Cru - A Wine Bar

My best friend Kris came into town from California just for a day, and wanted to take me out to a wine bar!  After chatting and catching up for a bit, we set off for the Domain, where our friend Dominique met up with us. Wine bars have the usual glasses and bottles of wine, but one main advantage they have over restaurants are wine flights. A wine flight is usually 3 small glasses of different wines that go together in some way. They are about 2 ounces each and may all be the same type of wine, from the same region, or another similarity like they are all screw top wines. We decided to get 4 flights (2 white and 2 red), which is about 1 1/2 glasses of wine for 3 people.

To go with all our wine, we had to have a cheese plate. We tried to pick one that would go with all the wines we ordered, and finally chose the American plate. Our cheese plate included a Grafton Village 4 year cheddar (which tasted exactly like Petit Pyrenees), a Hudson Valley camembert, and a Laura's Chenel goat cheese. Along with the cheeses we had grapes, apples, pears, fig paste, and a very large basket of bread and crackers. I rated the cheddar a 6.5, the camembert a 2 (it tasted like buttery feet!) and the goat cheese a 6. It had a really weird aftertaste, but especially paired with the fig paste it was pretty good.

For each flight you get a card with all the names of the wine and descriptions of them which I LOVE. I like knowing what I should be looking for in a wine, and its a great way to take notes for later. Here are all the wines we tasted!

Flight #3 WORLD WHITES:
The first flight we tried was called "World Whites" which included wine from "3 different winemaking regions". Surprisingly, 2 of the "world" whites were from California.

Terlato Family Vineyards, Pinot Grigio '05 Russian River Valley, California
The first wine we tried was not very good. It smelled pretty good, yet we all thought it tasted kinda blah and sour. We detected hints of citrus and grapefruit, but none of the vanilla and creamy pear flavors mentioned on the wine card. I rated it a 4, Kris a 5, and Dominique a 4.5 (out of 10).
Domaine Lafond "Roc-Epine" Grenache Blanc-Roussane-Viognier '06, Lirac, Rhone Valley, France
I had never heard of a grenache blanc, and the addition of viognier led me to believe this wine might be a little sweeter. No! Not only was it not sweet, I thought it was bitter and not good at all. We smelled honeysuckle but that was about it. Originally we rated it 5/7/3, but Kris changed his score because this wine got WORSE as it sat out. So final score was 5/4/3. Yuck
Krupp Brothers, "Black Bart", Marsanne '06, Napa Valley, California
After the first two bad wines, this one was a relief. It smelled very good, with honey notes, and tasted decent as well. Dom said it was buttery, almost like a chardonnay, and we rated it 6.5/7.5/5. Its worth mentioning that Dominique had just finished chewing gum before she came, so felt her sense of taste was a little screwed up.

Flight #5 SCREW IT
I much preferred this wine flight to the first one. I gave them all very high scores! These wines were grouped together because they all come in bottles with screw top caps.

Man Vintners, Chenin Blanc '08, Coastal Region, South Africa
This wine is GREAT! It tastes like kiwi, melon, and grapefruit. It smells like a fruit punch, and went very well with the grapes and cheese. I think it was pretty reasonably priced too, which means I will definitely look for this the next time I go to Specs! We rated this 8/8/7.
Kallfelz Estate, Kabinett '07, Mosel, Germany
This wine was pretty good and tasted like honey and apricots. We decided it smelled like the leather inside of a new car, and Clearly Canadian was mentioned! We rated it 7/5/6.
Conundrum '07, California
I was told at Specs that this is the #1 ordered wine by the glass by women in Austin, so I was excited to try it! It actually was really delicious! The description on the card says "honeysuckle and jasmine, with ripe melon, peach, nectarine, and honeycomb", which I think is pretty accurate. We thought it smelled and tasted a bit like a moscato and all gave it high scores. 8/6.5/7.5

Flight #11 PINOT ENVY
These were all pinot noirs from California.

MacRostie , '06 Carneros, California
This wine was a bit forgettable. It had a great cherry smell, but tasted flat and uninteresting. 5/3/5.
Belle Glos "Meiomi" '08, Sonoma/Monterey/Santa Barbara, California
I loved this pinot! It smelled and tasted so incredible with a soft vanilla flavor. Interestingly, the description mentioned allspice, which was really cool! I will look for this wine the next time I am wine shopping. 8/7/7
Emeritus '07, Russian River Valley, California
I think this was one of Kris's favorite of the night. The smell is kinda blah and is a little like pool water, but the TASTE is a shocker. We decided it was "a surprise party in your mouth" because it is so delicious, which is something you would never except from the smell! 8/8.5/5.5

Flight #7 EUROPEAN VACATION
I felt that overall these wines were a little forgettable. Thats probably just a personal preference, but none really stood out to me or made me say WOW.

Monte Antico, Sangiovese-Merlot-Cab Sauvignon '06, Toscana IGT, Italy
This wine is pretty good, very smooth with silky tannins and a dried cherry taste. It was solidly good, but nothing special. 6/7/6.5
Montecillo "Reserva", '03 Rioja, Spain
Now this wine was interesting. It had a really weird smell, which I pinned down as medicinal :/. Kris said it smelled a bit like woodchips and I noted it was a bit spicy. The card said "light chocolate", which I don't think any of us tasted. 6.5/5/7
Maison Bouachon "La Tiare du Pape", '05, Chateauneuf du Pape, France
For some reason I thought this had a distinct tomato-y flavor, like spaghetti sauce. It was neither bad nor good, just kind of there. I didnt taste any of the nutty flavor the card mentioned. 5/5.5/5

Whew! All that wine and we weren't even done yet! Everyone at Cru was very nice, and we were talking with the manager and chef there about the wine we tried. They gave us a special taste of one of their favorites from the French Connection wine flight. It was a Veraison Merlot by Krupp Bros '05 from Atlas Peak, California. This wine was fantastic and one of the top wines of the night! It was so soft and smooth and had a sage and herbal quality to it. Its a wine I wish I had a glass or two of to just sit and sip and think about. Very delicious! 8/9/8

I loved Cru and will definitely be back sometime! I would like to try some of their other wine flights, and Ive heard they have amazing food there as well, so may have to go for dinner sometime! :) There will definitely be more trips to wine bars in my future!