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A Good Appetite

  • A Good Appetite

    Excerpted from JUST ENOUGH LIEBLING by A. J. LIEBLING

    The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. Each day brings only two opportunities for field work, and they are not to be wasted minimizing the intake of cholesterol. They are indispensable, like a prizefighter's hours on the road. (I have read that the late French professional gourmand Maurice Curnonsky ate but one meal a day-dinner. But that was late in his life, and I have always suspected his attainments anyway; so many mediocre witticisms are attributed to him that he could not have had much time for eating.) A good appetite gives an eater room to turn around in. For example, a nonprofessional eater I know went to the Restaurant Pierre, in the Place Gaillon, a couple of years ago, his mind set on a sensibly light meal: a dozen, or possibly eighteen, oysters, and a thick chunk of steak topped with beef marrow, which M. Pierre calls a Délice de la Villette-the equivalent of a "Stockyards" Delight." But as he arrived, he heard M. Pierre say to his headwaiter, "Here comes Monsieur L. Those two portions of cassoulet that are left-put them aside for him." A cassoulet is a substantial dish, of a complexity precluding its discussion here. (Mr. Root devotes three pages to the great controversy over what it should contain.) M. Pierre is the most amiable of restaurateurs, who prides himself on knowing in advance what his friends will like. A client of limited appetite would be obliged either to forgo his steak or to hurt M. Pierre's feelings. Monsieur L., however, was in no difficulty. He ate the two cassoulets, as was his normal practice; if he had consumed only one, his host would have feared that it wasn't up to standard. He then enjoyed his steak. The oysters offered no problem, since they present no bulk.

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October 21, 2007

2006 Pinot Noir for $20/bottle (or so)***

Affordable Oregon Pinot

We have tasted as many 2006 Oregon Pinot Noirs as we could find. This is our advice: Get'em while you can!  This is our report:

Eveshamwood( Russ Raney at Evesham Wood, photo by Bertrand Celce ) 

With a few exceptions, all of the Pinot we drank, and we drank a lot, was good, fun and easy to drink. As Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher ( wine reviewers at the Wall St. Journal ) put it in A Wine Lover's Everyday Dozen, "We'd probably spend about $20 or so on a California or Oregon Pinot Noir...because these days, there are few wines as reliably food-friendly and delicious.

To our taste these are the four stand outs.  Each of them improves with a little time -in the glass and the bottle.  Each of them compares favorably with wines which consistently impress us, but cost significantly more.

In order from balanced to bold:

2006 - Evesham Wood - Willamette Valley 

2006 - Harmonia - Quercus Wines 

2006 - Lange Winery - Willamette Valley 

2006 Westrey – Willamette Valley 

For more information. see Pinot Noir Tasting Notes

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