2011 Deakin Estate Sauvignon Blanc

January 31, 2013

Nothing is more refreshing at a hot summers day than a light lunch with a young and zesty wine, right?

We did just that the other day. The food consisted of a white fish (snapper in our case) in a spicy sauce, mixed vegetables and steamed rice.

Delicious.

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A summer’s lunch

Asian food can be paired with a variety of different wines. My choice of the day was a ‘2011 Sauvignon Blanc’ by Deakin Estate, Australia.

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2011 Sauvignon Blanc by Deakin Estate

This is “value for money” wine here in Thailand, “pedestrian” so to say but solid and exactly what one would expect from a young and fresh Australian Sauvignon Blanc. Therefore I recommend it.

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My new Wine Journal

January 3, 2013

My new journal

My daughter Lucy gave me the above new wine journal as a Christmas gift. Now I can again systematically record the wines I was tasting.

Often I displace my notes and when I want to write about a specific wine a frantic search stands at the beginning of a blog entry.

Alas, order has been restored. Now I only have to use the book for the intended purpose.

I am ready for the wines of 2013 it seems. Bring em on!

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Roast venison from Schoden and a Riesling from the Mosel

December 20, 2012

It has been a while since my last blog entry. Somehow my work does not allow regular blog entries any longer. You will have guessed right: I was on an extended business trip to Germany.

After my official program was completed I also visited my mother in my home town Trier, just for a short weekend only. It was a cold and rainy day when I arrived late in the evening. My beloved Mosel lay in the dark.

Fortunately, a splendid meal was waiting for me. My friend Heinz had prepared roast venison for me. It was the last piece of meat he had left over from his hunting days in Schoden, Saar. In spring 2010 Heinz and his friends had lost their hunting rights to a group of hunters from Luxemburg.

Fortunately, he had the freezer full of delicious meat: venison, wild boar, wild sheep among others. The last piece of a young deer was just the right stuff to make me happy. As you can see from the two pictures below, the meal was awesome.

Wild 1

Roast venison with noodles and vegetables

Wild 2

What a fine consistency

What wine would go with this meal? Well, since the meat came from the Saar, the wine had to come from the Mosel. Fortunately, we had a bottle of ‘1999 Neumagener Rosengaertchen Riesling Spaetlese’ by Rainer Krebs, a winery in Neumagen-Drohn, Mosel.

MSR 1999 1

1999 Neumagener Rosengaertchen Riesling Spaetlese

The wine was amazing. It had the nose of petrol fumes, was full and buttery. Despite its age, the wine still displayed its great character. I do not know how many more year it would have lasted.

MSR 1999 2

It complemented our meal in a perfect way. We were reminiscing about the glorious hunting days in Schoden, the nights we spent together sitting in the cold and waiting for deer or wild pigs to show themselves. It was a wonderful time, and I am sad that the hunting rights could not be retained. But such is life, good things come, and go.

I salute all the hunters who treasured their time in this fabulous place.

Address:
Rainer Krebs
Weingut in Neumagen Dhron
Hinterburg 14
54347 Neumagen Dhron
Tel.:+49-6507 / 5934

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Wine from France: 2011 Carignan Vieilles Vignes by De Chansac, France

December 5, 2012

De Chansac 1

Beautiful colour of the Carignan Old Vines by De Chansac

The other day I bought some wine at wine connection in Bangkok. On special was some wine from France. Frankly speaking I do not buy much French wine these days.

Today, I opened one of the bottles, a ‘2011 Carignan Old Vines’ by De Chansac Winery in l’Herault, a French wine region.

De Chansac 2

2011 Carignan Old Vines by De Chansac

The wine is made from 40 years old Carignan vines. The grape variety, originating from Aragon in Spain, is usually used in blends (in the wines from Rioja for instance) as a colouring component. It’s average yield is very high (11 t/acre).

Varietal wines are the exception rather than the rule. I assume that 40 year old vines have much lower yields and therefore it is worth making a varietal wine such as this one by De Chansac.

The wine has a dark red, almost purple colour. The alcohol content is 12.5% only. The dominant aroma is blackberry. The wine is full bodied, fruity, round, soft, almost velvety.

And did you see in the picture above? Even the French come around to screw caps these days. I was so surprised.

Of course we had the wine with some food. The pasta (below) was delicious and the wine went very well with the intensive aromas of the all amatriciana. I buy this wine again.

Matriciana

All Amatriciana

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PB Valley: Sawasdee Khao Yai Shiraz 2011 – new release

December 3, 2012

Sawasdee Shiraz 2011

2011 Khao Yai Shiraz

On Sunday we had a bottle of the newly released ‘2011 Khao Yai Shiraz’ by PB Valley, Khao Yai, Thailand with our lunch.

This wine is from the newest collection of Khao Yai wines which was presented on November 30th to a group of wine critiques, journalists, trade representatives and marketing experts at the Great Hornbill Bistro in Bangkok.

This wine from the Sawasdee label is for easy drinking. It is fruity and dry with aromas of blackberry and a hint of chocolate, in short a wine easy to understand also for beginners.

I like if it is served slightly chilled. In the tropics “room temperature” is just a no go. Who wants to drink a red wine at 30 degrees Celsius?

I will report about the wine tasting of the newly released PB Valley wines at the Great Hornbill Bistro later this week.

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Wang Ping Steak House in 桃園 Taoyuan, Taiwan

November 26, 2012

The shutters of Wang Ping Steak House when still closed

Together with my friend Jim I went to Wang Ping Steak House in 桃園 (Taoyuan) for a kind of farewell meal. The International Center Land Policy Studies and Training (ICLPST) had made a booking but we had to be there at 17.20 h already, because the place was fully booked.

Can you imagine that? Chinese gourmets seem to know what is good, and they eat early. So off we went and presented ourselves at the above time. It was a rainy day, with low hanging clouds, and it was dark when we arrived.

We had to wait a few minutes. Then we were shown to our table on the ground floor. The menu is in Chinese and in English. Straight forward so to say. We ordered in no time.

The appetizer arrangement

The salmon and mushroom arrangement was lovely and wetted our appetite. We were offered a glass of fizz, so to say, fizz with a sweet plum taste. We did not protest.

The fizzy plum drink

Both of us had ordered the mushroom soup. It came in two vessels, a soup bowl with the mushrooms lumped together like a little tower, the broth came separate. I was not quick enough to take a photo of both. The soup was good, fully flavoured, creamy and intense.

The mushroom soup

We ordered a bottle of house wine. Red was the colour we had chosen. I do not know much about French wines. When a bottle of ‘2010 Ginestet Bordeaux’ arrived, I was wondering what it would taste like.

As it turned out, Maison Ginestet is a wine trading house specializing in Bordeaux wines.

The wine was full bodied, had beautiful forest fruit aromas, and was dense with a long finish. Just the right wine with red meat, I thought. The typical Bordeaux blend is a good choice when eating beef or lamb.

Grand vin de Bordeaux

I liked the dark red colour

The sorbet

To cleanse the palate, a sorbet was offered. Again it had a plum taste. The fine acidity made sure our palates were ready for the main course.

Dried plums and plum sauce for the lamb

Jim’s main course: lamb

Beef fillet

Jim went for the lamb chops, I ordered the beef fillet. Big dishes but we were ready for it.

Chocolate dessert with ice cream

Crème brûlée in a shell

Also the desserts did not disappoint us. What a lovely way to end our farewell meal.

The service at Wang’s is very efficient. The well trained waiters and waitresses are polite and attentive. We both enjoyed the evening.

I was about to board a plane a few hours later. Jim stayed behind for another two weeks at the Centre. As always we are confident to meet again for another joint teaching engagement at ICLPST.

Chinese flower tea

Come and eat at Wang’s

PS: I highly recommend a meal at Wang’s. They have several outlets, I think.

Address:
Wang Ping Steak – Taoyuan Jhongshan Branch
No. 546, ZhongShan Road, Taoyuan
Taiwan –
Tel.:+886 – 03 – 339 1650

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Shopping shrimp restaurant in 八德 (Bade), 桃園 Taoyuan, Taiwan

November 23, 2012

Shopping shrimp restaurant poster

I agree that this is a strange name for a restaurant – Shopping Shrimp Restaurant – but I was told it is the transliteration from Chinese into English. Anyway, the three of us, Jim, Steve and myself, we were really looking forward to check out this place.

Jim had been there before and was raving about the pepper shrimps, the best in the world. In fact the “shrimps” turned out to be Thai prawns. Why did I have to come from Bangkok to sample Thai prawns here on the beautiful island of Formosa?

Tacky plastic plates at Shopping Shrimp

The deal was that you could eat as much as you wanted for 499 NT $ including four mugs of 0.4 litres of beer. Who can refuse such an offer?

From the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training (國際土地政策研究訓練中心), where the three of us were teaching, we jumped on the bus to Bade and reached the restaurant in no time.

The inside of Shopping Shrimp Restaurant

We were early and the place was still rather empty. Later it should fill up quickly. The friendly staff selected among themselves the one who spoke some English and off we went and ordered our food.

The menu

The menu was in English and Chinese with big colour photos so that one would know what was ordered. We selected a few dishes, and anxiously awaited what was to come.

Pepper shrimps in a clay pot

It did not take long and the first clay pot of pepper shrimps arrived at our table. More followed soon. the waiter brought us the menu for more orders and we sampled the various types of prawns in all flavours and shapes.

Garlic shrimps

More shrimps

Shrimps wrapped in a leave

Shrimps on rice

Needless to say that the food was super delicious. We ordered more and more, even another pepper shrimp clay pot. We did not need carbs that night.

Taiwan draft beer

Needless to say, we washed the food down with fresh Taiwan draft beer. The three of us, we had a jolly good time. Shopping Shrimp Restaurant is a cool and groovy place.

Remark: Steve and Jim are from San Diego, they taught me Californian slang over dinner.

The three diners: Jim, me and Steve

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Pork on the rotisserie the German way: Schwenkbraten

November 17, 2012

‘Schwenkbraten’

Actually, ‘traditional German ‘Schwenkbraten’ is when the pork is on a movable gridiron which is beeing moved over a coal fire. The above picture is more of a rolled piece of pork on a rotisserie.

However, that may be, the German love to grill as much as the Australians do. And since the summers in Germany tend to be unpredictable, often short, every opportunity to be outside and operate a grill is used to everybodies delight.

What a delicious piece of meat?

The pork is stuffed with onions, bacon, maybe herbs

My friend Juergen doing the carving job

Ready to be served

Note: Let me tell you that the above pictures were taken in Eitelsbach, Ruwer. My old friends Elisabeth and Juergen Olk had organised a family reunion to which we were kindly invited. It was a lovely summers afternoon, with little children darting through the garden, and adults chatting, telling stories, and drinking and eating. Apart from some Ruwer wines, mostly Riesling, the preferred drink was beer. We had a delightful time. What a beautiful day that was.

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Out of business ? The Hong Kong Wine and Spirits Fair – excitement pour

November 9, 2012

I am in Hong Kong right now and very busy with my day job, which keeps me busy at night as well. So no time to write anything meaningful. Yesterdays local newspaper, the South China Morning Post, carried an interesting article about wine consumption in the territory. Moreover, two additional sections of the paper were devoted to food and wine and the up-coming wine and spirits fair.

Unfortunately, I will leave early tomorrow morning and therefore will miss the wine and spirits fair when it is open to the public on Saturday. If I would have known beforehand. The event must be an exciting one. There are 950 exhibitors from 36 countries, among them also the World’s Best Winemaker, Australia’s McGuigan Winery.

The import data on wine are impressive. Especially new world wine imports increased last year in Hong Kong. The sharpest increase was reported for wines from South Africa where sales were up by 52 % by value and 47% by volume. Imports from Chile increased by 36% and 33% respectively.

The bad news is that total wine imports dropped by 18% in value over the last year. Wines from France are still the most popular in Hong Kong. On the plane tomorrow morning, i will study the trade magazine and learn more about the fascinating world of wine consumption in Hong Kong.

Stay tuned. Cheers

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Food and wine pairing: Pasta and Steinberger Riesling, Kloster Eberbach

November 2, 2012

My readers know that I adore Riesling wines. Here is another one which we had with a delicious pasta (see photo above) the other day. The intensity of the tomatoe sauce was matched by the vivid citrus aromas, the fine balance of the acids and the mineral character of the Riesling from the Rheingau, Germany.

The ‘2011 Steinberger Riesling trocken (dry)’ by the famous estate of Kloster Eberbach is a great drop for every day consumption. It is their basic wine, and at the cost of 8.90 Euro it is quite affordable. The wine has all what it takes to be an excellent Riesling.

Enjoy.

As the name “Steinberger” suggests, the vineyard is a kind of “stone hill” and just located nearby the monastry. For centuries fine wines were produced from this terroir. The short video below gives you an idea about it.

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