Mark Lipton made it up to Chicago yesterday and the two of us caught
up for dinner at Spoon Thai. Terrific food (as is par for the place) -
between the two of us we went through some grilled pork skewers, a
pork and rice based sausage, a Northern Thai pressed ham salad with
ginger, onion, coriander and peanuts and a chicken dish in holy basil,
along with some lovely wines.

1998 Zind Humbrecht Riesling Clos Häuserer
This seemed a little closed at first (compared to my earlier
experience with this wine), showing just a little petrol and honey on
the nose after opening. As it breathed a little and warmed, it started
to open beautifully showing a tremendous nose with petrol, honey,
apricot, citrus fruits and spicy botrytis notes. Despite the apparent
botrytis this was quite dry on the palate with a rich, slightly oily
texture and more flavours of stonefruits, citrus and honey with
moderate acidity and a long finish.

2003 Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Pittermänchen Riesling Spätlese
I mentioned to Mark before opening this that I had heard quite a few
comparisons drawn between Donnhoff and Diel in terms of sheer quality
- after a few glasses of this, I felt it was justified to some extent
at least. This was tremendous. Light straw in colour with a gorgeous
nose showing lots of apple, flowers, citrus and softer pineapple/
tropical fruit aromas with plenty of slate and salty mineral notes
underneath. The mouthfeel was stunning - full bodied and expansive
while remaining very vibrant and elegant with lots of acidity and a
little spritz, showing ripe apple, peach and slate flavours. Gorgeous
long finish. I reckon I need to start buying a fair bit more from Diel
now.

1994 Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee
Sadly, corked.

A really enjoyable evening with great company, food, conversation and
wine. Mark, was great catching up last night and hope you can make it
up this way again some time in the near future.

Cheers,

Salil

Salil wrote:
> Mark Lipton made it up to Chicago yesterday and the two of us caught
> up for dinner at Spoon Thai. Terrific food (as is par for the place) -
> between the two of us we went through some grilled pork skewers, a
> pork and rice based sausage, a Northern Thai pressed ham salad with
> ginger, onion, coriander and peanuts and a chicken dish in holy basil,
> along with some lovely wines.

Backstory:
I braved a snowstorm to drive up to Chicago yesterday evening to
attend a Bordeaux tasting as Sam's and lay claim to two cases of '05 Bdx
futures that had come in (sadly, they didn't have my wine when I tried
to claim it, but that's another story). Salil was kind enough to meet
me after the tasting for a quick dinner and a few shared wines. The
food was fantastic, non-standard Northern Thai fare, drawn from a
special menu that Salil had translated from the Thai.


>
> 1998 Zind Humbrecht Riesling Clos Häuserer
> This seemed a little closed at first (compared to my earlier
> experience with this wine), showing just a little petrol and honey on
> the nose after opening. As it breathed a little and warmed, it started
> to open beautifully showing a tremendous nose with petrol, honey,
> apricot, citrus fruits and spicy botrytis notes. Despite the apparent
> botrytis this was quite dry on the palate with a rich, slightly oily
> texture and more flavours of stonefruits, citrus and honey with
> moderate acidity and a long finish.

Yet another interesting, semi-botrytized '98 Riesling! A dark yellow
color, but too cold at first, it really opened up when it warmed: full
bodied, honey, stone fruits, a hint of citrus and the obligatory petrol.
In the modern era, I think that this would be an "Indice 1" on
Olivier Humbrecht's scale. Quite delicious.

>
> 2003 Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Pittermänchen Riesling Spätlese
> I mentioned to Mark before opening this that I had heard quite a few
> comparisons drawn between Donnhoff and Diel in terms of sheer quality
> - after a few glasses of this, I felt it was justified to some extent
> at least. This was tremendous. Light straw in colour with a gorgeous
> nose showing lots of apple, flowers, citrus and softer pineapple/
> tropical fruit aromas with plenty of slate and salty mineral notes
> underneath. The mouthfeel was stunning - full bodied and expansive
> while remaining very vibrant and elegant with lots of acidity and a
> little spritz, showing ripe apple, peach and slate flavours. Gorgeous
> long finish. I reckon I need to start buying a fair bit more from Diel
> now.

And I responded to the Dönnhoff comparison that I didn't see much of a
_stylistic_ resemblance, but it was certainly a very, very good example
of Nahe Riesling. Much lighter in body than the Z-H (what a surprise!),
definitely off-dry but crisp, explosively fruity, with great minerality,
with a tropical fruit character that spoke to its ripeness. As I
remarked to Salil, it's amazing to me to see how balanced a wine certain
winemakers could make in the torrid year of '03, even taking into
account that certain regions (was the Nahe one? I don't know) gave
permission to acidify the wines. Lovely, and a better match with the
food, which was fairly spicy by mutual agreement,
>
> 1994 Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee
> Sadly, corked.

My contribution, and yet another case to be made for an alternative
closure. Don't you just *hate* it when you give someone a wine and it
turns out to be corked?
>
> A really enjoyable evening with great company, food, conversation and
> wine. Mark, was great catching up last night and hope you can make it
> up this way again some time in the near future.

Ditto. Again, my thanks to Salil for taking the time and making the
effort to come up to meet me, and my most sincere gratitude to him for
bringing such outstanding wines along.

Mark Lipton

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