So yesterday we had a friend up from city to celebrate his birthday.
Another friend was joining us, but was delayed. We sipped leftover
Kesseler Spatlese (good) and enjoyed a gorgeous springlike summer
evening. When Sue arrived we gathered around the patio table. As she
is a vegetarian, we made do without meat. A squash soup was followed
by tomatoes stuffed with pasta and vegggies (from
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...=&pagewanted=2
we actually had this at La Zucca Magica last summer) and a grilled
eggplant risotto. We had two wines:

2007 Pinon "Silex Noir" Vouvray
Clean, some chalky mineral, almost tropical edge to the fruit, I';d
call this demi-sec. Good length, zesty, bright. I like a lot. B+

2007 JM Raffault Chinon Rosé
Light body, yet good strawberry fruit with an accent of spice and
herbs. Bright, light, and not the least bit tight. Easy drinking, good
rose. B/B+

There was cheese and a birthday cake. I also had an older bottle of
Malescot St Exupery as Charles has said Margaux (appellation) is his
favorite wine, but when cheese course came we agreed for driving
reasons not to open. Next time. Lovely cool night on patio.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

DaleW wrote:
> So yesterday we had a friend up from city to celebrate his birthday.
> Another friend was joining us, but was delayed. We sipped leftover
> Kesseler Spatlese (good) and enjoyed a gorgeous springlike summer
> evening. When Sue arrived we gathered around the patio table. As she
> is a vegetarian, we made do without meat. A squash soup was followed
> by tomatoes stuffed with pasta and vegggies (from
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...=&pagewanted=2
> we actually had this at La Zucca Magica last summer) and a grilled
> eggplant risotto. We had two wines:
>
> 2007 Pinon "Silex Noir" Vouvray
> Clean, some chalky mineral, almost tropical edge to the fruit, I';d
> call this demi-sec. Good length, zesty, bright. I like a lot. B+
>
> 2007 JM Raffault Chinon Rosé
> Light body, yet good strawberry fruit with an accent of spice and
> herbs. Bright, light, and not the least bit tight. Easy drinking, good
> rose. B/B+
>

Nice pair of wines, Dale. I can see how the rosé would do better with
its strawberry fruit (I had a fascinating strawberry-tomato gazpacho at
Manresa that convinced me of that pairing) but I wouldn't kick the Pinon
out of bed for eating crackers, either. Your judgment justifies your
status as the wine pairing guru of our FAQ.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On Aug 13, 10:19�am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
wine pairing guru of our FAQ.

Yeah right. Uh huh.
Seriously, twice in the last week I've laughed to myself about the
ridiculousness of asking for matching opinions (not that I plan on
stopping asking or answering opinions). Because:

Tastes differ. Some love PN with salmon, others hate. Plus of course
people like different wines (people who like vin jaune are much more
likely to find it a good match than I would!).

Wines differ. If one says demi-sec Vouvray, can be big differences
between Huet, Pinon, Prince P, etc.

and the biggie is food differs. If I say eggplant risotto, it doesn't
tell you it was (a) grilled to a baba ganoush like smokiness, (b)
skins weren't used, and (c) there was cream and sumac, as well as
scallions and garlic. Even knowing recipe, I've never come up with
what I think is the definitive match for our favorite summer splurge
salad:
http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/ht...cipeId-53.html

Every tomato is different. Lobsters vary. Even more importantly, corn
has huge variation (variety, when and how ripe it was picked). We
don't have the Minus-8, we use my homemade vinegar which varies
considerably between batches. Sometimes she tried to add grapefruit to
the olive oil, others she doesn't bother. I still have fun, but maybe
wine that I served last time would have been better with this version
of the salad.

No real point to this, just thinking.