White Bordeaux vs white Burgundy for seafood

Although the two are not entirely comparable, both white Bordeaux and white Burgundies are often drunk when having different kinds of seafood. I remember organizing a dinner with this theme for KCC Wine society and having a grumble to this effect. However, for this dinner with family friend, I got the Bordeaux Blanc for abalone and the Meursault for other seafood. i have blogged before about how I found the Blanc de Lynch Bages a good accompaniment to Abalone, but this time it was not available, a the Malartic-Lagraviere has to stand in its place.

As for the wines, the 2004 white from Graves was a golden yellow with a crisp lemony nose and wood notes. The palate was slightly sweet on entry with wood and fruit followed by acid, leading to an acid backbone. The Meusault-Blagny was a similar (but lighter) golden yellow, with a slightly crisp grapefruit nose with a touch of wood. The palate was also slightly sweet on entry, with grapefruit notes going on to an acid bone and a finish with hints of butteriness.

Scottish Wine

(Image from Decanter Website)

There was this recent article in Decanter about attempts at making wine in Scotland. Some 200 vines were planted over the last 5 years, consisting of German crosses Rondo, Solaris and Siegerrebe. Unfortunately the grapes were harvested too late and were not chilled quickly enough after harvesting, leaving the resultant wine very oxidized and basically unpalatable. The grower initially aimed to prove that grapes could ripen in Scotland (and I suppose the way the climate is warming up, Scotland may prove to be a great place for grapes in 100 years' time!), but now he has set his aim on making a drinkable wine. Well this is certainly a story that can be interesting to follow!

Three rascals (en Meritage)

Now things can turn out to be a big coincidence, but the above three wines (all Meritage blends) match the names (although all in different spellings) of my three children. If one was to confine the selection to Bordeaux and map Rafael onto Chateau Angelus (St Raphael being one of the Archangels), they are all St Emilion Grands Crus, with Angelus being Premier Grand Cru Classe (A) (in the most recent classification) and Magdelaine Premier Grand Cru Classe (B) (till 2012) and la Dominique being classified Grand Cru Classe.

Though a wine lover, I did not name my children after wines (unlike Hemmingway, who named a daughter Margaux after the first growth), but things somehow turned that way. As already mentioned above, one took an angel's name, another the founder of an important monastic order. Some would ask me why the name of a woman sinner was chosen (others would identify the name with a reformed prostitute) for a child, it should be remembered that the lady from Magdala was the first person Jesus revealed himself to on the morning of the resurrection!

Plastic wine glasses

I bought these plastic wine glasses on a previous trip to Tokyo and brought them with us on this recent trip.The alternative would be to bring a couple of glass ISO glasses, but that seems to be more breakable. However I had seen some full size plastic wine glasses on sale, looking rather like Riedel glasses in shape and size and even with a proper rim (not a rolled one). Of course I haven't thrown it around to test its breakability (or lack thereof) but it seems that it could be answer to picnics and even moveable feasts. The problem with bring these on one's travel is luggage space, so they may not be the answer to not being able to drink from "proper" glasses whilst on vacation.

Wine encounters in a recent family trip

As I mentioned in the last post, we just came back from a family trip to Tokyo and Shanghai. There was not much as far as vinous encounters in Shanghai, but we did consume some bottles which we brought over for various dinners - Torres Salmos 2012 and Gaja Ca'marcanda Promis also 2012, both bought in Tokyo and which went down a treat.

We had some sake as well as various wines for the various meals, including a Chablis 1er Cru (which did not go with the oysters, at least not as much as the sake we were having), a Steinberger Kabinett (which matched the smoked salmon a little less than the sake again (another one)) and the Il Chiusa from Castello di Ama. My problem was that having faithfully taken tasting notes and pictures of bottles on my smartphone,I proceeded to lose it on the last night, so now I am left with no record of them after all!!

Visiting a winery in Yamanashi Prefecture

I had recently returned from a trip to Tokyo with the family and we went on a day trip to Mount Fuji. Part of the trip included visiting a peach farm where we had lunch and picked peaches, followed by a cherry farm where we ate cherries we picked off the tree. Included as a last stop was a winery which only started up 30 years ago. I wonder whether those who set wineries in this region thought that as Yamanashi is a good place to grow fruit, it should also be good for growing grapes to make wine.

We were given a few wines to taste and they were very much for the local Japanese market, and far from the "specifications" which one has come to expect in the sort of wines we but from wine shops. Grape varieties tend to be various hybrids, though the normal varieties are also seen. They did not however seem to make wine from Koshu, a local grape much used in Japanese wine-making. There were wines made from Delaware, which I did not seem to have encountered before as well as more examples of wines made from their favourite table grape Kyoho. I have blogged about previous encounters with an Australian and a Japanese  Kyoho wine as well as a Korean blend including it.

Il Chiuso

I got this wine at a wine shop in Tokyo and we had it with some Wagyu beef. An IGT from Castello di Ama, which debuted in 2009, this wine is a blend of Pinot Noir and Sangiovese, whose proportion varies from year to year according to growing conditions. The Pinot Noir came from a 4ha site in the San Lorenzo Valley whilst the Sangiovese fruit was from young plantings in the various estate vineyards. We had the 2012 vintage, which was a 50:50 mix of the two grapes. Although this is an unconventional mix, it seemed to work well, and proved a good match with the well marbled Wagyu beef.