Betsy and I went to Oceana last night- our friends Ron and Nancy had made reservations for Restaurant Week. I know since Moonen left that Oceana isn't really a star restaurant, but food was very well done, if not cutting edge. Not one of the places that skimp for RW menus. We had a nice meal- I had a mahi eschabeche to start, Ron the fluke sashimi, and the ladies the celeriac soup with scallops and parmesan wafers (the best of the dishes, but all quite good). We went off the RW menu for a taste of gravlax and salmon tartare, then had mains. I had the pan seared hake, Betsy the rockfish, and the others calamari stuffed with seafood sausage. The dessert eaters enjoyed the apple buttermilk cake and pineapple mousse, and agreed the chocolate dessert was adequate but least favorite dish of the night.
We had agreed to be cautious with wine spending, but got the bonus as we sat of being told that in honor of RW that all bottled wines were 30% off. Yippee! We still stayed modest, and got one bottle of red and one of white
2007 Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon Macon-Milly-Lamartine
White pit fruit and a little citrus, rich fruit accented by some nice mineral inflections. There's just a hint of roundness that suggests oak, but nothing obvious. Bigger than your average Macon,but not at all heavy or ungainly. Good acids, nice length, this is really lovely Chardonnay, perfect for a restaurant wine, $50 on list but $35 with the discount. B++
2006 Graillot Crozes-Hermitage
($65/$46 w/discount)This is really too young, but still pretty tasty. At first just dark fruit and some tannins, but opens as we progress through meal.
Ripe blackberries spiked with black pepper, a bit of a roasted meat edge,
some pleasant oregano-ish notes. Still seems a bit coiled and reticent at the end, if I had any of these I'd put away for a few years. B+
We had agreed not to go crazy on wine, and were happy with the Macon and Crozes. Neither Ron or Nancy is especially interested in sweet wines. But if one wanted, the best deals on the list were the Huet dessert wines: '89 LHL 1er at $150, '71 Bourg and '89 Constance @ $180 - before any discount. Assuming those are full bottles, that's very low retail for the Constance before discount I'd guess? Then when we paid they included a slip saying the RW menu and 30% discount would continue till spring. I'd confirm those are full sized bottles, but someone could do well raiding that list.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.