Wine Dinner at French Table

French Table with Northern America Wine

Apperitif: Bread
Mcguigan Adelaide Hill 2009

Super fruity punch as a Gewurztraminer. Floral smell, typical girly type of wine. If you look for something more elegant than Alsace white, this would be the choice. However it is only available exclusively in the vineyard, therefore it may not be discovered in any retail shop.

Appetizer: Fois Gras with pear

Pinnacle

Bottled in a silvery golden long tin. People might have a wrong idea that  this is the fireworks from Canada, or a university certificate from a brand ivy league uni...lol. Typical apple cider plus sparkling element. Plastic smell. Goes well with foie gras, creating a synergy that brings out the cinnamon flavour of the sparkling apple wine that ends with hint of vanilla. Self-effacing. Taste again for the remaining ones at home. It then has breadpudding flavour while the plastic smell has gone. Nice summer breeze drink for wine beginner.

 

Soup: Lobster Soup

Terredora 2008 Lacryma Christi Del Vesuvio Rosso

From Campania in Italy. Need to breathe longer. After decanting for 2 hours, it shows a smoother body. Intensely ruby colour, spicy and licorice overtone. Soft and elegant after long decanting,  with mature red fruit like plum. and pepper note.

 

Napanook 2007

Napa Valley wine by Dominus Estate, prestigous estate from France, the master from Chateau Petrus. Big Bordeaux character. Its 1994 Dominus was one of the greatest in the century.

Energetic and rich, filled with fresh cranberry, floral aromas, smooth tannins. Creamy on the palate, the wine is powerful. This vintage is one of the finest produced to date.

 

Main: Seafood Linguine with cream sauce / Beef Cheek grilled in brown sauce

Belle glos pinot noir 2009

Santa Barbara wine, grown from way very close to sea. The waxy bottle gave people a strong character. Jammy blackcurrant flavour. Best wine of the dinner. Seldom will be impressed by the jammy yet lengthy after taste, unlike the typical american wine that doesn't last long. Very consistent taste start from its dark ruby colour to the strong blackcurrant and plummy note, till the jammy punch of blackcurrant with long length. Ready to drink and can mature for 2 years, can't wait.

Dessert: Warm centre crunchy chocolate cake

Mission Hill Reserve Ice Riesling 2009 VQA

According to Canada, most of the ice wine seen in market are made from Vidal, which is easily grown and picked. Not until Canada put Vidal icewine on stage until it becomes famous. Vidal used to be illegal in EU countries. However talking about concentration and smoothness, Riesling would be a preferred choice. Chocolate cake goes better with wine than with red ice wine just because riesling taste more refreshing. Mission Hill Riesling Icewine is a bit typical caramel with biscuit nose, slight citrus and strong apricot note on palate. It lasts long in length with fine acidic end.

 

Paradise Ranch Ice Merlot 2008 VQA

Cherry, Chinese wine, raspberry in the middle, Vanilla end. Medium body with medium - alcohol. Like Chinese Medicine, nuts was brought out almost at the nd, still remain half ice-wine honey comb taste. Try again at home, it goes well with biscuit that has dry fruit and nut. Rare choice recommended by the wine sale in Canada liquor store claiming that Merlot is rarely chosen to be ice-wine material. Must try. (You can't tell whether it is rose or ice merlot from outlook *wink*)

Tea / Coffee

Impressive delicacy on choice of tea and coffee. Do not be disappointed by the scrapped menu, French table is providing wide range of Sri Lanka tea (impressed because my friend who have gone for business trip also shared with us same brand of tea) and Nespresso coffee with degree of 1 - 10 all set. Stunning.

$550 for 5-course meal and $330 for 7 wines = $880 --> It worths !!!

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French Table

No corkage, keep supplying new wine glass and decanters. Chilled bucket for white and dessert wine.

Good service, frequent filling of water

Dim environment, accomodate 30 people at most.

Decent french food, typical french restaurant. Cute soup.

Address: Flat A, 9/F, Wing Lock House, 1-3 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Phone: 6372 3242 /6112 8116

Happy Father's Day -- Wine for my dad

Receiving lots of promotions regarding wine suitable for father's day. A much more masculine base of wine, I have been receiving 9 to 10 promotions of wine from chile, france on cabernet sauvignon, carmenere, shiraz....

In my mind, to show the masculine side of my dad, I would pick Shao Xing wine.
My hometown is Shao Xing, locating east of Shanghai in the province of Jie Jiang, only 1 hour car from Hangzhou -- the paradise of west lake.

Shao Xing wine is a yellow wine, and the fermentation is done by burying the wine pot underground. Yes, not in the cellar, they just buried by digging the hole, and filled them back with soil. Perhaps you may have heard of  "zhuan yuan huong" (狀元紅), "nue er huong" (女兒紅), "wu jia pi" (五加飯), "jia fan jiu" (加飯酒), classification by classes are very obvious in this wine.

Zhuan Yuan Huong is for celebrating the outstanding performer in public examination.
Nue Er Huong is for the adult ceremony of girls in the village when they turn 18.
Wu Jia Pi and Jia Fan Jiu are the vintaged wines depending on the years. They imply that Shao Xing wine is made of rice.

This is in fact the very first kind of alcohol I taste in life. My grandma is fond of drinking, certainly the heroine of the family in terms of drinking. It is a regular drink for meals. Instead of seeing soup next to the bowl of rice, you will see a small cup of Shao Xing yellow wine.

Not until grandma can't take the wine, the only circumstance I see family drinking them would be during ancestor worship, company with white chicken (白切雞) and roasted meat (燒肉).

This wine has embedded in the daily life of Hong Kong / Guangdong kitchen in which you can find it as an essential seasoning in the kitchen, why? Let me ring you a bell of dishes made of those:

Drunken chicken (醉雞)

Drunken shrimp (醉蝦)

Drunken gizzard (醉腎)

Drunken fish (醉魚)

Drunken crab (醉蟹)

Drunken liver (醉肝)
Drunken tofu (醉豆腐乾)
Drunk phoenix talon (醉鳳爪)

So, happy father's day~ Dad, you will find the Shao Xing wine at home soon~

Housewarming

Housewarming is often a good occasion to share wine.

Exotic: Coffin Bay and Tasmania oysters, Alaska crab
Jusco: shrimp sashimi, muscles
Home cooking: cheese cube in potato mesh ball, shredded mushroom spaghetti, lemon pepper n herb chicken wings

Wine:
1. German sparkling
2. Alsace cremant
3. Chateauneuf du Pape
4. Cantamale
5. Errazuriz
6. Macmillan 12 years

Sparkling matches better with lighter taste seafood
Cremant with finer bubbles tastes more mineral made create acid to muscles
Chateauneuf du Pape often is a mixture of at least 7 types of grapes, would be good for mild taste food like pork and chicken as it will feels like melting pot
Cantamale has 3 stages of taste: vanilla opening, leather mid taste and smooth berries at the end, need to decant at least an hr advance
Errazuriz has strong plummy punch and very long finishes, unlike Aussie wine which don't necessarily have such a strong finish t the end
Macmillan: 1L is very hard to finish among 5 of us, hence like sake we hare the malt bit by bit. Smoother than regular black label, with malt smell, yet not as smooth for 12 yrs, if you have tried 15,18, there's still a distinction in terms of vigorous alcohol chuck

This triggers me a thought. Is it only until the moment you drink that you decide to buy a wine? If not, for people who kind of have built up their own preference, will there be otter method to urge them buy new wines?

Alsace Wine Fair

Sep 2010
Happy Valley Racecourse

Around 30 wine importers joining the event.

Generally the wines are not as impressive as last year, both the quality and the service.

Since Hong Kong has become the port with zero wine import tax, wine merchandisers start setting countless campaigns and wine dinners, boosting up the atmosphere as a wine cosmopolitan.

This however drops the quality of wine service and product quality. Providing wine without testing whether they have turn bad; pouring wine not to the glass yet all over the table, the service is still not up to standard.

Among all 29 counters, only 3 are up to average service and product standard: concord, maxxium and ASC Fine Wines. The organizers may consider better screening to retain the reputation of wine fair quality. Also a need on beverage service training can still be observed in the industry.

Looking forward to the Wine and Dine Festival at Kowloon promenade in Oct 2010. A more variety and a bigger test for Hong Kong to bring ourselves up to international standard. Step Up!

3 blind mice

Getting exhausted to the marked up price of French wine, so recently have been swapping my perspective a slightly for other treasures.

Browsing blogs about wine dinner comparing Chilean and French wine, errarsuriz fortunately conquer the throne amog the top 5 grand cru n 4 other prestigious Chilean wine. Driven by curiosity and if course $$, I decided to grab one.

As for another almariva, recommended by the store owner that this is the only compatible wine so far from Chile. Sweet mouth, you got me. Another shot.

Last one is Italian wine. Know how famous Gaja is, budget wise, I could only afford second label...another try out.

Since I have never thought about the occasion to have it, better sign them up for special occasion. Any suggestion?

Blind mice tasting?

Half-breed - D'Aiguilhe 1999

Haven't been touching Gironde for a while. Thanks big uncle often lavishly sharing his cellar with us. In this recent Winter Solstice, he has again shared his joy -- D'Aiguilhe 1999 from Cotes de Castillon.

With fruity and berries like flavour, it tastes more like Merlot than Cabernet Sauvignon...however, Cabernet Sauvignon is the one making the major role in the wine. Its rusty feeling gives a balance to the wine. Not too tannic, I would rather say this is quite consistent to my uncle's preference: It's quite American like: Strong first grasp of my attention, punched with blackberries. Not long while after then the aftertaste slowly back to the throat till the abs.

It has the style of American with a body of French wine...Half-breed wine.

After breathing...the tannin is neutralized yet the fruitiness faded away...and yes, it's US$15.99...

Wine A versus Wine B

Pay attention. Wine A normally is the challenger and Wine B is the champion, whereby Wine B turned out to be...one of the vineyard of the Premier Cru of the 1855 Classe.

Wine A under normal circumstance, are those from the New World:

USA: Caymus, Opus One, Dominus
Chile: Errazuris, VInedo Chadwick, Sena
Italy: Sassicaia, Tignanella, Gaja Barbaresco

Looking at my little copper passbook (not the glamourous gilt ones...)
Couldn't afford to have Wine B as a comparison, I could on the other hand consider owning Wine A =P

Recently was browsing the local Hongkie magazine which mention the plan of Google acquire a online group purchase website called "Groupon" where you can join the group purchase to earn enough bargaining power for sumptuous quantity of goods at huge discount.

Deeply considering whether we can do the same... Who's in for Wine A?