My welcome meal consisted of wild boar goulash, mushrooms and Suebian dumplings (Spaetzle). What a treat, so delicious. I washed it down with a bottle of my house wine, a ‘2007 Alte Reben, Van Volxem Riesling’ from Wiltingen, Saar river. I just love the Van Volxem wines.
The very same day, a parcel arrived for me containing a bottle of wine which I won when participating in an opinion survey of a German wine magazine, Weinwelt (www.weinwelt.info). I could not believe it. What a pleasant surprise this was. The wine is a “grand crue” (GG: Grosses Gewaechs) from the Pfalz, a ‘2007 Forster Ungeheuer GG, Reichsrat von Buhl‘ in Deidesheim, Rheinpfalz. I decided to taste this wine another time and cellared it in my “treasure trove”. Thank you Weinwelt.
However, I could not resist to buy some more bottles of Mosel Riesling. I decided to try wines from Bischoefliches Konvikt. The two terroirs are very famous, one is Ayler Kupp at the Saar, the other is Eitelsbacher Marienholz from the Ruwer, another tributary of the Mosel.
The ‘2007 Eitelsbacher Marienholz Riesling’ I had with another serve of wild boar goulash the next day. It had all the zest I expected from a fresh Riesling from the Ruwer. The wine from the Saar I packed into my suitcase. Destination: Bangkok and reserved for a leisurely Sunday family meal in the tropics. I can only say: visit the Mosel and its tributaries. Here you’ll find heavenly Riesling wines. Cheers and zum Wohl.
On the 8th of March 21 years ago, I entered an Italian language class and sat next to a blonde girl from Australia. In the morning of the same day, my boss, Luciano Montesi, had send me out to buy flowers for all the women working in our service. This is how I learned about world women’s day.
It was a glorious day in Rome and I was glad that my friend Jim had taken me to his language class. What I did not know at the time was that I would marry that blonde Australian two years later.
Today, we felt like celebrating this first encounter and decided to go out for lunch. We called the Patara Restaurant which is only one Soi away from us in Thonglor, Bangkok, and they sent their tuck-tuck to pick us up at 13:20 h. All four of us like Thai food, so the choice of Patara came very natural.
Patara is located in Thonglor, Soi 19. The building used to be a private residence in a single house with a large garden, I guess. Inside you’ll find an elegant Thai restaurant, just the right place for such a celebration as ours was.
The interior of Patara
The decoration is very tasteful
We ordered two starter platters, a selection of various small Thai dishes and the three dumpling assortment. Don’t get fooled by the colours. The dumplings are most delicious.
This was the first starter platter
Three kinds of Thai dumplings
Then we ordered the main dishes, among them a tofu in red curry, a green chicken curry, an oxtail red curry, some green vegetables and some rice (which came in four colours, unfortunately my photo of the rice was blurred). All of us like spicy food, therefore we just followed our instincts when ordering.
The main dishes
Green chicken curry
The ossobucco-type dish
Green veggies
The food was so wonderful, so perfect, so delicious; our taste buds went from one sensation to the next. This is Thai food at its best, wow. I could not believe it. Margit and the kids had visited Patara earlier but for me it was the maiden visit. This was the best Thai food in ages.
What about the wine? Food and wine pairings in Asia are at times a challenge. Patara has a well assorted wine list. Since the first encounter had taken place in Italy, I choose an Italian wine. The ‘2005 Campogrande Orvieto DOC Classico Superiore’ by Antinori seemd to be just the right choice.
First, many times we had stopped in Orvieto when returning to Rome from Umbria so that a lot of happy memories are tied up with Orvieto Classico wines. Second, just a day earlier we had this wonderful ‘2005 Antinori Tignanello’, so I thought why not stay with the same producer.
Wine is expensive in Thailand. The bottle was under 2000 Bath, not bad for a restaurant offer. I know that this wine retails for about US$ 10-12 in other parts of the world. The wine has a pale straw colour. It is elegant and fresh. The wine has a good structure and a very pleasant palate of tropical fruit.
As typical for Orvieto Classico, the wine is a Trebbiano blend. Varieties include Procanico, Grechetto, Verdelho, Drupeggio, Malvasia and – surprise surprise – Chardonnay (15 %!). Antinori went up to the maximum allowed as regards Grechetto (27%). With the exception of Verdelho and Chardonnay, I have never tasted any of the individual varieties included in this blend as single wines.
Cheers
Happy children
After lunch the children entertained themselves in the garden.
These are the ingredients for Irish coffee. It’s worth to order it. It’s freshly made at the table, a spectacular show, truly amazing.
The finished product: Irish coffee
Before we got on the tuck-tuck again, we were served refreshing towels. What a wonderful celebration this family meal was, a delight for the palate, a pleasure for the eyes. The staff at Patara is incredibly professional, very friendly and extremely helpful.
Happy diners
If you want to experience something special and you have the chance to drop in a Patara Restaurant, please do so. I highly recommend it. And if you are in Bangkok, the choice is clear: visit Patara, its’ worth it.
Our friends Lucija and Giuseppe came by on Saturday afternoon to treat us to a special treat. They brought with them a bottle of ‘2005 Antinori Tignanello’ from the Toscana.
Lucija and Giuseppe
Friends from Firenze had given them this wonderful wine and they wanted to enjoy it with us, and enjoy we did this heavenly drop. We sat on our terrace, I grabbed a couple of wine glasses and opened the bottle. Immediately, the djin was out: what a “profumo”. You could smell the scent from a distance.
My nose registered forest berries, dark fruit, moss and forest floor, hmm. In the mouth it felt round and silky. I loved the intense flavours of fresh fruit. The wine is full-bodied with very fine balanced tannins, a treat indeed.
2005 Tignanello
Later on the internet I found that Robert Parker had awarded 92 points to this wine. This blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc is a wonderful wine from Antinori which I can highly recommend. The Wine Spectator says it should be drank after 2011. We could not wait that long.
Captured by a wine
One bottle for four does not last long. But we had memorable minutes of utter pleasure. Thank you folks for this wonderful treat.
PS: Later that day we were joined by about 10 more people and had a barbecue on our terrace. It was a jolly good day with lashings of food and drink.
At about 10 at night I found myself laying on the terrace tiles, feeling the heat emitting, my head on a pillow which I shared with my two daughters Lucy and Charlotte, the crown of our heads touching and our bodies radiating out like the spokes of a wheel. We were watching the night sky of Bangkok, the moon and the clouds travelling fast elsewhere. We talked about life and the universe and our thoughts attached themselves to the clouds. Our dreams carried us away, and in a heartbeat we were gone into other worlds.
Sitting on my terrace this Friday morning, I read, as always, my morning International Herald Tribune . On the second page new findings about the health benefits of wine are described by Roni Caryn Rabin. What a pleasant surprise.
After all the bad news, the fires in Victoria, the loss of our 2009 vintage, the downturn of the Australian wine industry, global warming and the general disaster of the global financial crisis, there is finally also something good in the news.
My paternal grandfather died of esophageal adenocarcinoma (Barretts’s esophagus), a cancer of the throat linked to heartburn and acid reflux. There is, however, another form of esophageal cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, where alcohol is a well established risk factor. So maybe the avoidance of one cancer might lead to the emergence of another?
Caution is warranted as with all kinds of nutritional studies. And after all, I do not drink wine to avoid a certain disease but because I enjoy the taste of the glorious liquid.
Maybe a flower a day will do as well?
A gardenia flower from my rooftop garden in Bangkok
You might think the guy is out of his mind. Come and visit me in Bangkok and experience first hand.
The Open Wine Consortium is now one year old. Congratulations folks! On this innovative social network platform more than 3100 wine aficionados from all around the world, some of them from the wine industry (grape producers, vintners, wine-makers, as well as wine and food marketing people), some of them just passionate wine lovers and consumers, regularly meet and exchange ideas and information.
When I became a members, I honestly did not know what to do out there. And frankly speaking, I still do not grasp the full potential of this new way for social exchange. It also somehow conflicts with my writing and reading habits on the internet, and of course with my blogging work. I just do not have the time to do both.
There is even more out there in the virtual world. New things which I have not explored as yet. For instance there is a group called “Twitter Taste Live”. On this platform you can tweet your latest tasting notes. I will try it right now for the first time.
And? it worked, hurrah. Web 2.0 in full swing. Here is the proof.
I guess I will have to extend the hours of the day from 24 to 28, or something like it.
I suggest: try it out.
Cheers
After so many years living in the tropics we finally decided to buy a wine fridge. Storing fine wine in a tropical climate is just no fun. In Jakarta we had a larder which was permanently air-conditioned. Wine would keep for some time but it was stored their with all the other food items a family of four needs.
Isn’t it a nice piece of furniture?
We bought only a small wine fridge here in Bangkok. Our kitchen is small and we did not want it to be too big. Anyway, strangely enough wine does not keep in our family. The fridge holds about 30 bottles which is usually sufficient. No cellaring folks.
Treasures, somehow
You might want to know what wine I store in this fridge. Well, some bottles of our house wine (Bushman’s Gully), some bottles of Thai wine (Gran Monte), some “rarities” given to me by friends (wines from China, Myanmar) and one lonely bottle of Saar Riesling (Van Volxem) for a Sunday treat.
Recently, my friend Holger from Berlin had given us a bottle of “Francis Coppola wine”. I had never tasted anything from this producer though I have read a couple of reviews on the net. Therefore, opening this bottle of Pinot Noir and enjoying it with a Sunday roast (chicken this time) promised to be an exciting experience.
The ‘2006 Francis Coppola, Diamond Series, Silver Label Pinot Noir’, originates from Monterey County, a cool climate wine region in central California. During an Agricultural Economist Conference in 1997 I had the opportunity to visit this wine region. It’s a marvellous place and I treasure my memories of tasting various delicious boutique vineyard wines.
The ‘2006 Francis Coppola Pinot Noir Diamond Collection Silver Label’
So tasting wine from this part of the world was exciting indeed. We do not drink very many wines from California so this wine extended our experience with USA-wines. Ratings of the 2006 vintage vary (87 or so points), but it is definitely not one of the best Californian Pinot Noirs. However, the price of US$ 20 in the USA indicates that there is quite a market out there for this “very drinkable” drop.
The medium-bodied wine showed plenty of fruit on the nose (cherries, raspberries), it felt silky in the mouth with some forest flavours, and displayed a nice finish. No bitterness could be detected as some tasters have reported earlier. To my taste buds the pairing of lemon chicken with Pinot Noir worked well.
Port wine from Portugal helped us to digest the meal
What a pleasurable tropical afternoon on our terrace we had. The 38 degrees Celsius did not feel that hot but the dry-hot seasons has definitely started. After the meal I had a port wine. I always liked port. Our visit to Porto last summer re-enforced this passion.
With the port (10 years old), I smoked a cigar from Nicaragua, a hand made ‘Casa de CT Torres, Nicaragua, Hecho a mano’. The “smoke” was very pleasant, not to heavy; the tobacco was mild but distinct. I should buy more cigars from Nicaragua.
Cigars relax me and that is what I needed between two very busy work weeks, some relaxation. Also the bad news that we would not have a vintage this year at Two Hills Vineyard needed to be digested. Well, so is nature, unpredictable, unsteady, volatile, but marvellous.
The Douro wine region in Portugal is not only famous for its red and port wine production. There is also a place were a wonderful sparkling wine is produced. The picturesque town of Lamego, considered the birthplace of port wine, was the target of a Sunday afternoon drive last August along the upper Douro river. Lamego is well known for the only sparkling wine produced in this region. So off we went along the river through a wonderful summer’s landscape with blue sky and a very dry wind.
Park, church and stairs in Lamego, Portugal
We drove up from Peso da Régua at the Douro where we had lunch and which is about 12 km from Lamego. We returned the same way except that we did not follow the Douro river on our way back but we took the highway through the mountains which was faster.
A scenic spot with church in the city of Lamego
As with all places in Europe, their history has been shaped by many a people. Lamego has seen Roman masters and the Visigoths, it was battleground in the wars of the Moors and Christians. Historically Lamego is significant because it was here that the first king of Portugal, Alfonso Henriques, was declared king by noblemen in 1143. Today, Lamego has about 9000 residents in the city walls proper, and another 17,000 live in the surrounding villages and the countryside.
There is not only ham but also local cheeses
Local produce can be bought from small shops – can you see our bottles?
We dashed in one of these small local shops before the afternoon closure to buy two bottles of the legendary sparkling wine of Lamego. We grabbed the last two bottles available without consideration for brand nor price, jumped into the car and went straight home because of the advanced time.
Later at home at Quinta do Gatao we chilled the bottles and I took the photos below.
This is the first bottle
Our booty consisted of a dry red and a semi-dry white sparkling from Caves da Raposeira, located in Lamego. Both wines where very fruity. The red displayed red berry aromas, the white a more fruit salad type fragrance. We tasted them before we had dinner, just like that, as a apperitif so to say, just delicious at a hot summers day. Both wines come from Raposeira’s flagship brand called “Reserva”, their premium and super-premium segments are called “Super Reserva” and “Old Reserva” respectively. We will have to try those another time.
This is the second bottle.
Our dash to Lamego was just too short. We have to come back and explore the Caves in the town proper. The wines we had secured, were very much to our liking. It’s a pity that we do not know where to get them here in Bangkok.
Address: Caves da Raposeira
Lugar da Raposeira
Apartado 9
5101-909 Lamego, Portugal
Te.: (351)-254655003
A place which I love to visit whenever I can is Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander, a winery cum restaurant, bakery, cheese maker, coffee and sweats sellers as well as a fun offering place in the heart of Healesville, the picturesque little town in Victoria about an hours drive northeast of Melbourne.
Despite the huge hall with the public dining facilities, the wine tasting and other desks (to sell bread, sweats and so on), the place is quite cosy somehow. It’s a place for large family and other groups as well as for having a coffee or glass of wine by oneself. They have a German “kicker” game and other entertainment facilities. In the mornings you see many young mothers with their kids. Free wireless internet access is another bonus the place has to offer.
The “hall” with tables and counters
It was of course packed with people in the pre-Christmas period when we came in. We went for lunch before heading home to the vineyard and decided on pizza. Ever since we have lived in Rome, Italy, we love thin pizza of the Roman type. My favourite pizza is the simplest one, a pizza margherita (that is it’s usual name) with just tomatoes and mozarella cheese and basilico.
Pizza Margerita
The pizza served in Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander is quite nice, though not as thin as a Roman one.
Tomatoes to be dried
The pizza oven
Pairing pizza with wine is a tricky thing. The recent controversy of my fellow blogger Do Bianci with Dr. Vino is a case in point. I think Jeremy Parzen is mostly right. When we lived in Rome we had never pizza with wine. Beer was the usual drink. However, as with any food one can have wine with it. That applies also to pizza.
Frankly speaking, I drink whatever wine is offered with the pizza if in a friends home. In a restaurant my choice of wine depends on my mood. My mood told me wine, local wine.
A sniff and a mouthful
I decided on a ‘2008 Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir’ which is not a complicated wine but rather young and fresh. As regards the pizza margherita there is a lot of cheese on it which might not go well with the high acidity of the Pinot since it destroys the “harmony”. However, the earthy character of the Pinot is what I think makes it somehow acceptable, at least to me.
The four of us we had a great time at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. I highly recommend to visit the place to any casual tourist. If in Healesville do as the Healesviller do!
Address: Giant Steps Vignerons – Innocent Bystander Winery
336 Maroondah Hwy.
Healesville, Victoria 3777
Australia
Tel.: +61-(0)3-59626111
What has become a real fashion in recent years in Australia is drinking Pink Moscato. I admit from the outset that this is not my wine. However, in the summer heat of an Australian Christmas, Pink Moscato is a well sought after, low alcohol (6-7%), refreshing and for some addictive drink.
In the Yarra Valley, Giant Steps Vignerons and Innocent Bystander Winemakers may have been the first to respond to this fashion trend with a vengeance. It’s ‘2008 Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato’ (12 A$ for a 375 ml bottle!) is made in the Moscato style of northern Italy. The grapes (Gordo Muscat and Muscatel/Black Muscat) come from Swan Hill and Glenrowan wine regions respectively. The pink colour is also different from other such wines. Some describe it as “nipple pink” others as “rose pink”.
We had a different Pink Muscato wine and drank a bottle of Evans and Tate ‘2008 Classic Pink Moscato’ from the Margaret River in Western Australia. The brand belongs to the McWilliams wine empire, one of the biggest family-owned wine businesses in Australia.
The grape base of this wine is completely different from the Innocent Bystander’s. Its a mixture of 49% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Shiraz, 15% Canada Muscat and 6% Chardonnay. The wine has 6.5% alcohol and displays a very fruity character (tropical fruits such as guava, pineapple and passion fruit). The colour of the Evans and Tate Moscato is more like a rose.
I personally prefer a “real” wine, even in the summer heat and would rather go for a true cool climate region produced Sauvignon Blanc, alternatively a Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris would be my preferred choices.
Posted by themanfrommoselriver 
The Man from Mosel River 