Trip to St. Louis - Bar at Ruth's Chris

In St. Louis tonight on Business.   Staying at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch and there is a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in the lobby, so I ventured down for an early dinner at the bar.  This is a really special restaurant; the atmosphere is very hip and the views of the St. Louis Arch are amazing as you are literally seated at the base of the massive structure.   I was greeted by the bartender, Katy, who took great care of me.   I looked over the wine list and settled on a 2007 Faust Cabernet for my dinner.   Faust is a Napa Wine made by winemaker Agustin Huneeus, who is best known for creating Quintessa, one of my most favorites.    I was introduced to Qunitessa back in 2002 by my good friend Mike Edwards, from Lubbock Texas.  


The Steak was perfect.   And after talking to Katy about wine all night she insisted that we try some of the other wines.  She said she would pour me some tastings and suggested I try a 2008 Murrieta's Well - The Spur Mertiage.   I looked this wine up after dinner and was really surprised that it is under $20 in the store.   It was great.   A really well balanced blend with a lot of body, even following the earlier Cab.  P.J. is the beverage manager in the restaurant and before we were done her was in on the fun.    He poured me a taste of the 2008 Argyle Reserve Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, where some of the great Pinots are born.    I have had the 2007 non-reserve from Argyle and was not expecting great things, but it was pretty good.   Not too earthy and well balanced.   Although i have to admit, it is hard to taste a pinot noir after the Faust Cab.

Bottom line is that this Ruth's Chris Steakhouse here at the Arch is great; great atmosphere, great food and really, really great staff.    It was great hanging out tonight.

Dinner with Sr. and Clay

Neighborhood Services Tavern on Henderson on a Wednesday night...     Nothing like a good family boy get together.   Couple of cocktails and clay ordered the 2008 Patz and Hall Pinot Noir to go with our dinner.   $60 on the menu and $40 in the store...  Great choice, must run in the family!     NHS has a pretty simple wine menu but there are some great reasonable choices on the list.   We split the crab dip and asparagus apps, awesome; and we had the crab cake sandwich specials by recommendation, which were good but a bit underwhelming.    The Pinot was a perfect match with the dinner and as a restaurant to store value - an A+.    Patz and Hall Pinot Noir...    never a bad choice - Great pick Clay!

Las Vegas for work? Yep!

MARCH 8th: I was in Las Vegas this week for some continuing education and networking with some of my retirement plan brethren. When you are in this city for work you realize how many other people are in this city for work... it's amazing!

I headed out to dinner Monday night with my good friends Steve Silverman, his work associate Andrew Oliphant and my good buddy Cody Lummus.  Steve chose Nero's Steakhouse at Caesar's Palace. We sat down and had a little discussion about wines and we quickly agreed on picking a nice red wine to accompany the steaks. First up was a 2007 Groth Cabernet Sauvignon ($120), man how can you go wrong with a Groth? Steve had mentioned that he had the pleasure of trying a Silver Oak Napa Cab a few months prior and he wanted me to pick something similar, yet with a friendlier price tag. Groth is a favorite of mine because it is a nice oaky cab like the Silver Oak, yet not as strong, and it is a real smooth mid tannic wine to me. it was a hit for sure.

Next up was a Meritage, a 2007 Justin Isosceles. ($135, in Vegas dollars that's like 20 bucks). This wine is about $75 in the store so I thought it was a pretty good value considering they had a $12 wine on the menu for $70... Gotta love Vegas. Well the wine was good, had firm oak notes with hint of cinnamon and coffee. Everyone commented how different this wine was as compared to the first wine. I always try to pick a different second wine, why not try something else, right? This wine scored 90 Points by International Wine Cellar.

So remember next time your out, try to pick a wine that is close to its store value.   It is hard to always know, but often if you buy a little more expensive wine the price will be closer to what you would have paid in the store.

Remember Camille's favorite quote, "Life's too short to drink cheap wine!"