Mussels -- classic style

Linda had this classic preparation of mussels on a recent night. She liked them quite a bit and the rose' wine they served was excellent as well.

There's No Place Like Rhone...

for the Holidays? At June's All Day on South Congress, an employee carefully posts the specials on Rhone Reds! The river and region map is a nice touch, too.

Wine down under

One of our favorite restaurants is June's All Day on South Congress. They have created a clever wine list that is a book with illustrations and comments about where certain varietals come from. Here you see the selections from New Zealand.

Knights of the Vine Party

Our annual black tie assemblage for Knights of the Vine happened a week or two ago. Great wine and food at the Four Seasons and we caught up with some old friends.

Dinner on the lake. On a boat.

We enjoyed wine, food and friends on Lake Austin the other night.

Wine list with an interesting category

The second category on this wine list refers to Texas wines. Hey, nothing like a little regionalism. 

Boxing Day Wine Tasting

Diana Novy Lee and Adam Lee grew up in Texas. Adam was born in Austin. But they have managed to create a renowned winery in Santa Rosa, CA (Siduri Wines and Novy Family Wines are made here). They buy grapes in vineyards from Santa Barbara to the Willamette Valley and produce mostly Pinot Noirs. The Lees, home for the holidays in Texas with their three children, took time to stop by Austin Wine Merchant and pour for a Boxing Day tasting. I tried four of them, all delicious, and brought a couple home. It's nice to have Austin Wine Merchant a scant four blocks from our home.

Jeffrey's Where Anyone Can Be There...

and anything can happen. We always see people we know (a friend was working on a grant proposal in the bar while sipping a Gibson and eating crispy oysters). And we always hear about famous patrons even if there aren't any celebrities that night. (Our waiter Johnny Guffey, above left, showed us an origami rocket ship folded by Richard Garriot who took the paper into space.) Sometimes strange things happen, too. The party celebrating a birthday nearby was talking about opening wine bottles with a knife so Johnny retrieved a large knife from the kitchen, a fresh bottle of champagne and one of the men at the table took it outside and gave it a whack at the seam below the cork and the bottle opened cleanly, breaking that top 'bulge' away. (Why you'd need to open a champagne in this old "sword strike" fashion I don't know unless the cork was well and truly stuck. Or you were 'just demonstrating!")

Jeffrey's is at 12th and West Lynn. We walked over. It's kind of a long and uphill walk. We took a cab home. If you are an Austinite or visit Austin, Jeffrey's is an expensive but wonderful restaurant.

Taste a Bit

It's not news to my frequent visitors that we love Taste Select Wines. However, we just eat their great food and order bottles or glasses from the menu. The retail section has a lot of automated tasting machines and a blackboard with news, though, and I thought it photographed well (sorry about the flahs spot, though). I already showed you chef Bill with his spiky mohawk.

Fine Food with an Attitude

We took a break from the endless moving to have a bite to eat and a glass of wine and we tried to branch out but ended up at Taste Select Wines. We raved about our ostrich and marlin dishes and Chef Bill McGrory came out to say 'hello' with his new mohawk. Austin is loaded with talented chefs with experience in venues in other you'd recognize doing great food in places where you can often walk in and cadge a seat and get lots of friendly greetings. Not that it wouldn't do us good to plan ahead and make a reservation: we had to choose between an out-of-the-way two top or a seat at the bar. The latter garnered us lots of attention including the chef's visit, though.

The Neighborhood Wine Store

Our friend John Roenigk has been running a downtown wine (and spirits and accessories) store for years (with a brief hiatus to do something in Oregon or somewhere else). He calls it the Austin Wine Merchant. He moved from Guadalupe years ago and has occupied a location on West Sixth while Austin's downtown regenerated. Of course, his parking spots and the fact that Sixth heads west (as do a lot of lawyers and bankers in the evening) probably nets him many downtown-working customers. We have patronized his shops over the years and he has advised on many wine pairings and other questions of proper drinking. We always said when we moved downtown it would be the neighborhood wine shop.

In the short time we've 'lived' downtown, we've made two visits. FFP bought a bottle of premium vodka and vermouth for the downtown bar and we both went yesterday to sample some delicious New Zealand wines (Craggy Range Vineyards) and to buy ourselves a new Screwpull as a housewarming gift to ourselves. The New Zealand wines were delicious, but I took a picture of the Rosé wine display because it looked great in the light.

Austin's Les Amis du Vin at Gypsy

FFP and I occasionally go to a Les Amis du Vin (friends of wine) event. But there are often conflicts. We always read through the events and we noticed their annual "orphan's dinner" which was held last night at an Italian restaurant on Barton Springs Road called Gypsy. People who aren't still doing family events (or maybe they've escaped from same or even bring the family!) get together for an event during the holiday week. FFP snapped this picture of me (pink sweater second from end on left) and some of our companions at this dinner. We had Italian wines, too numerous to mention, but we especially liked a Bolgheri which had the most delicious vanilla nose...you could almost just smell and skip drinking. But, of course, we didn't and had a sip or two with multiple little courses ending with the cheese and fruit one you see.