by Keith M » Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:56 pm
After we all finished up our work shifts, I headed out with two friends far afield to a very different part of the Bay, Pleasant Hill, to celebrate my friend's birthday with a late dinner at Sichuan Fortune House. As my Sichuan saavy friends perused the menu, I popped open the 2007 Lazy Creek Anderson Valley Riesling. I've been looking forward to trying this wine, as I've had Lazy Creek wines before and another friend had brought me back this bottle from a winetasting trip up to Mendocino. The nose was wonderful, very light suggestion of petrol, zippy and great riesling nose. We dug into a starter of beef pancakes with plum sauce and the wine showed only the slightest bit of heat (13.8%) along with slight residual sweetness. The nice thing was as the wine warmed, the wine didn't fall into flabbiness. Properly constructed, I enjoyed the wine. And though the label suggests you can age it for up to 10 years, I wouldn't expect much more development from it. It's drinking rather well right now. Very interesting for me to check in on a domestic riesling with a touch of age on it. Next in close succession came the tasty main courses: sizzling rice with prawns and vegetables, crunchy fried chicken bits with sichuan peppercorns, and eggplant-stuffed pork or pork-stuffed eggplant (one or the other!). And I opened our second bottle, the 2009 Emrich-Schönleber Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling Spätlese from the Nahe in Germany. The nose on this has started to shut down a bit, if ever so slightly, but it took about half an hour or so for the wine to open up in the glass, rich honeyed lime, the faintest suggestion of herbs and flowers. Drinks deliciously at the moment, but I'd say the wine's most promising moments lie (at least) a few years ahead. Fantastic match with the food, even if our continued pleas for spiciness didn't come to full fruition in the dishes (a regular challenge). No better way to celebrate good friends and important milestones like birthdays. Love sharing such experiences with such cool people. Good times.
