What makes a great restaurant? The Pluckemin Inn

Ever ask what makes a great restaurant? What makes any business great for that matter? There are so many factors involved in each and every business that require specialized knowledge, attention, and expertise to make them run. But if there is one common thread through every success story, it is customer service. If you had to wake up each morning and ask yourself just one question, it should be "How do you take care of your customers?"

Today we got a first hand lesson, starting with a family school appointment that ended at about noon, leaving us hungry and looking for a place to eat. We were dressed a little more than on an average Saturday morning, and my son suggested perhaps a little nicer venue as it was also a special day. So we went to several favorite spots along our route home, selected for no other reason than their order of location along the route from Morristown. The first was closed for a private party, the second was closed for lunch on Saturdays, and then we arrived at one of my all time favorites, the Pluckemin Inn. We entered the restaurant to find a group of about 20 in the tavern room, but otherwise the restaurant was closed. When someone from the staff approached us (who,  in the interest of full disclosure I knew from some of our wine events there), he explained that they were closed until 5pm on Saturdays, with the exception today of the small private group in the bar who were just about to move down to a private room for lunch. We talked a second and I told him our story, to which he jokingly inquired why they were the third restaurant we stopped at! He thought about it a split second and said "tell you what, let me check in the kitchen and see what they can do" and promptly came back with an offer of crab cakes, burgers (great here!), steak frites (also great here), or personal pizzas. I demurred, not wanting to put them out, and the reply was a sincere and resounding "no trouble at all, we can't let you all go down the road hungry!" 

And so we had a great lunch, a couple of delicious and moderately priced glasses of wine from a favorite Burgundy producer, a couple of espressos, and left an hour later - happy, fully sated and grateful forever. And all this was done graciously, with no rush, no sense of the staff being put out at all - just plain old superb customer service. All this in a truly great restaurant where we have had numerous wine maker events where they seamlessly and easily create delicious menu to pair with the wines, where they have one of the finest selections of wines you will find anywhere from good everyday affordable hand crafted small growers to some of the greatest wines in the world. Yet there is no elitist snobbiness, no intimidation and no BS - simply a pleasant and sincere attitude of "How can I help you?"  Bravo!

White Burgundy Young and Old - Elements Restaurant.

Had a fantastic tasting and dinner with a selection of wines from Burgundy, pairing a young vintage with an older version of the same wine for each flight, each paired with a dish created by Chef Joe Sparatta of Elements Restaurant to match the wines. What a perfect setting, a private table upstairs, endless passed appetizers including an heirloom tomato tart that was outstanding, pureed pepper soup, salmon tartare, all washed down with Eric Rodez Brut Rose Champagne. The rest of the evening included unbelievable food and seamless service - if you haven't been - go! The wines were presented by Olivier Daubresse, one of our favorite importers and one of the sharpest palates I have ever tasted with. His long term relationship with his growers and the sheer amount of time he spends in Burgundy in the cellars and vineyards selecting his wines has given him a depth of knowledge that is disseminated throughout the eveing in a fun, relaxed, honest and charmingly French accented manner.

The wines and details are below - normally the only way to get great older white Burgundy is to buy young wines and store them, but these gems are available - perfectly stored by either Olivier or in the cellars in France. Fortunately I am back to Elements for two more events in the next week (tough job but someone has to do it!) and will report on the rest of my Elements Trifecta. Here are the details and a list of the wines - older wines are available but limited - call 908.953.0900 or email me at Chris Cree if interested.

First Course: Local peach salad: quinoa, fleur de vert, black garlic, poppy seed sponge cake - unique, different and delicious!

2006 Domaine Larue St. Aubin en Remilly 1er cru $56.00/$48.00 - Pale straw color. Lovely crisp and fresh - still very primary. Great acidity and minerality with the hallmarks of the En Remilly site - still locked up with tight core of solid fruit. Great value, huge potential for the patient! Drink 2013-2016

2002 Domaine Larue St. Rubin en Remilly 1er cru $60.00/$51.00 - Hints of straw gold color, beautiful nose of clover, acacia, hazelnuts - complex and mature and beautiful! Silky, broad and developed on the plate, reinforcing the lovely scented nose - rich and showing lovely secondary notes, yet still fresh and not at all past prime. Declicious with this dish and a great example of the precision and quality Didier coaxes from this great terroir. An over acheiver!

Second Course: Wild King Salmon "white clam sauce", fines herbs risottoe - creamy warm and rich.

2006 Domaine Bzikot Puligny Montrachet Les Folatieres 1er cru $110.00/$92.00 - Sylvan Bzikot just gets better and better, a true rising star in the Puligny firmament! This 06, while a little tight and closed has tons of potential - stony, mineral, beautiful Puligny! Pale straw color, hint of pear, quince - youthful and tight, it has lost a little baby fat and not yet moved into its next phase. Lots of promise here, but linear and tight tonight, especially in contrast to its elders. Drink 2015-2020(+?) I like the older wine with this course, but I want a case of this in my cellar!

2004 Domaine Bzikot Puligny Montrachet Les Folatieres 1er cru $114.00/$95.00 - A hint of gold/amber, nutty, evolved, mid concentration with hazelnut and almost a hint of caramel. Not sure this has the depth to go too much longer, but a beautiful drink now. From now - 2013/4

Third Course: Griggstown pheasant: foie gras, corn, pork belly. This was another terrific disch, the rich fois gras and salty smoky pork belly bringing lovely contrast to the Pheasant. Again, the older wine won out! Imagine that!

2006 Domaine Borgeot Chassagne Montrachet Les Embrazees 1er cru $102.00/$85.00 - Still a little youthful but fuller and more open than the Bzikot 2006 folatieres, this is more opulent and upfront in style, creamier, less mineral - typical of the site. Still in first gear, drink 2013-2016

1999 Domaine Borgeot Chassagne Montrachet Les Embrazees 1er cru $112.00/$95.00 - came out a little cold and closed, with almost an earthy note - opened up nicely and put on weight and aromatics in the glass - mature and ready to drink, broad and mouth filling.

Fourth Course: Veal, potato, truffle, mushroom blanquette - again another hit, detailed and precise, each component defined on its own but when combined in a bite were fantastic. My desciption doesn't do it justice! perfect with the Grivault, the older one better but only by a nod.

2004 Domaine Albert Grivault Meursault Perrieres 1er cru $135.00/$110.00 - Ahhh! Grivault Perrieres! What can I say - these wines are great right out of the gate and everyday of their vinous lives, changing and evolving and improving way longer than their elegant understated style suggests. Jjust opening up but still quite youtful, primary and fresh. Som tropical fruits, orange blossom. One the palate mouth filling, silky, with a lovely creamy texture and good underlying acids. Again, in its youth but deliciously so!

1999 Domaine Albert Grivault Meursault Perrieres 1er cru $140.00/$119.00 - just a hint of color, and just beginning to show a trace of secondary notes this is an adolescent wine with a lot of promise. Beautifully detailed, elegant, seamless with discreet power and depth underneath. Another 5-10 easy, but delicious now and every day until it finally fades away.

Test

50 Commerce

Into the city last Tuesday for a tasting and dinner afterwards with one of our favorite importers, making our way through a nice selection of wines that included some terrific values from the southwest of France (see the email offer here) all the way up to some fantastic Burgundies from Maume and Bertheau. After the tasting we were treated to a great dinner at 50 Commerce where I met up with Sommeliere Matt Barcewicz. Great to see him again as we had travelled in France and Spain together for a couple of weeks back in March, a great trip that took us through the Loire, Chablis, Burgundy, Rhone, Provence, Langeudoc and into Spain for one night and a great dinner at Cellar Can Rocca, another absolutely terrific dinner!

The wine list at Commerce, as I suspected from travelling with Matt, is fantastic. Plenty of mainstream stuff to keep the vanilla/chocolate crowd pleased, but the emphasis is on a well chosen selection of lesser known regions, grapes and wines - I started off with sweetbreads and fois gras in a summer vegetable ministrone, Joe had Tuna delicious marinated Hamachi ceviche with Yuzu, tomato chile and cilantro. We started off with Costal Chablis 2008 - crisp, stony and mineral - very racy. Followed with Geschwister Erhardt Rusdesheimer Berg Rottland Spatlese 1990 - absolutely rocking - reminding us why we all love Riesling and making vows to cellar and drink way more often! Matt sent out a tasting bite of a Pork Schnitzel - warm and savory with a side of crispy fingerling potatos and lightly pickled cucumbers in a creme fraiche sort of sauce - a perfect foil to the schnitzel - and perfect with the wine! I had black sea bass with Spring peas, basil and Meyer Lemon - delicious but over wined with the final choice of 2004 Grange des Pere - one of my all time favorite wineries. Spiced red fruits, hints of garrigue and Langeudoc herbs, classy, elegant and fine. Every dish was great for all four of us, and the wine list well stocked, eclectic and well priced - thanks Matt and can't wait to go back!

Late summer is in the air....

It's cloudy, there is a little drizzly rain and humidity, but it is relatively cool compared to the last few weeks of full-on summer heat...almost a nice change except for the realization that summer is on the wane. Fireflies are long gone, the Katydids rule, and inevitably soon the days will be shorter and we will be back to school and work and autumn. Meanwhile the farm stands are in full swing and it is still SUMMER!  

Metropolitan seafood and the local farm stands made the night with whole live scallops we sauteed in a pan with olive oil, butter, shallot, white wine,  parsley, lemon juice, sprinkled with sea salt and served with warmed crusty bread to sop up the jus. Washed it all down with Picq Chablis - perfectly crisp, racy, focused and mineral - soooo good with all the briny, oceanic complexity of the scallop entier. Next was grouper dotted with butter and broiled, with thin slices of lemon and some herbs added late to caramelize, add flavor and retain moisture in the fish. Served with summer veggie ratatouille (garlic, olive oil, eggplant, summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes - all sauteed), jersey corn side, juicy yellow and red heirloom tomatoes (each so completely unique in their tomato-ness!) and a delicious Cru Beaujolais from Emile Cheysson in Chiroubles. Enjoy the late summer season!

Great Dinner at Veritas

Had a fantastic dinner at Veritas last evening - started with tasty Amuse Bouches, then Frogs Legs, followed by delicious Duck Breast, and summery peach/blueberry dessert - but as good as the food was, the wines stole the show. While I am sure there are those who think that the life of an MW is nothing but grand dinners and great old wines, I can assure you that evenings with wines like these are few and far between with most days spent grinding it out in the retail trenches. So it was especially nice to be invited to share these superb wines - thank you Brad

Fevre Chablis Les Clos 2007 - Liked it alot but perhaps I was rushed and a little late and just didn't write much about it - was very good and great starter! Could be heading to that place between post youthful exhuberance and before secondary notes emerge.

Roumier 85 Chambolle Musigny les Amoureuses - Lovely aromatic nose right out of the gate; feminine sweet red fruits, sexy, earthy with some intriguing darker warm tones underneath. This is drinking just where I like them, sur point and in a perfect state with lovely mature secondary aromas, but still retaining freshness. Fantastic 1er Cru that hung in easily with the Musigny. Beautiful to the last drop!

JF Mugnier Musigny 1985 - A little more closed and reticent at first, with maybe a just a whiff of bottle funk? Darker color, and nose opened to reveal more dark fruits and spice than the Amoureuses; on the palate more muscular and a bit more depth and more structure too. Mature and ready to enjoy, but also still well this side of old and not showing any tertiary sous bois tones. This was a delicious, solid beautiful wine that evloved and got better and better as it opened in the glass.

Stages 18 and 19 - July 23 and 24th: Bordeaux

Today the Tour rides up through the Bordeaux Appellations of Graves and Sauternes and into the City of Bordeaux, where Saturday's time trial stage from there to Pauillac will most likely determine the winner of the race. The wines of Bordeaux at first glance seem to need no introduction. Among the most famous and expensive in the world, the top Classified wines of this region are sought after by collectors and investors the world over. This year, the region was brought into the world spotlight with the recently concluded futures campaign for the superb 2009 vintage. They are fairly easy to understand, the reds being blends of up to five grapes, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, with Malbec, and Petit Verdot in support, and mainly Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon for the whites.  Finding value here is a bit trickier, and a lesser known fact is that there are so many wines beyond the top 100 or so estates, with 57 Appellations and by some counts up to 10,000 growers. There are also excellent value in less hyped vintages that are often better than they are portrayed in the press and earlier maturing than the great classic years. There are great inexpensive crisp whites from Entre Deux Mers, fantastic red wine values in the Cote des Francs, Cotes de Castillon, Fronsac and smaller estates in the Medoc, second labels from some of the top properties and even some delicious rose wines produced. I went to Bordeaux early this spring to taste the terrific 2009's - for a look at my thoughts on the vintage click  Bordeaux. For our full list of 2009 futures, click the link. In the meantime, here are a few favorites that are currently in stock. To purchase, click any of the wine below and enjoy the race as it captures the stately manicured and formal beauty of one of the great wine regions of the world!

2007 Chateau Lauriol Bordeaux Cotes de Francs - $19.50 - The Cotes de Francs has always been an area where great value can be found with soft, fruit driven wines. However, in 2007 the sun smiled on this area and Chateau Lauriol made a tremendous wine that is drinking beautifully but could stand up to short term cellaring. At 100% Merlot, this velvety dark berry infused wine possesses a touch of leather, smoke and cassis fruit. Very good concentration here.

Region: Cotes de Francs (Bordeaux), France

Grape: 100% Merlot

Drink: Now - 2014

Cuisine: Grilled and barbecued meats

ABV: 13.5%

Manoir de Gravaux Cotes du Castillon - $19.50 - This is a classic blend of 88% Merlot & 12% Cabernet Franc from the Cotes de Castillon. This region shares much of the same soil, climate and characteristics of its immediate neighbor St. Emilion, produceing ripe, lush mouthfilling and supple Merlot dominated wines. This is made by superstar winemaker Stephane Derenencourt, one of the top consulting winemakers in Bordeaux. Drink now 2015+. Serve with classic beef, lamb, duck and other hearty dishes.

Region: Bordeaux, France (Cotes du Castillon)

Grapes: Merlot and Cabernet Franc

Drink: Now - 2015

Cuisine: Beef, Lamb, Duck

ABV: 13.5%

2006 La Violette Manoir de Gravaux Cotes de Castillion - $29 - While still a young appellation by French standards (AOC status in 1989), there is no denying that the quality of wines emerging from this Right Bank area of Bordeaux offer outstanding quality at attractive prices. Cotes de Castillon is made up of nine villages strewn along the eastern side of the Dordogne River. There is no white wine production here as the basic Right bank smorgasbord of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec comprise the varietals grown in the area. There are over 2900 hectares under vine but most of the chateaus are small, averaging about 10 hectares of vineyards. Sandy gravel soils over a base of limestone lend a perfect combination of bright fruit and modest structure.

Terra Burdigala is a partnership between two superstars in Bordeaux with a focus on excellent quality offering tremendous value. Stephane Derenoncourt (the famed winemaker of such legendary wines as La Mondotte and Le Pin) handles the work in the vineyards and winery while his partner Francois Thienpont (owner of Vieux Chateau Certan) handles the business side of the partnership. "La Violette" is a single vineyard on the property that borders Chateau de l'A, Stephane's personal vineyard holding. The clay-limestone plateau has perfect exposition and this hand-harvested wine is treated to twelve months maturation in barrel prior to bottling. The vines average 45 years of age and the tiny two hectare plot is trimmed to very low yields as only 750 cases are produced yearly. A silky blend of 92% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc, the La Violette lives up to its name with pungent violet aromatics, deep blackberry fruit and a long sweet tannin filled finish. From the sleeper 2006 vintage, a wine that is lush enough to drink now but will age and improve for 4-6 years.

Region: Bordeaux, France (Cotes du Castillon)

Grapes: Merlot and Cabernet Franc

Terroir: Clay and limestone

Drink: Now - 2016

ABV: 13.5%

2006 Chateau Les Trois Croix Cannon Fronsac, Bordeaux - $25 - Patrick Leon and his family purchased this picturesque Fronsac estate with the singular goal of making a wine as dynamic as Mouton Rothschild in Fronsac. A tall order indeed...but Msr. Leon has "terroir" on side. The vines of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc are planted at 86 meters high on a plateau of limestone--the highest estate in the region. That elevation as well as the superior exposition of the vines, lends concentration to the wine. The 2006 is a juicy little devil, with plums, kirsch, lavender, graphite and hints of toasty oak commingling in the glass. There is certainly structure present, but it's hard to deny the lovable nature the wine displays today. A fantastic value to be enjoyed now through 2016.

Region: Canon Fronsac, Bordeaux, France
Grape: Merlot and Cab Franc
Drink: Now - 2016
ABV: 13.5%

2005 Chateau Saint Hilaire Medoc "Cru Bourgeois" - $25 - With vines located in the gravel-laden soils of Jau Dignac Loirac and even older ones in Queyrac, this estate owned by Adrien Uijttewaal spent over 10 years sending their grapes to a winegrowers co-op. Finally in 1995, they felt that they had high enough quality grapes to make a wine of which they could be proud enough to adorn the name Saint-Hilaire. After a 12 month stint in 33% new French oak, this blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc is gorgeously endowed Bordeaux. Juicy and ripe mixed red fruits, lush black raspberries, smoke, fresh herbs and a touch of oak frame this wine that is surprisingly wide open but certainly has the bones for aging. Enjoy it now (with a little decant) and over the next 8 years.

Region: Medoc (Bordeaux), France

Grapes: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot & 5% Cabernet Franc

Vinification: 12 months French Oak (40% new)

Drink: Now (with a decant) Best: 2014 - 2018

Cuisine:

ABV: 13%

2006 Vieux Chateau Certan Pomerol - $189 (sale price) - Vieux Chateau-Certan has been owned by the Theinpont family since 1924 (along with Troplong-Mondot in Saint Emilion which they acquired just three years prior). It is one of the top states with an impeccable "terroir" in the heart of Pomerol. Surrounded by great chateaux such as P??trus, La Conseillante and L'Evangile, the vineyards are composed of gravelly soils with sub-soils of iron-rich clay and a bit of sand and are planted to 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Alexandre Theinpont completes a severe green harvest, often dropping over 50% of the fruit to increase concentration. Probably the finest wine this estate has produced, there is no doubt that the 2006 VCC is the wine of the vintage. Lavish wild berries, smoke, incense, leather, licorice, cassis and ripe plums have tremendous weight, but that unmistakable Pomerol elegance. While it is forward and supple enough to enjoy right now, this is an all-time classic for the cellar to be enjoyed from 2018 through 2030.

Region: Pomerol (Bordeaux), France

Grape: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon

Drink: 2018-2030

Cuisine: Lamb shank, Porterhouse, Venison

ABV: 14%