pirate

is an enterprise (new?) of y Christian Constant apparently devoted to seafood. I love herring eggs and one of the dishes mentioned was potato blinis with herring caviar. Has anyone eaten there?

One can hardly expect Burgundian red wine growers not to endorse drinking their wines with sushi. Some Burgundy growers drink red wine exclusively. I remember a conversation with Charles Rousseau. I mentioned purchasing a case of Criots-Batard-Montrachet from Delagrange-Bachelet. He dismissed drinking any white wines at all. My first choice with sushi is beer and then sake. I have noticed the extensive drinking of red wines with fish in France apart from with the oily fishes like salmon and tuna. For example: classified Bordeaux with sole meuniere.

I`ve been traveling and am currently in Singapore. I decided to check eGullet and came across this thread. It`s the 1961 Haut Brion which caught my attention.I had a case of it which is now consumed. It was a fine wine but certainally not as memorable as a number of other red wines I`ve had.

Brad Bollinger: Thanks for correcting the spelling of Umathum. I only recently started looking at the wine forum and wasn't aware of your earlier post. My interest in Zweigelt was aroused an a bitter cold night in Berlin. We were staying at the Bristol Kempinski and just around the corner on the Kantstrasse was an Austrian wine bar. Well, we were returning from a performance of the Mozart's "Magic Flute" at the Deutsche Oper and hungry. This was 1996 or so. We stopped at this wine bar and had a dish of spaetzle with onions and cheese. I ordered a large glass (2 deciliters) of Zweigelt and was instantaneously impressed. On subsequent visits to Vienna, we found this excellent winebar-restaurant in Vienna which had Umathum half-bottles on their list: all the vintages were excellent. This really belongs on the dal Forno post but I had a 1995 Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore yesterday. It was excellent. Smooth, harmonious and a nice long finish. I don't smoke so no allusions to tobacco.

Brad Ballinger quote: On a pseudo-related matter, we are starting to see some Austrian reds come into many regions of the U.S. Some are priced a bit high that it will be tough to "introduce" people to them. But for those who've had them and know how incredibly food friendly they are, this is good news. My favorite everyday red wine is Zweigelt. Umathon exports and I can buy it locally on occasion. My favorite restaurant in Vienna has it and it's always in top condition. There is an Austrian pinot blanc sold locally which I haven't purchased.

And I notice that I didn't account for all the umlauts.

Brad Ballinger: Your post reminded me of the impossibilty of getting certain German wines. About five years ago I vacationed in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Alsace. I have mentioned the spaetburgunder weissherbsts in a post on ros\'es. Actually I first came upon those wines in Garmisch-Partenkirchen which is in Bavaria. But let me get back to German red wines. I stopped in Freiberg at a wine store and looked at their selection. They didn't have the wine of a grower whose wine I had drunk at a restaurant in Traube-Tonbach. The proprieter recommended another wine from the Kaiserstuhl. It was a spaetburgunder of the Winzergenossenschaft Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl - a 1997 Sasbacher Lutzelberg Auslese. A qualitatswein mit pradikat trocken. which had won a Goldener Preis Extra. I bought one bottle (alas) and brought it home and drank it in 2001. The wine was the equal of the best Chambertin I've drunk. I tried to find the wine in the USA and failed. I was told by a friend in Freiberg that the demand in Germany for the wines is so great that they are not exported.

Florida Jim: I don't understand numerical ratings like the 100 point scales and don't pay attention to Parker. I am unaware of the site you mentioned. Two days ago I had an interesting Italian red wine. I had heard about the aglianico grape and at a stop at a fine wine retailer, the buyer mentioned he had the best aglianico he had tasted, the 2001 Naima from De Concillis. Pricey but I bought a few bottles. It could use aging. Very deep purple. Dry, austere, with some fruit but harmonious. Not much aftertaste yet. I'll wait on the other bottles.

I find Florida Jim's comments very useful. He recently commented on the 2002 Bruno Giacosa 2002 Roero Arneis white wine. His description made me feel it was the kind of white wine I would like and so I purchased a case. I tried the first bottle today and it lived up to my expectations.

Correction: The current chef purchased La Merenda. It existed for many years before his purchase.

I glanced at the site and immediately spotted a factual error. It is stated that Selvaggio created Primi. Not true! Primi existed for a few years until he PURCHASED it. Before his purchase I thoroughly enjoyed being a client on occasional Los Angeles visits. After his purchase I never returned.

My favorite ros\'es are the Spaetburgunder Weissherbst's fron Baden. They're not imported since the locals drink it up. The best I've ever had was (from my travel notes) a 1983 Oberbergen Bassgeiger Kabinett: Lake Garda ros\'es. Not found here but we get excellent white Lugana's (obtainable in the USA) from the Lake Garda region. I'd be very interested in Craig Camp's comment on the Lake Garda wines.

A comment by Brad Ballinger comes to mind as I drank three white wines with food in the past coupleof weeks, Ballinger states: "For example, I personally don’t care for many of the extracted and heavily oaked wines being produced lately – primarily in North American and Australia" I agree. I had a 2001 Kistler Camp Meeting Ridge Chardonnay 2002 Planeta Chardonnay 2002 Schiopetto Piano Bianco on 3 separate occasions. I bought the Kistler after reading about the Flowers vineyard. It was big, alcoholic and over oaked and really not very good with food. The Planeta and especially the Schiopetto went very well with food and the Schiopetto was certainly the best pinot bianco I've ever had. Both greatly preferable to the Kistler. For best chardonnay, it's the Lefaive Chevalier Montrachet. The Kistler costs more than twice as much as either of the other wines.

Hiroyuki: I'm looking forward to your comments. In the meantime this is quoted from the Roppongi Hills Club website. Apparentlly there is organic rice. Is there a certification process for organic rice in Japan? "The sushi rice served at Roppongi Hills Club", Chef Nakazato tells us, "is a special blend made by Mr. Saito, who supplies us based on our special requests. He owns Saito Sake in Chiba Prefecture. He uses mostly organic Koshihikari grain. Each harvest, he makes his strict selection from amongst high quality rice offerings and then exquisitely blends them with premium quality Hinohikari sweet rice from Saga Prefecture." The rice from Mr. Saito's blend is in optimal condition by virtue of his time-honoured blending techniques, which provide a balance between the tastes, flavours, and moistures of the large-grained organic rices. When such rice is cooked and served, the ball of sushi rice delicately separates in the mouth, and each bite liberates its full earthy flavour.

I'd like to bring to the attention of the forum an article which appeared June 19. 2000 in the Japan Times online. The article is: Sure, Japanese rice is expensive -- you're paying for all the chemicals by Stephen Hesse It's an eyeopener. At the end of the article there is an email address for the author steve@tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp

" using some advanced statistical techniques" Recall the old saying: "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics"

Bravo Florida Jim.

The problems I have with Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate are the following: 1. The huge grade inflation in evaluating wines. I remember when 16/20 on the Underground wine letter was quite a decent grade. What does 80/100 get you in WS or WA? Can one tell the difference between 92 and 94? 2. Wine journalism. People in the field drift in and out of commercial affiliations and hence are not very prone to be critical - that might possibly be their next employer. 3. Bribery. Obviously I can't confirm this but winegrowers have told me that they give many free cases, often very valuable, to the big names I like this forum because winedrinkers without any commercial or other trade affiliation express their opinions. One can, after a while discern those that one deems reliable.

It's going to hard to buy the real thing. My impression is that the department stores are filled with concessions and so one can't rely on the store. Probably the most upscale store I've seen in Tokyo is Wako; their windows are spectacular but I've never entered the store so I don't know if they carry food products. Usually it's best to go to a reliable specialty store with a very knowledgable proprieter . What about Kinokuniya?

Is there a picture of the authenticity label mentioned by Hiroyuki?

Great post by Hiroyuki. I will be stopping in Tokyo for a few days at the end of April. Where can I buy Uonuma-san Koshihikari rice?

Prosper Maufoux is a low end negociant

Joe H. What was the price of the dal Forno 1998 Valpolicella at the vineyard? At 50 euros retail equalling about $62 now (a rally for the dollar) the premium of 12 to 15 percent for buying in the USA from a fine wine store in which you have confidence appears to be acceptable. Especially when one considers the time and effort. However buying from the grower is probably worthwhile.

The most damning thing is how few Michelin inspector visits are made. If letter writing is as important how can one downgrade Zagat which is a summary of many customer opinions. I'm not a fan of either guide. I find egullet inputs the most valuable especially after I discern the tastes of the contributer. I hope that egullet stays free of planted comments.

Thanks, Craig: The article went right to the point. Although I have Italian wines in my cellar, I have no barolos. Among the barolo producers, I have some Giacosa barbarescos. But the most interesting item was that Roberto Voerzio, Domenico Clerico, Elio Altare and Luciano Sandrone are the producers of barolo that I've singled out for barolo purchases and they are all in the modern camp. It would be helpful if you would comment on their wines.