The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

These days with baby Evan, I find less time to get out for fancy dinners, much less document them. Fortunately, I found a few minutes to sit down and rave about my friend Scott's mouth-watering paella feast from Friday night. The dinner started with tapas, which paired well with one of Italia's top white wines - Marisa Cuomo "Fiorduva" 2006 - a supreme expression of three (unheard-of) indigenous grapes (30% Fenile, 30% Ginestra and 40% Ripoli) from Furore on the Amalfi Coast of Campania. A fitting description from K&L website : "Fresh, like the sea, the wine envelops with lemony zip on the nose and notes of apricot and tropical fruit with hints of ocean air that continue from the bouquet onto the honeyed and floral palate." There is plenty of acidity and body. Italy's answer to white Burgundy? (How dare I?!!!) The 2006 is drinking with elegance, matching well the gorgeous tapas - padrons, red peppers with fried garlic vinaigrette, shrimps with lem...

For the pre-baby party at Domaine du Chevsky, my friend Chef Hector (technology architect by day, and chef and wino extraordinaire by weekend) cooked up a storm. Two incredible paellas that make me salivate just thinking of them a week later! Seafood - with mussels, squid, shrimp and chorizo sausage. The aromas of ocean and saffron and toasty rice beckoned. Incredible paella. Perfect with a sparkling Italian rosé from De Faveri (we killed almost a case). And the meat paella - with beef shank, pork ribs, and blood sausage. Blood sausage? Hell yeah! Out of this world - amazing! Excellent with a Cotes du Rhone from the ever-reliable St. Cosme (2009, 3 magnums gone quickly). I could have gone all traditional Spanish with wine - with Rioja and such, but somehow sparkling rosé from Italy and a deep Cotes du Rhone from Southern France felt more festive. But for purists, Riojas and Vinho Verde were on hand ("under the counter"). I poured the Cotes du Rhone blind, and the cr...

Yours truly was hosting a barbecue for Memorial Day at Domaine du Chevsky last night. Meats were marinading, wines chilling. Massive food & wine debauchery ensued, and one pairing stood out above all, courtesy of Scott H., chef and wine guru extraordinaire. Before the meat hit the grill, Scott's prawn paella with chorizo sausage filled the perfect spot of the hungry crowd of gourmets! Accompanied by a lovely bottle of Tavel. Rosé! Yes, gents, you can get off your high horses and stop poopooing the pink. Tavel , of course, is the only appellation in the world dedicated solely to Rosé wine. ...We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to make an annoucement. The rest of this article now appears on Gary Vaynerchuk's corkd.com , where I debut today as one of the select group of wine bloggers. Corkd editorials are geared towards wine education of wine drinkers of all (beginner?) levels. Jon Troutman , the chief editor, oversees all corkd posts, whereas this site - Iron C...