

When we arrived the apartment was in perfect working order with shampoo and other amenities in the bathrooms, toilet paper, and other "starter items." There was also high speed Internet available in the apartment although that was what I wanted to get away from!

Sunset Rentals is recommended, and we were able to do all transactions across their website.

Click here to go to their site.

Hampton Inn, Florence, South Carolina

Hampton Inn Florence-North
1826 West Lucas Street
Florence, South Carolina
United States 29501

Tel: +1-843-662-7000
Fax: +1-843-661-5150

For a Google map, click here.

I suppose you could say that we went to the wrong Florence! The drive from Maryland to Hilton Head is long and dreary. Traffic can be horrendous in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, and the door-to-door journey from our house in Maryland is 630 miles. Quite often we stop on the way. And there aren't many interesting places unless you stray a long way from I-95, the interstate that runs from top to bottom along the east coast of the United States.

This time we decided to stay in Florence. We did not come to Florence to see the Ponte Vecchio or the Uffizi Gallery. Rather this town is just across the South Carolina border, and we felt that crossing the border would create a sense of accomplishment. We would be in the same state as our beloved Hilton head. This is the third Hampton Inn where we have stayed recently. Our rate was only $66.00, and I have to say that I have been very impressed with this chain every time I have stayed at one of their hotels.

Our room accommodated all four of us in two double beds although Iran thought our bed was just a little narrow. Shampoo and lotion were provided and the bathroom was excellent. The air conditioning worked well. The bedding was good too. We had a perfectly adequate breakfast in the morning, which was included in the price of the room, and we got a newspaper in the morning. A final touch is that we got Hilton points and British Airways miles. And the person at the reception desk was really nice and very helpful!

For the price and the location, I don't think you could expect much more! Incidentally, it was much nicer than a horrid Holiday Inn, where we stayed in the other Florence a couple of years ago!

I no longer post to this site.  Click here to access my new web site: louisandlouisa.com.

Hilton Head, South Carolina

The beach at Hilton Head


We have just come back from a week on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. We have been here several times before, but it reminded me what a wonderful and relaxing place this is.

There are twelve miles of beautiful beach. There are good restaurants, and excellent golf courses.
 

Gruet -- Blanc de Noirs, NV

After a recent post about Blanquette de Limoux, a good friend of mine, Suzy, suggested I try a sparkling wine, Gruet, from the state where she lives, New Mexico. So I was delighted to find Gruet's Blanc de Noirs when I was shopping at Balducci's in Alexandria recently.

Made in the traditional methode champenoise, this is a remarkably refined sparkling wine. It has the tiny persistent bubbles that characterize very good bubblies. It also has that attractive toasty flavor with red berry notes -- something between strawberries and raspberries. Its color is typical of blanc de noirs. Made mostly with Pinot Noir, this wine has a dark straw color with a suggestion that, if it blushed a little more, it would become pink -- in the sparkling wine world, people talk about salmon!

This is an exceptionally nice sparkling wine at a very fair price (about $15.00). A highly recommended low-priced alternative to Champagne!

Thank you, Suzy, for such a wonderful suggestion!

Connexion by Boeing

I read recently in the Financial Times that Boeing has decided to stop its Connexion service on flights.

This service, which is offered by several airlines (including Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, El Al, Korean Air, All Nippon Airways, Scandinavian, and JAL) allows passengers with Wi-Fi on their computers to connect to the Internet during a flight. And, based on my experience, it was wonderful. I am so disappointed that they have decided to discontinue the service. And I am surprised that they cannot make money out of this service. (According to the Financial Times, it costs $500,000 to equip a plane for this service.)

I was even able to write on this blog while in the air!

British Airways -- Baggage Allowance

Passengers on British Airways should note that BA will be reducing the amount of luggage that passengers can take with them free of charge. To see the new policy, click here.

The policy, which becomes effective on October 11 of this year, includes a charge of GBP 120 for extra bags on long haul flights. These charges are reduced by 20% if you pay in advance on line.

Whenever companies begin to offer less service or want to charge more, I find the way they sugar coat the changes especially irritating. Here is their expanation:

British Airways is introducing changes to baggage policies to make them easier for passengers, reduce queues at the airport and to bring them in line with Department for Transport recommendations and requirements of the UK’s main airport operator, BAA.

And, just in case you were hoping for a free upgrade on your next BA flight, there is a new notice at the check-in desk that advises passengers looking for extra comfort to ask about an upgrade. This makes it very clear that BA is willing to upgrade -- but for a price.

Singapore Airlines -- First Class Wine Service

I recently proposed a scoring system for rating airlines on their wine service. The system is based entirely on price, and, although it is certainly flawed in many ways, it should give the traveler a sense of whether the airline considers offering top wines to first and business class passengers a priority.

For example, if a wine lover has a choice between flying United and Singapore Airlines, the fact that Singapore spends more than twice as much on its wines should help.

I ranked a few airlines, but a reader recently discovered a silly mistake I had made when trying to rate Singapore Airlines. The score, which is the simple sum of the value of its Champagne, its leading white wine, its leading red wine, and its dessert wine should have come to USD 280 rather than USD 250.

With this correction, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific are equal in spending more on wine for their first class passengers than any airline I know of.

I would love to hear from readers, who have airline wine lists so that I can add to the airlines I have scored. (I wonder what kinds of wines Emirates is offering these days in First Class!)

To see my scoring system, click here.

To see my score of Singapore Airlines, click here, and for Cathay Pacific, click here. And click here, for my report on United's First Class.

Levante's, Dupont Circle, Washington DC

Levante's
1320 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

For a Google map, click here.


Levante's is a very nicely appointed Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in the Dupont Circle area in Washington, DC. We decided to stop for a beer and an appetizer before taking the metro home today.

Once we got settled at the bar, I began to wish that we were here for more than just an appetizer. I was pleased to see that they have several beers on tap although Sam Adams is the only one I would not be a little ashamed to drink. The wine list includes offerings from Lebanon, Georgia, and Greece amongst others.

Since we were here for only an appetizer, we decided to have a plate that included an assortment of their cold appetizers ($11.95). This generous plate included Baba Ganouj (pureed grilled eggplant with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil), dolma, feta cheese, tzatziki, hommos, tomatoes, lettuce, and other stuff that I can't remember. It was all fresh and delicious. I particularly liked the Baba Ganouj that tasted smoky from the wood burning grill. This whole dish came with plenty of Levantine bread that is made on the premises.

Other items on the menu include Lamb Shish Kebab ($17.95), Salmon Fillet ($18.95), and Moussaka ($10.50). They have a happy hour from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on weekdays. Drinks and appetizers are at reduced prices (wine, $3.00, calamari $3.95,and hommos ($2.00).

This is a friendly place with good service and very fair prices. They have another branch in the Woodmont Avenue of Bethesda. Recommended, and we will certainly go back for a full meal.

Clay Station, Viognier, 2004

Clay Station, Viognier, 2004

This wine is delicious, and excellent value for money at around $9.00. It has complex flavors of honey, and butterscotch. The fruit is marvellous with notes of peaches, apricots, and passion fruit. I simply love this wine, and will seek it out in the future.

Isabella's, Frederick, MD

42 Market St
Frederick, MD 21701
301-698-892

For a Google map, click here.

Frederick has become a great town to wander around. The building around the canal is just lovely, and we decided to have lunch at Isabella's, a Spanish tapas restaurant right in the center of town. It was perhaps a little unfortunate that we visited Isabella's just a week after going to Jaleo in Bethesda. The food here is certainly adequate to good, but we did leave feeling that is was not nearly as good as Jaleo. Click here for my comments on Jaleo.

We had fried asparagus in a tomato mayonnaise, which were a little greasy, and for around $6.00, it seemed that the profit margin was excessive. We also had a chorizo made of wild boar. It came on a bed of garlic mashed potato in a Rioja sauce, and it was delicious. The were obviously frozen and a little tasteless and chewy. The best dish was a shrimps in a very rich sauce of fava beens with calamaresjamon serrano, Spain's delicious equivalent of prosciutto. A dish of asparagus with crab was also a little greasy, and the crab was not especially tasty.

For dessert we shared a passable chocolate mousse pie surrounded by good fresh berries.

This restaurant serves sangria, but today was very hot so we had mineral water and a couple of beers from their excellent selection of draft beers.

I have had good food here before, and I will probably come back. This was, however, certainly not a special meal, and not nearly as good as Jaleo. The bill with plenty of food for three was about $56.00, and I added $10.00 in recognition of the friendly service with perhaps a few too many enquiries about whether we liked it.

St. Hilaire, Blanquette de Limoux, 2003

I very much like bubbly wine, but frequent drinking of Champagne can get very expensive very quickly. But the alternatives often seem disappointing. I rarely enjoy Spanish Cava, and I have been disappointed by a number of Australian sparkling wines. So when I am in the mood for a sparkling wine, but want to spend less than Champagne, I usually seek out a Californian. (I like the products from Mumm, Chandon, and Piper Sonoma, for example.) An alternative that can be a little bit more difficult to find is Blanquette de Limoux.

I also have a very special affection for this wine because when I was about 12 years old, we took a holiday in the Carcassonne area, and we visited many of the Blanquette makers. So these wineries were the first I ever got to visit!

Last night we had a bottle of the St. Hilaire, 2003. It was simply delicious. Very dry, with apple, pear and citrus flavors. It seemed a little fuller-bodied than I expected, and I wondered whether that was because of the intense heat wave in France in 2003. Highly recommended at only about $10.00 a bottle, and very different from Champagne. (Blanquette de Limoux must be made of at least 90% Mauzac, and the balance is usually Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc while Champagne can be made in any combination of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay.)

It is so interesting that the monks in this region claim to have invented what is now called the methode Chamenoise so many years before Dom Perignon came along!

For an account of the carnival in Limoux, take a look at this article.

Jaleo, Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda

Jaleo
7271 Woodmont Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
Tel (301) 913-0003
Fax (301) 913-9137

For a Google map, click here.

During the 25 years that I have lived in the Washington area, Bethesda has really changed. Whereas then, it had the atmosphere of a suburb, today the downtown area is lined with modern restaurants. The weather was gorgeous today, and all the restaurants seem to have facilities on the sidewalk.

I am a little suspicious of tapas bars outside Spain. Often a restaurant that can command about $16.00 a plate will divide the portions into four and charge $8.00, thereby doubling revenue. Sometimes, these tapas have nothing to do with Spain. This place is so good, however, that they can be excused! Besides, the food is genuinely Spanish.

Partly because we had a surfeit of food at home, we stopped just for a couple of tapas. I had a cochinillo ($8.95), a tenderloin of suckling pig surrounded by mushrooms and dried fruits. We also had a Patatas Brava ($4.95), fried cubes of potatatoes with two sauces -- an aioli and a spicy tomato sauce. Terrific bread and olive oil was thrown in and so was a very nice dish of olives, cornichons, and pickled onions.

We washed these tapas down with a very good sangria. Our total bill for the two tapas and half a jarra of Sangria was $25.00

Other items on the menu include croquetas de jamon y pollo ($5.75), pato con peras (duck in a pear sauce) ($7.50), pollo al ajillo ($5.50), and chorizo casero tradicional ($6.50). Go to Jaleo's website for a full list.

I have lived in Spain and traveled around it for years. The food here really tastes like you are in Spain, and the atmosphere is great. On Monday night, they have Sevillanas dancing, and on Tuesdays they have other music. We will definitely return here for a longer and more complete meal.

They have an extensive range of good Spanish wines, including an old favorite Prado Muga Enea, 1995 ($75.00). They have thoughfully sorted their Riojas into Rioja Modernos and Riojas Tradicionales to help diners know whether to expect the traditional light syle of heavily oaked Rioja like Muga or a CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva, 1981 ($95) or a more fruity, full bodied wine, such as the Flor de Pringus, 1996 ($82).

Just in case, this seems that all their wines are on the high end, I did notice that they were selling Las Rocas de San Alejandro. (Click here for my comments) for $32.

They have other branches in Washington (480 7th Street, NW) and in Crystal City. I have been to the one in Washington, which is equally good in food, service, and atmosphere.

This restaurant is highly recommended. Great food, genuine Spanish food, and great fun!

The Queen Bee, Vietnamese Restaurant, Clarendon, Virginia

Queen Bee
3181 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA
703 527 3444


For a map, click here.

Vietnamese steak is a wonderful dish. There are tender pieces of high quality steak surrounded by lettuce, onion, and coriander. I always order mine rare, and it is consistently delicious at this restaurant.



The cold summer rolls can be ordered with or without pork

The crispy Vietnamese rolls are wonderful. They come with a plate of fresh coriander, and are delicious when wrapped in the herbs and dipped in the fish sauce.

I discovered this neighborhood over twenty years ago when I had an old 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit. We had a wonderful mechanic who was honest, creative, and intelligent. But time was not his thing. As often as not, when you would show up at the appointed hour in the evening to pick up your car, he would need "just another hour," and Iran and I remember long evenings wandering around this Clarendon neighborhood discovering the restaurants. By about 1985, it became known as Little Saigon, and we began to enjoy going to the Queen Bee. The food has always been good here, and it has always been good value for money.

Five of us went out for lunch. The Spring Rolls and the Summer Rolls are memorable, and we were able to order the Summer Rolls without Pork to accommodate Mr. B, who does not eat meat. Four of us ordered the Vietnamese Steak, which consists of chunks of high quality tender beef served in a very light wine reduction. Mr. B ordered shrimps. Our total bill was slightly less than $80 for five of us. (We did not order any alcoholic drinks.)

I have tried some of the many other Vietnamese restaurants in this area, but I keep on going back to the Queen Bee. It is a very nice place with friendly service, low prices, and good food.

I no longer post to this site.  Click here to access my new web site: louisandlouisa.com.

Vintage Wine by Michael Broadbent

Vintage Wine
Fifty Years of Tasting Three Centuries of Wine
Michael Broadbent
Harcourt, 2002

I used to read books about wine all the time, but, more recently, I have tended to read the Wine Spectator to try to make sure that my information about wine is up to date. I was recently at Daedalus Books, a wonderful bookshop (with mail order service) in Columbia, MD, and I found Michael Broadbent's book for only $10.00. I bought it, and it has given me more pleasure than any book that I have read for a long time. (I went to Daedalus yesterday, and noticed one copy left on the shelf. You can also get it from Amazon for about $37.00

Originally trained as an architect, Michael Broadbent entered the wine trade in 1952, but he is most famous for starting and running the wine department at Christie's, the auction house. During the fifty years between his start and 2002, more value must have passed through this man's lips than almost anyone in the world!

Consider for a moment that he sold a bottle of 1787 Lafite, which was owned by Thomas Jefferson, at auction for $105,000. Although that particular bottle became damaged "due to the heat of spotlights" in the Presidential Memorabilia section of the Forbes Museum, Broadbent has tasted this particular vintage of Lafite twice, and he describes the second tasting as "tawny, no red, a dark brown flaky sediment; nose was restrained and although oxidised opened up quite richly with residual fruit traces; a touch of sweetness on the palate and acidic, acetic finish." If you like this kind of stuff, this book draws from 85,000 notes that meticulously describe the wine, the occasion, and an interesting cast of wine drinking companions. No wonder calls Broadbent "a more diligent wine archivist than we wine lovers deserve."

This is the ultimate wine blog and reading it really is a humbling experience for little bloggers like me. Broadbent has had the discipline to make and keep notes thousands of times during a period of fifty years. Another thing that sets him apart is that people like him have the talent, which combines an outstanding palate and extraordinary power of written expression, to document their impressions of wine at the first tasting. In contrast, I rarely feel confident about putting my thoughts about wine into written form until I have tasted a wine at least three times.

Broadbent tastes the best, and he makes no apology for doing so. He explains himself by telling his readers, "My wife, Daphne, and I drink wine every day. Life is short, we do not waste our time on bland indifferent wines; we would rather share half a bottle of something with character and quality than share six bottles of plonk."

A gratifying thing about the book is that Broadbent seems to admire the kinds of wines that I like. The chapters of the book are organized into the major regions of the world with three chapters devoted to single producers, Chateau Musar, Vega Sicilia, and Mas de Daumas Gassac. Like me, he seems particularly fond of that wonderful wine from Lebanon, Chateau Musar, which he describes as "excellent, and distinctive, albeit idiosyncratic."

His amusing anecdotes describe encounters and tastings with the rich and famous, and he provides a list of people at the end of the book for people who have not heard of his friends and professional associates. Like a litany of famous wine lovers, this list includes (among many, many other famous people) Anthony Barton, (owner of Leoville Barton), Jancis Robinson (my favorite wine writer), Andrew Lloyd Webber, Georg Riedel (maker of the famous Riedel glasses), and Robert Mondavi.

The stories include personal moments such as the time he toured Germany on a Vespa motor-scooter with a "laudable ambition, at that time, to make love -- necessarily furtively, and at night -- in a famous vineyard." They also include moments, where, as an honored speaker, he has had to describe horrible wine with tact and diplomacy, such as when he had to talk about Chateau Lafite, 1864, in Memphis, Tennessee:

On decanting, it became obvious that the wine was indeed 'pricked'. In order to save the situation, I smelled the wine and nodding sagely, handed it to my host, John Grisanti, for the first sip. He nodded as if approvingly. I then said: 'This is a very old wine. The grapes for this wine were picked during the autumn of 1864, which was when General Sherman, whose troops were based in Memphis, went marching across Georgia leading his Union troops into battle with the Confederates." I added: "Tonight you are tasting not just wine, but history."

I wondered where he would stand as a British critic and member of the wine trade on the apparent rivalry between the Americans, who favor scoring wine like college essays, and the British, like Hugh Johnson, who always suggest that these scores are absurd. With characteristic tact, Broadbent simply says that the "100-point rating system is flawed because it is inflexible and does not allow for bottle variation and context." He does, however, make a jab at the fashionable cult wines that inevitably suggest some of the wines from California:

Oscar Wilde defined fox hunting as "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable." A propos certain 'cult' wines and modern 'global' reds, I am inclined to change the last word to "undrinkable."

Is Broadbent talking about Parkerized wines here?

I adore this book, and I admit to being a bit of an oddball in my passion for wine, but, if you think you might enjoy going through notes of the world's ultimate wine written by the world's ultimate critic, you must buy this book.

Airline Wine Report : Continental Airlines (Business) Class scores 62

This report uses the approach to scoring airline wine service described here.

These were the leading wines served in Business Class on Continental during June, 2006.

Champagne: Charles Lafitte NV $30
White wine: Chateau Lapugeau $14
Red Wine: Chateau Lalande, 2002 $8
Dessert wine: Quinto do Noval $10

Total Score: 62

I must admit that I have not flown Continental in years, and I based these scores on information on their web site. I had not heard of many of their wines and could not get prices on them. Usually, I regard an airline's Bordeaux wines as their "leader" but I could not get any information on their red Bordeaux.

This is the lowest score I have made since looking at this issue, and, based on this information, I would avoid flying Continental.

Incidentally, Continental uses the spelling Bourdeaux on their site. Everybody has typographical errors, but I suspect that this one reflects their interest in wine.

Mount Washington Pizza, Indian Cuisine

Mount Washington Pizza
1620 Kelly Avenue
Mount Washington
Baltimore, 21209

410 664 1111

For a Google map, click here.


If you asked me where you could get a good Indian meal to take away in Baltimore and I sent you to Mount Washington Pizza, you might think that I had not heard the question.

But the truth is that you can get very good Indian food from this busy pizza shop. They have good vegetable samosas ($2.25), but I find the meat ones ($2.95) a little bit dry.

The Shrimp Masala ($12.45) is very good indeed. Other dishes that I have enjoyed include Lamb Shahi Korma ($11.45), Lamb Vindaloo ($11.45), Chicken Korma ($10.95). The portions are enormous and rice is included. You can also get papadams ($1.00), Raita ($1.95), and Vegetable Pakora ($2.25).

You can sit down and eat, but this restaurant is not big on atmosphere. I usually call my orders in and pick it up.

They also seem to have a thriving business in pizzas, subs, and hamburgers, but the Indian food is so good that I always ignore that part of the menu.

Recommended.

It's only a drink!

If you want to hurt a wine lover, interrupt a discussion about wine, and remind them that "it's only a drink." This will offend a wine lover very deeply; you will never be forgiven; and it will be decided there and then that you are a complete idiot.

At a certain moment in their lives, wine lovers have had a mind altering experience, and they make a vow to revere and honor this wonderful liquid for ever. (I almost wrote drink.) Imagine a friend that you have not seen for a long time, and when you meet you find (s)he has fallen in love. One of your first questions is how they met. So it is with wine. The Wine Spectator regularly publishes a column where they interview a celebrity who loves wine. The response is almost predictable, and it almost always goes something like this:

Well, I was a beer drinker, and then I was at this dinner given by Even More Famous Person. They were pouring Chateau Mouton Rothschild, 1959. [Robert Parker rates this with 100 points!] And that was a turning moment for me. And since then I have built a cellar with probably more wine than I can drink in my lifetime.

People sometimes ask me why I am so fond of Bordeaux in general, and of the wines of Pauillac in particular, and it all goes back to my own turning moment in about 1972. I had received one of my first pay checks, and decided to celebrate with a nice bottle of wine. So I went to Berry Brothers & Rudd in St. James's Street in London. A very helpful assistant talked to me about wine for about half an hour, and he finally sold me a bottle of Chateau Batailley, 1966.

And when I shared the bottle with some friends, I almost went into a swoon. I marveled at how fruit could be turned into such magical liquid. Like a drug addict looking to recreate that first "high", I live for the moments that approximate the taste of that Batailley.

Although this was certainly a good wine, it certainly was not a great wine. Batailley was classified as a fifth growth in the classification of Bordeaux in 1855, and it is generally agreed that it is consistent and reliable, bur not a wine that bowls you over. Like most wines in the Medoc, the vineyards are dominantly Cabernet Sauvignon (70%). The balance is Merlot (25%), Cabernet Franc (3%), and Petit Verdot (2%). But this was my first experience with serious wine on which I really focused my attention.

I was reminded again of the Chateau Batailley because I decided to spend an hour this morning browsing around that excellent bookshop in Columbia, Daedalus Books. I came across a really interesting book by Michael Broadbent, a Master of Wine, and for years the head of the wine department at Christies. The book is called, Vintage Wine, and it intrigued me because it collects notes accumulated through "fifty years of tasting three centuries of wines," and I wondered what he wrote about the 1966 vintage of Batailley.

Always dependable, certainly very good, possibly at its best in 1966 beause its comfortably fruity style enriches the leanness of the vintage. Still fairly deep; a leafy arboreal nose -- or perhaps it was the influence of Hugh Johnson's arboretum -- which opened up deliciously. Rich and moderately mouthfilling, with attractive Cabernet Sauvignon to the end taste.

Certainly it was not the 1959 Mouton, which he describes as "magnificence piled upon magnificence," but Chateau Batailley was the wine that changed my life, and I have been a devoted follower of the grape ever since.

Incidentally, in 1972, I paid 1.95 UK pounds for the Batailley, which seemed like an enormous amount then particularly if you consider that a pint of bitter at the time cost around 12p. So I was paying about the equivalent of 16 pints for my bottle of Batailley. Today a pint of beer goes for around 2.50 UK pounds, and Berry's sells half bottles of the 2000 vintage at 12.77 UK pounds, the equivalent of 25.33 pounds a bottle. So, even though we all complain about the price of wine today, it costs only the same price as 10 pints of beer, a bargain compared to the 1972 price! Interesting!

I would love to hear about readers' magical moments. What was the wine that turned you from being a wine drinker to a wine lover determined to spend the rest of your life in pursuit of that perfect glass? Or is wine, for you, just another drink?

Mas Amiel Maury Cuvée Speciale 10 ans d'âge

It was the last day of a wonderful vacation. We had flown from the United States to Nice, where we rented a car. Then we went to Cinqueterre in Italy, where we met our dear friend, Mr. W. After about a week of wandering around Cinqueterre, we spent a few days touring Tuscany. We spent a couple of days in Florence, and then headed back to Nice.

I spent the last day of the vacation with my younger daughter, H, who was about 14 wandering around Nice. We spent the last night at the wonderful Hotel Atlantic. In Nice, we discovered a great wine shop, where I explained to the owner the wine I wanted to take back home to America. The wine should not be too expensive; it had to be interesting; and it had to be something that was not easy to find in the United States. At the time, I was interested in discovering sweet wines, but I was not especially interested in Sauternes because that is easily found at my local liquor store in Maryland.

The owner of the shop was a wonderful man and obviously passionate about wine. He seemed impressed that I liked some of the less famous but wonderful wines from France like Bonnezeaux. But his main concern seemed to surround H's eating habits.

I know you live in America, he said, but I hope you do not feed this child at McDonald's. I assured him that I did not, and he asked H what kind of food she liked, and when she admitted that she was partial to seared foie gras, he roared in approval.

I will never forget this man because he really educated me by selling me a bottle of the Mas Amiel Maury Cuvée Speciale 10 ans d'âge, which I kept carefully stashed away until last Saturday.

Eat this with a very good chocolate cake, my new friend instructed. It is not often that there is a good chocolate cake on the table, a group of people interested in trying something completely different, and enough people to consume a full bottle of a fairly strong dessert wine. (Mas Amiel is 16.5% alcohol.) But all those stars were in alignment of Saturday, and we opened the bottle.

This wine is very different from almost anything I have ever had although if I were forced to compare it with anything, it would be Port. The wine comes from Maury, which is not far from Perpignan. Fermentation is arrested through the addition of grape spirit, which accounts for the high alcohol content. The grapes used are about 80% Grenache, and the balance is Mourvedre and Syrah. It starts life with a year in large glass demijohns, called bonbonnes, and then it goes into barrels for nine years. There is no vintage date on the bottle.

It had a mahogany color, a thick texture, and very luscious cherry flavors. There were also subtle cocoa, coffee, caramel, spice, and wood flavors, and you could still taste the tannins in this wine. It had a good long finish and the tast lingered on.

I have not seen this wine in America, but I believe that it can be found, and it costs around $22.00, which is a bargain for such a good and interesting wine. If you see it, buy it and then go and find the chocolate cake!

Le Mannequin Pis, Olney, MD

Le Mannequin Pis
18064 Georgia Avenue
Olney, MD 20832

301 570 4800

For a Google map, click here

Don't be put off by this dreary strip mall on the intersection of Georgia Avenua and Route 108. The front of this restaurant does not look like much, but, in many ways, this is the closest you can get to a real European restaurant in the Washington, DC area. Perhaps it is the combination of wonderdul food with something of a "take it or leave it" attitude, but once you are inside this restaurant you feel transported to another world.

It specializes in Mussels, which are cooked in 16 different ways plus a special of the evening. You get a kilo of them, and they are accompanied by delicious frites ($16.95). (The menu reminds you not to even ask for any substitutions.) For my main course, I had a delicious beef stew braised in Belgian beers with another order of the frites (($17.95). The others both had steak, which was also excellent (and served with frites!) The specials offered more adventurous food than we ate (skate, bison, etc).

An amazing finale was the pot au chocolat, which all three of us shared. It was dense, dark, rich Belgian chocolate, and totally magnificent.

We did not have wine, but chose terrific Belgian beers from their long list. (Alas, they do not have a draft beer).

The menu announces that they do not aim to cater for vegetarians or children although we did see some happy looking children here. They also say that they do not allow people to use cell phones in the restaurant. And another note in the restaurant apologizes for the high prices of drink, which they blame on Montgomery County.

This is a lovely restaurant. Highly recommended. The bill without tip for three including an orangina and three beers was $113.

Airline Wine Report : United Business scores 85

This report uses the approach to scoring airline wine service described here.

A more complete description of this flight can be found by clicking here.

These were the leading wines served on Flight UA925 from London (LHR) to Washington (IAD) on February 12, 2006.

• Champagne: Duval Leroy NV $30
• White wine: Laboure Roi, Chablis (Vintage not written on menu) $15
• Red Wine: Chateau Lalande, 2002 $23
• Dessert wine: Sandemans Founder's Reserve $17
• Total Score: 85

This is in line with the score given to Virgin Atlantic, which got 82 for its Upper Class product. I had some difficulty figuring out the price on the Lalande, which I disliked. Also, the Chablis (delicious) was hard to price.

On this flight, I really did not like the Lalande very much, and find its description very strange:

"Bordeaux remains the emblem for elegant red wine and finesse is its hallmark. The 2002 vintage is a far better example of that ability than the more famous 2000 and 2003 vintages, and Chateau Lalande has crafted a powerful but stylish wine."

Despite the higher score, I think the wine esperience on Virgin would have been a better one because I think the wines seemed more cleverly and imaginatively chosen. It just shows the limitation of numerical scores!

Also, compare the scores with Singapore Airlines, which got 121 for its Business Class product.