White Wine and Asian Fusion Cuisine

[bills]

Interesting and enjoyable dinner/tasting of white wines with Asian fusion food.

NV Lingenfelder Satyr – this unusual bubbly is made sand dosage (sorry, that should be in German, but I’m not sure what that would be….) – he uses only grape must to adjust sweetness, and is matured on the lees for 5 years. The result is a wine with some colour, a somewhat coarse spritz, excellent balance, quite dry and with good acidity, and some pear notes in the nose, which although it has Riesling hints, doesn’t shout out it’s varietal like a still wine normally does.

1996 Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Champagne – oddly enough this one was also a bit sparse in the bubble department, though it was easily identifiable as a Champers. The nose was a bit dusty, but the wine was smooth and showed some complexity.

With Cucumber dong (don’t ask) salad with chili oil and crystallized ginger

2003 Ch. de Pibarnon Bandol – Clairette, Bourbellenc and other unidentified components gave this wine…..well not much of anything at all, actually. Very closed nose with the odd bit of apple and lemon peaking out, and pretty much a big blank in the middle. No one seemed to know what to make of this.

2002 Pride Viognier – interesting waxy lanolin and coconut nose, smooth with good balance and some honey at the end.

With Indian candied salmon crispy wontons with green apple jelly

1996 Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches – no flies on this one (har har). Showing a bit of colour, a nose of wet rock, tons of acidity, interesting wine with some depth and good length.

2002 de Ladoucette Pouilly Fumé – sweet honeysuckle aromas, well balanced acidity. Obviously younger than the previous wine.

With Pan roasted pork loin with Szechuan peppered burnt orange pecan glaze

2001 Grange des Peres – Roussanne and chard here, with big oakiness and a bit of lemon in the nose, well balanced and with slight hints of spice.

2001 Mer Soleil Chardonnay – Wagner’s version was unfair competition for the poor Grange – big citrus and mineral notes in the largely oak driven nose, full flavoured and toasty with good ‘heft’ to it. If you are in the mood for a ‘woody’, this is a good one and goes down well with food.

With Su dong po wild boar braised in sweet soy

2001 Penfolds Eden Valley Riesling Reserve – got this one fairly quickly as an Aussie Riesling, though I guessed Western Oz rather than Eden Valley. Big varietal nose, the wine very dry, ending with citrus. Good with food. This would have worked better earlier on, but I expect they wanted to pair like varietals with each other.

2001 Jackson Triggs Proprietor’s Reserve Ice Wine – I’ve reviewed this wine before. You are either a fan or you are not. For me, it is a definite ‘not’ – for either the style of wine or the lacklustre commercial tank farm winery. Others will no doubt be better satisfied with it. Give me a good German or Californian sweetie every time and leave this stuff in the designer bottles for the Asian tourist trade.

With red bean coconut milk panna cotta

And a final treat thanks to one of our attendees:

2003 Black Hills Nota Bene – although this just released local wine is 46% cab, 34% merlot and only 20% cab franc, the latter seemed to dominate the nose, which did its best to emulate a green Graves, with little differentiation at this point. Hopefully some age will tone down some aspects and bring up others. Warm on palate, in fact slightly hot, though ‘only’ 14.5% alcohol, and with a slight bitterness on the end that had me making a mental note to watch this characteristic in future tastings to see if it becomes an objectionable element or merely an interesting one. Nice to taste this so early without having to plunder my own cellar. Thanks to J&B and happy anniversary!