Last night, we attended a Spring Mountain wine dinner at Dominique’s at the Maison Dupuy which is hosting a series of dinners for the French Quarter Wine Festival. The wines were marvelous and well-paired with Chef Dominique’s sublime cuisine. Winemaker Jac Cole was here for the event and it was enlightening to hear him not only discuss Spring Mountain wines, but the Spring Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area) and mountain fruit in general. Spring Mountain, which is home to Pride, Cain Five, Keenan, and a host of other premier wineries, sort of flies under the radar, or clouds, and doesn’t seem as well known to wine lovers as other Napa mountains such as Howell, Diamond Mountain, Mount Veeder, etc. Last night again proved what terrific, concentrated wines are produced on Spring Mountain, and especially by the area’s namesake winery. I will be featuring Spring Mountain Cabernet as a Wine of the Week in a forthcoming column.

Loved meeting the two extremely talented, philanthropic guys (Mat and Fleet) who started the Dog Lover’s Wine Club which has been gaining new members and fans in the New Orleans area for their lovely wines and for generously sharing the proceeds with the L.S.P.C.A. Had the distinct pleasure of pouring for them at their first Canine Culture event and found the wines as well as the attendees– including our 4-legged friends– most pleasant and approachable! So much so that Tim and I ordered a case of our favorite of the group offered, the Pinot Noir, with our little lion-headed poodle featured on the label. Read the rest of this entry »

After a fabulous New Year’s Eve feast at Galatoire’s….most of our group went on to other parties while we stayed in the Quarter to welcome the New Year. As we awaited the countdown to 2008 and ensuing fireworks, we decided to pop one of the two celebratory bottles we hauled up to our viewing spot atop a French Quarter building. We brought two 1995 (an excellent year!)Champagnes, a Perrier Jouet and Veuve Cliquot. Both were seriously cooked… no saving those babies… so the race was on to grab a cold, non-vintage Brut Champagne for the midnight toast! Tim dashed off and returned with a lovely “fresh” Mumm Cordon Rouge! Although I was hopeful the vintageChampagnes would still be in good order, because every pre-Katrina Champagne we’ve opened in the past two years — including several 1979 Heidsieck Monopole Magnums were fine, I knew our luck had to run out at some point! I wonder what other readers chose for their New Year’s Eve toasts…..