Shanghai delight

December 18, 2009

The Bund from the Pudong side

My friend Wolfgang took me out on a walk in Pudong. We started with dinner in a restaurant overlooking the Bund. After that we “climed” the two highest buildings in Shanghai and enjoyed the architecture and the view.

I just love Chinese food, especially the cuisines which are a bit more spicy such as Hunan, Sichuan but also Yunnan style food. The plates below give you and idea. The dishes were delicious and the presentation was also quite nice.

Green beans and stripes of beef

“Stinking dofu” with soybeans

Green pepers with octopus

A jelly desert

Tsingtao beer

We could have ordered a bottle of wine but beer, especially Chinese beers, go very well with Chinese food. It was a wonderful reunion after many years of only conversing via mail. For me it was also the first ever visit to Pudong. The highrises are worth visiting and exploring (many restaurants and bars with breathtaking views).

My suggestion: Go to Shanghai as long as you are still young.

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Wine from Slovenia

December 15, 2009

The 2008 Lanthieri Zelen

It’s already some time ago that our firneds Lucia and Giuseppe brought us the above bottle of Slovenian wine. They said, “put it back fro a special occasion”, which we did. But this splendid Sunday warranted a special treat.

To say it from the outset, the ‘2008 Lanthieri Zelen’ by Agroind Vipava 1894, a wine co-operative in the Vipava valley, is a wonderful wine. It was our first wine from Slovenia ever, a complete novelty to us.

Zelen is an autochthonous grape variety from the Upper Vipava Valley in Slovenia. The Lanthieri brand is reminiscent of the Lanthieri family, noblemen in the region, valley and town of Vipava, also called the Slovene Venice.

The Vipava wine road is going through the valley where viticulture is the main rural business. About 3,000 acres are under vines. The region is home to some very old, indigenous varieties which cannot be found elsewhere, for instance Zelen, Pinela, Klarnica and Pikolit.

The history of wine-making in the Vipava valley is interesting. It reminds me a bit of our own history in my home town Trier. Also in the Vipava valley, the Celts and Illyrian tribes cultivated grapes long before the Romans arrived. This is also true for my own tribe, the Treverer, in the Mosel river valley.

The back label in Slovenian

The wine has a light-yellow colour and seems to be an aromatic type of wine. Floral notes of mediterranean herbs such as lavender and rosemary can be detected. Very dominant, however, is the dried-apricot taste, very lovely and very unusual, I found. The wine has structure and is well balanced, fresh and zippy.

Spicy clam pasta

We enjoyed it with a spicy, clam pasta. The wine was “strong” enough to not “go down” with the red peppers, but, instead, held itself very well. I am sure we will not find any wine from Slovenia in Bangkok wine shops. I guess we have to visit Slovenia and detect its treasures during our next trip to Europe.

Thank you Lucia and Giuseppe for giving us this wonderful gift. We apprecite your generosity and we know how heavy wine bottles are.

I think Slovenia might have the potential to become the “wine Mekka” of tomorrow.

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Tractor delivered

December 14, 2009

I know that many of the visitors of my blog are not interested in my “farm affairs” (statistics and comments point to that sad conclusion). This might have to do with the fact that most wine consumers are urban people removed from the realities of rural life and work on the land.

Nonetheless, I am thrilled by the fact that my new tractor was delivered last Friday. Michael, my brother in law, and Steve Sadlier, who manages our vineyard were there when Gordon rocked up with the trailer and dropped off our brand new Daedong tractor, received the good and stored them in the shed. We are ecstatic about this. I cannot wait to try the new Daedong out next time I am visiting. Michael took a couple of pictures which I show below.

Loading the machine off the trailer

Brand new Daedong tractor

Instructing the new user, Steve and Gordon

Get the machine into the shed

Dob well done, Michael and Steve

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Bordeaux wines: Château La Gravière and pasta for dinner

December 13, 2009

The amatriciana pasta

There are just too many châteaux out there. I confess that I do not know much about the wines from Bordeaux. This wine region produces between 700 and 900 million bottles of wine every year. It is divided into 57 appellations. About 10,000 producers call themselves ‘châteaux’, the number of grape growers is about 13,000.

Fortunately, Haut-Médoc, just north of the city of Bordeaux, at the left of the river Gironde covering about 4,600 ha of vines, is smaller but still carries lots of different châteaux. The area used to be marshland until Dutch merchants began to drain it in the 17th century. From grazing land to vineyards (reminds me of my own story and Two Hills Vineyard in Glenburn which is largely grazing land, but in the hills, no marshes to be seen), what a great success story.

2006 Château La Gravière

Our friend Emmie had given us this bottle (above), a ‘2006 Château La Gravière’ from Haut-Médoc, after her return from Europe. The Château La Gravière is actually situated on the right bank of the river, in Lalande-de-Pomerol AOC. It’s a small producer with only 2.3 ha under vines whose flagship wines are Château La Gravière, a typical blend of Merlot (80%) and Cabernet Franc (20%) and Moulin de Gravière, its second wine.

The label is owned by the Rougefort Group. Total production from the Lalande-de-Pomerol AOC is about 500 cases per year. The Haut-Médoc wines (left bank of the river) are an addition to the portfolio. The character of the wines is quite different from the Lalande-de- Pomerol wines which is partly due to the blending formula, partly due to the different terroir.

The colour of the wine

The wine was very pleasant, full of vanilla and berry flavours. We just loved it. It could cope well with the strong flavours of the amatriciana pasta and the bacon in it. My prejudices against Bordeaux wines (which are partly the results of my ignorance) were utterly refuted.

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Bowmore – what a lovely whisky

December 12, 2009

Whisky bottle and book

It was a pity that I did not have my “whisky book” with me (Michael Jackson’s ‘Malt Whisky Companion’ which my friend Rainer gave me) when I was shopping for “a drink” at Beijing International Airport. I just remembered the Islay island somehow but as a wine drinker I am not too familiar with the whiskies of Scotland. In fact this is only my second blog entry on whisky.

I picked up a bottle of 17 year old Bowmore (43 % vol), leaving a 15 year Bowmore behind. Later I learned from the above book that the younger whisky scores higher than the older one, but best is a Bowmore Darkest and a 40 year old, earning each 91 points.

Exposed to westerly winds, Bowmore Distillery is located in the village of Bowmore on the western coast of the Isle of Islay, a small island off the Scottish coast. The distillery was founded in 1779 not long after the village, the first planned village in Scotland, was set up in 1768 by Daniel Campbell.

The Bowmore label

The whiskies of Bowmore are distinct in their character. The water used shows some iron-tinged mineral and some peat aromas on the palate. The malt is of the intensity of the south shore and is malted at the distillery. About 30% of the whisky is aged in old sherry casks.

The Bowmore has a nutty taste, is smoky and shows some peat. It is firm and dry. I like its taste on my palate; it’s an awesome drink. Next time I will explore some more of the Islay distilleries (there are 7 on ths island). Stay tuned and look out for this superb whisky.

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Shanghai by night

December 11, 2009

Shanghai World Financial Center

My friend Wolfgang took me around Shanghai by bight. After we had dinner with view of the Bund, we climed two of the hightes buildings, the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m), also called “the bottle opener” and the Jin Mao Tower (421 m).

Three men welcoming us at the elevator

The entrance presents itself in a kind of minimalist Japanese style, resembling a bit an Egyptian tomb somehow. Very interesting feeling entering this building.

The top 30 odd floors are occupied by the Hyatt Hotel. The following two pictures show these floors. We did not go to the observations desk because it was just too late. Our walk led us to various restaurants and bars, all splendidly furnished.

Photo from the lobby upwards where a band was performing

Photo from above, 30 floors down is the dance floor where the band is playing

It was a breathtaking walk, a bit overwhelming though. More about Chinese food you will encounter in my next blog entry.

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Beijing gray

December 9, 2009

Well, I am in Beijing by now and I am very surprised that I can enter my blog. When I wanted to add the picture in Shanghai the other day, the Great Fire Wall of China prevented me from doing so. The more my surprise that I can enter now.

It was a pleasant day despite the grey winter weather. Almost no visibility today. The people are nice as always in China and the food is excellent. I will report about some of my culinary excursions later.

I found Christmas music in every shopping mall; giant Christmas trees in all colours with flashing lights welcome the casual visitor. More new buildings, shops and shopping malls, restaurants and fashion outlets seem to open ever since my last visit in August.

The highlight of the day was my visit to Red Gate Gallery at Dongbianmen Watchtower. The current exhibition reflects the vibrancy of the young Chinese artists and their sense of humour. If in Beijing you should go and have a look. It’s well worth it.

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Shanghai blue

December 8, 2009

I cannot believe it. I am blogging from China, from Shanghai to be precise. So far, whenever I traveled in China I could not access my blog and wordpress. Now the impossible has become possible. Incredible. Does that imply that the old censorship policy has been changed? or is it just Shanghai which is more open to the world?

I will add a picture to this entry later.

PS: I had to wait for the upload because the Great Firewall of China did not let me do it. Two days later in Beijing I manged to get into my blog again.

From the Pudong side, view of the Bund and the Huangpu river

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My wine cabinet

December 7, 2009

My wine cabinet

Have I ever shown you my wine cabinet? No? Here it is.

It was made by Mr. Mambo, our furniture-maker in Jakarta. It was copied from one of the furniture magazines from which he makes his stuff.

I love it very much. It has a (red) marble top and a wooden rack for hanging wine glasses. I have the bad habit of putting empty bottles at the top. Many of them I keep for reference until I have written about the specific wine.

In the tropics one cannot store wine in the base of the cabinet because it is just too hot for that. But my hopes are high that once we have moved to Glenburn for good, I can use it, at least during the colder months of the year.

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Spiedini di salsiccia e manzo

December 6, 2009

The spiedini on my Weber

The other day we experimented with a recipe by Jamie Oliver. It had fired up my Weber and was ready to go. ‘Spiedini di salsiccia e manzo’ was the dish, we intended to cook. The photo above gives you an idea.

The recipe goes as follows:

– beef fillet cut in cubes of 2.5 cm (12 pieces)
– Italian sausages of the highest quality ( 4 large ones)
– four thickly slices pieces of pancetta (or streaky beacon)
– fresh sage leaves (18-20)
– gloves of garlic, peeled (2-3)
– one lemon, zested and halved
– extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, ground black pepper

In Jamie Olivers recipe you stick the meat and the sausages on firm sticks of fresh rosemary. We used skewers instead. But I will try it with the rosemary sticks if I prepare this dish in Australia next time.

We marinated the meat in a “magic potion” for a long time before sticking them on the skewer. Make sure that you put about 3-4 pieces of pancetta on each stick, also the sage interspersed with meat needs to be part of each skewer. I whacked them on the “barby”, turned them around a few times, all in all about 20 minutes suffice to make them the most delicious food you ever had.

You can serve them with polenta, or potatoes, or just eat them with bread. Have a beer or two, or a glass of cold white wine. Voila, a great meal. Thanks Jamie for the hint, we loved your recipe.

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