My good friend and fellow beverage conspirator Mark had been promising to make me his mother's famous Serbian bean soup (really a stew) for about the past five years. Well yesterday (technically he started the soup on Friday) I finally got to sample it. A wonderful rich, pork based white been stew with bits of potato, chicken, pork rib, and ample amounts of whatever secrets ingredients go into such family recipes. Think southern style hamhocks & beans but, you know, more European.
For aperitif, we finished off the 2009 Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Gris I started on Friday (while he was cookin', I was drinkin'). The nose was very Alsatian, with what I am going to call apple melon drizzled in baking spice. Full bodied in the Pinot Gris kind of way. There was a bit of bitterness on the back end which I attribute to a very slight lack of integration of the alcohol (13.8%). After two days in the fridge it hadn't lost any of it's presence. Not bad for $18.00. I really want to try this blind against some of my preferred Alsace PGs.
With the soup we popped 2009 Daniel Bouland Morgon Vieilles Vignes Delys. I know it's really early days for this but my Beaujolais cup runneth over and I have more than one of this so I thought what the hell. I should have given it even more of an airing than I did, but in any case it was full on yum and a good match for the porky goodness of the stew. Fruit, fruit, fruit, but like the Morgons I've had before it's a bit dark and brooding. Well as dark and brooding as Beaujolais gets. Really opens up with air and time. There's some plum in there and even a bit of grip, like raspberry covered leather. Dangerously slurpable. So dangerous in fact we did the bottle in.
There was still some soppin' to do, so I reopened the 2006 Casa Emma Chianit Clasico Riserva I'd started on Saturday night. Quite a shift from the Beaujo. Cedar, sour cherries, musty library, a bit of fruit preserve. I bet this would last quite a few years, if I was a gambling man. As it happens I am. I first heard about this on Vaynerchuks show a while back and hadn't been able to find it. IIRC he said the 2003 version "Kicked face". It does. At $26 I'll be buying more. Works with food like a charm (had it with steak & potatos on Saturday night).
