Magnum Club Quarterly Newsletter

I'd like to give you a sneak preview of our new Bar la Carte menu, coming in May. We've been testing, tasting and tweaking this new menu for 12 months, and we're very excited to roll it out. Our goal was to make our bar food menu as exciting as our new cocktail menu. After all, there are times when a cocktail or a glass of wine, paired with something less than a full dinner entrée, is just the ticket. We want our guests to be able to pop in to the bar for a quick and gratifying bite. Or just enjoy something a little more informal than the dining room menu.

Creating a menu that is available only in the bar has its challenges. I wanted to create something more interesting than just dressed-up appetizers or typical "bar bites." I wanted something that would be not only delicious and satisfying on its own, but also generous enough to be shareable. Because dining in the bar is the perfect time to try new items with friends, I wanted strong, interesting flavors and textures that could easily be passed around.

Of the seven items on our Bar la Carte menu, six are completely new. The one holdover is the Prime Burger. (It's not bragging to say I think it's perfect as it is.) I really love all of the new items, but I'm especially enamored of a couple. Our Housemade Burrata is a fantastic version of this southern Italian favorite. We make the burrata in our kitchens and I have to say, it's fabulous — creamy and rich, with just the right amount of saltiness. We pair it up with some nicely charred cherry tomatoes and serve it with fresh arugula and perfectly crisp garlic crostinis. It may be one of my favorite dishes in the whole restaurant. Simple, delicious and made for sharing.

Then there's our Salt & Pepper Shrimp. Now this may not be a dish you would normally think of at Fleming's, and it took some time to develop. But the result is a wonderful, spicy, lightly breaded fried shrimp that really accents the shrimp flavor and texture, with crispy fried green beans that are a tasty complement to the peppery shellfish. We garnish it with thin slices of fried fresh lemon that provide a refreshing zest between bites. This dish is served with a caper-mustard dipping sauce that is to die for. Try it with a glass of Riesling. It will blow your taste senses away.

Along with our steakhouse Small Plates, our Bar la Carte menu gives you a broader range of dining options at Fleming's — perfect when time is short; say, before or after a movie, a ball game or a play. As always, our goal is to offer you a memorable dining experience, whether it's in the dining room or in the Fleming's bar.

If there's one event that I try to get to every year, it's the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. The setting is spectacular, the cooking demonstrations are fascinating and the celebrity chefs are so approachable. This year, I've pulled a few strings and secured an extra pair of tickets (plus airfare and hotel) so that I can share this experience with our Fleming's guests. The event tickets alone are valued at $1,250 each and sell out every year. If you'd like the chance to attend this incredible event, please click on the link below.

If you're not familiar with the FOOD & WINE Classic, it is the premier, most star-studded food-and-wine event in the country, with the likes of Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Rick Bayless and Tom Colicchio cooking and tasting! The three-day, round-the-clock culinary event for all true food-and-wine aficionados happens each June, at the base of spectacular Aspen Mountain. Celebrity chefs, wine industry icons and foodies from all over the globe gather to eat, drink and be merry. This year is the 30th anniversary of the FOOD & WINE Classic, so there's even more reason to celebrate.

The food-and-wine scene is as amazing as the beautiful mountains that surround Aspen. Everybody strolls from tent to tent enjoying just one more bite of the hundreds of food samplings. You'll find me at the giant pavilion, which is set up right in the center of town and is filled with wonderful wines from many of the top wineries in Napa, Bordeaux, Italy, Spain and Down Under. The entire town lives and breathes food and wine. There are more than 80 cooking seminars and demonstrations. Highlights from this year's line-up include:

• Italian Sunday Supper with Mario Batali
• Sizzling Skillets with Emeril Lagasse
• Top Chef: Salty & Sweet with Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons
• Meatless Mondays with Michael Symon
• Brilliance of Bordeaux with Paul Grieco
• Return of the famous Classic Cook-Off

The Classic Cook-Off is a sort of "Iron Chef" contest, where celebrity chefs are given a basket of some specific food items and then create interesting dishes for the guest judges to taste and score. One year, the ingredients included calf's liver and fava beans (a nod to Hannibal Lecter), plus Cap'n Crunch cereal. It's great fun and all done for a wonderful charitable cause.

There's even a 5K charity run for those who want to work off a few of those pounds from all the tastings. Other events include a big 30th anniversary party, a hands-on knife skills seminar and a not-to-be-missed, late-night dessert bash.

I feel very fortunate to be able to attend this exciting spectacle, and I'm looking forward to the food, wine, parties and a few photos with my favorite chefs. So take a minute and enter for your chance to join me for this amazing weekend. I'll look forward to seeing you there!

Toast with me on Twitter at @WineMaeven

Mark Bixler, an MIT graduate and a former chemistry professor, is the co-owner and Business Manager of Kistler Vineyards. Yes, Chardonnay fans, that Kistler.

Like the fog-shrouded vineyards of the Sonoma Coast, Kistler thrives behind a veil of secrecy. The winery is closed to visitors. No tours, no tastings, no exceptions. Also, Mark Bixler rarely grants interviews. So we're honored that he's made an exception for our Director of Wine, Maeve Pesquera.

Mark, thank you so much for meeting with me. So, first question, how did you meet Steve Kistler?
Well, I met Steve in a wine group at Fresno State, and he and I just hit it off. It was a serious group of guys tasting serious wines. There is nothing better than to sample a series of wines to illuminate different styles and points of view. That's really the best way to learn. But it was completely happenstance, our coming together. Oh, another member of that Fresno wine group was Byron Brown, who would go on to start Byron Vineyards in Santa Barbara.

When did you and Steve decide to open a winery?
That was 1976. Steve had gone on to UC Davis, and I continued teaching at Fresno. We remained close, and soon it became obvious that he was seriously interested in opening a winery. Now at Fresno State, a lot of people talked about opening a winery, but Steve had some money to actually do it. But first, we needed to learn the business. He went to Ridge Vineyards for a couple of years, and I went to Fetzer to work with winemaker Paul Dolan, who was also a member of our Fresno wine group. Then in mid-1978, Steve, his brother and I started looking for land to buy and soon found some acreage in Sonoma. Our incorporation date was October 6, 1978. What came after has been a lot of fun.

When all of Napa was Cabernet crazy, you decided to concentrate on Chardonnay and finicky Pinot Noir. Why is that?
Well, we originally set out to make Cabernet — our original site was planted for Cabernet. But Steve had made Chardonnay at Ridge and soon decided that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were much more interesting. It just pushed us out of Cabernet. Steve has always been our vineyard manager, the one who decides what rootstocks to use, what vineyards to buy, lease, plant. All that has been Steve.

Your Chardonnay is described as "Burgundian." Did you set out to make Chardonnay in the style of Burgundy?
That was always our goal. Unlike Kistler, typical California Chardonnay goes through cold fermentation to keep the wine's sweet, fruity ester smells. It's done in giant stainless steel tanks and is often complemented with big amounts of aging in oak barrels.

Our style, which is the style used in Burgundy, utilizes warm fermentation, so it eliminates some of the fruity tropical smells like banana. Our fermentation is done in 60-gallon oak barrels instead of big steel tanks. When wine ferments, it gives off a lot of heat, so you need to carefully control the temperature. It's tricky. In the Burgundy style, the flavors and smells aren't as extra-sweet. And we don't want too much oakiness. We want a more subtle influence of oak.

Robert Parker wrote in The Wine Advocate, "If the Kistler Winery could be magically transported to the middle of Burgundy's Côte d'Or, it would quickly gain a reputation as glorious as any producer of Burgundy Grand Crus." What was your reaction when you read that?
Very nice of him to say that. It was a very clever line. He also said that we produce more excellent wine than any other winery in the world. It was a good day when we learned of those quotes.

Kistler wines are sold primarily to consumers through a mailing list. Was that part of the original business model?
It evolved that way. In 1981, when we released the '79 vintage wines, we started selling direct to consumer. There wasn't a whole lot of wine those first couple of releases. Fortunately, people were interested in what we were doing, and that's just how it happened. We were much more concerned about making wine than we were about how people or restaurants were going to buy it.

Kistler seems to almost shy away from the spotlight. How come?
That's just the way we have done things. It seems to have made us mysterious, and that may have worked to our advantage, I guess. We let our wines do our talking for us. Talking and boasting doesn't mean much. I like for people to taste and draw their own conclusions. I am the designated spokesman, having been the chemistry professor teaching large classrooms of 300 people. But actually I'm sort of shy and like to keep to myself.

Your wines are submitted for review to only two wine critics, Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer. Why is that?
These are two people who we respect very much. Parker came every year from early on. He knows so much, and he still astonishes me with his ability to remember tastings from year to year. Tanzer is just a really smart wine writer-reviewer. They are the people who I read when I make my decisions on what wine to buy. We enjoy having them come to the winery. There are other reviewers, of course. But it's time-consuming to meet with reviewers, and our goal is to make the very best wines we can.

Last question: Can you share with us your most memorable bottle of wine?
One occasion, it was not long after I'd met Steve (Kistler) at the wine group at Fresno State, we were over at my place, and we both really liked to cook. I was trying to impress, so I had a great bottle of 1969 red Burgundy from La Romanée, the smallest Grand Cru vineyard in France. Only 300 cases a year are produced. I was trying to make a black butter sauce to go with some fish. It's kind of like brown butter sauce, but you cook the butter past brown, where it takes on this great nutty flavor. Anyway, in my enthusiasm I gave Steve a spoonful to taste — it was probably 300 degrees. He burned his tongue and was so mad! So much for him enjoying the subtle flavors of the La Romanée.

* No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited or restricted. Open to all legal U.S. residents 21 or over. For Official Rules, please visit www.FlemingsSteakhouse.com/Aspen

** Fleming's abides by all local and state liquor laws. The Icon Wine promotion is not available in IA, NE, PA or UT.