Bella Luna: New Year's Eve Celebration

Bella Luna and The Milky Way Lounge & Lanes are celebrating New Year’s Eve one final time…

This will be Bella Luna’s last New Year’s Eve party atop The Milky Way. Why? Well, Bella Luna will be moving to a new location in March and wants to celebrate with a Big Bang! So enjoy a prefixe dinner for $35 at Bella Luna or The Milky Way with a special three course New Year’s Eve Menu.

Appetizers & Salads:
Lobster & Basil Bisque
Parmesan Dusted Flat Bread
Organic Greens and Honeyed Pears
Gorgonzola Cheese, Candied Walnuts with Champagne Vinaigrette
Pan Seared Herbed Goat Cheese
Tomato Jam, Basil Infused Greens

Entrees:
Grass Fed Beef Tenderloin & Gorgonzola Demi Glaze with Whipped Fontina Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Lemon Rubbed Asparagus
Maple Seared Diver Scallops, Lobster & Sweet Potato Gnocchi paired with Fennel and Celery Root
Striped Bass with Orange and Star Anise and Crispy Parmesan Risotto Cake, Basil Beurre Blanc Mint and Garlic Rubbed Rack of Lamb with Crimini Mushroom and Yukon Hash and Grilled Lemon Rubbed Asparagus

Desserts:
Banana Fritti--Fried Banana with a warm Hazelnut White Chocolate and House Caramel
Midnight Cannoli--Dark Chocolate Cannoli with an espresso cream sauce garnished with lemon zest
Milky Way Lava Cake--Flourless Chocolate Cake Filled with a Peanut Butter Torte Filling

If you are not in the mood to dine and just want to party like it’s 2009 then head downstairs to the Milky Way and for only $15 after 9:00pm you’ll enjoy their 2009 dance party featuring an all star cast of DJs such as: DJ Knife, Ghostdad, and Lone Wolf. Don’t miss this special night with dancing, games, prizes and more!

For more information please call 617-524-6060 or email cdowns@milkywayjp.com. For dinner reservations please call 617-524-3740 x. 12 or email beth@milkywayjp.com.

Bella Luna Restaurant and The Milky Way Lounge & Lanes
403-405 Centre St.
Jamaica Plain, MA

Wine Advocate Still Has Power

Decanter (11/08) reported on an interesting tale of the continuing power of the Wine Advocate and their scores.

Farr Vintners, which specializes in high end wines, was having difficulty selling Taylors Vintage Port 2003, despite it being an excellent wine. From November 2005 to June 2008, they had only sold 15 cases. But in July 2008, over the course of only two days, they sold more than 150 cases of this wine. And they could have sold even more if they had more cases in stock.

What happened was that the Wine Advocate gave this wine 100 points, a perfect score. Jay Miller provides the scores for Ports for the Wine Advocate. So, with this score, the demand for the wine skyrocketed, indicating that the Wine Advocate still has great power, even if the review is not specifically from Robert Parker.

Yet if this wine was so good, then why didn't others see that before the Wine Advocate score was released? There is much I could say here yet it would be repetitious of much I and others have said before. Just know there are great wines out there, still undiscovered by the primary wine print media, and that you should seek such wines out.

Decanter: November 2008

Decanter, a British wine magazine, remains one of my favorite wine magazines especially because it covers such a wide variety of topics and regions. I read many of the wine magazines but Decanter remains high on my list. Their November 2008 issue had plenty of interesting articles and essays and I want to highlight some of them.

• The ban of Georgian wine by Russia and how it has enhanced the quality of Georgian wines. (p.14)
• Understanding the different tastes of China, the differences of Beijing and Shanghai. (p.31)
• "Why Spain is the Most Exciting Wine Country in Europe" (p.41)
• Terroir in Spain, the regions of Ribera Sacra and Bierzo (p.46)
• South Australian Rieslings (p.62)
• Can You Train Your Nose? (p.94)
• A lengthy section on the wines of Portugal. (p.80-94)
• All about Olive Oil. (p.116)
• Plus, each issue has a wine-related cartoon and some of them have been quite clever.

There are plenty of additional articles and essays as well but you can see the diversity from the above. Many other wine magazines rarely have so much diversity in each issue. Their articles on less common wine regions are infrequent, yet Decanter regularly touches on these areas. So check out Decanter and learn more about the entirety of the world of wine.

The Beehive: New Year's Eve Celebration

As it is the holiday season, we are also looking toward the end, to New Year's Eve. And now is the time to start making your plans, to ensure you get reservations for that busy holiday. Why not celebrate 2009 in style at The Beehive’s 2nd Annual New Year’s Eve Celebration – “The End is at Hand!”

The Beehive is offering an extravagant night of bohemian decadence and eccentric fun. Spend your New Year’s Eve exploring your senses as you take in the wonder of the bawdry performance of the Pinchbottom Burlesque and dance the night away to the live soul sounds of Reality, the East Coast's hottest music collective featuring powerhouse vocalists Shea “Roxstar” Rose, Tania Jones and Nadine Ford, all under the musical direction of drummer Jovol “Bam Bam” Bell.

Executive Chef Rebecca Newell will feature passed plates of gypsy fare and desserts throughout the evening with influences from Europe, the Mediterranean and good ol’ Americana; all served in a cocktail setting. Continue your celebration and toast the evening with The Beehive’s list of over 60 Champagnes!

Event Begins at: 9:00pm and runs until 2:30am. Cost for the event is $95.00 per person which includes admission + food in addition to a cash bar or $75.00 person without food. Tickets/Reservations are available by calling the Beehive at 617-423-0069 or by logging on to www.beehiveboston.com

The Beehive
541 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
Phone: 617-423-0069

2007 Barkan Classic Pinot Noir

While persuing the shelves of the Lower Falls Wine Co., I saw that they had only a single wine from Israel. It was rare to see such wines here. Yet I knew that if they stocked the wine, it was likely an excellent choice so I bought it. It is so hard for me to leave this wine store without buying a case of new wines.

Barkan Winery, located in the the Barkan Industrial zone near the city of Ariel, was founded in 1990 by Shmuel Boxer and Yair Lerner, who were the largest grape growers of the Stock Winery. Their initial plan was to improve and enlarge the winery, to make it more competitive. This improvement included the planting of new wines, with quality grapes. Eventually, they found the winery was too small to handle all of the new grapes. In 1999, they purchased some land at Kibbutz Hulda and built an innovative, modern winery. It was also designed to be a major tourist attraction with a library and wine museum.

The winery produces several lines of wines, such as Classic, Reserve, Altitude, Domaine and Superieur. The Classic lines are premium wines made from grape varieties recognized around the world as top quality grapes. Red wines in this line are fermented at moderate temperatures in rotary fermentors to combine maximum color and body with the fruit character.

The 2007 Barkan Classic Pinot Noir ($14) is produced from grapes from the high desert vineyard at Mitzpeh-Ramon, at an altitude of about 750 meters. It sees no oak and only has an alcohol content of 13%. It is also Kosher/Mevushal. I opened this for Thanksgiving and found it to be a very fruit forward Pinot. There was a rush of strawberry, cherry and raspberry flavors on the palate with hints of spice. It had a relatively short finish and was not too complex. All in all, it was not my preferred style of Pinot. For the price, it was ok, and others seemed to enjoy it. But it did not impress me.