Wineshark Weekly - 1 July 2012

Half of 2012 is now behind us, and there are many things going to happen in the remaining half. Many will be big for me and I am looking forward to those. Changes have to come, especially when you know it is furtile to hang on to some unrealistic things. I believe in one thing, your destiny is in your own hands...

This week I spent my time in HK, and I am happy as I finally got the time to do things I could not for a long while. The restaurant I visited this week was Luk Yu Tea House in Central. It was crowded as expected, but we got a table quite easily.

The decoration was old style, and giving you a feel of going back to the 60s. From the uniform of the waiters, the chairs and lighting, to the tea cup all have been designed to bring the atmosphere to the old days.

We ordered several dishes, including the signature Almond and Pig Lungs Soup, Sweet and Sour Pork with Young Ginger, Roasted Pigeon and Fish Roll with Green. The soup is delicious, and for someone who don't know, it is very tedious and time-consuming to clean the pig lungs properly. I normally won't have that in any restaurant unless I have full confidence on the cleaniness. One of the only places in HK I will have the soup and also eat the lungs is here. As usual, it doesn't let me down.

The sweet and sour pork is nice, keeping to the standards. Again, this time I tried something new as I normally won't eat young ginger. But for this dish I ordered that instead of pineapple. The ginger is tender and some were quite spicy. Tasty, and certainly another good dish I recommend.

The fish roll is a dish requiring good skills from the chef. A slide of fish meat, which must be thin, is prepared, and then wrapping in it is a strip of Chinese ham. It is stir fry with tender kailan. This is a surprise to me on the day, as the dish is not something I had before and made to good quality.

We also ordered the roasted pigeon, and in fact this was the least I like. The pigeon is crispy, though I think it was slightly over-roasted. The meat was fortunately not dried up, and overall still an above average dish. But maybe because I was already high on my expectation so I got a bit disappointed.

Another good thing to praise was the good customer service. As I am not a frequent visitor, I was still received and greeted in warm welcome, and during the ordering, the servicing of the meal, and other details I was very happy on the attention and sincerity. One may expect that for such a famous restaurant the waiters can also be a bit aloof, but in this case it is certainly not so. Overall it cost HK$720 for two, not exactly cheap but still quite making me wanting to go back again soon.

The typhoon hit HK on Friday night, and unfortunately because of that we cancelled a birthday dinner with some old colleagues. Instead I went to hotpot with Ivy, and had the 'Bread Crab'. This was the second one in a week, and for a person who don't normally eat crab, I found it delicious and craving for more.

This week I had been able to catch up a bit on my wine tasting:

Trimbach Pinot Blanc 2007 (Alsace, France)

The Trimbach family had been in the Alsace wine industry for almost four centuries, with the vineyards all surrounding Ribeauville, where the soils are mainly limestone. They have several labels highlighting different brand, grape and quality level. This one is their classic wine with citrus notes, hints of pepper, oak and the developed characters of farmyard. Fairly light-bodied with a zesty acidity, the palate is reasonably intense with lemon, pear and cream notes, finishing with a fairly short length. Overall of acceptable quality, should drink now and not intend for further ageing.

Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot Nuits-Saint-Georges 2007 (Nuits-St-Georges, France)

This domaine is located in Vosne-Romanee, with around 11ha of vineyards scattered in different villages. One of the special features is their maceration of must, skin and stem for more than one week, providing enhanced fruit and tannin, though also getting some criticism from traditionalist. This Nuits-St-Georges village wine has a very good complexity on the nose, with baked red fruit, some dark cherries and other development characters, though also showing some unripeness and stem, probably coming from the long maceration mentioned. The palate is weaker comparatively, without much intensity and complexity, and finishing with a reasonable length affecting the overall quality from reaching a higher level.

Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Chapelle Chambertin Grand Cru 2003 (Gevrey-Chambertin, France)

This domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin was started in 1850 by Jean-Baptiste Laroze, and later his descendent Suzanne Laroze married Alexandre Drouhin, who owned vineyards in Chambolle Musigny, and the estate was henceforth called Drouhin-Laroze. With 46% of their production coming from Grand Cru, this bottle is one of them, coming from Chapelle-Chambertin, one of the lesser known grand cru. The wine is concentrated, with strong tannin for a Pinot Noir, and fairly full bodied and also got a warming alcohol. Good complexity on the nose, accompanying by a sweet palate mainly fruit driven with reasonable length.

Enough for the week, I will be in Manila for a few days and in the meantime please take care and see you here next week!