I was out the other night with a pack of sommeliers (and my erstwhile colleague Kate Krader) for that once-in-a-while get-together that we have, the purpose of which is to eat cheap food and drink high-end wine. This has led in the past to the not-entirely-surprising discovery that Quintarelli Amarone goes pretty darn well with the cowboy steak at Hill Country (which is effectively most of a cow, seared) and the somewhat more unpredictable discovery that '98 Jermann Vintage Tunina goes well with the duck tongues at Fuleen, which I wrote about here. 

Anyway, this time Bernie Sun, wine director for all of the Jean-Georges restaurants and a man of as noble spirit as he is skilled with grill tongs, hosted us all at his Upper West Side apt., which happens to have that key grilling necessity, a back yard. We were not an army, but we did eat the food of an army, including a long-bone steak that looked like something one Cro Magnon would use to whomp another Cro Magnon on the head with, a pile of merguez (or was it andouille?) sausages, a small bay's worth of shrimp, a Wagyu ribeye that utterly failed to meet the "cheap food" criteria but was mighty darn delicious, some vegetables to which I paid no attention whatsoever, and—key to this rambling account—lamb chops.

The weird thing was that the wine that without question went best with the lamb chops was a 2001 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er Cru. Of course, wearing my normal pairing hat (it's blue, with stars on it), I would never think to pair aged white Burgundy with grilled lamb chops. But wearing my "it's open, so that's what I'm drinking, and plus it's Leflaive, and I'm no fool" hat, I did so anyway, and it was fabulous. Something about the deep spiciness and savory qualities of this white seemed to intensify the flavor of the meat in an uncanny way. Nor am I out of my mind; or at least if I am, then Arnaud Devulder of Lever House, who agreed with me, is out of his mind as well. And I know Arnaud, and he's sane. So there you have it.

© photo by Maura McEvoy
watermelon coolers

Several people wrote in wondering what the other two drinks that we had on Today were—the ones sitting up front that we ran out of time before we could get to. Both are terrific. One's a simple watermelon cooler (recipe here) created by Susan Mason, a caterer in Savannah, GA. The other is a bit more complicated, but a very cool drink—the Thai Boxer (recipe here), from Scott Beatty at Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA.

I was on Today this morning, mixing up some Labor Day cocktails with Hoda Kotbe and Kathie Lee Gifford. It was, as is usual for the fourth hour of the show, a rather, um, freewheeling segment. We didn't exactly make it through both drinks, though I did get kissed on the lips by KLG, much to my surprise (this was cut from the video on the Today site, but a number of friends emailed right after it happened with comments like "OMG!", so evidently it did air). ANYWAY.

The cocktails we actually demo'd were a very pretty one from our 2008 Food & Wine Cocktails book (buy it here) called the Belle de Jour, which was invented at Eastern Standard in Boston. It's a Champagne cocktail—a touch of Benedictine (I subbed B&B at home last night practicing it, to no ill effect), Cognac, grenadine and lemon juice, then top with Champagne. Then we did a white wine and sparkling cider sangria from Steven Raichlen, which is great for parties; it's floating around in our summer drink slideshow. Both are tasty, and if you increase the proportions on the Belle de Jour, you can actually whip out quite a few of them quickly, a key requirement for Labor Day cookouts and whatnot.

Yes, back from a vacation in Maine and once more able to breathe the fumes of New York without all those pesky ocean breezes and pine trees and whatnot messing things up. But, because research must always continue, even while sitting on a dock with a lobster in front of you, I have two things to note:

1. Lobster is very, very cheap right now. The Boston Globe reported on this in depth, and I'm here to report on it very shallowly: $7 a pound, two days ago. (For a live lobster, soft-shell, though I saw hardshells advertised at nearly the same price at another place.) This to me is a mighty fine thing. 

2. Lobster tastes very good with the 2006 Ramey Russian River Valley Chardonnay ($38). It's a pricey bottle of Chardonnay, but Dave Ramey manages to balance classic Russian River apple and cream notes with exactly the right level of lively acidity, or at least manages to grow grapes that do that and then doesn't get in their way. Terrific white for rich seafood. Now, if only I could leave town again... 

Tasting Room will be on hiatus until Monday, August 25.