Last weekend, we went to Chicago for a little pre-schoolyear fun. We ended up dining our first night at Le Colonial (French-Vietnamese chain) after giving up on finding a quality Thai restaurant near the Magnificent Mile. Somewhat to my surprise, the dinner was superb! With our "tapas" plates of rather pedestrian shrimp "salad rolls," a phenomenal stir-fried monkfish dish served with rice crackers and a great seared sea scallop/garlic noodle salad, I had glasses of:
2001 Loimer Grüner Veltliner Lois Kamptal color: pale yellow nose: muted apricot palate: surprisingly thin, hints of white stone fruits and vague honeyish flavors, finishing rather abruptly
Overall, a disappointing wine. I didn't recognize the producer but usually trust my luck with GVs. This one let me down. Still, it was perfectly adequate with the food.
1999 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve color: golden yellow nose: pineapple, pear and honey palate: rich, deep, pears and honey, finishing off-dry
Quite a contrast with the previous wine, this was mouthfilling but not overblown, and also went quite well with the foods. When the main course of shrimp stir-fried with chili sauce arrived, the remaining PG proved to pair quite successfully with it.
The next night we ended up at Bistro Margot, a "meat and potatoes" bistro. The food was rather lackluster (my duo de canard was OK, but somewhat boring) and the wine list uninspired. I ended up with glasses of:
2001 MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir nose: ripe cherryish fruit, a bit pruney palate: very ripe, almost overblown, with somewhat indistinct fruit flavors, medium body
Not very much varietal character here. Cooked? Open too long? Hard to say.
2002 Monthaven Syrah nose: bright, fruity, spicy palate: quite the fruit bomb, medium-full body, berryish flavors, decent acidity
Well, I wasn't expecting much, so this was a nice surprise. Fairly typical CA Syrah flavors but clean and quite acceptable with the duck.
Overall, Le Colonial was the highlight of our dining experiences and the Trimbach PG the wine of the weekend. Good fun before this week's work load.
Mark Lipton