Pre-birthday food and wine fest, as Salil came over to the house to teach us how to make masoor dal and do some serious eating and drinking.
While we were cooking we sampled the 2009 Donnhoff Felsenberg 'Felsenturmchen' Riesling Grosses Gewachs which was rich but lively with predictably close to the trocken limit of sweetness. Very good right now, with the balance to profit from age.
Still cooking, and still thirsty, we moved on to the 2002 Schaefer-Froehlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spatlese Gold Capsule which Laura and I hand carried back from the estate in 2003. It's very rich, tropical in its fruit expression and showing some creaminess on the back end. Later on it was a fine match with the dal. Drink now for fun or hold for further development.
The dal was ready, so I fired up the cast iron griddle and did some homemade/handmade chapati to go with it. To toast our successful dal and bread making we moved on to the Agrapart 'Les 7 Crus' Blanc de Blancs Champagne Brut which was very minerally with plenty of citrus fruit. It was a little odd with the dal, but very enjoyable on its own.
It's intermezzo time, so while we worked on the next course we started sampling the 2002 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays from half bottle. Very aromatic (red fruit, spice, flowers) and not as tight as I was expecting. It opened up and showed a velvety palate feel, though there was a bit of toughness on the back end chiding me for disturbing such a young grand cru.
Pork tenderloin stuffed with herbs and porcini is ready to go, as is some paneer and potatoes roasted in duck fat.One more wine to go, and it's the 1996 Allemand Cornas 'Reynard'. Still quite tannic, but well stuffed with meaty, earthy richness, it was a good match with the pork, and outstanding with the potatoes. Another drink or hold wine here.
We sat around the table sampling the bits and pieces of the food and wine for a while. The potatoes were a highlight (heck, everything was a highlight), and Salil was explaining that there were so many more uses for the duck fat that he let out with one of the best slips of the tongue I have heard in a while "the potatoes are just the tip of the icefat."
