Gruner Veltliner and Scallops

I don't have an answer Ian but I'm serving Scallops Rossini at a dinner party this friday and was wondering what to pair with it so I'm interested in your answers. I was leaning towards either an Alsatian Riesling or a Hermitage Blanc.

Would scallops rossini be with foie grs, a slice of truffle and sitting on a bed of either fried bread or an artichoke heart, by analogy with Tournedos? If so, what sauce will you be using? hardly a classic Sauce madère, I imagine.

I did hesitate over an Hermitage, which one do you have? Sterimbourg?

Talking of Alsace wines - If ever you can lay your hands on it, the Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim by Marcel Deiss is out of this world. If I'd been able to, I'd have had little hesitation in matching that with the scallops.

Mind you, I've had scallops with a cardamom jelly to eat against a (slightly faulty) Botrytised Loire wine from Ch Suronde in Quarts de Chaume, and the match was superlative. so if you wanted to be brave and had a really good Loire sweet wine, that might be a fascinating match.

I hope Michael P sees this before I have to leave on Friday.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

Oops. I was wrong

I said the Loire wine we matched against the scallops that was slightly faulty was a ch de Suronde. It wasn't. It was a Coteaux de Layon "les 4 Villages" from Jo Pithon.

for french readers, here are tasting notes of the evening from a friend and colleague Rémi Loisel.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

Basic scallop and foie gras with spring peas and a pea puree with grated truffles. I have a few bottles of Huet Vouvray Haut Lieu Demi Sec from various vintages going back to 2001 and I still have a few

I wish I had been to that dinner and tasting!! I would have to double my Lipitor.

"IanH" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Hi Ian It is really beyond me, this matching, but remembering the Allram Strasser Hasel Alte Reben 2007 makes me salivate thinking of that wine and scallops. The acid may be higher than you want, though? Anders

I always lean towards both. My favorite of Ian's group is the Domäne Wachau.

Ah, the infamous Sapros dinner prepared by Henri Gagneaux at Vinexpo '03... I was just referring to that event tonight in reference to what foods could be paired with Barsac.

On to your query: I'd be tempted to go with the '06 Honivogl, as it is a big wine from a big year and so would have a mouthfeel and weight not unlike a Condrieu. Of course, it would be outright oenopaedophilia, so perhaps you'd prefer to go with the '05 Domäne Wachau, which is a worthy wine, too, and probably a bit higher in acidity.

Mark Lipton

Hi Anders and everyone

Look as if I have missed Michael, as we'll be off tomorrow morning.

Thanks very much to you all for your answers.I'm inclining towards the Domäne Wachau, in the absence of Michael's discouragement I'll probabky see if I can't talk to the Sommelier, unless my brother feels I'm being too geeky.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

Sorry, finished our annual large tasting (3 weeks non-stop) just on Wednesday. Wasn't at home yesterday.

Ian, all GVs should be excellent, Hirtzberger's Honivogl probably the best of the group.

An indicator to the weight of the wine would be the alcohol content, but I presume they'd all be between 13 and 13.5%.

I'll try cc per mail, too.

M.

Sorry for being lare ... :-(

No discouragement from here, all four wines should be perfect.

M.

Hi Michael,

As I replied privately, thanks very much for com>IanH wrote:

In fact, I went for the “Honivogl” Smaragd Donau-Wachau 2006 but tbh, I think it might have been a bit of a mistake. The wine WAS still very young, with the minerality and sweetness showing apart instead of being well integrated. I had gone for it because I thought the slightly greater sweetness would marry well with the sweetness of the scallops, but what actually happened that some of the other diners were slightly put off by the unfamiliar aromatic profile, and that rather got in the way of them being able to judge the match on its merits.

As a wine, I think that Mark put his finger on it, drinking the wine at only 3 years was definitely jumping the gun. As a match, I'd give it 3/5, neither component did much for the other, but wasn't spoiled either.

Thanks very much all of you, I very much look forwards to reading what Bill did and how it worked.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

I went with 1996 Trimbach Clos St Hune Riesling Both wines were excellant matches and a contrasting 2006 Sine Qua Non Rousanne- Viognier-Chardonnay from a California winery called "The Hoodoo Man". Both wines showed better with the scallop than on their own but the Sine Qua on showed a bit more alcoholic heat (at 15.5 I wasn't surprised) with food than when alone. The Clos St Hune became quite fruity and stoney. I preferred the Clos St Hune but my guests preferred the SQN.

That is a shame, Ian, as I have no doubt that the wine will be stellar with another 3-5 years of bottle age to it. Do you think that the other diners would have been happier with a "smaller" GV of lesser Prädikat, or was it more the unfamiliarity with the profile of GV that put them off? Of course, there may be too many confounding variables for you to make that call.

Mark Lipton

Just a brief question. Is that Sine Qua Non as expensive as all of the rest of them?

$110 a bottle. I recieved a few bottles as a gift from a local distributor. It's like Chave hermitage Blanc on steroids.

I guess that is why I haven't had any Sine Qua Non wines. Just too expensive. Maybe I can get someone to send me a bottle.

Bill, This is a bit off-topic, but are you now out of the distributor biz? IIRC, you had a part interest in a distributorship a while back.

Mark Lipton

Yes, I sold my interest at the end of 2008. Wine is much more fun as a hobby than a vocation for me. I only got into the biz as a result of a business transaction that I got involved with after retiring from my first career. I didn't intend to end up with a managing interest in a distributorship but I did and after a few years I was able to turn it back to the original owner so everyone was happy.