photos (and some words too) by Dakota Fine

drink diary by Andy Myers

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BYT caught up with Andy Myers at CityZen recently to talk about his drink diary and take some pictures. Andy is sommelier at CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental here in DC, and for one week he kept a record for us of everything he drank. For the uninitiated, CityZen is routinely regarded as one of DC’s most highly rated restaurants, year after year. With some time to sit down and chat, Andy told me all about his kind affections for Rieslings, his appreciation for diverse wines from across the globe (including the mid east) and even trotted out for me one of his most coveted bottles from the house menu (a vintage 1966 Richebourg). He also reintroduced me to Fernet Branca and confirmed for me something I had heard before from others who have been tending bar for a long time in DC — if you’re taking shots with the bartender (and he’s old school), it’s Grand Marnier.

If you haven’t had Fernet Branca before, I certainly wouldn’t describe it as delicate on the palate, but Andy Myers sure seems to live by it. Andy was kind enough to keep a diary of everything he drank for a week back in January when he went out to California to visit the wine country. As he told us, he “drank some incredible wines,” he was only too happy to share with us below…

Andrew Myers: Drink Diary January 23-January 31, 2011

Sunday, January 23

• 8am-Yerba Matte and OJ with my Power Bar
• I’m flying to Napa today to participate in the Guild of Sommeliers, Rudd Roundtable; a sort of invitational Master Sommelier Boot Camp. I don’t mind flying, but I really stress about getting up early, getting to the airport, etc. I’m also nervous about looking like a moron in front of the 12 Master Sommeliers and 11 other candidates when I get to Napa. As such…
• 8:40am-Shot of Fernet Branca in my kitchen to calm my nervous tummy.
• 11:57am-Dulles Airport sucks. I get hosed and end up in a pointless line for 50 minutes. I am almost missing my plane. This does not stop me, however, from ordering a Jameson’s at O’Somebodyorother’s “Irish Pub”.
• 1:10pm- I ease into my relationship with the flight attendants with a 187ml bottle of ’08 Frei Borthers, “Redwood Creek” Chardonnay from Modesto, CA. I instantly regret the decision and ask real nicely for a 187 of red to back it up. The ’09 Cabernet Sauvignon from the same imaginary “Redwood Creek” manages to be exactly like the white; only red. Hope you like oak chips.
• 2:20pm-Another 187ml bottle of that nasty Chardonnay. It’s cold and wet and does nothing unseemly to the little tube of Pringles I bought.
• 5:45pm-I check into the Villagio in Napa. Leslie Rudd, founder of Rudd Winery amongst other things, has sent a few bottles of wine to my room to welcome me. (Side note: being a sommelier does not usually suck. It really doesn’t suck when things like this happen.) I knock back a double espresso and crack a bottle of ’09 Messenger, “Il Postino” Chardonnay. Not bad.
• 6:30pm-Rudd Winery for a welcoming reception. Rudd makes 209 Gin and is showcasing it at the reception in delicious Last Word cocktails (Gin, Luxardo Maraschino and Chartreuse). Two of them go down very easily before dinner.
• 7pm-Dinner at Rudd in their caves. ’08 Bacigalupi Chardonnay, ’09 Mt. Veeder Sauvignon Blanc, ’05 Oakville Estate Red Blend, ’07 Oakville Estate Red Blend and ’05 Edge Hill Port all courtesy of Mr. Rudd. Much thanks and praise to him. A good man and a generous host.
• 10pm-Back to Villagio; retrieve the bottle of Chardonnay from the balcony where I left it to chill. Crawl into bed, finish the bottle and crash all starfish like in a king-size bed. Miss my wife, but love the sprawl.

Monday, January 24

• 7:45am-Double Espresso with my Power Bar. Off to the Roundtable event.
• 12:20pm-Comparative Tasting. Six red wines blind. We have two minutes to speed taste and identify each. I go 5 for 6 getting the ’07 Bordeaux, ’09 Malbec, ’07 Chinon, ’03 Rioja and ’07 St. Joseph. I completely swing and miss on the ’07 Carmenere. Whatever; Carmenere sucks.
• 2:20pm-Exam style blind tasting. Twenty-five minutes, three whites, three reds. Structurally analyze and identify each. My luck from speed tasting fails me. 2 for 6. Grüner Veltliner and Pouilly-Fume are my friends. Oxidized Albariño, Cerasuola di Vittoria, really old Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Aussie Shiraz hate me today. No one said this was easy though.
• 4pm-Two icy cold Stella Artois at Bouchon with the other candidates courtesy of the awesome Shayn Bjornholm, MS and the Washington State Wine Commission. Everyone took a beating at blind tasting. Thankfully I love misery drinking.
• 6:30-11:30-V Wine Cellars for the Johnston Award Dinner. This is one of those line-ups of wine that bring the best sommeliers to their knees to thank the good lord for allowing grapes to ferment and allowing man to figure out how to aid that process. There was enough of all of these to go around the lot of us without any issue:

Reception

• 1998 Billecart-Salmon, “Cuvee Elisabeth” Rose
• 1995 Domaine Ramonet, Grand Cru, Bâtard-Montrachet (from Magnums)
• 1983 Henschke, “Hill of Grace”, Eden Valley (from Magnums)

1st Course Lobster Bisque:

• 1995 Michel Neillon, Grand Cru, Chevalier-Montrachet
• 1998 Domaine Leflaive, Grand Cru, Chevalier-Montrachet
• 2000 Henri Boillot, Grand Cru, Le Montrachet

2nd Course Chanterelle & Black Truffle Risotto:

• 1993 Armand Rousseau, Grand Cru, Chambertin (from Jeroboam)
• 1999 Domaine de l’Arlot, 1er Cru, “Clos des Forets St. Georges”, Nuits St. Georges (from Jeroboam)
• 1998 Denis Mortet 1er Cru, “Les Beaux Bruns”

3rd Course Braised Beef Shortribs:

• 1990 Henri Bonneau, “Cuvée Speciale” Châteauneuf-du-Pape
• 1996 Etienne Guigal, “La Landonne”, Côte-Rotie
• 1998 Chave, “Cuvée Cathlin”, Ermitage (from Jeroboam)

Cheese Course:

• 1995 Dal Forno Romano, Amarone
• 1996 Château Raymond-Lafon, Sauternes

All wines were exceptional, but the Boillot Montrachet, l’Arlot Nuits St George and La Landonne were enough to make a grown man cry. Much love to Mr. Jeff Johnston for donating the wines.

• 11:55pm-I’m still pinching myself from that dinner. More alcohol is pointless, but I’m drunk on tens of thousands of dollars of someone else’s wine, so what’s one more. I open an ’06 Michael Chiarolo Napa Valley Red Blend and lay in bed watching old war movies on cable. I resist the urge to call my wife and tell her she’s pretty. She will thank me for this restraint.

Tuesday, January 25

• 5:45am-Double Espresso with my Power Bar. Back to San Francisco to fly home.
• 9am-SF airport. Scrambled Eggs and a Sierra Nevada draft. I need the antiseptic, internal cleanse of hops after last night’s bacchanalia.
• 9:28am-Jameson’s neat. I’d like to sleep my way home.
• 11:40am-187ml bottle of Haynes Ranch Chardonnay from Livermore Valley in Alameda. The back of the bottle says it’s “Created with a ranchers’s{sic} pride!” I wish I had a ranchers’s pride.
• 12:30pm-187ml Haynes Ranch non-vintage Cabernet Sauvignon. Non-vintage? Really. Oh how far I’ve sunk in the last 12 hours.
• 1:30pm-Another 187 of the Chardonnay. I’m just drinking for effect now.
• 8pm DC time-Yay!! Back in the D of C. Drop my bags, smooch the missus and off we go to Estadio. Adam Bernbach is a god. His Manzanilla, rye and lemon bitters cocktail is what I need after too much travel. The 2nd one is even better. A bottle of ’07 San Claudio, Treixadero from Ribiero in Gallicia rules with Haidar’s food. A glass of Rioja with the chicken and we’re out.
• 10:30pm-My new favorite Fernet Branca cocktail; I call it “Four Fingers of Fernet in a Glass”. Delicious. Still on California time. Bedtime for me.

Wednesday, January 26

• 9am-Yerba Matte and OJ with my Power Bar. Back to normal life.
• 2:30pm-Tasting with Paul Everett from JAO importers at CityZen. Paul always comes correct. Some delicious Chablis, Romanee St. Vivant and Brunello di Montalcino make me really happy.
• 3:45pm-double espresso.
• 6pm-11:30pm-CityZen Service. I taste every bottle we open on the floor. This can be awesome, however tonight is really slow. The ’07 Vincent Dancer, 1er Cru “La Romanee”, Chassagne-Montrachet is the only stand-out tonight.
• 12am-Share a bottle of ’07 Domaine St. Siffrein, Châteauneuf-du-Pape with the magnificent DJ lil’e and have a wee nip of Fernet before bed.

Thursday, January 27

• 9am-Yerba Matte and OJ with my Power Bar. See a trend yet?
• 2pm-Latte at CityZen.
• 6pm-11:30-No tastings this afternoon. Service highlights include Bollinger Champagne, ’08 JJ Prum, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Riesling Spätlese and ’07 François Villard, Côte-Rotie.
• 12am-Negroni (sort of). I replace the Campari with my dad’s house-made bitter orange liqueur and float a ¼oz of Fernet Branca on the cocktail. It’s good. The hint of Fernet makes me pour a couple of fingers of it neat before bed. Mmmmmmm, Fernet.

Friday, January 28

• 9am-Yerba Matte and OJ with my Power Bar. I see my trainer on Friday mornings, so I have a protein powder, yogurt, frozen mango and raspberry shake as well.
• Noon-It’s inventory Day 1. Double espresso.
• 2pm-Why is my wine list so big when I hate counting bottles so much? Single espresso.
• 3:30pm-Seriously. How many bottles can there be? Single espresso.
• 6pm-11:30-Crashing from the espressos. Service. Highlights include the ’08 J.M. Boillot 1er Cru “La Truffiere”, Puligny-Montrachet and the ’03 Robert Groffier, 1er cru “Les Sentiers”, Chambolle-Musigny. God, I love Burgundy.
• Midnightish-Thought the bus home would never come tonight. Lil’e is happily sipping Johnnie Walker, but I want wine. A gift bottle of ’06 Groffier, Chambolle-Musigny Village is waaaay too young, but I got a Burgundy bug up my ass at work. It goes down pretty damn well.

Saturday, January 29

• 9:30am-Yerba Matte and OJ.
• 11:45am-Me ‘n e go to lunch most every Saturday. It’s a long standing tradition in our marriage. Today is Dukem for some fine Ethiopian. We share a big vegetarian platter and a fish. I drink two Meta beers. Not the best beer in the world, but the best with Ethiopian food as far as I’m concerned.
• 2pm-Double espresso at CityZen. The Ethiopian feast is making me sleepy and I still need to finish inventory.
• 6pm-12:30am-Busy service. Highlights include ’08 Dauvissat, Grand Cru “Les Clos” Chablis, ’07 Dönhoff, “Niederhauser Hermanshöhle” Riesling Spätlese (btw-as much as I love Burgundy, I love German Rieslings just a smidge more), 1996 Penfolds Grange and 1989 Château Palmer. Overall a good night for wines at CityZen.
• 2am-Dj lil’e is in Richmond or Raleigh or Charlottesville tonight as part of her Lady Gaga vs Madonna vs M.I.A. World Domination tour so I have the house to myself. At nearly 40, this means a shot of Fernet and off to bed; no debauchery for old men. Besides, I can’t be hungover on Sundays.

Sunday, January 30

• 9:30am-Yerba Matte, OJ and protein shake. I box at 11am on Sundays regardless of how I feel. The inevitable ass kicking is bad enough, but taking it when hungover is absolutely terrible. I avoid Sunday hangovers.
• 12:30pm-Another protein shake. I hear they help healing and my boxing coach Ken just beat the crap out of me, so I need healing.
• 2:45pm-late lunch with about half of a bottle of Louis Michel Chablis Village.
• 6:30-e came home and agreed to drive the drunk bus for my dear friends and fellow sommeliers Kathy Morgan, MS (Citronelle), Matt Carroll (2941) and I to a special, back room tasting at Silesia Liquors http://www.silesiawine.com/ . Silesia is my favorite wine shop around and the father/son team of Ray and Paul Tilch are super generous about opening up the special back room for some of us wine geeks from time to time. Tonight, through their generosity, and the bottles we and a few other guests brought we drink the following:

•    Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte-Anne Brut (from Magnum)
•    Jacquesson Cuvee 734, Champagne
•    2006 Baron Zu Knyphausen Riesling Sekt Brut
•    2005 Nigl, “Privat” Grüner Veltliner, Kamptal, Austria
•    1996 Chapoutier, “De L’oree”, Ermitage Blanc
•    2001 Cirecul La Gradiere White Perigord Wine
•    1976 Langwerth Von Simmern, “Erbacher Marcobrunn” Riesling Spätlese, Rheingau
•    1968 Fattoria Poggio alle Mura, Brunello di Montalcino
•    1970 Château Cos D’Estournel, St. Estephe
•    1967 Beaulieu Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
•    1978 Château Beaucastel, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
•    1998 Château Beaucastel, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
•    2000 Domaine Tempier, Bandol
•    1995 San Leonardo, Trentino
•    2001, Guigal Château d’Ampuis, Cote Rotie
•    2006 Penitude, Madiran
•    1948 Primitivo Quiles, Fondillon Solera, Alicante, Spain

• 12:30am-The drunkest I’ve been through this entire week. I put on “Tonight’s the Night” by Neil Young (a sure sign I’m drunk), pour a small Fernet, tell my wife she’s pretty and proceed to sleep the sleep of ages. All that’s left is to rinse and repeat next week.