The Wildfire wine list has some exciting new arrivals coming in February that I am very anxious for our guests to experience and enjoy. I had never heard of "Jemrose Estate Grown Wines" until Wildfire President, Howard Katz asked if I would taste some wines from a winery that his best friend, Keith Jaffee had partnered with.  I sat down with Howard, Keith and Bob Loeschorn, Wildfire Vice President, and started to taste through the Jemrose wine portfolio and I can honestly say that I was blown away by every single wine I tasted. The wines were juicy, explosive, balanced, rich and complex! I soon found out that there was a very good reason why the wines were so impressive. The winemaker for "Jemrose" coincidentally is also the winemaker for the highly acclaimed and highly rated "Kosta Browne Winery"! Kosta Browne is one of the highly sought after, cult Pinot Noir producers in all of California. The Kosta Browne Pinot Noirs are consistently rated in the 90 plus range in Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast and along with being very difficult to locate, only fine dining restaurants are allowed to carry these highly allocated wines.

Michael Browne expands his masterful winemaking skills to other grape varietals under the Jemrose label such as Viognier, Grenache, Syrah and Merlot. For the Wildfire IL wine list, I have chosen three wines from the Jemrose Estate Grown Wine portfolio. The first is the 2007 Foggy Knoll Grenache and it just so happens to be my personal favorite. This wine has bright aromatics of strawberry, raspberry, blood orange with notes of sage. It is medium to full bodied with dense berry and savory flavors. I highly recommend you try this wine with Wildfire Roasted Prime Rib of Beef. A second not to be missed Jemrose wine is the 2007 Cardiac Hill Syrah. This wine displays notes of dark berries, smoked meats and violets. It has refreshing flavors of blueberries, blackberries and Asian spices with an elegant and long finish. This wine is perfect with the Wildfire Baby Back Ribs or the Blue Cheese Crusted Filet Mignon. The third and final addition to the Wildfire IL & VA wine lists is the Jemrose Gloria's Gem Proprietary Blend. This is an extremely rich, robust and powerful wine that would benefit greatly with the use of a decanter. The wine is made up of 60% Merlot and 40% Syrah and shows a complex nose of plums, cassis, blackberry, cinnamon and espresso. Intense flavors of dark berries, cherry and chocolate. I recommend you try this wine with either the Wildfire Bone-In Filet Mignon or the Char Crusted Rib-eye. Besides the fact that the wine has incredible depth of richness and complexity, Michael Browne has graciously decided to personally sign every bottle of Gloria's Gem Proprietary Blend exclusively for Wildfire restaurants only. Although the wines are not inexpensive ($80.00 for the Grenache and the Syrah and $120.00 for the Gloria's Gem) these wines definitely rival the best that California has to offer! Try one of these extraordinary wines in early February when the wines become available at the IL Wildfire locations and in mid February at the McLean, VA location.  Cheers to you, Brad Wermager