Al Amir Wine: Mondavi, Yes; Musar, No

Before entering Al Amir, I had hoped for too much. I hoped I’d find a Lebanese wine, in particular, a bottle of Chateau Musar. It’s a Bordeaux-styled red table wine of impeccable quality made by Serge Hochar, a courageous vintner who has more than 300 acres of grapevines planted in the Bekaa Valley south of Beirut. It is also one the great wine treasures in the world.

Chateau Musar isn’t widely distributed, but its California distributor, Merrick Dowson, president of Adventures in Wine in San Francisco, said he has vintages of Chateau Musar dating back to 1961. None of Dowson’s stock was at Al Amir.

Instead there was a Robert Mondavi flavor to the wine list, so much so that I half expected the menu to contain an entree called Shish KeBob Mondavi. Bad pun, but no stranger than Al Amir’s wine list, which is generally overpriced and lackluster.

Zinfandel is the first wine I think of to go with Lebanese food, especially Al Amir’s sort of seasoned lamb (cumin, garlic, onions).

No Zin on this list.

And with chicken kebab, ground lamb and hummus , I cleave to the spiciness found in dry Gewurztraminers.

No Gewurz on the list.

Those looking for a food-wine pairing are left with only well-made, decent, upstanding table wines that do little for the food. And at prices aimed at a prince.

White-wine lovers can choose from Mondavi Chardonnay ($33, twice its suggested retail price) and Sutter Home White Zinfandel ($15, three times its suggested retail price).

Unexciting? Then how about a bottle of Moreau Grand Cru Chablis? Here it’s a modest $62 a bottle; retail is about $31.

Red wine drinkers will have an equally fine time coping. You can get Mondavi Cabernet, of course. Twice retail. But the best wine on the list, in my estimation, is 1986 Cuvaison Merlot, a wine that retails for $18. That’s the good news. The bad is that it’s $43 a bottle here.

We ordered the 1980 Louis Martini Cabernet Special Selection, a wine that sells for $12.50 in shops. Or less. Here it’s $26, but still one of the better buys on this list.

Least expensive wines listed are Mouton Cadet red and Callaway Sauvignon Blanc, both $17 and both double their suggested retail prices. House wines are the red and white from Mondavi (Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc from Mondavi’s Lodi-area winery). They are $3.75 for a good-sized glass.

The champagne list is topped by omnipresent Dom Perignon at $120. Dom Perignon is seen in some discount retail shops at under $50.

The wine list of 25 items (plus Tio Pepe and Ficklin port by the glass) listed no vintage dates, so getting any data on the wine you’re hoping to have is a trick. Moreover, the red we ordered came in a wicker basket, lying almost horizontally, and the waiter seemed to have a chore getting the bottle into this gizmo in the first place and then serving it once it was placed.

Al Amir’s elegant decor and food does much to upgrade the image of Lebanese cuisine, it’s only too bad the restaurant doesn’t want to do the same for Lebanese wine. Of course, for $3, you can get a bottle of Lebanese beer.