Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Georg, Tse Wei, Diane, Jeff
A late supper at Georg's house. It is a home in the modern style: clean lines, white walls, numerous square skylights, and, of course, a large kitchen with many Miele appliances (the convection oven has four pre-sets for kohlrabi... that's German work, for you) but a temperamental Italian cooktop.
Outside there are numerous fruit trees, including one bearing scions of heritage apples from Germany. Let's see whether Georg gets to them before the squirrels.
We all volunteered to help Georg in the kitchen -- someone's gotta peel the potatoes. While we do that, we nibble on bits of prosciutto sliced off a nearby joint.
The starter plate is seared scallops and chopped hen of the woods sauteed in a bit of prosciutto and cream. This shroom was wild, not farmed, and the texture is firmer than I am accustomed to. The main plate is grilled pork ribs and German potato salad. The ribs come from two local artisanal providers so we have an informal meat taste-off. The potatoes are a waxy hybrid of Yukon Gold that can stand up to the hot vinegar treatment. All the food was delightful in flavor and texture.
Although there were easily a half-dozen bottles standing around with corks stuck in them, we decided to open some new ones for tonight:
Ganevat 2009 Cotes du Jura, Chardonnay "Les Chalasses" VV - Tse Wei is concerned about a whole bunch of off-scents (cat poop and oaky vanilla) but the rest of us think it's just how the grape shows here. Anybody know whether Ganevat had a bunch of new barrels in 2009? Anyway, there is definitely a whiff of walnuts, and vanilla bean, and honeycomb, and some kind of yellow-y fruit. Easy drinking.
De Moor 2011 Chablis "Bel-Air et Clardy" - This, on the other hand, smells and tastes like Chablis (after a few minutes of air). Crisp acidity, seashells, slightly sweetened lemons. Yum.
Knauss 2009 Lemberger - 2885 17 11. This is the top bottling (they make three). Alas, in this year they were still making "serious" wine so it's rather oaky. Not so oaky as its competition, Georg observes, but, anyway, the winemaker had an epiphany the next year so the recent vintages allow the very pretty fruit/earth to come through.
La Grave a Pomerol 1998 Pomerol - Drinking well. Velvet texture, just a slight schoolpaste smell that goes nicely with the dark cherry-cranberry flavors. Thunderbird prize.
J. Fremont Calvados - There was lots of discussion of spirits. Tse Wei was bemoaning the fact that India and China have opened their wallets for dated single malts and so the local distributors say Laphroaig, Macallan, etc. will be harder to buy here. Georg was talking about a visit to the armagnac region and I mentioned the same for calvados. And it turns out that Georg has a story about calvados: He had a recommendation from a friend for a good calvados. He persuaded the maker to send a case to his address in Germany. Eventually, a pallet arrives with a single case strapped to the middle of it by a couple kilometers of tape.... Georg will assist M. Fremont next time but we pull the cork and this stuff is, indeed, really good: apples, well-balanced between tannins and sugar, very floral, at 42* there is warmth but no bite, the label gives no indication of age but I'd guess around 10 (lots of fruit but civilized, not much rancio); excellent in a relaxed style
J. Fremont 2005 "Pur Pom" - The cask-strength (53*), un-aged version. A real eau-de-vie: colorless, stings the lips, only very slight sweetness but noticeable fruit aroma. Amazingly pleasant to drink, as fire-water goes, but we agree this might be best used in pastry-making.
A late supper at Georg's house. It is a home in the modern style: clean lines, white walls, numerous square skylights, and, of course, a large kitchen with many Miele appliances (the convection oven has four pre-sets for kohlrabi... that's German work, for you) but a temperamental Italian cooktop.
Outside there are numerous fruit trees, including one bearing scions of heritage apples from Germany. Let's see whether Georg gets to them before the squirrels.
We all volunteered to help Georg in the kitchen -- someone's gotta peel the potatoes. While we do that, we nibble on bits of prosciutto sliced off a nearby joint.
The starter plate is seared scallops and chopped hen of the woods sauteed in a bit of prosciutto and cream. This shroom was wild, not farmed, and the texture is firmer than I am accustomed to. The main plate is grilled pork ribs and German potato salad. The ribs come from two local artisanal providers so we have an informal meat taste-off. The potatoes are a waxy hybrid of Yukon Gold that can stand up to the hot vinegar treatment. All the food was delightful in flavor and texture.
Although there were easily a half-dozen bottles standing around with corks stuck in them, we decided to open some new ones for tonight:
Ganevat 2009 Cotes du Jura, Chardonnay "Les Chalasses" VV - Tse Wei is concerned about a whole bunch of off-scents (cat poop and oaky vanilla) but the rest of us think it's just how the grape shows here. Anybody know whether Ganevat had a bunch of new barrels in 2009? Anyway, there is definitely a whiff of walnuts, and vanilla bean, and honeycomb, and some kind of yellow-y fruit. Easy drinking.
De Moor 2011 Chablis "Bel-Air et Clardy" - This, on the other hand, smells and tastes like Chablis (after a few minutes of air). Crisp acidity, seashells, slightly sweetened lemons. Yum.
Knauss 2009 Lemberger - 2885 17 11. This is the top bottling (they make three). Alas, in this year they were still making "serious" wine so it's rather oaky. Not so oaky as its competition, Georg observes, but, anyway, the winemaker had an epiphany the next year so the recent vintages allow the very pretty fruit/earth to come through.
La Grave a Pomerol 1998 Pomerol - Drinking well. Velvet texture, just a slight schoolpaste smell that goes nicely with the dark cherry-cranberry flavors. Thunderbird prize.
J. Fremont Calvados - There was lots of discussion of spirits. Tse Wei was bemoaning the fact that India and China have opened their wallets for dated single malts and so the local distributors say Laphroaig, Macallan, etc. will be harder to buy here. Georg was talking about a visit to the armagnac region and I mentioned the same for calvados. And it turns out that Georg has a story about calvados: He had a recommendation from a friend for a good calvados. He persuaded the maker to send a case to his address in Germany. Eventually, a pallet arrives with a single case strapped to the middle of it by a couple kilometers of tape.... Georg will assist M. Fremont next time but we pull the cork and this stuff is, indeed, really good: apples, well-balanced between tannins and sugar, very floral, at 42* there is warmth but no bite, the label gives no indication of age but I'd guess around 10 (lots of fruit but civilized, not much rancio); excellent in a relaxed style
J. Fremont 2005 "Pur Pom" - The cask-strength (53*), un-aged version. A real eau-de-vie: colorless, stings the lips, only very slight sweetness but noticeable fruit aroma. Amazingly pleasant to drink, as fire-water goes, but we agree this might be best used in pastry-making.