The gooseberry conundrum

This came from a slide I used to illustrate the gooseberry conundrum when talking about Sancerre and the like. Wines made from Sauvignon Blanc are said to have a gooseberry nose, but most people in Hong Kong encounter the Cape Gooseberry (or Physalis) and take that to be the fruit in question. But it is the fruit on the left (Ribes uva-crispa) that is the one being referred to. It is however not often seen here in Hong Kong, even in international supermarkets, so the confusion is understandable. The gooseberry fruit itself is sweet-sour in flavour and mildly stringent. Commonly cooked and served in desserts such as gooseberry crumble (hot) and gooseberry fool (cold), this peculiarly English fruit is not well-known here in Hong Kong.

I have also included the pictures of two varieties of Kiwifruit in the slide, and for a good reason. Before some marketing executive coined up that name to sell a New Zealand consignment, the fruit was known as Chinese Gooseberries - Chinese because it originated from southern China. Why gooseberry? Maybe the original fruit was a little small and hairy like the gooseberry. I recently saw a variety of small fruits called Kiwiberries. They were little larger than Western gooseberries. Perhaps that's how Chinese Gooseberries got their name.

A taste of an old wine

This is the oldest wine I have tasted so far, though I have in my possession several bottles which predates this one. This was a Pichon Baron 1939, which was tasted on 20 September 2004. That made the wine 65 years old at the time I tasted it. The next oldest bottles would have been from 1966, I had tasted the Sudhuiraut and Pape Clement, but the Margaux and Haut-Brion were still to come.

The picture was taken soon after drawing the cork, so the level of the ullage would be top shoulder. The wine was quite mahogany in colour and not pale nor brick/orange as one might expect. There were wine aromas on the nose as well as a hint of some savoury soy-sauce like notes. These elements carried through to the tongue and palate on tasting. The finish was not at all long. It seemed as if the wine is gently fading away. Sure enough, opening the bottle hastened its demise. Within an hour, one would not enjoy tasting it, though the nose remained pleasant enough for a couple more hours after that.

Holy Wine?

This is a bottle of Vin Santo del Chianti Classico from Isole e Olena. Vin Santo is made from dried grapes (similar to how Recioto is made) and the wine above from the Chianti DOC is made from at least 70% of a blend of Trebbiano and Malvasia with the remaining 30% from local white grapes. The minimum alcohol level is set at 15%. A deep mahogany tea colour accompanied by a sweet luscious nose with sugar cane notes, the wine was medium sweet with smoky and dried fruit notes on the palate, with a dried fruit acidity extending from mid palate to finish.
There are different theories for the name, including its use in religious ceremonies as well as the tradition of starting the fermentation around All Saints (1 Nov) and bottling around Easter. I had posted a previous tidbit about a white wine made from Assyrtiko from the Greek island of Santorini. They also make an Vinsanto in a very similar fashion. Their Vinsanto is made from at least 51% Assyrtiko with the rest being Athiri, Aidani and other local grapes. This wine has historically been adopted as the wine for liturgical use by the Russian Orthodox Church. It now seems that being an important trading hub, the wines of Santorini were labelled Vin Santo (rini) as shorthand since ancient times. Since 2002, the EU has recognized this claim to the name of Vin Santo by Santorini, though the Italians can still use Vin Santo but with a geographic indicator to specify their own special sweet wines made in this way.

When the white is the wine more sought after

Mention a Bordeaux chateau and you naturally think of its red wine. But Bordeaux is not limited to red wines and some of their white wines are equally sought after. Oh, I don't mean the sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac, but the dry white wines. Graves is the area known for its dry white Bordeaux and the inner zone of Pessac-Leognan is even more famous.

Some estates are as well known for their whites as their reds, but for Domaine de Chevalier it is the white which is more sought after (and more expensive). Now we have of course Haut Brion Blanc, but this wine is not widely known. As a first growth of Bordeaux, the red wines of Haut Brion are prestigious enough already. The lesser known white is made in tiny quantities and is greatly sought after, making its price at least double that of the red.

Don PX 1972

I bought this interesting half bottle from the wine section of a Tokyo department stall. This is a vintage PX dessert wine from Montilla-Morilles, made by Bodegas Toro Albala. Of course, I didn't know anything more until I got back and looked up my Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine Book. I was relieved to find that he has an entry - "family firm located in a 1920s power station and aptly making Electrico Finos, Amontillados, and a PX which is among the best in Montilla and Spain."

So I have stumbled upon a great PX dessert wine. I must confess I haven't opened this bottle yet. However I have no doubts as to the wine's greatness. I have had a non-vintage PX Montilla from one of its competitors and it turned out to be an amazing experience. The same goes for my taste of PX sherry. I shall indeed look forward to tasting this wine.

Austrian Eiswein

Apart from German Eisweins, I also like Austrian ones. I think that German and Austrian Eisweins are the best and much more elegant and balanced than the ones from Canada (which we'll explore in other tidbits). This one is made from the Scheurebe grape, which is Austrian is often referred to as Samling 88. The grape was developed by Dr Georg Scheu in 1916 and is planted mainly in Germany in Austria. Scheurebe is found mainly in Burgenland and Neusiedlersee in Austria, where it is often made into sweet wines (like in Germany).

Neusiedlersee is a shallow (maximum depth around 1.8m) steppe lake on the Austro-Hungarian border. Its warmth and autumn mists encourage botrytis growth and some notable sweet wines come from this corner of Austria. The towns of Illmitz and Rust are particularly famous for their sweet wines and notable producers are based here, such as Kracher and Opitz in the former and Feiler-Artiger in the latter town.

A Chateau that's not a Chateau

This is a bottle of vin jaune from Chateau-Chalon, an appelation in the Jura. Made from the Savignin grape, the barrels are not topped up during the mandatory minimum of 6 years and 3 months of aging. A layer of yeast forms on top (similar to the flor in fino sherry) and helps develop the charactersitc flavours of vin jaune. According to local tradition, only 62% of the original volume is left and so it is bottled in 62cl bottles called clavelins.

Chateau-Chalon is a village in the Jura as well as an AOC. Other AOCs producing Vin Jaune in the Jura include L'Etoile and Arbois. Although similar to fino sherry in its flavours, it is not a fortified wine. Apart from nutty notes, it can develop curry-like flavours as it ages due to the presence of sotolon. Best drunk at cellar temperature at least 10 years after bottling (over 16 years after vintage), the wine keeps for a very long time. It has been paired with chicken cooked in vin jaune as well as the local Comte cheese.

This bottle above was bought in Hong Kong and I haven't opened it yet. I have tasted a 2003 vin jaune from Arbois at the last wine fair and can tell you that the golden yellow wine had a acid slightly nutty nose reminiscent of f nice fino sherry, with a dry acid palate with notes of dried fruits and smoke extending to the finish with a slight nuttiness. This was the current vintage, so no curry notes could be expected.

PS. Even discounting Chateuneuf, we still have another chateau AC - Chateau-Grillet in north Rhone, famed for its Viognier.

Thai wine from the year 2543

Just to put perplexed mind at rest, I don't have the ability for time travel; it's only that the calendar used is the Thai calendar, so 2543 is actually 1999. Whilst on the note of different ways of signifying vintages, I also had a Gavi from La Scolca where they used words to denote the vintage: due mille tre (2003).

The Siam Winery has floating vineyards in the Chao Phraya Delta, where they grow Malaga Blanc (white) and Pokdum (red). The rose above is made from a mixture of both grapes. I had this wine on a trip to Chiang Mai in August 2003 (the year of SARS). It was good enough as a party wine, but not something for deep contemplation. This was the trip I bought the Dealul Mare wine (see blog of 24/3/11) as well as a Lambrusco di Sorbara. Of course I would not let slip an opportunity of bringing a Thai wine back to Hong Kong. I bought two as well as a wine from a Thai-owned St Emilion chateau. That however belongs to another tidbit.

Californian wine with a French accent

Wines come in many styles; some are bold and brash whilst others are discreet and elegant. Californian wines tend to be somewhat extrovert and for a long time neither my wife nor I warm to its charms.
This was one of the first Californian wines to win us over. It was not as loud as some examples and definitely not of the "I'm oakier than you" school. It is said that some of the earlier Dominus vintages need a lot of time to open up; well I got to know Californian wines late and this had over 15 years of bottle age before I got to sample it. I suppose the fact that it is owned by Christian Moueix of Pomerol might explain the tendency of this Californian version of red Bordeaux towards elegance rather than naked power. Christian runs the famous Bordeaux estates such as Chateaux Petrus, Magdelaine and La Fleur Petrus.
In the first 8 vintages (1983-1990) of Dominus Napa, as the wine was establishing its identity, the winery commissioned a number of artist to make portraits of Christian Moueix for the labels. This 1986 label was produced by Jim Dine. Since 1991, a classic Bordeaux style label is used.