Is it really cheaper or am I just splitting fares?

I am continuing to post here, but my main site is now: www.louisandlouisa.com. Come and visit!

Picture this scenario. You live in the Washington area, and next summer you would like to spend a few days in London, and then you would like to fly on to Greece. The plan looks like this. You will leave Washington on July 14, 2007. Then you will travel to Athens on July 21. You would like to stay there until August 5. There is a late flight out of Athens on August 5, and you can take the onward leg back to Washington on August 6.

Using the BA site and selecting the lowest possible and most restricted fare, This journey will set you back $2,294, and that includes $341.81 in taxes. Quite a lot!

Now there is nothing you can do about these dreadful taxes, but there are a few tricks you can do to play with the fare. Try this. Still using the BA site, book the Washington to London flight as one trip picking the very same flight, and the trip to London will cost $985.71, including taxes of $288.71. Then buy another ticket and book exactly the same flights to and from Athens. The total fare for the Athens trip will be GBP (British Pounds) 168.20 or $328.64 in US dollars. So the total for your trip will turn out to be $1,314.35 — a total savings of 979.65!

And if you worry that British Airways will use their computers to track you down and hate you for ever, you could always use another airline for the London to Washington leg. There are all sorts of airlines offering low cost trips out of London to many European airports.

For example, using EasyJet (www.easyjet.com), the trip to Greece from London’s Gatwick airport would cost GBP 150.52, and that includes a travel insurance policy as well as taxes.

Good luck searching for cheap flights. And remember that two tickets are often cheaper than one!

Redeeming miles on British Airways Executive Club

A slightly more detailed version of this post is posted on my new site:

http://www.louisandlouisa.com.

Another work in progress on the new site is that you will be able to filter postings. For example, you can see only the airline-related postings.

This posting is probably useful only to British Airways Executive Club members who live in the United States.

Back in the “good old days,” it was pretty easy to rack up miles on British Airways.
First, they had household accounts, which allowed people living at the same address to pool their miles into a single account. As a result, even people who hardly ever traveled could collectively earn a free ticket.

Secondly, it was pretty cheap to buy tickets with miles. For example, 40,000 miles would buy a ticket from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Europe. I once went from Washington (IAD) to Istanbul forjust 40,000 miles. I also once had a fabulous trip in First for 120,000 miles. My route was Washinton to London; London to Dubai; Dubai to Tehran; Tehran to Dubai; Dubai to London; London to Manchester; Manchester to London; London to Washington.

Third you could accumulate miles really fast using a Diners Club card. For every dollar you spent, you earned a mile. And every summer, British Airways used to have a two-for-one offer.
These happy days are over. British Airways now gives you only 25% of miles flown if you use a discount ticket. The number of miles required has risen massively. And the Diners Club offer in the summer gives you only 1.5 miles to the dollar. We are going to book some tickets to southern Europe sometime this summer (probably Athens), but each ticket is going to cost 65,000 miles.

It almost looks as if British Airways wants to hide free tickets on its web site. They advertise deals that allow you to pay part cash and part miles, and these are easy to find. They also seem to hid the chart that tells you how many miles you are going to need.

So here is the link for members (with a number/userID and PIN/password) wanting to get free tickets for their miles.

New Website!!! www.louisandlouisa.com

Well as you may know, I have been really busy with other stuff. But one thing that I have accomplished is to establish www.louisandlouisa.com, and that is where I will be blogging in the future.

I have teamed with my niece, Louisa.  The idea is to try and provide travel, food, and wine information from two entirely difference perspectives.

Wine Spectator -- Wine of the Year

Well, I think in the future that I should stick to predicting the past. It is so much easier!

The Wine Spectator came out with its top (most exciting) wine of the year last Friday. Earlier this year, in this post (Click here) I predicted that Chateau Leoville Barton (2003) wouild be chosen as the Wine Spectator's wine of the year. But I was wrong. Leoville Barton came in as number three. Casanova di Neri, Brunello di Montalcino (2001) won the top spot with Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (2003) coming in second.

With 98 points, Leoville Barton scored more than the Casanova (97) and Quilceda (95). And the only other wine scoring 98 was Krug Brut Champagne, 1995 with a price tag of $224!

You can see the whole list by clicking here.

I am still glad to have several bottles of the Leoville Barton lying around. I have not tried it yet.

The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing

I have always thought that one of the many joys of wine drinking is finding special wine that tastes much more expensive than the price suggests. For those of you who read my last posting about the Guardian Peak SMG, there is an amazing story. A friend brought it for us to have over dinner all the way from the winery, where he paid about $20.00 for it. But we discovered it here for only $9.99! (We had it special ordered from Paul's in Wisconsin Avenue in DC.) I have always known that it can be a bit expensive to buy at the winery, but this seems extraordinary!

While on the subject of price, a lot of people suggest I am missing the point in my proposed scoring system for airline wine service that I described on http://louisandlouisa.com. The suggestion is that I know the "price of everything and the value of nothing" as Oscar Wilde would put it. But actually I want to discover the bargains, and however good the wine is, I don't want an airline to go bargain hunting on my behalf when I am sitting in an airline seat.

I absolutely love Tesco Champagne, but if I am in Seat 2A on Singapore Airlines, I want to have the choice between my Krug and Dom Perignon. When I am back on terra firma, then I want to be the one discover the Tesco Champagne and tell how I got my six-pack for only GBP 78.03!

The opportunity to taste these very expensive and sometimes overpriced wines in the air is also a good benchmarking opportunity. It is nice to compare your steals with the expensive stuff that you cannot usually afford.


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

Guardian Peak SMG, 2004

Long boycotted during the apartheid era, South African wines are something of a mystery to me although I am beginning to be very interested in them for two main reasons. First, they seem to represent excellent value for money. Second, they seem to do very well with a grape I like very much, Chenin Blanc, which is usually called Steen in South Africa.


Last night we had something completely different while we were waiting for dinner. One of my friends brought Guardian Peak SMG 2004, which we drank before dinner with cheese (Manchego, Cheshire, and Irish Cheddar). As you might have already guessed, SMG stands for Syrah (54%), Mourvedre (36%), and Grenache (10%). With an alcohol level of 14.5%, this is certainly not a wimpy wine, and it is a little bit "in your face" with deep and rich plummy stewed fruit flavors with sweet cherry notes. This wine does not lack subtlety though, and the blend gives it a degree of spicy vanilla cedary complexity. I wondered how it would taste after a few years in the cellar.


This is a wonderful wine, and I strongly recommend it. My friends brought it back from South Africa, but I saw it on Wine Searcher for just $9.99. If this wine can really be had for that price (or anything less than $15.00 for that matter), I would dash out and buy all I could afford!

Hanna, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1988

Hanna, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1988

This wine was in my cellar for one only reason. The youngest in our family is called Hannah, and 1988 was the year of her birth. The Hanna winery also holds a special place in our hearts since we had a lovely visit there when we staying in Calistoga a few years back. Last night, Hannah was back home visiting from college so we decided to celebrate with a bottle of Hanna.

But I did not really expect much from Hanna. First 1988 was really not a particularly good vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon in Northern California. Second, everyone tells you these days that most wines are intended to conumed upon release, and a wine is far more likely to show badly if it is drunk too late than if you drink it too soon. Finally, I had a problem with the cork, which broke while I was trying to open it. I finally managed to remove it fairly cleanly, and although the top part of the cork was broken, it looked as though the bottom part of it had maintained a good seal. There was a considerable amount of sediment so I poured it through a filter into a decanter.

As I was pouring, it became clear that we were in for something of a treat. A delicious aroma of blackcurrant came up from the wine as I poured. The color was a deep crimson with perhaps some degree of lightening but certainly no browning. The taste was concentrated deep fruit with some cedar with sweet vanilla overtones from the oak. A delicious wine that really seemed to have derived benefit from eighteen years in my cellar.

Sushi King, Columbia, MD

Sushi King
6490 Dobbin Road
Columbia, MD
21045

Monday - Saturday

(Lunch 11:30AM to 3PM)

(Dinner 5PM to 10PM)

Sunday Closed

Phone: 410 997 1269
Fax: 410 997 1266

For a Google map, click here.

For Sushi King's website, click here.

Two Japanese restaurants in Columbia have very high ratings in the Zagat guide. One is Sushi Sono (Click here for my comments), and the other is Sushi King where we had lunch today. Sushi King is located in a rather dreary strip mall next to the handy express Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office, where you can renew registrations and drivers' licenses without the fuss of going to Glen Burnie. The restaurant is decorated in that typical Japanese bamboo style with little cubicles where you can eat in privacy.

Eating off the lunch menu, we had bento boxes, and two of our party of four were not particularly hungry so we only ordered three of them. Mine came tempura -- two large shrimps and vegetables, rice, an order of California rolls, and a nicely dressed salad ($9.50). The other came with Tuna rolls and Chicken Teryaki ($9.50). Miso soup was included.

The Miso soup was very nice. It seemed slighly sweeter than most. The tempura items were obviously freshly cooked, and the California Rolls tasted very fresh. The food was definitely above average.

Although the food was good although not spectacularI must say that, given the choice, I would prefer to go to Sushi Sono. The service here has been friendly in the part. I am not sure if they resented two of us sharing a box, but the server seemed rather unfriendly. (She presented only three bubble gums at the end of the meal!)

Although Sushi King serves alcoholic drinks, we did not have wine with our meal, and the bill for three lunches (but four people) was about $35, including an extra order of California Rolls to go. Very good value!

Moet & Chandon White Star

Well I acquired this bottle out of spite. A couple of weeks, I was about to buy a bottle of Korbel, but suddenly felt irritated that it called itself Champagne. (If you are interested, click here to see that discussion and Korbel's defense.) So I spent three times as much money -- about $30.00. And I wound up with this delicious bottle of White Star from Moet & Chandon.

They always say that if you spend a little extra, the first thing you forget is the price, and I liked this Champagne very much indeed. It is made with both red grapes (Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier) and white grapes (Chardonnay). It is less dry than most Champagnes sold in the United States, which are usually Brut. This Extra Dry Champagne is considerably sweet. It is a kinder, gentler Champagne that would go well with anything. (I don't find Brut Champagne works very well with desserts although it served so often with wedding cakes.) It has nice beedy little bubbles, and is fruity in a way that is not often found in Champagne -- peaches! Very nice indeed.

Pistachio Nuts, B.F. Skinner, and Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

For people seeking the short story on 2001 Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine is simply extraordinary. I bought it a few years ago at the King's Contrivance Liquor Store in Columbia. (Click here for the posting on where I get my wine.) This wine had a dark berry flavor. It was surprisingly sweet, dark, and extremely intense. You could certainly taste the oak that provided soft vanilla overtones to the flavor. Simply stated, this wine was delicious. Although the price was $16.49 on the bottle, I think it was on sale and I paid about $12.00 for the bottle. Keeping it for a few years really paid off.

Now the long story...

(If you have the time, follow the links. It might be fun!)

In an earlier post, I suggested that some of the fun about wine drinking is about finding a wine where the quality seems to bear little relationship to the price. When I drink wine like the perennially good Petite Syrah from Bogle at around $12.00, I feel that I have somehow beaten the system! The Ancient Vines Zinfandel (around $12.00) from Cline gives me that same smug satisfaction.

But there is another joy of drinking wine that is linked to a theory, which is totally devoid of any research basis, that I have about pistachio nuts. Put a bowl of pistachio nuts in front of me, and I cannot stop eating them until the last one has gone. Other people often seem to have similar weaknesses.

(By the way, if I am drinking wine before dinner, I usually avoid peanuts. I don't consider them very wine friendly.)

Apart from unrestrained gluttony, I believe that this compulsion to keep eating is related to the behaviorist idea that habits are more strongly reinforced if the reward for a behavior is given randomly. So, if you eat thirty pistachio nuts, you are likely to find twenty six good ones, one little stinker, and the remaining three will simply sing in your mouth. Seeking the reward of that perfect pistachio, you just keep on and on eating them.

The pistachio nut enthusiast probably knows that the best pistachio nuts in the world come from Iran which, according the article in Wikipedia on the subject, produces more pistachios nuts in the world with 38% of the world's production. You can usually tell an Iranian pistachio nut just by looking at it. They tend to be much larger than most, and they simply taste better. (Avoid pistachios that are dyed red. They are rarely any good.)

Readers in Maryland can buy Iranian pistachios at Sizar's food market:

6955 Oakland Mills Rd
Columbia, MD 21045.

For a Google map, click here.

(They are not quite as good as getting them from a firend traveling to Iran, but they are still pretty tasty! Sizar's is a nice little Persian grocery store with not just food from Iran, but all sorts of food from the Middle East and the Mediterranean. You can also get Indian food there, including chutneys curry paste, and so on.)

So what has all this got to do with Geyser Peak? Well, I wanted a red wine for dinner on Friday night. We did not have guests so I was not looking for one of my better Bordeaux, but I wanted something a little bit better than an $8.00 "everyday" wine. I also wanted to drink up any potentially "over the hill" wines in the cellar. So that was why I picked the Geyser Peak -- not too expensive, possibly aging, and, without guests, the risk of disappointment was low.

This wine was my unpredictable reward. I hoped for "good" and would have been satisfied with "okay," but I never expected extraordinary. It reminded me of much more expensive wines, and I began to think of Silver Oak. It was so dark, dense, and the blackberry/cassis fruit was marvellous. The oak provided a rich vanilla almost creamy! Although probably mature, it was clearly not in decline, and I would venture to say that it was at its peak. I have one bottle of this wine left. I will drink it soon but on a very special occasion!

I have had a lot of good luck from Geyser Peak, and this experience will keep me coming back again and again to seek that perfect reward!

The winery's notes on this wine are below:

Vintage: 2001
Appellation: Alexander Valley

Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

Storage/Type: 100% American oak barrels: 20% new oak; 80% a balanced mixture of one-, two-, and three-year old oak
Maturation Time: 15 months

Production Comments: A portion of the fruit for this wine was processed through our rotary fermenters. These innovative tanks enable maximum desirable extraction with only four or five days of on-skin fermentation, and minimize extraction of harsh, undesirable tannins.

Bottling Information & Analysis: Bottling Date: 06/03

Release Date: 12/03

Cases Produced: 49400

Alcohol 13.5%

pH 3.72

Acid 0.60

R.S. Dry

Wine Description: Classic Alexander Valley aromas of sweet blackberry fruit and cassis burst out of the glass on this wine. The vibrant intensity of the fruit aromas is typical of Geyser Peak's style, as is the restrained oak, which supports the fruit without dominating it. Ripe raspberry, blackberry and black cherry flavors harmonize on the wine's rich, juicy mid-palate with toasty oak notes. Typically Alexander Valley tannins come to the fore on the finish, which harmonizes persistent fruit flavors with fine-grained tannins.
Recipes: Black Olive Tapenade Crostini, Fabulous Flank Steak, Grilled New York Steaks with Cabernet Reduction Sauce, Pork Chops a La Piacenza, Rack of Lamb with Red Wine Jus, Red Wine Braised Oxtail

Hampton Inn, Lexington Park

The lobby at the Hampton Inn. Breakfast is served here.

Hampton Inn
22211 Three Notch Road
Lexington Park, Maryland
United States 20653

Tel: +1-301-863-3200
Fax: +1-301-863-7865

For a Google map, click here

There is an old principle in writing about hotels, planes, and restaurants. Don't judge them by how they perform when things are going well. Reserve judgement until things go wrong. I remember trying to take an old TWA flight from JFK to Madrid shortly before TWA disappeared. The flight couldn't leave, and we were told to go away and come back in 24 hours. Accommodation? Find your own. Can you guarantee us a seat on tomorrow's flight? I can't even guarantee we will be here tomorrow. Shortly after that TWA disappeared. And I was glad!

Anyway, we arrived late at the Hampton Inn in Lexington Park to check into our room, and we were told we had the last room. When we went upstairs, we found the key would not work so the very nice person at the desk came to help. Even his new key would not work so he went to get a "hard" key, a metal one that you use the old fashioned way. As he tried to turn the key, a sad voice from behind the door politely asked if there was any reason why we trying to get into his room.

The desk clerk immediately apologized profusely, and we went downstairs. The first thing he did was to phone the sad man and tell him that there would be no charge for the night. Then he found us a room and said there would be no charge for us either.

I was so pleased that they seemed so anxious to please, and the next day the new person on duty at the desk apologized too and freely admitted that it was her fault.

In every other way, the stay was excellent. This hotel is well appointed with a very comfortable bed, a good large bathroom. Breakfast in the morning is included, and it was quite nice with good coffee.

As I have mentioned before, I really like Hampton Inns, and this was a great example of them going out of their way to please.

I only wish they would not use stryrofoam so much for breakfast!

Our room for the night, if we had not been given the free room, would have been about $95.

The Hot Noodle, California, MD

The Hot Noodle
22576 Macarthur Boulevard
California
Maryland 20616

A Google map can be found here.

Telephone: 301-862-9188

When I see a restaurant that serves many different kinds of cooking, I often walk in another direction. It irritates me if a restaurant seems to be unable to make up its mind about what kind of food it wants to serve. But if I applied that principle to the Hot Noodle, I would miss out on some really very good food.

This restaurant, which is convenient to people visiting Patuxent Naval Air Station or St. Mary's College of Maryland, is located in a little strip mall in an area with offices that seem to feed off the Naval Air Station. Advertising that you can have "The Great Taste of Asia All Under One Roof," The Hot Noodle is a place where you can get Chinese Potstickers ($5.95), Pho ($6.95), Pad Thai ($7.45), or Korean Short Ribs ($13.95). I think the owners are probably Vietnamese so I usually stick to Vietnamese dishes, but friends and family have had food from all over the map. I cannot remember having a bad dish here. And this restaurant offers really good value for money in a nice comfortable setting.

I usually start with the Spring Rolls (3 for $4.95) or the Shrimp Summer Rolls (3 for $4.95), which are "freshly sliced shrimp, lettuce, island mints, carrots, cucumbers, vermicelli noodles, and bean sprouts, hand wrapped in cool rice paper, and served with zesty peanut sauce." The peanut sauce is just wonderful!

The excellent Vietnamese Steak ($10.95) is made of tender cubes of very good beef cooked in a wok and served with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions with a lime and pepper sauce. It is my favorite dish in the restaurant.

There is a wine list, but I have always been traveling so I have never has any wine here, but they serve very nice limeade. The portions are generous, and I have always been too full for dessert.

My only gripe here is the way they print the menu. Red text on green is barely legible to most people, and would probably be a nightmare for people with color perception difficulties! Some of the writing is in small print over pictures, and that is difficult to read too. But I hear they are changing their menu. I only hope that means the presentation rather than the dishes.

Dinner for eight last Saturday (September 16, 2006) was only $113 the other night. We had shared starters, a main course, and soft drinks. An exceptionally good restaurant with excellent value for money!

Château Langoa Barton, 1996

We had a bottle of Château Langoa Barton, 1996, on Saturday night, and I was hoping for something very special, and it wasn't.

I found it hard, very tannic, and there really was not much sense of fruit. It seemed as if this wine was in a period where it had lost the fresh initial fruit of a young wine, but had not yet softened its tannins and gained complexity.

After a little, it seemed to open up a little, but overall this was a disappointment. Perhaps we should have just kept this wine longer!

Westin Hotel, Port Royal, Hilton Head, South Carolina

We stopped for drinks at the very well appointed Westin Hotel in Hilton Head. It was delightful watching the sun go down as we had drinks by the pool. (Be prepared for plastic cups, though!.)

As we drank, we decided that renting in our apartment (See my notes on Sunset Rentals) was a much better way to stay in Hilton Head than to stay at a hotel.

But having drinks by the pool was a lot of fun, and the nachos were great. The restaurants in the hotel looked wonderful too, and we meant to return for dinner but never did.

For people who compile lists of the world's best loos (bathrooms), this was top class with nice soap from Molton Brown!

Château Musar is doing OK!

During the recent troubles, I worried that one of my favorite wineries, Château Musar, in the Bekaa valley, might suffer losses.

It has always amazed me that they have managed to produce wine year after year. (They have only missed three vintages, 1976, 1984, and 1992, and 1992 was because the grapes were not up to standard.)

Anyway, I decided to write to them to see if they were all right, and got the following answer:

Many thanks for your very kind thoughts and concern.We are deeply grateful for your prayers and your messages of support. All Chateau Musar's team are well and continuing their great work. The winery and the vineyards are doing well and we expect a very good crop for the 2006 vintage.
Best regards

Château Musar

Keep these folks in your thoughts!

For people who are having difficulty locating their wine in the United States, you might want to contact the importer:

Broadbent Selections, Inc
2088 Union Street
Suite 2San Francisco
CA 94123

Telephone: 415 931 1725
Fax: 415 921 0596

(Broadbent Selections was nominated for importer of the year by the Wine Enthusiast last year, and the other selections are really interesting too!)

And visit their blog at www.vilafonte.com.

Korbel Responds

The following posting came from Paul Ahvenainen, Korbel's Director of Winemaking, in response to my posting, in which I suggested that the Champagne should be used only by wine producers in the Champagne area of France. In his response, Mr. Ahvenainen suggested that this is the view of the self-righteous. My position is that when we receive accurate information from wine producers, everyone, including the producers, is better off.

There is an interesting article that deals with the subject in depth in Wikipedia. Click here to read it.

While I do not agree with his position, it seemed to me to be fair to give the "other side" visibility in this debate.

Mr. Paul Ahvenainen's comments follow:

God I just love the web! Anyone can say just about anything and actually have it read. Unfortunatly, the web hasn't figured out a way to filter for accuracy.

Here I am on a Monday morning, pressing a few hundred tons of chardonnay for future Korbel champagne, and up pops another blogger verbally wagging his self rightous finger at me and all the hard working people here at Korbel.

Everyone is entiled to thier opinion. Let's at least get a few facts straight.

1. The question of regional place names growing into common usage goes far beyond champagne or other wines. Take the term cheddar, is it a place or is it a style of cheese? I think that most sensible people would say that once a term like cheddar comes into common usage to represent a particular style of cheese, regardless of where the cheese was made, it is available for usage. I don't think the US consumer is clamoring for Kraft to drop cheddar from its cheese line anytime soon.

Ask yourself this question: If, without saying anything, a friend at a party hands you a traditional flute of pale fizzy wine as you walk in the door, in your own mind, what did you just recieve? For 99% of people, the honest answer is, "a glass of champagne". Clearly the term champagne refers to a style of wine, not just a place.

2. Korbel's use of the term champagne is permited by both US and EU regulations. The French don't like to admit it, but they just signed a treaty within the last several months, clearly (however relucantly) acknowleging the long usage of the term champagne outside of the Marne Valley. Essentialy, the EU is agreeing that the term is in common usage now, but are trying to bring the usage back under thier control. That's just not going to happen. Cheddar will always be a style of cheese. Wine with bubbles will always be champagne.

3. Don't buy into the Moet & Chandon propaganda machine. This isn't about wine or small growers toiling in the soil. It's about a competitive market place, major corporations and MONEY. I have seen reports circulated in France that converts "California Champagne" sales into euros, very large numbers of euros.

You did'nt also buy into Moet's Dom Perrignon fairy tale, did you?

4. Korbel has been using the term "California Champagne" for over 120 years. Nobody cared until we became a major player in the US market in the 1970's.

5. I have been associated with Korbel for over 20 years. In that time, I have never met a consumer who was confused about the origin of our products. Our identity is firmlly based as an American / California producer.

We are proud to offer the US consumer a choice, and a great value.

Too bad about the White Star, your loss.

Paul Ahvenainen
Director of Winemaking
Korbel Champagne Cellars
Guerneville CA, USA

Moet 1 - Korbel 0

That's right. The winner is Moet. Korbel just lost a sale

I have just bought a bottle of Moet & Chandon White Star. Actually, I was looking for a bottle of California sparkling wine, but I decided not to because I became irritated by Korbel.

I have had Korbel's sparkling wines before, and I have enjoyed them. But today I noticed that they continue to mark their offering with the word, Champagne, in addition to indicating that they are made in the methode champenoise. I carefully looked at all the other bottles, and I noticed that all the respectable companies in California (Piper Sonoma, Gloria Ferrer, Codorniu Napa, Mumm) call their wines in this class sparkling wine. The exceptions to the rule tend to be at the very low end of the market, including some of the wines from New York State. It seems to me to be silly that Korbel wishes to join the ranks of Cooks, Totts, Taylors, and Great Western.

So to express my irritation, I decided to buy a bottle of the real thing!

I would be interested in comments from readers. In my opinion, there is no need to call a wine Champagne when it clearly does not come from the Champagne area. Let me know if you agree, and if you do, please boycott these wines! If you don't please let me know. I would be interested to hear from you. In the meantime, I am looking forward to drinking a wine that truly deserves to be called Champagne.

In my previous post, I noted how much information Ridge gives to its consumers. I wish Korbel would give us the same respect!

Ridge Vineyards 1991 Santa Cruz Mountains, Cabernet Sauvignon

If you were to ask me which were my top ten American wine producers, Ridge would definitely be in the list, and it would probably be near the top.

Although I have more experience with their Zinfandel based wines, I have always enjoyed their Cabernet very much indeed too. But I must admit to approaching this bottle with some trepidation. Although, I had kept it in good condition, the recommended "bottle age" was "five to ten years" so I was afraid I would be drinking it after its expiry date. This fear increased when the cork broke as I was opening it. But I was able to salvage it without dropping a single piece of it into the dark red liquid.

To the nose, you could immediately tell that this was a rich, long, deeply-flavored wine that would refuse to "go away" even if you wanted it to. The flavors were deep cherry and cassis with a hint of cigar box and tobacco. The presence of a little Merlot and Cabernet Franc were suggestive of a Bordeaux although the richness and a tiny bit of sweetness distinguished this wine as distinctly Californian.

I absolutely loved this wine, and comments from all who tasted it about its silky smooth finish suggested we were drinking it at absolutely the right time. A very well rewarded wait!

I once visited the winery in Cupertino. After a long drive up the mountain, you are welcomed to a friendly tasting room with well-informed presenters. I remember being very amused when the mail man dropped off his letters and was rewarded for his pains with a sip of Cabernet Sauvignon. I remember thinking how very civilized that was. And how European!

One of the marvellous things about Ridge is how well they document their wine both on their website, and also on the bottle. The text on the bottle is below:


1991 SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS CABERNET SAUVIGNON
82% CABERNET SAUVIGNON, 15% MERLOT, 3% FRANC

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS

ALCOHOL 12.9% BY VOLUME

PRODUCED AND BOTTLED BY RIDGE VINEYARDS, INC. BW 448817100 MONTE BELLO RD, BOX 1810, CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA 95015

91 Santa Cruz Mountains Vineyard, bottled March 1993

On Monte Bello Ridge, our vines are divided between two vineyards—Santa Cruz Mountains and Monte Bello. The former extends from the thirteen hundred foot elevation upwards and includes the old Jimsomare Ranch, as well as those vines higher on the ridge which typically produce more supple, less tannic wines. The 1991 was initially aged in new, air-dried, american oak and finished in two-year-old barrels to maintain the balance between spicy oak and berry fruit. The inclusion of merlot and a small amount of franc added further complexity. A lovely wine, enjoyable now, it will develop more fully with five to ten years of bottle age.

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!

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