TN: Gruner Veltliner and OR Pinot Noir

How ANY wine can not be destroyed by accompanying the taste of Japanese Shoyu is beyond my comprehension. I have often stated in jest that Japanese would even put Shoyu in ice cream if you would let them. Then, while perusing a Japanese online news site a couple of months ago, I discovered the latest "in" flavors of Ice Cream: Squid and Shoyu!

To each their own. :-(

Godzilla

IIRC, '03 in OR was a lot like it was in Europe. As a result, most of the OR Pinots I've had from '03 have been bigger, less structured wines. Yours sounds like another example. As it happens, I've got the '04 7 Springs sitting in the cellar, where it will stay for years to come. ;-)

Mark Lipton

p.s. Umeboshi rice means a bowl of rice with a pickled plum in it?

Considering that soy sauce is a flavor found in older Cabernet-based wines (sometimes) I don't find it impossible to pair with. It also depends on the intensity of flavor IMO: lighter shoyu, used sparingly, is unlikely to overwhelm most wines, whereas "tamari"-type dark shoyu used plentifully would make me a tea-drinker for the meal ;-)

Mark Lipton

Actually I find that the umami flavors of things like yakitori do well with the red wines I think of as aromatics (Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir). I'll give credit to Parker for that one, I read his ode to Barolo and dim sum once.

The ice cream sounds like one of the ice creams they made on the original Iron Chef. While Japanese do use a lot of (various) shoyus, a Japanese friend was once horrified to see my stepson put shoyu directly on his rice. The sign of the lower classes! Next day we got 2 nice bottle of some highgrade furikake as a gift. :)

If you have ever been to Japan, you would encounter Kikkoman shoyu (the benchmark standard) which is FAR stronger than the weak clone by that name which is produced under license in Wisconsin. Practically every mouthful that you ingest there is inundated with this palate numbing substance.

In my six working trips there, I managed to lose a total of more poundage than is my spouses current weight by eating nothing but Japanese food. Of course, the prices that made my eyes bulge out were a contributing factor. On the first excursion, I learned that Japanese (green) tea is always served gratis by custom. However, black tea (considered a foreign beverage) bears the same price as Kohi (coffee.) You may surmise what was my customary beverage with food (along with a few treats of Biru (beer.)

Godzilla

I have been able to find white asparagus from Peru in a local store recently. Some of it really should be peeled if you do not like strings. However it does not have much of the grassy taste of the green kind, and I find it a bit more wine friendly when it is steamed or boiled and served dressed with toasted pistachio oil. A bit of salt and white pepper also is added. I like J. Leblanc's Huile de pistache. It can be found in a few large fine food stores in the US. I think it also would be good on a steak, except for the green color. Many people associate green with beef that is over the hill. Unfortunately the price of the pistachio oil is high, but it is very intense so you do not have to use much.

Currently, fresh white asparagus is available in Western Europe - startiung from South in Spain and Provence, we now get Dutch asparagus which is very good indeed. I would like to recommend hazelnut oil with the vegetable - we had this Friday, with a dry Alsace Muscat, and the combination was very enjoyable. On the whole, Alsace Muscat, Pinot Blanc, and (if not too sweet) Pinot Gris all accompany white asparagus well, in my opinion.

Cheers

Nils

I have had a few cabernets that have a nose of soy sauce soy maybe they would go well.