The 18th hole at Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, W.Va. Stonewall photo
Your traveling wino has been crisscrossing West-By-Golly, sampling the food and wine wares of some fine establishments. I can happily report that the state of sipping and supping is improving in these here hills. Today, I’m going to regale you with my experiences in two diverse culinary venues: a fine restaurant in Davis, W.Va., and Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, W.Va.

Starting in the wilds of Tucker County, my first stop was Davis. This is a town where the early 20th century architecture houses some very interesting nooks and crannies, including an establishment known as Mutley’s. What, you ask, is Mutley’s? A fine dining restaurant, of course. Mutley’s owner, Becky Bunner, along with Chef Randy Columbo are a great team of creative and slightly off-beat hosts who work hard to make sure you not only eat well, but also have fun.

Randy works his grilling magic in the kitchen of this century-old tavern (named after his dearly departed canine- Mutley). The menu features Angus beef steak such as filet, porterhouse and rib-eye, along with other grilled selections, including lamb chops, chicken, pork tenderloin and grilled breast of duck. They also have a $1-an-ounce steak night each Thursday (when it is wise to call for a reservation to 304-259-4858). Menu selections, which also include pasta dishes, are mostly priced under $20.

The night I was there, I opted for the marinated and grilled “Jerk” boneless and skinless chicken thighs. What a treat! I washed this repast down with a few glasses of the house pour – Yellow Tail Cabernet and Merlot. Okay, wine snobs, no tacky comments. I actually like the stuff. (Remember, I’m a home wine maker so my standards may be suspect). While Mutley’s wine selection is somewhat limited, it has the main red and white essentials with wines such as Beringer, Robert Mondavi, Raymond, Kenwood, Black Opal and Rodney Stong, to name a few labels you will recognize. Wine pricing is very reasonable and Mutley’s is one of the few West Virginiarestaurants I’m aware of that actually has invested in a wine temperature-control storage cabinet.

After dinner, I spent some time with the owners at the bar where you can sometimes find a life-like female mannequin as your seatmate. According to Randy, some fellows have been known to carry on long conversations with these Stepford Wives knock-offs in hopes of….what? Randy’s reply: “Winters can be long in Tucker County!”

Next on my whirlwind tasting tour was a visit to Stonewall Resort. Stonewall – that bastion of “New-South” cuisine under Chef Dale Hawkins– opened its public spaces recently to host the 4th annual “Culinary Classic." During the first night of the Classic, chefs from some of the state’s most prestigious restaurants and resorts prepared their specialties for more than 200 hungry and thirsty guests. Among the famished and parched that night was yours truly as I supped and sipped until my not inconsiderable appetites were sated. At this "Taste of West Virginia" dine-around, guests had the opportunity to sample signature dishes from each chef while enjoying a selection of specially chosen wines provided by the Country Vintner of West Virginia.

Those who stayed for Saturday’s activities were treated to culinary demonstrations conducted by guest chefs along with a luncheon of “tiny bites.” The evening festivities began with a Champagne reception followed by a multi-course food and wine dinner.

One of the exceptional wine selections that tickled my palate was the 2005 Tomassi Pinot Grigio Le Rosse ($14). From Northeastern Italy, this straw-colored beauty may surprise you with its supple and round flavors of ripe pear and melon. The Le Rosse single vineyard wine is produced in the normally red wine area of Valpolicella which may account for why its flavors are so much more intense than other Pinot Grigio’s. Unlike the majority of Pinot Grigio produced in northern Italy, this wine is a spicier, rounder version with more depth of flavor and yet still well balanced. This would be a wonderful accompaniment to linguine and mussels in a garlic and white wine sauce. Kudos to Stonewall Resort for hosting this superb event.

So there I was at Paolo’s in Georgetown, chillin’ at the bar with a glass of Chianti Classico after a long day of doing my bureaucratic thing for the state. It was the early 1990s, Bill Clinton was about to be inaugurated and Washington was pretty electric.

As I sat at the bar, I overheard a conversation between the restaurant manager and a wine salesperson who happened to be sitting next to me. This attractive young woman was pitching the manager on a new Pinot Noir from Oregon. Back in those days, Oregon had not yet established its reputation as America’s premier Pinot Noir producing state so the salesperson was working the manager pretty hard. It was obvious to me that this discussion needed an impartial opinion (and I was anxious to get a freebie) so I immediately volunteered to provide one. After a quick recitation of my qualifications (“I’m from West Virginia and I drink wine and, oh, by the way, look at my new shoes...”), the two were duly impressed and agreed to allow me to evaluate the Pinot Noir.

Well, to put it succinctly, the wine was nectar! It was absolutely the best Pinot Noir I had ever tasted and I was effusive in my praise of the stuff. I was so taken with the wine that I persuaded the salesperson to sell me a case of it -- which she did right out of her Volkswagen Beetle parked outside the bar.

The wine was an obscure Pinot Noir from the northern Willamette Valley known as Domaine Serene. To my knowledge , that 1990 Domaine Serene was the first vintage for the winery, now considered to be year in and year out among the best Pinot Noirs produced in Oregon and, indeed, in the US. Since that fateful day, I have made it a point to seek out this wine and buy a few bottles (or more) of each vintage, even though the price of the stuff has quadrupled from the $15 a bottle I paid for it back in 1992.

The winery was established by Ken & Grace Evenstad (Evenstad, incidentally, is the name given to one of their premium Pinot Noirs, which I will tell you about a little futher on). The Evanstad’s were passionate Pinot Noir lovers and selected the now famous Willamette Valley of Oregon to work their magic. Now, while I love Pinot Noir from California, particulary those made in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley, the Carneros District and the Santa Ynez Valley, Oregon Pinot Noir has a different taste profile. It is generally less fruit forward than the wine produced in California, featuring more earthy flavors, and it is a deeper, fuller style of Pinot Noir.

The two mainstay Domaine Serene Pinot Noirs produced and available in some select wine shops around West Virginia are the Yamhill Cuvee and the Evenstad Reserve. While you’ll pay around $60 for the Evenstad, the Yamhill Cuvee is in the $40 range and both are exquisite expressions of this superb wine. Grown and produced in the Red Hills of Dundee in Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley, the wines of Domaine Serene are handcrafted products and the Pinot Noir is usually aged in a combination of new and used French oak from between 14 and 18 months. The winery also produces excellent Chardonnay made in the white Burgundy style with an emphasis on elegance and balance.

I had the pleasure of tasting the 2004 Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir ($60) recently. What a delicious mouthful of wine! This Pinot Noir is a symphony of flavors and aromas with a nose of dark fruit, spice, vanilla and tobacco, and tastes of black cherries, blueberries, cinnamon and earth. If you wish to consume the wine now, you should definitely decant it into a carafe for at least one hour prior to drinking to allow the flavors to open up. And while the wine is approachable now, you will be rewarded if you wait a few more years before drinking it.

This past Christmas, I opened a 1999 Yamhill Cuvee and it still had wonderful fruit and amazing complexity. I paired the Evenstad with roasted pork tenderloin that had been marinated in rosemary, garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. After roasting the pork, I deglazed the pan drippings with about two ounces of the Pinot Noir and added an ounce of heavy crème. I then sliced the meat and drizzled the sauce over each piece before serving.

MORE: Domaine Serene website

Try blue cheese with Port and Zinfandel.
You may have noticed that I rarely write about wine without mentioning what I consider a complementing dish. In my humble estimation, drinking a glass of wine without food is like listening to a concert while wearing ear muffs. This is particularly true for red wine where the not-so-subtle flavors and harsh tannins can assault the palate and literally leave a bad taste in your mouth. But add a matching dish and the wine, like the music, reaches its full sensory potential.
This is usually a good thing -- however, it can just as easily be a disaster if you pick a clashing food-and-wine combination. Today, I’m going to suggest some favorite wine and food pairings and, conversely, a few to avoid. Like all subjective endeavors, these recommendations are tainted by my own quirky tastes for which I make no apologies. How’s that for a disclaimer? While I have on occasion experimented with some rather exotic pairings (i.e., Gruner Veltliner with curried aardvark, Brunello Di Montalcino with deviled wolf pancreas, etc. ), I will confine my suggestions to more conventional, if prosaic, food and wine matches.
And while there is some legitimacy to the old adage of 'red wine with red meat' and 'white wine with fish and white meat,' pairing food and wine in this manner is kind of boring. It ignores some exciting possibilities. So how do you make good judgments on pairing food and wine when the answers are not obvious? Well, you can rely on “experts” to provide advice and/or you can use common sense and be adventurous. Here are some tips that may help you out if you choose to go it alone.
PERFECT MATCH: Are there any nearly perfect food and wine matches? How about a full-bodied, rich red wine such as Cabenet Sauvignon, with grilled or roasted beef steak? One of my all-time favorite meals is marinated and grilled rib-eye steak smothered in sautéed onions and mushrooms, washed down with a Napa Cabernet such as Groth, Louis Martini or Silver Oak. Another almost perfect combo is to pair a Chardonnay or White Burgundy with lobster and drawn butter. The richness of the lobster along with the oiliness of the butter is married spectacularly well to the ripe, tropical and butterscotch flavors of a full-bodied chardonnay.
NOT SO PERFECT: While there would be virtually no disagreement on the above two food and wine pairings, more generalized statements can be dead wrong. For example, if you assume chardonnay is always the best choice with lobster and drawn butter, or that all cabernet is perfect with steak you'd be making a big mistake. Here’s why: a Chardonnay from Chablis in France is usually austere with crisp acidity and mineral qualities. It is best paired with oysters and plainly cooked seafood. It would be overwhelmed if matched with lobster and drawn butter. The same goes for pairing an older Cabernet or Bordeaux with a grilled steak. The Cabernet or Bordeaux develop layers of delicate flavors and aromas over the years that would be destroyed by, say, a grilled strip steak.
BALANCING ACT: Think of the flavor, texture and weight of the food and wine pairing. You wouldn’t logically pair a full-flavored red wine with a delicate broiled seafood such as Dover Sole. Think about it. The flavors, textures and weight are all out of balance. Try a delicate White Bordeaux, an Italian Pinot Grigo or Soave or a Washington State Semillon.
ACID TEST: Here’s the closest to an absolute wine and food no-no: vinaigrette salad with any wine. Why? The vinegar based dressing clashes with the acid in wine and destroys the flavors of both the salad and wine. Creamy or cheese dressings work fine with Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or Viognier, but nothing works with vinaigrette. Well, maybe an inexpensive sparkler with lots of fizz.
TIME FOR A CHANGE: Here’s one to break the rules. Try a Pinot Noir, Chianti, or even Beaujolais with grilled salmon, tuna or chicken. Pinot Noir also pairs greatly with spicy foods, particularly Southwestern fare. Ditto, Gewurztraminer. It goes especially nice with Asian dishes, especially Thai food.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Roasted turkey can handle just about any white or red, but I particularly like Rhone wines, Alsatian Pinot Gris and Merlot-based Bordeaux with the “national bird.”
SWEET, CHEESY IDEAS: Chocolate desserts just love – are you ready for this – Cabernet Sauvignon. Ices and sorbets are great with Muscat and sweet sparkling wines. Try blue cheese with Port and Zinfandel. Sweet late harvest Riesling and Sauterne with, believe it or not, liver pates are also odd couple pairings.
So now that you have a few suggestions, go out, be adventuresome and try some of these tasteful experiments. Report back. And with regard to the aforementioned aardvark and wolf dishes- Forgetaboutit!

Blogger John Brown has fond memories of imbibing screw-cap wines beneath the South Side Bridge. Photo by Walker DeVille for the DowntownWV blog

Some of you seem shocked many wineries are now using screw cap closures instead of the more traditional cork to finish their wines. With all due respect to tradition and the desirability of using corks to seal the deal in our wine bottles, there is both a serious shortage of corks and a major problem with defective corks. I'll go into this a little later, but first I should let you know that I have conducted serious research on the subject with a group of very discerning wine drinkers.

As the founder and a charter member of the Southside Bridge Tasting Club (SBTC), I'm here to testify that what goes around truly comes around. Those of you old enough to remember my weekly wine columns in the 1980s, may recall that I asked the SBTC to act as a kind of tasting panel. The group would help me evaluate products for that segment of the wine drinking public that was -- how shall I put it -- more plebian in their tastes. Monthly, in the dead of night, I would visit the great bridge under which my expert panel would gather to sip and then critique the various wines of the time. White Pheasant, Vito's Thunder Mountain Chablis, Wild Irish Rose... nothing was too good for the SBTC!

Anyway, the wines I brought for evaluation were required by the group to meet certain minimum standards: a stratospheric alcohol content to help tasters ward off the cold and screw cap for easy access to the product. Well, here we are 20 years later and, while it is now not politically correct to discuss the relative merits of rocket-fuel enhanced beverages, there is an attempt by some wine makers to re-introduce screw caps to a whole new generation of wine drinkers.

And we're not just talking about jug wines, either. Randall Graham, that off-the-wall, existentialist wine maker at Bonny Doon who brought us the "Rhone Ranger" wines, was one of the first (screw balls) to feature screw caps on many of his 750ml bottlings. Other wineries are experimenting with screw caps as well, including more than a few in New Zealand and, shockingly, even some in France.

Why are some wineries going to screw caps? Well, it's mainly an economic decision brought on by a diminishing number of cork oak trees from which the cork is made. Actually, the corks are made from the bark of the trees - most of which grow in Portugal. With fewer trees producing, demand causes the price to rise. Add to this issue the problem of wines which are "corked." This is a phenomenon where mold gets in the cork and negatively affects the taste and smell of the wine. While a "corked" wine won't make you sick, it certainly destroys the flavor of the product.

Some wine makers estimate that about one in 20 wines is corked. With that many wines potentially being returned, you can see why some wineries are going to screw caps and some even to plastic corks. Aside from aesthetic concerns, I think screw caps are fine for wines which you will be consuming in the short term, particularly if the little suckers help keep the price down. (And let's face it, most of the wines we purchase are for near-term consumption.)

The problem with screw caps, or any enclosure which forms an airtight seal, is their inability to permit aging. Wines which benefit from bottle aging will still need to use corks since these enclosures permit minute amounts of oxygen into the wine over time, allowing it to mature slowly in the bottle.

I don't have a problem with screw caps. In fact, the first wine I ever opened back in the '60s was a 1.5 liter screw cap jug of Gallo Paisano. I sipped that wine from a paper cup under the Third Street Bridge in Clarksburg. (I have this thing about bridges and wine, don't I?) Suffice it to say, I have a fondness for traditions - particularly those that are making a comeback.

"Don't cry for me Argentina!" That musical refrain comes to mind whenever I open one of the lovely wines from that mysterious country. This is a land where the vibrant wine industry is in its infancy, and where the political and economic conditions are as fragile as when Evita captured the hearts of the world 60 years ago.

Argentina has the largest Italian immigrant population of any country on the planet, which may explain the country's love of wine and food and also its whacky political system. The country is known for its world-class beef and it should therefore come as no surprise that the wine production is predominately red.

The major grape-growing provinces are located in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and are producing some exciting wines. You may be surprised by this, but the poor soils, irrigated mainly by snow melt and arid climate, are ideal for the production of fine wine in Argentina and throughout the world. Wine grapes flourish when they are forced to struggle for water and nutrients in the soil and in climates that are warm and dry. On the global wine scene, Argentina has only been a player for a decade or so, yet the wines, particularly the reds, have shown great promise and are slowly making their way onto shelves of wine shops in West Virginia.

Argentina is a very large country with the wine regions in the north on the same latitude as Morocco while the ones in the South are on a plane with New Zealand. Most of Argentina's grapes are grown at altitudes between 2000 and 3000 feet to take advantage of cooler temperatures.

The most prestigious wine province is Mendoza in the west-central part of the country on the border with Chile. Salta province in the north and the Rio Negro Valley in the south also produce wines, but most of the major wine production (80 percent) is located in Mendoza. The main grape varieties are Chardonnay, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Barbera, Tempranillo, and Bonarda. (By the way, Bonarda has its roots -- literally-- in Italy's Piedmont region and obviously was brought to Argentina by Italian immigrant wine makers).

One of the wines that Argentina is producing as a single varietal, and which had formerly been used only as a blending grape, is Malbec. Malbec is one of the five traditional grapes used to make Bordeaux, although it is seldom, if ever, used as the main varietal in the traditional Bordeaux blend.

In my opinion, Malbec is the signature grape of the nation since no other country has been able to coax as much flavor and quality out of the grape as Argentina. I recently tasted several Malbecs and a couple of white wines from Argentina that were very good to excellent and also offer tremendous value.

2005 Zamba Chardonnay ($10) - This is a very Macon-like Chardonnay (Macon is in southern Burgundy) with very delicate flavors with mineral undertones. This would pair nicely with broiled halibut in a beurre blanc sauce.

2006 Finca El Reposa Saint Jeannet ($10) - Saint Jeannet is an obscure Italian grape that is planted on 90-year-old vines and offers melon and citrus flavors and aromas of herbs. It would be an ideal accompaniment to chicken cordon-bleu.

2005 NQN Picada 15 ($12) - This is a blend of 80% Malbec, 10 % Pinot Noir and lesser amounts of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Ripe and round with a bright berry flavors, this is a wine to have with roasted pork tenderloin.

2004 El Cipres Malbec ($10) - Lighter style Malbec with tobacco and leather aromas and cherry and cola flavors. Perfect with grilled hamburgers.

2003 Don Tiburcio ($16) - With 50% Malbec and the balance equal parts Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, this is a rich and complex mouthful of wine with dark fruit flavors and aromas of vanilla and raisins. This baby is begging for marinated and grilled (boned and butter flied) leg of lamb.

2004 Finca El Reposo Malbec ($12) - Interesting tar-like aroma (attractive to me, maybe because it brings back fond memories of my days as a state highways worker) and ripe, almost sweet fruit flavors. Gotta have this one with barbecue ribs slathered in a sweet and hot sauce.

While the above-mentioned wines are excellent and great values, the gold standard for me as far as Argentinean wineries is Catena. Their Chardonnay ($20) is simply delicious and combines the best qualities of Napa and Burgundy - great full-bodied (but not overblown) flavors with crisp acidity. Their Malbec is also a great mouthful of wine.

Two other Argentina labels to look for are Salentein and El Portillo which produce wines of good quality and value.

P.S.: You've probably heard of the term 'gaucho' as in the 'Gauchos of the Pampas.' These guys were legendary Argentinean cowboys who literally invented roasting meat over wood fires centuries ago, among other less flattering, if apocryphal, stories of their exploits. One of America's most beloved comedians and film stars of the last century was said to have spent his early years as a Gaucho on the Pampas of Argentina before moving to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune in Tinsel Town. You probably didn't know that about Gaucho Marx.