Saké and Cheese Tasting

In December, I got to participate in a very curious online tasting along with other wine writers around the world. We had a pairing of saké and cheese, two things that you don't normally think would go with each other. How did this come about?

Our tasting was hosted by a charming couple Jesse Pugach is the Sake Specialist Southern Wines & Spirits, while Liza Kaplansky works for the Marin French Cheese Company. Their mutual passions pair surprisingly well and it was great to share in their enthusiasm during the tasting featuring both domestic and imported bottles from SakéOne. Most of my notes were conversational and live on Twitter, but here are brief descriptions of the four pairings.

Momokawa Organic Junmai Ginjo
Forest Grove, Oregon
$14/750ml
Clean and crisp with a beery flavor, excellent for the newcomer to the world of saké.

Marin French Petite Breakfast Brie
Thick and firm with a buttery flavor. Why am I just now learning about breakfast brie? This is amazing and was my favorite cheese of the evening. Highly recommended.

Momokawa Organic Nigori
Forest Grove, Oregon
$14/750ml
Creamy and mild with a clean finish. Nigori is the style that is unfiltered and must be gently agitated before consuming, and it pours as a milky white fluid.

Laura Chenel’s Chévre
Mild, not too much of the classic goat aroma/flavor, with a salty mouthfeel. Needs some cured meats to go along with it.

Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto Extra Dry
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
$27/720ml
Kimoto is an ancient style that takes twice as long as the modern brewing process. The result for this bottle is earthy and mushroomy, which would definitely appeal to fans of certain French wines bearing those characteristics.

Laura Chenel’s Ash-rinded Buchette
Excellent pairing with this one, which was funky and earthy, a little tart, and very savory. It was difficult to move on to the next matchup and work on Twitter when I just wanted a moment to sit back and enjoy the two together. But that's what leftovers are for, and the next day I gave each element the time it deserved.

Yoshinogawa Winter Warrior Junmai Ginjo
Niigata Prefecture, Japan
$27/750ml
Floral nose with hints of anise. Very interesting and smooth, with a mild body.

Rogue River Blue Cheese
This Oregon cheese is perhaps the best known and most widely distributed of the four. Creamy, buttery, tart, with just enough earth, this is a classic domestic bleu.

Note: These bottles and cheeses were provided as samples for review.

SakéOne Tasting

The more saké I try over the years, the more I enjoy it. More importantly, I think that aside from the inherent pleasures of the beverage, it has an important role in helping develop the nose and palate of the wine enthusiast.

SakéOne is based in Oregon and produces some delightful domestic brews that I've covered in the past. However, they are also a significant importer of Japanese saké and have long term relationships with the original kuras back in the Land of the Rising Sun. During a recent online tasting we got to sample four sakés from Japan, all in the 300mL half bottle format, though the prices listed below are for full 720mL bottles.

Yoshinogawa Winter Warrior
$27, 14%
Clean and mild with light citrus notes. This is a Niigata-style saké made in part to go with spicier Asian-fusion foods here in the United States.

Murai Family Tanrei Junmai
$20, 14.5% abv.
Almost like vodka but at a lower alcohol percentage. Extremely mild and neutral and one that I would reserve for the most delicate sushi and sashimi.

Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto Extra Dry
$27, 16% abv.
Earthy aroma, nice grain flavors. Savory with hints of mushrooms... Certainly a good pick for folks who love Old World Pinot Gris.

Hakutsuru Superior Junmai Ginjo
$16, 14.5% abv.
Lightly sweet and floral. At the least expensive it is also fascinating, and one that really needs to be sipped and enjoyed from a good wine glass.

Note: These bottles were provided as samples for review.

Winebow Saké Tasting

I got an opportunity to enjoy a saké tasting with Midori Roth of Winebow. She was in town promoting the brands to various restaurants and wine shops, and a meeting was arranged so that I could sample the products. The tasting took place in the lobby of the Sheraton in downtown Memphis, right across the street from a major agricultural convention, and the hotel restaurant kindly loaned us a pair of wine glasses while we sat on the couch and discussed saké.

All of the bottles shown here come from the Akita Prefecture on the northwest coast of Honshu, the large main island of Japan. In the tasting notes, I've included the milling percentages, which refer to how much of the rice grain is removed through polishing before the brewing process starts. Naturally the more that's abraded away, the more delicate and expensive the saké. 65% milling means that 35% of the grain was removed.

A note about temperature: there are nine levels of serving saké, from piping hot to snow cold. Roth mentioned a gastropub in Japan that employed specialists who would make sure the temperature of the saké was perfect--not just for the particular bottle, but who would also remember a specific customer's preferences. All of these were tried slightly chilled and in wine glasses.

Hideyoshi Namacho Honjozo
Suzuki Shuzoten founded in 1689
65% milling
$12, 15% abv.

Despite the modern packaging this is a truly traditional saké. Nineteen generations of the Suzuki family have been brewing in Akita since the 17th century. Bright and crisp with excellent lactic acid, and a great bargain. I'd strongly recommend this as an introductory saké if you're curious about it or have been turned off by bad experiences with cheap saké in the past.

Dewatsuru Kimoto Junmai
Akita Seishu founded in 1865
65% milling
$30, 14% abv.

This selection was the one that would most appeal to someone who is fond of French white wines. I found it to have a great Old World profile that would pair well with a lot of classic cheeses. Wild and earthy with notes of dried mushrooms. Firm acidity with a thicker body that slightly clings to the glass.

Manabito Ginjo
Hinomaru Jozo founded in 1689
60% milling
$36, 14% abv.

Like with the Suzuki, this kura was also founded in 1689 but that's purely a coincidence. This brewery only produces higher end and lower end saké, with nothing in the middle. The latter products are just the everyday futsū-shu for locals, the equivalent of a table wine. It's said that if a brewery's futsū-shu is good, then the premium bottles will be good as well. Incredibly smooth and delicate, and a delight to sip.

Chokaisan Junmai Daiginjo
Tenju Shuzo founded in 1874
50% milling
$63, 15% abv.

A true surprise. This saké showed gentle notes of licorice and jasmine, like a very mild memory of pastis. Rich and smooth with a very refined body, I found myself craving raw shellfish... Oysters and clams would be amazing with this bottle, and if you ever get a chance to try a well-produced, premium saké like this, it will forever change your mind. Highly recommended.

Note: These bottles were provided as samples for review.

SakéOne Online Tasting

This is my third online tasting with Oregon's SakéOne (cf. 2013, 2012). In addition to brewing in Oregon, they also import saké from Japan, and are working on making craft saké like the craft beer movement. You couldn't pick a better place than the Portland area, and yes, the bottles have already made a cameo appearance in an episode of Portlandia.

Nearly everyone has had a bad experience with saké, and it's probably due to trying it at the wrong temperature, drinking really cheap and acidic versions, or simply dunking it back without a thought of the aromatics. In fact, the traditional ochoko cup shown in the picture is not good for enjoying the subtleties of saké: a wine glass works much better, and in fact, Ridel makes a special glass just for that purpose.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to taste some decent saké, preferably a few in a row, and learn what you've been missing all these years. (Note: in the photo, all bottles are 300mL format for sampling, compared against a pair of standard Riesling bottles in the background for contrast.)

SakéMoto Junmai Saké
Nada, Japan
$11/720mL, 14.7% abv.

Our first selection of the evening was an inexpensive import. Clean and light with a little melon element in the background. Low acidity and a round mouthfeel. Good introductory bottle that is traditional and accessible. Junmai indicates that the rice grains are polished to 70% and no additional alcohol is added to the product. It's a mid-range classification, not the cheapest futsuu-shu that most people have encountered.

Momokawa Diamond
Medium Dry Saké
Junmai Ginjo
Forest Grove, Oregon
$13/750mL, 14.8% abv.

Junmai Ginjo removes a bit more of the rice grain, down to 60%, and again, no additional alcohol is added. This bottle had a wonderful earthy aroma with richer grain flavors and a firmer body. It reminded me of a Hefeweizen, and indeed, saké pairs with a pretty wide range of foods like beer does.

Momokawa Pearl
Creamy Nigori Saké
Junmai Ginjo
Forest Grove, Oregon
$13/750mL, 18% abv.

This was a real surprise... The host told us to turn the bottle over multiple times to mix it up, which revealed a sort of lava lamp lump of something in the bottom. It's unfiltered like back in the old days, so you have to gently turn it over to mix before serving. The resulting mixture is white like milk with all the rice sediment. It clings to the side of the glass a bit like cream. On the palate it is creamy with a little touch of sweetness, and fascinating. Highly recommended if you've never had it before, and whatever you do, don't serve it warm. All of these were sampled at a cool temperature similar to white wine.

Note: These bottles were provided as samples for review.

Ty Ku Junmai Saké

My co-workers are already getting sick of me talking about the North Carolina Nomacorc trip, but as we're having great conversations about Lean Six Sigma and efficient manufacturing processes, I'm taking the moral high ground. During all of the talk about synthetic corks and how they can regulate the oxygen transfer rates for specific wines, I was taking notes about the mobile 5S cart and kanban systems. Peeking at something and thinking, "Hey, that's a great example of Poka-Yoke!"

I'll have a lot more on the factory side later, but I really enjoyed getting to spend time in the downtown, artsy, some might say, hipster district of downtown Raleigh. We were so lucky to have lots of great restaurants within walking distance and being treated to lavish meals by our outstanding company representatives Katie and Whitney. After a massive Mexican feast on Thursday, the day we all got snowed in, it was decided that a lighter dinner was in order, so... Sushi O! But we enjoyed an even more spectacular spread that covered multiple wines, decadent platters of sushi, sashimi, nigiri, and I was able to indulge myself in all the eel and octopus I wanted.

Katie ordered a favorite saké... I have another online tasting from SakéOne coming up, and as a fairly recent convert to the beverage I will give the following advice: saké is best when enjoyed on its own without the influence of other drinks. Even the lightest Alsatian white will have stronger aromas and flavors than saké, and most cocktails are too strong. Try three or four of them on a clean palate and you'll be able to recognize the gentle characteristics. I've often said that if you really want to appreciate saké then you need to have strong opinions on different tea blends. No Darjeeling or Oolong is going to hit you as hard as a Cabernet Franc, but the subtle aroma differences are great training for the nose.

Ty Ku Junmai Saké
Nara, Japan
$19, 15% abv.

This is quite a bargain at the retail price point, and delivers light floral and lychee notes. A touch of citrus on the palate and a smooth mouthfeel mean that this would be a great introductory junmai saké for anyone that is new to the genre. I sampled it at room temperature and found the shape of the bottle to be quite fascinating.

iichiko Silhouette Shōchū 焼酎

I was asked recently if I'd like to try a sample of shochu from Japan. The nice thing about e-mail is that I got the opportunity to figure out what shochu is before replying. While the name was vaguely familiar, I knew nothing about the distilled spirit, and initially confused it with some horror stories about baijiu from friends that have spent a lot of time in China. I was very mistaken.

Shōchū (焼酎) is not saké, but instead is a sort of mild vodka that originated in Persia and made its way to Japan by the 16th century. Unlike the usual 40% common with gin, rum, whiskey, and vodka, shochu is usually just 25% alcohol and is often further diluted with water or tea. Sometimes hot, sometimes cold.

This is the entry level shochu from Japan's best selling producer, Sanwa Shurui Co., Ltd., who only began making it in 1979 as an offshoot of their saké production. The name iichiko is the Kyushu dialect variant of ichiban, meaning "number one" in English. Throughout this review I'll keep it in all lowercase as it appears on all of the promotional material, and also because Iichiko looks a bit confusing in many fonts.

iichiko Silhouette Shōchū
Ōita Prefecture, Japan
Distilled from barley
$23, 25% abv.

I tried it straight at room temperature. It's milder than you initially expect, with just a little bite on the back end. There's a slight nuttiness combined with a hint of citrus. Oddly, it reminds me of certain brown ales even though it is nothing like beer. Imagine distilling the essence of just the notes that are in the background, and that's what this is like.

I'm in general not a fan of warm alcoholic beverages, but one of the many ways shochu is enjoyed is with iced oolong tea. (I'm more of a tea drinker than a coffee drinker, though I rarely write about the former.) With a 3:2 ratio of tea to shochu and the addition of ice, you're getting a pretty mild beverage.

This was delicious. The oolong I picked up was particularly earthy and vegetal, two aromas that I adore. The shochu brightens it up a bit, and while it's obvious that there is a distilled spirit in the glass, it's not overpowering. Quite tasty, and highly recommended for my fellow southerners who want a fun way to enjoy this product that is starting to get quite popular in certain parts of the country.

Note: This bottle was provided as a sample.

SakéOne Tasting

My first good experience with saké came thanks to the folks at SakéOne during an online tasting last year. The company was started in 1992 as an importer of quality Japanese bottles, but they began building their own kura and making their own brews. Today, Oregon has the highest per capita consumption of saké in the United States.

A few interesting facts from the tasting:

• Rice quality is important, but saké is not really terroir-driven. The percentage of polish is more important, meaning how much of the outer layers are ground away.
  
• Color is important in Japan (it should be clear), but in the US can be a little yellowed. The beverage is pasteurized, and thus is stabilized and can keep up to two months in the fridge after being opened. If unopened, good saké can be enjoyed within 12-18 months if stored like wine.
  
• The Japanese sakés are in 720mL format bottles, while the Oregonian one comes in 750mL. The TTB requires certain sizes for wine, but saké is classified as beer thanks to our nation's bizarre tangle of alcohol regulations. 720mL is a traditional size denoting four 180mL servings.
  
• Saké is fined and clarified with gelatin, but the industry is experimenting with a seaweed-based agent to make vegan saké.

Murai Family Tokubetsu Honjozo
Special Honjozo
Japan
$25, 15.5% abv.

The modern incarnation of this brewery dates back to 1889. Deeper barley-style aroma with a drier flavor. Earthy elements that appear as it warms. This family helped get the kura established in Oregon and provided a lot of early guidance. The label features the Nebuta warrior from Aomori Prefecture. Honjozo means that a little extra alcohol was added to round out the flavors, though not as strong as a fortified wine.

SakéMoto
Premium Junmai Saké
Japan
$11, 14.7% abv.

Gentle, mild, lightly toasted rice aroma with a hint of sweetness. Easy drinking, approachable packaging with an easy-to-read label. The idea was to market something that would be easy to ask for and remember without an extensive knowledge of Japanese.

Yoshinogawa Winter Warrior
Junmai Ginjo
Japan
$27, 14% abv.

This brewery has been around since 1548. Hint of spice with mellow pear nectar, apple blossom, and herbal elements. Named after the kurabito, the workers who make the saké in the snow.

I had the opportunity to try something special with this particular bottle. Japan is not the only country that knows how to safely enjoy raw fish. In this preparation, I made yellowtail tuna crudo but with a more Latin twist. Slices of avocado, pickled red onion, and topped with a brunoise of habanero peppers and some delicate lime zest. A little sea salt and pepper on top provided the perfect crunch with each savory bite.

SakeOne G Fifty
Junmai Ginjo Genshu
Forest Grove, Oregon
$25, 18% abv.

American rice from California produced the superior saké. Bold pineapple and floral aromas, with rich fruit and a delicate finish. Very round and mild. A pleasant experience, and highly recommended.
But what to eat with it?
Snow crab legs turned out to be an exceptionally tasty combination. You end up hitting all of the flavor receptors with salt and sweet and savory and umami and the tart elements from the saké and lemon wedges.

* * *

I will admit that when I first tried through all four of these bottles, I had difficult telling them apart. My nose was thinking white wine, and everything was far too subtle. It's also possible that I had the bottles too cold, or that the combination of wild weather swings and massive amounts of pollen had dulled my senses. But as I went back through them the next day, I kept teasing out many different aromas and flavors, and found myself eager to enjoy a small glass with dinner or even while sitting at the computer in the evening.
You've got to recalibrate your nose and tongue a bit, but the effort is well worth it, and I highly recommend studying saké if you want to broaden your beverage literacy.

Note: These bottles were provided as samples.

Saké Weekend

We call it saké, but over in the Land of the Rising Sun the legendary rice beer is known as 日本酒 or Nihonshu, which translates to... "Japanese alcohol". I'm going to admit that I haven't been a fan of the beverage in the past, even publicly stating so in a previous post. But maybe I've just never given it a proper try, and maybe the low-rent faux Japanese restaurants where I've tried it in the past weren't serving good representative samples.

Just for the sake of simplicity I'm going to refer to it as saké for this post. Particularly because these bottles were brewed in...

THE BEAVER STATE! Yes, all of these are made by SakéOne in Forest Grove, Oregon, just west of Portland near the coast. Which also makes me wonder... I live next to the biggest rice producing region in the United States (eastern Arkansas), yet I don't think anybody is making saké there. Another day, another project... Anyway, looks like SakéOne is part of that Pacific Northwest ethos of small artisan production of wine, beer, and cheese. The company has been producing traditional and modern styles of saké for 14 years, and a lot of the marketing that came with this set involved the use of saké as a cocktail ingredient. Let's try them all straight, and then we'll talk food and more... 乾杯

Moonstone Plum Saké
$10, 7% abv.
Sweet and simple with a pronounced plum flavor and a pinkish-purple hue. It's a little too sweet for my tastes, but far smoother and more restrained than other plum sakés I've had in the past.

Moonstone Asian Pear Saké
$12, 12% abv.
I was excited to try this one since I love Asian pears, but there's not a lot of the flavor there. I'm all about lighter fruit notes, but this one is just a little too subtle. Very pleasant with a grilled chicken salad, though, and refreshing on a warm spring day.

Momokawa Organic Junmai Ginjo Saké
$13, 14.8% abv.
Bright and lightly fruity, dry with a touch of yellow apple aroma. Crisp and clean with just a hint of rice flavor, and an extremely short finish. Sipping this revealed something interesting about saké: unlike wine, there's almost no aftertaste, and your palate is ready for just about anything next. Unlike beer, it's not filling, and it's nothing like spirits. Really a unique experience.

G Saké Junmai Ginjo Genshu
$20, 18% abv.
This one is stronger, nearly gin-like with the barest hint of acidity. A little herbal and savory, and it reminds me of an extremely refined and mild martini with no kick from the higher alcohol. While I enjoyed it with food (more on that below), it really stands on its own quite well and would make a nice apéritif. Highly recommended, and very affordable for the chance to try an amazing bottle.

I think you'd really have to enjoy it (or any of these other sakés) on their own without competing alcoholic beverages, just because they are so light and delicate. And thus I discover the problem in the past has been that I was tasting saké between cocktails and wine or other drinks.

Before I ever opened the bottles, I was worried about pairing. What goes well with saké? I've never really done any Japanese cooking... But a bit of research revealed that to be a stupid question, because it's like asking what goes well with wine. Depends on the bottle and depends on your mood. One bit of advice I got was that savory flavors and vinegar tend to go particularly well, so on Friday night I grabbed some sashimi and pork gyoza from the deli. I mixed soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and started with the dumplings, the Momokawa, and the G.

And that's the moment when saké finally clicked for me. It all made sense, and it was delicious. The sashimi was terrible--not as a pairing but as something I might reject at a bait shop. I focused on the dumplings and had a wonderful time. For the rest of the weekend, I decided to sip a bit of saké with different meals to see what worked. I hit upon a great combination Saturday: a burger soaked with a little soy sauce and dusted with Chinese five spice powder, topped with smoked Gouda and a little reduction of shallots, garlic, white wine vinegar, Sauvignon Blanc, and olive oil. I let it cook down, caramelize, and get nicely tender. This was a perfect pairing with the G Saké.

The samples came with an extensive list of eclectic cocktail recipes, and the Boston shaker is imprinted with several of them, e.g. the delightfully named Spicy Mothra (pear saké and ginger vodka). I didn't get around to any of them during this weekend, but might try a few in the next couple of days when I've got access to rose petals and lemongrass and Buddha's Hand citrus.

I don't know if I'll be incorporating saké into the standard rotation, but I have reversed my earlier opinion on the subject and look forward to exploring it further in the future.


Note: These bottles were received as samples.

Book Review: 神の雫

The Drops of God
Vertical, 2011
(First Japanese edition in 2005)
$14.95, 423 pages
Story by Tadashi Agi (the pen name used by the brother-sister writing team Shin and Yuko Kibayashi)
Art by Shu Okimoto

After becoming popular in Japan, Kami no Shizuku was released in French as Les Gouttes de Dieu, and just recently in English as The Drops of God. Why France first? It's not just the wine connection, but rather that France has a vibrant comics culture that spans all ages and subject matter. Even Barbarella was a popular French comic before it became a trippy vehicle for Jane Fonda.

Japanese comics have exploded in popularity in the past 20 years, moving from an obscure hobby for lonely comic book fans to something consumed by boys and girls of all social strata. There’s action stuff and overcute stuff. Some serious, some goofy. It’s become a challenge for librarians that are excited to have kids reading, but have to learn about a whole new world of literature and keep up with a frequently changing roster of what’s popular or not.

Reading manga can be confusing if you haven’t done it before. You start at the “back” of the book and read starting with the panel in the top right corner, moving left and then down and back to the right side of the page. Even within the panels you have to remember to read the word balloons on the right side before those on the left. Occasionally the art style will shift from dramatic and realistic to tiny cartoonish chibi characters with massive eyes and overemotional expressions. (Frankly I’ve always thought that technique could punch up Mary Worth in the newspaper.)

This series fits into a different niche, more like the graphic novels that have attracted mainstream adult attention and have found homes in films and documentaries. Things like Maus, Ghost World, Road to Perdition, American Splendor, etc. No superheroes or magical powers, just compelling stories that happen to have pictures with the text.

The book opens in a restaurant where a young female sommelier is struggling with a difficult and pompous customer over Romanée-Conti. The 1999 is closed and the customer is angry. In swoops our dashing hero Shizuku who demands a decanter and pours the wine “as fine as a silk thread” from a great height without spilling a drop. The sommelier swoons at his technique as he presents the now aerated wine to the customer who can finally experience the “scent of a hundred flowers combined”.

We learn that Shizuku is the estranged son of a famous wine critic, who forced the young boy to learn everything about wine without ever actually drinking it. Then the father dies—but wait! A week before his death, the old man adopted a younger wine critic, and this critic and Shinzuku must compete to solve the mystery of the twelve heaven-sent wines and the one bottle only known as “Drops of God”. The winner will gain control of a wine collection worth ¥2 billion (US$18 million). And so the saga begins…

When I first heard about the series, it seemed like a silly concept, but apparently it revitalized the wine trade in Japan. The manga uses images of real wines, they talk about real regions and specific vintages. You could really manipulate the market through the writing choices.

I'm not quite through this first volume in the series, but I found myself really enjoying it. They do take a break from the expensive collectibles to occasionally just enjoy everyday wine. There's romance, there's intrigue, and an underground network of mysterious wine experts who assist Shizuku in his quest. There's a poetry in the descriptions that is amplified by full page spreads demonstrating the visual image associated with the nose of that specific wine.

Do I recommend it? I'd suggest picking up the first volume to add to your wine library. It's a curious product: you have to know way more about wine than I do to have direct experience with the high-end Domaines and Châteaux featured. But you also have to interested in reading a 400 page comic book (backwards). I don't know who I would give this as a gift to during Christmas, but I'm probably going to read the rest of the series. Definitely worth checking out if you have a comic book shop near your local wine shop.

P.S. I grabbed most of these images online, and one of them doesn't have the official translations. I would make my own but it would involve cutting the spine off the tight paperback, and I don't want to do that.


Note: This book was received as a sample.

2004 Bell Sonnette

I had a crazy idea the other day of a vaguely Japanese steak dinner, something to break up the meat-and-potatoes routine. Or the organ meat and odd critters routine. I started things off with some miso soup. I cheated here, using a concentrated miso import, but my fellow diners and I were very happy with the results. To the savory broth I added chopped green onions, cubed firm tofu, and plenty of enoki mushrooms. Enokitake have a great buttery flavor, as well as a texture that's like a bean sprout when raw and like a noodle in soup. Don't overcook these, but they add a lot of flavor to dishes. (Plus I love the fact that they look like some crazy wild thing you'd find growing on a dead log in the forest. Forbidden fungus... Mmmmmmm...)

I promise that I'll get my konbu and katsuobushi together to make a real bowl of miso shiru. Watch this blog for a future update!

For the main course I had organic grass-fed ribeyes marinating in soy sauce, slow roasted to rare in the oven and then seared off in a hot skillet. I also made another batch of the Napa cabbage and watermelon radish slaw from a few posts ago. Might as well enjoy it while those beautiful radishes are still around.

The wine was the true star of the evening. The 2004 Bell Sonnette is from Napa and was a real treat. $50, 14.6% abv. 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 11% Petite Verdot. This was a gift from my friend Paul, and I'm going to be hard pressed to top this one in 2009. I've always been a fan of Bell, and this little treasure is worth getting if you can find it--this was bottle 212 of 2398. (He got it from Wolfchase Wine & Spirits, I don't know if anyone else has it.) It's curious to think that, assuming two people per bottle, only 5000 people will get to try this wonderful wine. Makes me wonder what small run wines will never even cross my path.

There's a nose of chicory coffee, plum, and nutmeg. Medium tannins with dark berry flavors and a long, long finish. It's distinctly California without being a fruit bomb. Excellent balance, and I commend the nearly quarter volume given to Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot, two wonderful grapes that so often are only present as a splash.

I don't do a lot of Asian cooking (and this meal barely qualifies), but I think I've been neglecting it in my culinary self-education. Plus it gives me the excuse to try a whole lot of new weird and wonderful ingredients.