Wine Spectator’s Best Wine Lists in San Diego

by Frank Mangio
Each year at this time, the world’s most renowned wine/food magazine Wine Spectator, selects restaurants in the U.S. and around the world, that earned an award for their wine lists.  There are 3 categories.  In order of importance, they are:  Award Of Excellence, Best Of Award Of Excellence and The Grand Award, their highest award, given to very few restaurants “that showed an uncompromising passionate devotion to the quality of the wine list which features a minimum 1,000 selections, with the highest level of service.”

 PAON Restaurant and Wine Bar in Carlsbad was awarded a Best Of Award Of Excellence by Wine Spectator.  From left, owner Mayur Pavagadhi, Master Sommelier Gino Campbell,
and owner Steve Barr.

 
There was just one in San Diego County that was selected for the top award, Addison , at the Grand Del Mar resort. It offers some 3,000 choices. The surprise of the list in San Diego was PAON Restaurant and Wine Bar in Carlsbad , which picked up a Best Of Award Of Excellence.  Wine Spectator presents this award to those “offering 350 or more selections and are destinations for serious wine lovers.”

Pavagadhi and Barr brought Gino Campbell into the operation over a year ago.  His wine credentials were one of the most extensive in the country, as a Certified Advance Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers and a graduate of the Cellar Master’s Program from the University of Bordeaux in France, one of only 69 in the U.S. PAON has over 1,000 wines on its wine list, including some vintage, collectors wines.  All wines are available in its retail wine shop.

Wine events are produced each day of the week at PAON and presented to customers who are made comfortable in love seats, leather chairs and tables. The list includes 3 pages of Pinot Noir, 2 pages of wines from Italy and 3 pages from Bordeaux France.

Other Wine Spectator awards went to:  Amaya, Argyle, Avant, The Barrel Room, BICE, Bistro West, Crab Catcher, Eddie V’s, Firenze, Fleming’s, Il Fornaio, Kitchen 1540, Mille Fleurs, Mister A’s, Morada, Ruth’s Chris, Sbicca, Seasons 52, Truluck’s, Veladora, West Steak & Seafood and the Winesellar & Brasserie.

Parc Bistro-Brasserie a New French Restaurant on Bankers Hill San Diego
Parc Bistro Brasserie, on 5th Avenue in the Bankers Hill District of San Diego, is a comfortable French Restaurant, created by veteran restaurateur Garo Minassian.  Minassian has been successful in previous local formats such as Bistro Bacco, Scalini’s and Harry’s Bar.

Parc Bistro-Brasserie owner Garo Minassian and new Executive Chef Donald Lockhart
display fine wines at the new Bankers Hill San Diego location.

Parc Bistro-Brasserie is the culmination of these, a restaurant that’s a French style village meeting and eating place, to meet friends and make future friends over a joyful menu created by Execuitve Chef Donald Lockhart, formerly from CUSP in La Jolla .  Lobster is the specialty, showing up in the entrée choices as well as an appetizer.  There is a raw fish bar with seafood platters including oysters, lobster and crab.  Parc Bistro-Brasserie is open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner, with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

1,400 wine choices are equally value and premium, with a few great treasures for the wine aficionado.   My choice was Whitehall Lane , a red blend from Napa Valley .  It was the 2013 Tre Leoni ($56. at the restaurant).  It fit nicely as a pairing with the Branzino  Mediterranean, similar to a Sea Bass in flavor, that had tomato, olive and garlic confit as garnishes.  Call 619-715-5101 for a table reservation.

Sharing a Table with the King of Chardonnay

by Frank Mangio
In my last column, I shared some recent experiences in the great desert, from Rancho Mirage to La Quinta.  Palatial resorts, princely restaurants and the hauntingly beautiful Santa Rosa Mountains all caught my attention.

In Palm Desert on El Paseo at Portola, a relaxed European style restaurant, Mitch’s, is where Miljenko (Mike) Grgich comes to lunch from his nearby winter home in La Quinta. It reminds him of his early days as a youthful student of wine in Zagreb , Croatia in the 50’s, before he took his first wine job in Napa Valley in 1958. I got to Mitch’s early for my interview with this

World renowned iconic wine master, 91 year old Grgich is known the world over as the King of Chardonnay since his 1973 vintage Chardonnay won over all the competition  at the Paris Blind Tasting in 1976. His professional life has been and still is, the stuff that makes this nation so great:  a poor immigrant full of ideas about his chosen work, and making them work beyond his imagination.
When he arrived to join me at Mitch’s, he was careful to select just the right table, at the end of a row, with light shade. After a couple of tries, he found a soup to his liking.  I imagined that search for just the right essence came from his need for excellence in making wine.
“Great wine is made in the vineyard, “he said.  “We are caretakers bringing the earth and vines in harmony naturally, to produce pure, healthy grapes.

Then comes the passion, talent and experience of our people to bring them to their full potential. We have five beautiful vineyards with 367 total acres planted.  Our wines are 100% estate grown, produced and bottled.”

Grgich Hllls Estate vineyards in Napa Valley touch almost every district known for excellent wines: Yountville for Cabernet, Merlot and Petit Verdot; Carneros for Chardonnay and Merlot; American Canyon for Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Merlot; Grgich Headquarters in Rutherford , an 18 acre winery and vineyard, for Cabernet  and Petit Verdot; and finally the family home and vineyard in Calistoga with 34 acres of hillside vineyards for century-old Zinfandel that make Miljenko’s Old Vines Zinfandel. “Zinfandel is a special grape for me,” Grgich revealed.

After spending a lot of time doing research and presenting proofs, he traced a variety of the Napa Valley Zinfandel to his homeland of Croatia . The next vintage Old Vine Zinfandel will be out for purchase in March of this year with very limited production.

This year, Grgich Hills Estate will be celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Showdown, another Mike Grgich triumph when the first Chardonnay that was made at Grgich Hills, the 1977 vintage, took first place over 221 other Chardonnays. He is in the Vintners Hall of Fame and has been featured in an award winning documentary, “Like the Old Vine” that describes his life.  The Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History displays his 1973 Chardonnay that won the Paris Tasting.  He is now busy on a book that documents his life, and a movie is being talked about that sets the record straight on the Paris Tasting, more in line with the book “The Judgement of Paris,”authored by Time Magazine correspondent George Taber. In 2013, Grgich established a million dollar endowment fund at the University of Zagreb in Croatia , to help educate future winemakers so its can become a world-class wine industry.

Some five million visitors a year come to Napa Valley which is neither the oldest or the largest wine country in California, but it is the most known and most chosen of the wineries in our great state.  The most compelling reason….one name…Miljenko (Mike) Grgich.  Read more at grgich.com.

Wine Bytes
In Temecula, Thornton Winery’s Chef’s Counter in a private kitchen is presented Fri. Jan. 30 at 7pm. A one of a kind dining experience, you will dine one on one as the chef prepares your five course meal in front  of each guest.  $125. pp.  RSVP at 951-699-0099 x 3129.

Skip Coomber of Coomber Ranch Wines will appear at la Costa Wine Company, Fri. Jan. 30 from 6 to 9pm.  Two Chardonnays, two Pinots and two Cabernets will be poured for $20.  Phone: 760-431-8455.

Capri Blu in Rancho Bernardo will present Rodney Strong Wines of Sonoma in a dinner on Wed. Feb. 4th at 6pm.  Lovely 4 course menu to accompany this award winning winery.  Details including price at 858-673-5100.

PAON Wine Shop in Carlsbad welcomes Tablas Creek Vineyards, Thurs. Feb. 12th starting at 5:30pm.  Wines include:  Vermintino, Espirit de Tablas, Mourvedre, Patelin de Tablas and Espirit de Tablas Rouge.  Price of $35. includes French onion soup, tuna tartar, and Prosciutto with burrata cheese topped with mixed greens.  Find out more at 760-729-7377.