Review Date: 2-16-2013

I love this refreshing, light, bracing brew after a long day of tasting oversized red wines! At 4.8% it is gentle on the system, and the balance is such that one could never tire of it. Jever Pils is from the most northern part of Germany, very near the Dutch border. It is made with Friesian spring water and Germany's noble Hallertau hops and as with any beer from this great country, it follows the beer purity laws of Biergesetz, the modern incarnation of Reinheitsgebot. That means no funny ingredients, and only barley and yeast to go with the hops and water mentioned above!

Review Date: 2-16-2013

This is delicious Kabinett, and shows the peachy, open knit fruit of a ripe vintage in the Saar. Underneath the pretty aromatics and the clean fruit is a tremendous amount of minerality and drive. The Saar, which is cold enough still to write off a vintage or two every decade, is definitely the right spot for a ripe vintage like 2009! The finish goes on forever with this Von Hovel and I promise you will be amazed at the value!

Review Date: 2-16-2013

This tonic is expensive, but it is worth it if you love your gin. I find it to be less sweet and have a high quality quinine flavor than the other tonics available. I have had it with Anchor Junipero, Hendrick's, Royal Dock Navy Strength Gin, Faultline, St. George Terroir Mt. Tam Gin and many others, but my favorite with the Fever Tree is the Cadenhead's Old Raj Gin. This combination, with a nice slice of lime and a couple of giant ice cubes is the most elegant gin and tonic that I have ever had!

Review Date: 2-15-2013

What indulgence is more romantic than a half bottle of Krug? I can't think of one. This little bottle is assembled from a generation of harvests and has the complexity of great old Champagne while keeping the freshness of a current release. It is the perfect size to enjoy with someone special before (or after!) a nice meal! My favorite memory with a half bottle of Krug Grand Cuvee was with Cinnamon on the train to dinner in the city. Even the conductor was jealous!

Review Date: 2-15-2013

I was very lucky to get to drink this late disgorged Krug with Krug CEO Margareth Henriquez at Quattro restaurant in the Four Seasons. It was the last wine of the night and we ended things on a very high note with another cheese course, this one cleverly disguised as a dessert. Chef Fossati created a Brulee by torching honey on top of some very creamy, savory Explorateur cheese served next to some unsweetened orange blossom gelato with white truffles shaved on top of it. I remembered this wine from when it first was released- ahead of the 1988, and it is evolving slowly in this freshly disgorged format. This warm harvest, already 23 years old is showing the vinous bass notes that make well aged Krug famous. It still has plenty of chalk and zip, and showed even more truffle than the older “Grand Cuvee” did. The pairing was delightful, bringing out the ripe, sweet fruit of the 1989 harvest.

Review Date: 2-15-2013

Chef Fossati of Quattro Restaurant at the Four Seasons was daring and paired the Krug Brut Rosé Champagne with lamb loin from Elysian Fields at the Krug dinner I attended with Krug CEO Margareth Henriquez. This Champagne needed food (and rich food!) in order to show well and was very different from the first Krug rose that I tasted more than a decade ago. My first visit to the maison in winter of 2001 was also my first experience with Krug rose, and its impression has haunted me ever since. The wine I drank in 2001 was so vanishingly subtle, so easy to drink, that its greatness did not occur to me until days later. I still think about that bottle. Margareth explained that this batch (311030) used Ay Rouge for its color and rose flavor, but that often times they use Bouzy Rouge instead. This batch was disgorged in fall of 2011 and was aged for a little over five years on the lees, so it must have been based on 2005. It had fresh baked bread and Nuits-St.-George like savor on the nose, and powerhouse black cherry fruit backed with firm acidity on the palate. I much preferred it with the lamb than on its own. This was large-scale wine that Margareth said she loved to cellar.

Review Date: 2-15-2013

I enjoyed this great vintage Champagne with a very traditional Champagne pairing: pigeon! One of the best local dishes of the Champagne region is pigeon en croute. The rare Paine Farm squab at Quattro restaurant was perfect with this refined powerhouse of a wine. Although the 2000 vintage returned to a Pinot Noir dominated blend, the relative youth of the wine and the fresh character of the vintage brought the Chardonnay to the front. This was the favorite vintage of the group of diners that I enjoyed it with, with electric acidity and chalky length. There is power in this bottle, but it does not have to show it off. The 2000 will evolve for a generation in the cellar, and I can’t wait to revisit it in 2030. A rich game bird needs a lively wine, and why not 2000 Krug!

Review Date: 2-15-2013

I was lucky enough to drink this last with Krug's CEO, Margareth Henriquez. Margareth explained the new codes on the backs of the bottles, that allow the Champagne lover to learn the disgorgement date, year of the base harvest of the wine as well as the number of vintages blended in and the oldest of them. She was far too modest about this new feature, as it reverses the secretiveness for which Krug has long been known. Now, thanks to her influence, Krug is one of the most transparent houses. The bottle that we had was from batch 311032, based on 2004, and composed of 121 different wines from 12 different vintages going all the way back to 1990. It was disgorged in the fall of 2011. All of this can be learned by going to www.krug.com and entering the code. Our bottle was Krug at its toasty, extroverted best, with plenty of buttery brioche and mid-palate weight. It also had typical 2004 zing and acidity, and showed attractive aspects of both youth and maturity.

Review Date: 2-14-2013

This very light, smooth Cognac is Hennessy's blend for cocktails, and it is a great one for that purpose. It is also a great contrast to the other cocktail specific Cognac we carry here at K&L, the high proof Ferrand 1840 Formula 90 proof Cognac, which is much heavier. I need both for my bar! The original Manhattan was made with Cognac, not Bourbon, and the Hennessy Black is the perfect ingredient for this classic. Stir two ounces of Hennessy Black with two ounces of Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth and a dash of Regan's Orange Bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain and serve up. Enjoy!

Review Date: 2-13-2013

The Rocca Di Montegrossi San Marcellino makes a lot of Brunello's look like they are trying to hard. This large scaled, single vineyard Chianti Classico is my favorite sangiovese, and I make sure to buy some of every vintage for my cellar. The 2007 is a blend of 95% sangiovese and 5% of the ultra rare pugnitello (little fist) and is vinified using a submerged cap fermentation in large wood puncheons. This is a technique I have only ever seen used at Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and gives the wine plenty of structure without having to run the wine through a pump.

Review Date: 2-13-2013

If you are a fan of bitter aperitivo's, the Cocchi Americano Rosa can't be missed. This bottle was open in the K&L tasting bar at the same that I was doing the staff Champagne seminar, and between groups I could not resist making a little Champagne cocktail with it. It was spectacular mixed with half good quality blanc de blancs, and also quite tasty on its own. I am going to buy a bottle today and try it at home in a black (or shall I say Rosa?) Manhattan with Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel Bourbon and a Luxardo Maraschino Cherry!

Review Date: 2-12-2013

The crazy prices for top Bordeaux have a lot of us wine fans angry, and it is a relief to find a gem of a magnum like this in our stock. The 1991 Clerc Milon is the kind of Pauillac that one can still drink in lusty gulps with a big rack of lamb, just like we did at the K&L staff party for 2013. Don't let the frost vintage’s reputation scare you off- this is one of the good ones! This wine is medium to light weight on the palate but deceptively powerful on the finish. I found it to have a touch of black tea to go with the classic Pauillac flavors of pencil lead and black currant. Yum!

Review Date: 2-12-2013

We kicked off the 2013 K&L staff party with a case of this, and loved it for its complexity; complexity that was arrived at through patience. With eight years of ageing on the lees, it is hard to believe that the retail price is so reasonable. If you love the "English style" of Champagne, with brioche and richness at the forefront, and plenty of Christmas spices on the long finish, you will love this wine. It went exceptionally well with the ham crostini that was being served as an appetizer!

Review Date: 2-12-2013

Do you live in a state where foie gras is still legal? If so, the 2002 Daniel Ginsburg Cuvee Rene Millesime Brut is a Champagne that you can't miss. This extraordinarily savory, powerful, single barrel Champagne has both the richness to stand up to, and the acidity to cut through the noblest of pates. I have enjoyed an embarrassingly large number of the 3000 bottles of this that were produced, and no partner for it has been as inspired as foie gras. It is a dynamite match!

Review Date: 2-12-2013

What do we think of this wine at K&L? We put a bottle of it at every table for our annual staff dinner at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco, and they hit the recycling bins quickly! This textbook Sancerre has a touch of lemon rind and grassy zest, but best of all it tastes just like the label advertises: Sancerre! If you are looking for refreshing, pure sauvignon blanc, the 2001 Domaine Cherrier Pere Fils Sancerre will be perfect.