What a week! From last week’s food crowd to this week’s trade shows, we have had an eventful one at The Treehouse!

It all started Saturday, when winemaker Scott Harvey came for lunch, bringing several from his selection to share, including his Zin, Barbera, Syrah and a couple blends – along with a lovely rose and a fantastic Riesling (Scott learned to make wine in Germany). In fact, when he returned from Germany, he bought the acreage from his grandfather, who made wine using an old steel milk container and a baseball bat.

When Scott started making wine, an old pickup truck pulled up to the winery one day, and it was grampa, who said if Scott was going to make the wine from now on, he should have all of the winemaking tools his grandfather used…so he dropped off the milk container and the bat! No word from Scott on whether he actually used them.

Incidentally, Mr. Harvey said his favorite wine was whatever his wife wanted to drink that night…if you know what I mean.

The owner, chef and other staff from Aubriana’s joined us for lunch, and made the mistake of inviting us to their restaurant for dinner after the Choice trade show. An invitation we would not pass on!

After we tasted his, we opened up a few of our own, including BenMarco and Loco (from Joel’s private stock). In all, we killed 14 bottles…

Anyway, Tuesday rolled around, and it was to head to Thalian Hall to taste wine. We decided we should eat something first and carbo-loaded at Slice of Life, on pizza and Front Street Brewery’s Scotch Ale. By the time we left, the show had about four hours left. There were 250 wines to taste, and we had four hours to do it. Once I calculated that out to more than one wine per minute, I knew we weren’t going to get through them all, so I decided to pace myself.

My notes indicate I tasted 48 wines, not including the last glass of Pomerol I poured for myself (a generous pour, I must say). Looking at the price sheet today, I see that this lovely French wine was more than $55 wholesale. Mmmm.

We left sometime after five, and headed for Circa, where we had cappuccino and pot du crème, and then got back into the wine with a glass of the Rosso Piceno, some spring rolls and tuna sushi. There is way more to this story, but since this is a family blog, we will save that for another time, after the kids go to sleep…

Then it was on to Aubriana’s, for an amazing meal, good wine and camaraderie. I did not take notes on the wine we drank with dinner, so I am really not even sure how many bottles we drank. I do know we started with Tin Barn Syrah, because there is a cork print in my notebook. After that, I’m not sure. Although I do remember, at one point, there were two full decanters on the table, and they were emptied and refilled…at least once.

I had an amazing veal chop, some awesome mussels, and some crostinis with filet and blue cheese. I don’t know what time it was when we finally departed, and headed back to our riverfront condos, but I do know we were the last people there.

We finished the night with a glass of the Cote Sud Merlot, and then slipped off to slumbertown.

Wednesday morning would begin another adventure, but we will leave that for next week, as we are already running long.

Coming up on Valentine’s Day, we will have some specials for you and your sweetie, or if you are just on the prowl, and looking for a valentine, we may be able to help there, too (no promises!). We will have Lisa and Galen playing our Jazz Brunch on the 14th, then Galen will return for dinner to play jazz guitar, while Lisa will don her gypsy garb, and do some fortune telling for the ladies. We will do some food and wine specials as well…although I haven’t decided what they will be as of yet…I will update later.

Anyway, I obviously did not get this out before I went out of town, but c’est la vie! I will be doing tonight’s tasting, and then we are back into the weekend again!

So, come on down to The Treehouse Bistro, and let the 2 Wine Guys @ The Grind pour you a glass and fix you a plate!

Shawn

Yes, Valentine’s Day is almost here. Fellas, you have three short weeks to get your you-know-what together, or else spend the rest of this long, cold, dark winter doing manual labor. If you know what I mean.

Let me see if I can help. Sure, jewelry is always nice, but, in his economy, who can afford diamonds for some random “holiday,” made important by some fat sot of an English poet named Chaucer? Chocolate is always nice, and is a sweet symbol of love. And, what goes better with chocolate than wine? Specifically, a nice Syrah.

Speaking of Syrah, this Friday will be our first “Friday Night Ladies’ Flight Night,” featuring, you guessed it, Syrah. A beautiful grape, showing excellent fruit, balance and structure. One of a number of nearly ancient French varietals, we will be showcasing Syrahs from Washington and California. For $20, you will taste three Syrahs, get a full glass of the one you liked best, and a dinner special specifically created to pair with the wine.

Festivities begin at 7 p.m., and if you think you might be interested in attending, shoot me an email so I can gauge how many people might show. And, yes ladies, if you want to bring a male friend, we will allow it (but they will have to sit off to the side, and be on their best behavior!).

OK, back to daily business. We tasted over a dozen new wines over the past week (well, most were new…some we had tasted before, but we kept mum so the vendors would keep pouring!), as well as a couple bad boys compliments of our boy Jeremy. Monday was The Mayor’s birthday (he may look good, but he is getting old), and there was a small celebration Sunday with cake and wine. One of our customers made the cake for Joel, which is unbelievably nice. She also made the “2 Wine Guys” cake for our anniversary last May. Have I mentioned that we have the best customers?

We tasted a dirty, dirty French blend of Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc and Petite Verdot, along with an exceptional Pinot Noir and a Seghesio Sangiovese. Seghesio is an old Italian winemaking family from Sonoma, and, if you pay attention, I have written about their Zinfandel before. All of their wines are exceptional.

Anyhoo, Esther, from Ararat, will be pouring some South Americans this Thursday. Some nice red blends and a Chardonnay. Don’t be late!

Next week, I will have to try to get this newsletter out early as we have a wine trade show Tuesday, and a restaurant trade show Wednesday. I will be out of commission both days, for obvious reasons, so I hope to have this out Monday. We will see.

OK, enough information for now. The weather is beautiful, we are at the beach, and we have wine. Soooo, come on down to The Treehouse Bistro, and let the 2 Wine Guys @ The Grind pour you a glass and fix you a plate!
Shawn

I have long said we have the best customers. I mean, not only do they come in regularly for wine, coffee and food, but, essentially, they built us a kitchen. Sure, they want their money back, but is that really all that unreasonable?

Well, maybe a little. But we can live with it.

One of those investors, though, has not only become a good friend, but has been entirely ruined. He and his lovely bride used to drink cheap Chianti. Chilled. Seriously. But they closed us down our first night open many moons ago. Recently, those same (previously) cheap wine drinkers came in with a couple Saddleback Cabs, including a Venge Cab from the same winemaker, a 1999, for us to taste. I have been told, before, that we create wine snobs…well, the proof is in the decanter.

Yes, that 1999 was one of the best wines I ever tasted. From Oakville (a small corner of Napa, known for excellent Cabs). All my notes say is this: “Oh my God!” Enough said.

And this was followed by Robert Craig Affinity (a personal favorite), and then BenMarco Expressivo. You know, some nights really are better than others. Robert Craig has long been on my top five list, and I was reminded why that night. After tasting an amazing, huge, full-in-your-face Cab, old Bob came through with elegance and style, fruit and tannins gently balanced in a dance across my palate worthy of the Bolshoi’s prima ballerina.

I was, however, not able to enjoy all these delicious wines, as we had a dinner rush, so I was pushed back into the kitchen, and forced to prepare food. OK, so I am exaggerating. We did have customers, but I was actually thrilled to go back into the kitchen and cook. Which, incidentally, I love to do. But walking out onto the deck, looking in the window and seeing customers eating, drinking and laughing…well, that just does my heart good. It tells me we are on the right track.

And, if you saw last week’s review, it appears one of the Star-News food writers agrees. We had a fair number of people – some old, some new – come in to try our butternut squash ravioli after it was featured (in full color) in Thursday’s newspaper.

I think I will add it to my new Food Network show pitch, “Cardiac Cooking.” Everyone is doing healthy food these days, I think someone needs to get on there and show people how to eat! Butter is your friend. Julia Child ate a stick every day, and drank wine, and lived into her 80’s. Yes, she is my role model! If you have not seen the move “Julie & Julia,” Meryl Streep does Julia great justice, but, more importantly, the cookbook upon which the movie is based is one of my personal favorites, and one that I have had in my collection since I was a young whippersnapper. There is no better Coq Au Vin recipe, and the roast chicken that comes out of your oven from her first book, well, it is other-worldly.

Anyway, I am pouring wine at the Chamber social this week (at the Aquarium), and will be pouring at tomorrow’s tasting as well. And then, we are right back into the weekend (it is a vicious cycle!). Teresa has come up with a few new desserts, and we are revamping our menu to include some of the specials that have been very popular.

So, come on down to The Treehouse Bistro, and let 2 Wine Guys @ The Grind pour you a glass and fix you a plate!

Shawn

I keep saying our food is good…looks like someone agrees!

Wilmington Star-News coverage of the Treehouse!

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100105/ARTICLES/1054005?p=1&tc=pg

Well, if New Year’s Eve is any indication, this could be a great year for The Treehouse Bistro. December 31 was the single biggest day we have ever experienced at our little shop, as we fed people all day long, and had an awesome crowd for the Champagne tasting and dinner – many of whom lingered to watch the midnight fireworks from our deck and toast 2010. We had Galen playing awesome jazz guitar, which helped set the mood for a cool New Year.

Our man Lee, from Ocean South, and soon-to-be sommelier Liz, brought us a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve to toast the New Year. A beautiful, delicious Champagne, which made the end of the year even more memorable.

New Year’s Day, I started my Cabernet Sauvignon, which is currently in the middle of its primary fermentation. I drank a bottle of BenMarco Expressivo and Seghesio Zinfandel while I started the process, and can only hope my wine turns out to be a fraction as good as either of those delicious offerings.

The evening also brought us a blue moon, so I am torn as to what to call the Cab. We had settled on Wrecking Ball, but I may divide the batch, put one in the barrel and the other straight to bottle. The unoaked would be the Blue Moon Cab, and the barrel-aged would be the Wrecking Ball. We will see how I feel as it comes along.

The hydrometer reading gave me an estimated alcohol level of 10.1% before the first fermentation, so it will likely ring in at about 13.5-14% by the time it is all said and done. Again, we will see. That is assuming I actually did everything correctly, and followed directions…which I am certain I did not. But that is why we try…to learn.

Anyway, one of the things we will introduce this month is a “Friday Night Ladies’ Flight Night.” For a set price, you will get to taste three samples of the same varietal, get a full glass of the one you like best, and a food item to pair with the wine. If you think you might be interested in participating, hit me back and I will see what kind of response we get.

I will be doing the tasting this week, as everyone starts to settle back into their normal, post-holiday schedules. You bought the new iPod Touch for little Timmy, so it is time to do something nice for yourself…maybe a little wine, a little nosh…you know what you like.

But we sure will taste it! Yes, the first batch of Wrecking Ball Cab will go into the hopper this week, as my kit and juice arrived at the shop on Monday. I am starting with juice, and, if everything works out, next time I will try buying the fruit and processing it all myself. Maybe. Let’s just see how this goes…

The juice is from Cali, though no region or vintage is listed, so we will call it 2009. And we WILL taste it along the way. After the first stage fermentation, I am hoping to transfer it into French oak, and see how much I can transform pre-processed juice. I will taste it every month (at least…depending on how good it is, I might have to taste it every day!). If there is anything left to bottle, I will bring one into the shop for sampling.

In the meantime, we are getting ready to wrap up another year here at the Bistro. This was our first full year, and our business changed halfway through to include a kitchen…so 2010 will be our first full year as a restaurant. But the wine has remained constant, and we will have a lot coming in this week, as we have been cleaned out by you wine drinkers! We will have a couple new ones, including the Loco and the Seghesio Zinfandel, both absolutely delicious wines.

We will also have a Champagne tasting Thursday, and stay open until midnight so our customers can toast the New Year, and watch the Boardwalk fireworks from our heated deck. If you don’t have plans, come on up, and if you do have plans, change them!

Anyway, our week started with a very nice, 15-year-old Cab from Kenwood. Lee, from Ocean South, brought it from his private stock, just for the hell of it (our favorite kind of wine). It was a 1994 20th Anniversary Artist Series, which was not only delicious, but also featured a naked lady on the label. We decanted it, and the first couple sips showed bold tannins on the mid-palate, but as the wine settled, those tannins melted away and the wine became nicely balanced. Another five years in the cellar and this one will be stellar (or, would have been, if we hadn’t polished it off!).

There was also a bold Shiraz, balanced with about 4% Viognier. A real fruit bomb, which would have been perfect with a flourless chocolate torte with ganache. Although, quite frankly, it was pretty good all by itself. Add to that a Syrah, a Cab and a Sonoma Zinfandel, and you have a pretty decent evening (or late afternoon…whatever).

We are working on some creative new specials for the coming year, so check back often to see what happens to our menu. The baked grits were a big hit this past Sunday, and I am making something different for brunch this coming week…or should I say, next year? I can’t believe that I just got used to writing 2009, and now it will be 2010. And how do you say that? Do you say “O-10?” Or do you just say “10?” I am so confused!

Either way, this year went by quickly for us, and we are looking forward to this coming year, especially the summer season – a full season with an open kitchen. In the meantime, take a break from the holiday to-ing and fro-ing, and come on down to the Treehouse Bistro, and let the 2 Wine Guys @ The Grind pour you a glass and fix you a plate!

Shawn