Good grouper

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Had my first dinner guests over to my new place. Made a simple dinner of broiled grouper with buerre blanc. The grouper was supposedly spear caught off the coast of NC. I have no idea if it is true, but I saw the whole fish at my brothers and it had a hole through the head. Anyway, very high quality fish.

2001 Pierre Peters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuve Spciale Les Chtillons
This was just OK. Frankly, I enjoyed a bottle of the Brut Reserve recently more than this. It could be the vintage, but it seems to lack drive.

1997 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten
Cork was soaked, so this probably saw some heat at some point. Still in pretty good shape, although rounder than I expect

1997 Freie Weingrtner Riesling Smaragd Achleiten
There was something off in this bottle. Maybe it was premoxed! Seemed like it was OK at first, but gradually slid down hill.

2002 Hut Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Mont
This was the most horribly flawed bottle I can remember in a long time. Some sort of combination of sewage, bleach, and vomit. It was so aggressively and stunningly awful that I was bewildered.

1995 Trimbach Riesling Cuve Frdric Emile
Again, a bit of mustiness right when opened that blows off nicely. This was a really grippy version of Frdric Emile, especially in comparison to a recent 1997. No sign of the mysterious premature oxidation here. This showed really well with lots of minerals and only a hint of kerosene. I kept this in the fridge and enjoyed the rest 4 nights later when it was even better. Without a doubt, the best bottle of 1995 Ive had and one of the better Frdric Emile in recent memory.

1990 Chteau Suduiraut Sauternes
Really pretty mediocre. It was dominated caramel and crme brule notes. It seemed to lack structure and precision. Too bad, I havent had good Sauternes in a while.
 
You should try the PP Extra Brut. It rocks. Very pure and crisp and thus more satisfying to me than the others of their range I have tried (though I've only seen the "off" years of the vintage, I admit).
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Weird about the Le Mont.
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You mean the flawed HTML* or the bottle? It was the most heinous of corked bottles. Might have had more badness going on too. Really indescribable, I did the best I could.

* Fixed using the edit function.
 
originally posted by Otto Nieminen:
You should try the PP Extra Brut. It rocks. Very pure and crisp and thus more satisfying to me than the others of their range I have tried (though I've only seen the "off" years of the vintage, I admit).
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Oh yeah. I've been drinking Peters for years and have visited the domain. The wines are generally very good. This one was mediocre.
 
I'm a spearfisherman too. Given my experiences, I'd say it's pretty lucky to get a head shot. Grouper is a tasty fish, good for him. Screw ciguatera.
 
I think a grouper would pretty much shrug off a Hawaiian sling. When I get a decent sized Tautog (not often) on my one-band elastic free-shaft gun, it is swim for my life to keep up until the fish slows down. I hit a big Goosefish dead on with my gun a few summers back. It only pissed it off.
 
originally posted by Joe Perry:
I hit a big Goosefish dead on with my gun a few summers back.
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How big do Goosefish get? That is one ugly fucking fish. Said to be good meat on the tail end though.
 
Ah, I should have said monkfish. Goosefish are the same thing, just the local name. The biggest I've come across was 4ft long, though there are plenty bigger than that. It may not sound big until you see one and realize they are almost as big across as they are long. This 4ft monkfish had a school of perfectly whole Pollock in the belly.
 
Interesting, given my history of spearfishing in Hawaii, that I've never heard the term "Hawaiian sling." Is that the same as a spear with surgical tubing on the end?
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Interesting, given my history of spearfishing in Hawaii, that I've never heard the term "Hawaiian sling." Is that the same as a spear with surgical tubing on the end?
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Yep. I never had much luck with them. The longer ones are good at pinning flounder to the sand, but not the easiest item to swim with.

Fish in New England tend to bugger out at the first sight of a swimmer, so range becomes an issue.
 
It's all I ever used, but sea kittens in Hawaii aren't nearly so flighty, they'll happily swim right up to you, then WHAM! Of course, when carrying bloody sea kittens, tiger sharks tend to become an issue. In my mind, at least.
 
Not all your sharks are wimpy. Story time: I was at my brother-in-law's wedding a few years ago, which took place on his fiance's family's island off Woods Hole. We danced and drank and ended up doing some late night skinny-dipping in the Naushon lagoon. A few weeks later I was doing some websurfing and saw pictures of a fourteen-foot great white shark doing a little skinny-dipping right exactly in the same spot we were. Gulp. It apparently had been hanging out there for a week. I don't think a Hawaiian sling would've been terribly helpful in this case.

SharkPhone.JPG
great-white-shark-cape-cod4.jpg
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Not all your sharks are wimpy. Story time: I was at my brother-in-law's wedding a few years ago, which took place on his fiance's family's island off Woods Hole. We danced and drank and ended up doing some late night skinny-dipping in the Naushon lagoon. A few weeks later I was doing some websurfing and saw pictures of a fourteen-foot great white shark doing a little skinny-dipping right exactly in the same spot we were. Gulp. It apparently had been hanging out there for a week. I don't think a Hawaiian sling would've been terribly helpful in this case.

SharkPhone.JPG
great-white-shark-cape-cod4.jpg
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Those are two different sharks, Coad.
 
Those dorsals look quite different.
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So very fetching, the voice of expertise, it's a mirror of the one you use at wine tastings. Your ichthyology degree came in the mail today, I assume, and earned a place next to your wine degree? Worth every penny spent at Internet U.!
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Interesting, given my history of spearfishing in Hawaii, that I've never heard the term "Hawaiian sling." Is that the same as a spear with surgical tubing on the end?
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in my experience of spearfishing in the bahamas, a hawaiian sling does not have surgical tubing attached to the spear. the sling refers to a wooden block with a hole drilled through. it is this wooden block that has the surgical tubing connected to it. the spear goes through the hole in the wood and enters a metal 'cup' connected to the surgical tubing. it is very effective with groupers, hog fish, trigger fish, spiny lobsters, etc in the reefs of the bahamas.

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