Now here is a restaurant pumping during lunch on a busy Tuesday-downtown in Soho this French style bistrot was squeezed tight with diners-all 221 of them as the fire ordinance sign displayed. Then there was the iced-up oyster bar jam packed with oysters, clams and lobsters and the organised mayhem as waiters (some French-speaking) re-arranged the seating in a seconds notice.

The starter was frisee lettuce, lardons and very soft poached egg, good but light provencale stuff, vinaigrette (top olive oil); and Balthazar bakery (next door) eye bread. Next was some rare calves liver topped with red onion, delicious and tender, though a steak knife was provided. No frites requested, but there were many served around me, no doubt encouraging New Yorkers to dine here with a straddle menu including fancy burgers and French chips.

Wine was Chateau du Rouet Cuvee Reservee Tradition 2008 Cotes de Provence Rose (AUD 28.75 for 375 ml) which came with a lookalike plastic cork (Normacork) so there was no great serious pre-tasting just to make sure of no dodgy natural cork. USA did not figure in the wine list-very Francophile which is understandable, although there were a couple of local beers. French importers must be fairly happy to have establishments such as Balthazar as US imports of French wines have been copping a beating of late. The wine was fresh and aromatic for young wine; orange and salmon colour (much different from the accepted New World approach of violet-pretty pink); very white wine-like save the finishing bitter nectarine tang, important for rose made traditionally from red grapes. In this wine 60% grenache 40% shiraz. www.chateau-du-rouet.com

The restaurant looks well-worn as a leather warehouse before 1997, has a dramatic presence with high ceilings and giant wall mirrors which exaggerate the grandeur of the dining room holding so many loud diners. Although located at 80 Spring Street, it also backs on to the corner of Crosby;www.balthazarny.com and joins in a ritzy district undergoing a retail makeover. Stroll down this part of Broadway and notice the wall to wall fashion shops (spied our Aussie Billabong shop) jumping out all along this famous stretch. It’s work in progress. At 560 is a slick and shiny Dean & Deluca deli shop (their flagship) with lunchers in the front amid coffee stands, chilled fish and meat dispensing, piles of cheese and bakery, glistening fresh fruit, and at the rear, the kitchen wares. www.deandeluca.com

Under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan is a wonderful old restaurant set under a scalloped tile roof which reminds me of the underground cellars of Barolo-though bigger spans.

Part of the 500 px restaurant is an oyster bar sporting a selection of 20+ regional origin oysters (AUD 2.50-3.00 each) with numerous shuckers at work. In the restaurant section (split-part is long trestle tables holding up to 50, the remainder is tables) I took a 12 oyster selection (AUD 37.75) from 4 regions. I asked for the most popular and received Blackberry Point (Prince Edward-Canada); Kumamoto (Oregon); Meximoto (California) and Wellfleet (Massachusetts). The west coast was saltier than the east, which is creamier and milder, though also more subtle in the sea flavours, and smaller. As a Sydney rock lover I prefer small, creamy mouthfuls rather than the overly aromatic, large, flat Pacific oyster which can miss on delicacy. Washing it down was a Leib North Fork Reserve Pinot Blanc 2007 from a manicured vineyard on Long Island, NY(AUD 11.20/glass), 12.5% alcohol, pale, aromatic, unwooded, less flesh than grigio, mildly acidic and a great local oyster flusher. I chose to miss the accompaniments due to my love for the subtle seaflavours, yet the spiced red fruits vinegar was very good, no VA.http://www.liebcellars.com/

Next had to be a fat-clawed 350 g Maine lobster which grinned at me from the live lobster tank on arrival, steamed (AUD 55.50); and easy to eat natural with the bib provided. Selecting a Highland “Seco Highlands” Pinot Noir 2006 (AUD 20/glass), Arroyo Seco in Monterey was a waste of time exercise; dull colour, blues, little pinot aroma, without the telltale sweet fruit, and bitter-finishing. The accompaniment was a huge jar of home-made coarse horseradish paste as well as various chilli sauces that did not fit the subtlety of this top lobster taste experience.

The wines were not poured at the table so there is no recall of bottle shape, label nor closure (if anything else but cork – in this bizarre land that misses on what cork does to wine character). And when inquiring about the local rose, Bridge Lane Merlot 2008, North Fork, Long Island, NY (AUD 10.60/glass), the staff were very protective about it being an orange and not purple rose, obviously being a bled juice from the company’s mainstream merlot production-a common activity for this grape to chase concentration. Probably it would have better matched the lobster.

The wine list held 10 sparklings, 25 chardonnay (Cullen 2004 and Phillip Shaw no 11 2006), 21 sauvignon (Cloudy Bay 2008), 20 rieslings (Jacob’s Creek Steingarten 2005), 6 viognier (Shinas 2007), 7 chenin, 5 white pinots (Robert Oatley Pinot Grigio 2008), 6 Traminers, 18 other whites (St Hallett Poachers 2007, Arrowfield Sophie’s Bridge Verdelho), 8 sherries, 28 cabernets (Vinaceous Raconteur 2007), 15 merlot, 11 zinfandel, 23 pinots, 6 shiraz, 7 cabernet franc, 12 other reds (1847 Home Block Petit Verdot 2004), 3 rose, 2 dessert table and 9 ports.

Given the global warming that is happening New Yorkers have a greater supply of top eastern Americas wines from a range of superior grape varieties. And they ought to support them as much as their “I love NY symbol” now. Grand Central Oyster bar is trying, it just needs more dollars spent by the locals on top of us wine tourists in order to blossom.

The verdict-AUD 120 px with tips-grand ingredients, not great value, still expensive compared with an equivalent Oz seafood serve, fabulous deco architecture, worth the experience to taste local drops, 14.5/20.http://www.oysterbarny.com/

The big Australian-Wine Australia in the Aussie wine vernacular, instigated the inaugural Landmark tasting series this year. There was a lot of media noise on Twitter and Facebook and a lot of good wine. That is what this Landmark is-a tutorial showpiece of the top shelf of Australian wine, all styles, all ages and out there to taste.

And who tasted? Well it was advertised widely internationally, received 1000 enquiries, not quite the frenzy that Tourism Queensland received when they went to the waves with their “Greatest job in the World” to be paid to live six months on the Barrier Reef.

The twelve invited landmark visitors; from Hong Kong, Japan, China, USA, Finland, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Singapore, UK, tasted 248 wines over five days alongside a series of style tutors, basically some the senior industry leaders with hundreds upon hundreds of hours of experience in the Australian wine show system.

Held in the Barossa Valley, a fitting Australian destination, and one so well known, were intense flights of wines. They were Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon, Semillon Sauvignon Blends, Our Fine Wine History, Sparkling, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Fortified, Blends, New Varieties and dinner wines.

In 2010 a next generation Landmark tasting is to be held in Victoria’s Yarra Valley in September; international applications close on 31 December 2009; http://www.landmark-wineaustralia.com/2009/09/17/apply/; hope you make it.

I can never get more excited about wine book writers than when I hear about a tourism wine book being written. One can only read so many tasting notes! And why would that be? Because the needs of wine tourists are still scantily accommodated when the mainstream books outline where to stay, drink, and sleep; and sometimes not very well other than for the needs of the average traveller. For the top-end or budget visitor the details are often difficult to discover.

Wine travel books rarely address the other needs of wine tourists; such as art galleries, vantage points, interesting local sites, and for me, walking tracks. After much convivial eating and drinking, local walks with significant kilometres to cover are rarely accessible or easy to find when the urge takes place. A meander through vineyards is so important for fitness and vitality, even more so than with being too close to the main thoroughfares where the scents of the air are exhaust gases instead of rural backyards!

The Barossa Valley is Australia’s most recognised wine region. Few international drinkers know much about where Oz wines are grown but if hard pressed they will recall the Barossa and not the other sixty one places!

Two Queensland men who love the Barossa Valley, mainly its people and the old Germanic charm have recently written Barossa Wine Traveller. Wine book publisher Tyson Stelzer (who has Barossan roots) and golf commentator cum wine blogger Grant Dodd have cobbled together this little directorywww.barossawinetraveller.com.au $19.99 Wine Press 2009.

Barossa Wine Traveller is not a book about what wines to buy there, or taste, other than the styles for which each producer is currently reputed. It is the book you buy and read before you visit the place-it’s chocked full of stories and characters around the wine industry in this region. It has feeling, little quotes from the owner of each brand and a writing style which compels the reader to love the place. There is some magic about the history (the oldest productive shiraz in the world of at least 149 years) yet some rejuvenation of thought by the smart “young guns” around the place who inject the can do innovation.

BWT is worth buying for the non-wine visiting guidance-churches, cheese shops, helicopters, markets, bakeries, wurst houses, no walking tracks but I did find the Mount Crawford Forest.