Dr. Wagner Riesling and Joel Gott Zinfandel
November 30, 2005 by mmparks
Filed under Miscellaneous, Red Wine Reviews, White Wine Reviews, Wine-reviews
On Saturday, my fiance and I went out to dinner with his daughter and son-in-law (I was already tired of those after Thanksgiving Day, turkey leftovers. We went to an EXCELLENT restaurant in Moosic, PA. The name of the restaurant is AV, which stands for Altra Volta and means “Another Time” in Italian. This is a charming family-owned and operated restaurant that would probably be more at home in New York City than in Moosic, PA. However, I’m very glad it’s in Moosic, otherwise we’d have to drive three hours to get there instead of ninety minutes.
As usual, the food and service were outstanding. I had one of the specials; broiled yellow tail sole on a bed of sauted fennel with an herbed buerre blanc sauce. It had a wonderful, delicate flavor and was beautifully presented. My fiance and his daughter, Cinda, had blue nose fish with cashew butter and they both raved about their choice. Mark, Cinda’s husband, had another of the evening’s specials; braised beef short ribs. He said they were fork-tender and delicious. In addition to great food, AV has a very impressive wine list, thanks to Francis, the sommelier and co-owner.
Mark, who also has sommelier credentials, chose the wine for the evening and he could not have done a better job. The first bottle was the Dr. Wagner Riesling. With the first sip, “surperb” is the adjective that comes to mind. It had a fruity, floral nose and a crisp, fruity taste with a complimentary, subtle sweetness. Everyone enjoyed it so much, that had this not been the last bottle, I’m sure we would have ordered another. But as it turned out, that happened to be a stroke of good luck because the next bottle of wine was perhaps even better. Joel Gott, 2002, Zinfandel. This ranks among the best “zins” I’ve ever had. It was like a mouthful of fruit with very subtle tannins and had a complex finish. Had this not been an evening out, I would have taken the time to do a serious tasting and lengthy review. My goal is to enjoy more of these two wines so that I have the opportunity to do just that.
That Saturday was an enjoyable, memorable evening. So I’d like to say thanks to Cinda and Mark and to Chef Michaelyn and the Ghilardi family (owners of AV) for making it possible.
