First Wine lunch of the year at Elbert's

My first lunch of the year was at Elbert's. Jay emailed us that Mon, a fellow WSCP member who lives in New York, was leaving after spending his Christmas Holidays in the Philippines, so it was a good excuse to meet up and drink. It was my chance to try the Chef's Burger, which I was not able to try the last time we had lunch at Elbert's.


We arrived all on time at 12:30 and proceeded to order the food and bring out all our wines. We had several wines on Deck, so we chose in which order we would open the wines. But before the reds, we opened a 2007 Wagner Stempel Siefersheimer Riesling QbA Trocken Vom Porphyr. Of course, this was jay's bottle. A very light, crispy, fresh Riesling. This was not as sweet as the others I've tried. It went very well to start our meal and also with the Asian Salad wee had that comes with the Burger Meal.

Next bottle we opened was the 2008 Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir, Rene's Bottle. For me, this was a medium bodies light wine. has potential but I think it still needs 2-4 years more in the bottle to show full potential. Was a good match though with the Burger.

Next bottle: 1999 Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva, Noel's bottle. This is my style of wine (of course it's a Rioja), a medium to heavy bodied wine, although it was quite light in Color. This was not decanted but got even better after a few minutes in the glass.



Our main dish was then served: Elbert's Chef's Special Burger. This is not on the menu, as sometimes they do not have enough stock to make this. Basically, they are made from trimmings of Prime Rib eye, hand chopped and mixed with Bone Marrow. Ours had some Blue Cheese on it and I must say, it was very tasty, moist and probably for the price, the best Burger deal in town. The fries, twice fried, were irresistible!

We had 2 other red wines, 2000 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Riserva Gran Bussia and a 1983 E. Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde, both Mon's Bottles. I enjoyed the Barolo, still quite young but light and easy to drink. The Cote Rotie was light to medium bodied, with a very light color. Was a good wine but I enjoyed the others more.

Our last Bottle: Bodegas González-Byass Apostoles Palo Cortado VORS. I loved this Sherry called Palo Cortado. Since this was a VORS, minimum aging is 30 years. I had asked jay a few days before the lunch if he had tasted any since I was curious. Of course he had tasted it before and had several on stock at home. Thank you Jay for sharing this bottle with us...I will have to buy some for me soon...great Wine.

Thanks Guys!! This was a great start of 2010!! Cheers to more Wine in 2010!!