"This Week" at Vino and Hiroshi
VINO HAPPY HOUR ”at the bar seats only”…
We are offering a 50% discount on VINO food for those sitting at the VINO bar from 5:30 to 6:30pm on a first come first served basis.
ALL orders must be in by 6:30PM. This Special will be good only when VINO is open for regular business. It is a great opportunity to have a bite to eat instead of fighting the traffic.
“Locally Grown” Menu… @ Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas
Chef Hiroshi Fukui will feature a new “locally grown” menu each month
Sundays & Mondays (only) $35 per person (not including tax & gratuity)
For Month of February …
First Course
Big Island Butter Fish MisoYaki
rice, choi sum, wilted tatsoi & pickled red ginger, beurre blanc
Second Course
Pepper Seared Ahi
pasta, brussels sprout, red jalapeno & foie gras ponzu demi
Main Course
Japanese Style Bouillabaise
seared opah, crab meat, Manila clams, orzo & saffron clam broth
Sweet Course
Guava Panna Cotta
fresh fruits with orange sorbet
Call now for reservations and be sure to mention that you are having the
Locally Grown Menu to ensure we don’t run out!
VINO’s NEW “WINTER” MENU
VINO Chef Keith Endo launched his new Winter Menu. Here is a rough draft just to whet your appetite.
Grilled Frisee Salad with shaved fennel, walnuts, pancetta gorgonzola dolce latte & poached egg
Roasted Heirloom Beet Salad with Nalo Farms baby arugula, sweet Maui onions & Roma tomatoes
Beef Carpaccio with ricotta salata, pumpkin seed oil, red jalapeno pesto, smoked sea salt & micro arugula
Chianti Braised Veal Cheek “Ravioli”, with roasted wild mushrooms, foie gras-demi glace & fresh black truffles
House Made Ligurian style”Trofie” Pasta with hedgehog mushrooms, sundried Hau'ula tomatoes, Genovese pesto & Ligurian olive oil
Fresh “Silk Handkerchief” Pasta with house made spicy lamb sausage, baby swiss rainbow chard, mushroom jus & pecorino romano
Fresh Hawaiian Snapper “En Cartoccio” caperberries, manzanilla olives, preserved lemon confit & shellfish brodetto
Black Truffle Carnaroli Risotto with Butter Poached Kona Maine Lobster & tarragon beurre blanc
Maui Cattle Company Flat Iron Steak roasted cippolini onions, broccolini, & red wine shallot demi glace
Wednesday, February 17th “Winetasting at VINO” 6:00PM
Let’s taste Pinot! Here is a sampling of five really good & interesting Pinots, which most people wouldn’t have thought of themselves.
2006 DREW “Weir Vineyard” (Yorkville Highlands)
We start this tasting with a wine from the Wines & Spirits 2009 “Winery of the Year” & its winemaking phenom leader, Jason Drew. The Weir vineyard is situated on the southeastern border of Anderson Valley in a cool pocket amongst the redwoods. This stunning 15 acre vineyard is located on a steep southeastern slope at an elevation of approximately 850 feet & is planted to some of the more rare Pinot Noir clone selections seen today in California.
2004 ROBERT MUELLER “Emily’s Cuvee” (Russian River Valley)
A few years back, Robert Mueller was featured in the Wine Spectator’s story on twenty Pinot producers to watch out for…we have been a big fan since the 80’s. His superb Pinots have such class & texture. Here is his fabulous 2004.
2005 AMBULLNEO “Mastiff” (Carneros)
This winery abruptly came out of nowhere & immediately received HUGE ratings & acclaim. It sure caught our attention! The “star” of their releases was this uber-pricey, real ballyhoo-ed, storybook bottling (produced from Hyde Vineyard grapes in Carneros). With my first taste, I was very apprehensive of the enormity & bombastic attitude of this wine, & especially its BIG price tag. That was 3 years ago & the wine today, though still pricey, is something we were hoping would materialize. It certainly did. WOW!
2005 DOGPOINT “Marlborough” (New Zealand)
A New Zealand project well worth keeping an eye out for as their wines are really good. Purity & class are
really good words to use when describing their wines.
2007 LOUIS LATOUR Corton Grand Cru (France)
The 2007 vintage is being lukewarmly received by the media. It was a challenging vintage for reds in Burgundy.
As this wine will show, however, there are some really good “finds” if you dig around. Grand Cru…& it really
shows its pedigree.
There you have it….five wines….two ounces each, $49 a person (not including tax or gratuity). By Reservations only….533-4476 or email Nicole nmadosik@dkrestaurants.com
Wednesday, February 24th “Winetasting at VINO” 6:00PM
Our good friend Bruce Liebert has been patiently waiting for us to do a BIG Red tasting. Well Bruce & you ‘all, here it is, Five New World Black Beauties, in all their glory. Hopefully this will show you the difference between BIG & “Over the Top”.
2006 HARTFORD COURT Zinfandel “Highwire Vineyard” (Russian River Valley)
a stellar, mega-intense Zin from 100 plus year old vines grown right in the heart of the Russian River Valley
2005 TRITONO Malbec (Argentina)
a “mountain grown”, Old Vine Malbec crafted by Pinot-meister Steve Clifton (of Brewer Clifton)
2003 DUTSCHKE Shiraz “Oscar Semmler” (Australia)
a black, masculine Old Vine Barossa Valley Reserve bottling from Wayne Dutschke
2004 CAMBIATA Tannat (Monterey)
Tannat is the grape….which in this case is grown high atop a wind pounded Monterey hillside
2004 STOLPMAN Angeli (Ballard Canyon)
an absolutely insane, majestic, VERY limited Reserve Syrah from superstar winemaker Sashi Moorman
There you have it….five wines….two ounces each, $42 a person (not including tax or gratuity).
By Reservations only….533-4476 or email Nicole nmadosik@dkrestaurants.com
Come join us for this unique wine adventure.
Wednesday, March 3rd “Winetasting at VINO” 6:00PM
Here are some really cool wines from a handful of winemaking revolutionaries from around the Mediterranean basin.
Each is really creating quite the stir. We have worked very hard to get these wines & hope you enjoy them.
2006 MAXIME MAGNON “La Demarrante” (France)
“Magnon is the southern Foillard. The wine’s fruit is delicious, lovely and deep. It is not inky, alcoholic, or torturously tannic. There is a lot of wine in the wine, and every moment is created to please. You have an impression of little wild berries giving their all, and an incredibly silky texture.” Kermit Lynch
2008 GRAMENON “La Sagesse” (France)
100% Grenache from organically farmed, 60 year old vines. This is as pure & delicious a southern French wine as we have run across. We should nickname this winery as “Au Naturale Central….for their passion & dedication of producing wines as naturally as possible”.
2006 DUPERE BARRERA “Tres Longue Maceration” (France)
Harvested by hands, stomped by feet, manual wooden press, no imported yeasts, no irrigation/chaptalization/acidification/fining or filtration. Never even pumped! Nothing but a blend of Syrah, Cabernet, Carignan, and Mouvèdre from Provence. Raised two years in barrel, bottled by gravity flow when the cycle of the moon was right. Kermit Lynch
2007 NUMANTHIA “Termes” (Spain)
One of the new hotshots from Spain. Their meteoric rise to superstardom was really fueled by their selection at the Top of the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 wines a couple of years back. This is no flash
in the pan.
2004 TOMMASO BUSSOLA Amarone della Valpolicella (Italy)
Here is the latest winemaking phenom of Italy’s Veneto wine region. Ripe, highly glycerol, but NOT over the top.
There you have it….five wines….two ounces each, $45 a person (not including tax or gratuity).
By Reservations only….533-4476 or email Nicole nmadosik@dkrestaurants.com
Come join us for this unique wine adventure.
Thursday, March 11th “Communal Table—Farmer’s Market” 6:00PM
VINO Chef Keith Endo has been going to the KCC Farmer’s Market the past few weeks. He & DK Kodama have been cookin’ away, using the Kona “Red Veal”. It is an effort to help brand this high quality, more natural minded, locally raised product.
In between, Keith found a bunch of terrific, locally grown products from a handful of small, mom & pop farmers. So, here is his chance to show them to you all. To make it even more fun, Keith invited DK Steakhouse chef, Jason Miyasaki to come down to cook a couple of courses as well. So, we will present the Keith & Jason Show….featuring homegrown produce & homegrown culinary talent. More details to follow. Just mark your calendars.
Wednesday, March 24th “Winetasting with Van Williamson” 6:00PM
Mark your calendars. Vanimal is coming to VINO. As regulars well know, there is NO ONE like Van. He is truly one of the “larger than life” characters of the Californian winemaking scene. PLUS…his wines are really good. More details to follow. We will certainly be debuting his 2007 Ciapusci Vineyard on this night!
Now On to Wines…
Someone recently asked why we change the wines by the glass so often. The answer is to try & experience the WORLD of wines. If we change 2 wines a week, that means 104 new wines to try for the year. That is, after all, the fun part of it all…..isn’t it?
.PUNTA CRENA Lumassina NEW By The Glass
This is the last of our “stash” from Liguria. We worked so hard to get them here & now sadly they have all but disappeared. At least, however, they brought smiles to VINO regulars’ faces…….especially when they used to wash down Chef Keith’s contemporary Mediterranean fare. Last call for our Ligurian treasures. Just to remind you, here is a recent excerpt which was sent to us on this particular wine…….
“Love at First Sight Punta Crena
I couldn't be more excited to introduce you to these wines, made in the tiny town of Varigotti, Italy, right on the ocean in the wine-producing region of Liguria. The Ruffino family is famous in their hometown but little known elsewhere, even in Italy. They've been making wine in Varigotti since 1500! From the first sniff I was hooked on their delicious wines, made traditionally from indigenous grapes, wines with typicity and character but without a hint of pretension. These are exactly the kind of wines I've been seeking for a long time, country quaffers from the Ligurian coast. Yep, Lumassina is one of their local grapes. Naturally sparkling, no secondary fermentation, soft mousse, creamy texture, exotic flavors with a twist of white pepper. Kermit likes it as an apéritif and with fried fish. You take one drink of it, you'll be drinking it all the time!”
2006 L’ANGEVIN Chardonnay “Russian River” NEW By The Glass
Here is a tasty, stellar, classy, unfiltered, unfined Russian River Chardonnay, which you may not have heard of before. If you love Californian Chard, then you should definitely check them out as they are already on the wine media’s radar screen. They’ve gotten such incredible press with the last three vintages…..& they are undoubtedly on the fast track to superstardom.
2008 CHATEAU LA ROSE TOUR BLANCHE NEW By The Glass
Don’t expect Chateau Lafite or Latour here. This wine is NOT about grandeur. I would not have served it at La Mer, in my former career. It is not for tablecloth-ed kind of dining. It is, however, VERY befitting for bistros, cafes of course VINO. A solid, tasty, food friendly French “country” styled red wine & priced accordingly.
VINO Wine of the Month
(price good for February only)…
2004 SELENE “Chesler”--$85
One of my all time favorite winemakers from the Napa Valley is Mia Klein. Her illustrious career has now spanned at least 5 decades AND her wines are better than ever! To put this in better perspective, think about how many of her contemporaries have either retired, fallen by the wayside or passed away. Furthermore, she has done all of this as a female in a very male dominated arena. Mia’s most special attribute is undoubtedly her character….& I strongly believe her wines reflect that. Although she has made quite a reputation for her Selene label via a top notch Sauvignon Blanc & a truly superb, incredibly elegant & well textured Merlot, for me her crowning jewel is the Chesler bottling, a VERY elegant, highly refined, seamless Cabernet Franc based Napa Valley red. Here is the stellar 2004. I am always so astounded how a supremely gifted winemaker like this gets so little accolades & acclaim even though she has consulted for BIG name-ers like Spottwoode, Araujo, Viader & Dalla Valle. Her work is a HUGE reason for their world wide acclaim & resulting success! Well, this is her own project & something well worth checking out. I believe she & her wines are the REAL deal & this wine should show you why. Then……..compare what you are getting in terms of quality & price to all of the other high profile Napa Cabs. You will be amazed!