Wineshark weekly - 12 February 2012

I was not feeling well at the beginning of the week, and actually had to leave office early to see the doctor. But I took the medicine and immediately went to rest I recovered very quickly. Maybe also my desire to drink wine, which I could not do in those days, also quickened my recovery. Hahaha...

Quite busy this week on my job, in fact I could already foresee in the coming six months I could be crazy. Not just because of my two roles but also the challenges that I would have to face... Sometimes I do wonder why and what am I doing all those for? That seems too philosophical, but still didn't stop me thinking. Fortunately I do have my hobbies to help balance my life to make it easier.

Speaking of my hobby, this week I went to Malaysia (Port Klang) Cuisine in Mongkok, and tried their Malay dishes. The pork rib soup was quite delicious, as well as the shrimp noodle. However, their signature chicken and the stir fry turnip cake was only so-so. I guess the laksa should be good but didn't order that. With two drinks, the bill was $238.

On Friday I had dinner with my UST mentees. All of them are final year students so besides chatting about their school life, the topics pretty much focus on the career. It is always interesting to talk to the students to share some of my thoughts, and some techniques and tricks to help them prepare better in the coming job interviews. They showed me their resume which I gave some inputs. Hopefully they found my tips useful. Thinking about it, this is my third year in being a mentor for the students.

On Saturday I cooked two dishes: a Grill Pork Chop California Style and a Egg Florentine. Both are really good. You can find the recipe on this blog.

This week I bought quite a few bottles of wine (9 in total). Apart from 5 bottles for the coming Italian wine tasting in early Mar, the most notable purchase is Tattinger Comtes de Champagne 1999 - one of the top 100 wines from Vinum Summus. So far I have collected 59 of those 100. But really has to find enough storage as my home (and office) is already full of wines everywhere...

The two wines that I opened this week were: Bouvet-Ladubay 'La Pyramide' Brut NV from Saumur, France and Chiarli Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelverto NV from Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Acceptable quality mid-priced Saumur sparkling with light lemon colour and medium size bubbles, reasonable intensity of youthful aromas of lime, green apple, lees, yeast, honeysuckle, stony, smoke. Fairly high in acidity, the wine is of light body with fairly light intensity flavors of lemon, green apple, greengage, waxy and honeysuckle. Delicate mousse with a fairly short length, the wine is a bit too acidic affecting the overall balance. Ready to drink now and not intend for ageing.

Acceptable quality Lambrusco, with pale purple colour and small bubbles. A fairly light nose showing youthful characters of bubblegum, red cherry, candy, medicinal and strawberry. Medium-dry, with fairly high acidity and low tannin, the wine is low in alcohol. Fairly light bodied, with fairly light palate of strawberry, red cherry, medicinal and bubblegum. Aggressive on mousse, with a rather short length. Overall quite simple, but the high acidity did balance with the sweetness making the wine still enjoyable. Ready to drink now and not intend for ageing.

Next week will need to go to Manila, but have scheduled to do so after Valentine's Day, need to stay here to celebrate with Ivy ma... Hahaha... So until next week, wish you and your beloved have a happy Valentine's Day!