Savored…Bedrock Bar & Grill, Singapore (Part 2)

As promised, I will share with you the three red wines that I savored with a small group of friends during our early July 4th dinner last Saturday. As our tomahawk and porterhouse steaks, roasted pork loin were being served, we quickly asked the service staff to serve the first red. It was Signorello 2001 Padrone, Napa Valley. It was decanted for about an hour. This wine is a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Not just for the sake of filtering out the sediments, decanting the wine helped the wine to be more revealing and approachable. Indeed this wine needed the interaction with oxygen. It was lush, balanced, and elegant in its texture and flavros. The 10 years of cellaring helped to even out the intensity of the flavor to be more stylishly settled. It was drinking beautifully and will age a few more years.

The next red wine that followed was Freemark Abbey 1997 Bosche Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. This wine has been quietly resting for 15 years, and I believe it found its peak and drinkability all within 45 minutes. During the first 20mins to 25mins, it was gorgeous, moving around the palate like a grand Madame of the house. The notes of red fruits were still there laced with slight spiciness and mellow roundness. The finish was shorter than I expected, considering it being 1997, with notes of slightly dry herb and bitterness. That was when the wine seems to loose its structure. Nonetheless, I appreciated how it made an entrance and I would have loved to taste it when it was just released.

We thought we were done in terms of wine for the night. But a few of us stayed a little longer and felt that we can still open another bottle and make it home by 11pm. Usually when we meet, we will always have extra bottles to back up any bottles that may have faults. So a friend took out the bottle of Silver Oak 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexandar Valley. This is the youngest wine for the night and it was a good one to round off the night. The wine had more fruits flavors than power. For a vintage of 2007, it is much softer than I expected. It may not be bad because it just means that one has good wine to drink earlier without having to wait too long.

Savored…Bedrock Bar & Grill, Singapore

I have a love hate relationship with technology, specifically computer for the past week. I will not go into details and the most important thing is that it has been fixed….for now. But I may MIA again because I am considering migrating to WordPress.org. What do you think?

A small group of friends and I decided to plan an early 4th of July dinner gathering last Saturday, savoring some good steaks and older California wines. There were 9 of us and we had 3 whites and 3 reds. Today, i will share with you the 3 whites.

We started with Schramsberg J Schram 2001. The “Dom Perignon” of Napa Valley. Schramsberg is in Calistoga and it is indeed a good location for them. It was crisp, elegant, delicately Brut, and flavored with lemon peel, hints of apricot, and white flower. We thought it may still be young because Schramsberg Sparklings are well-known for being very age-worthy

Right after that, we moved swiftly to Ridge 2005 Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnay. I love the nose of this wine with notes of crispy lemon peel, butter but not too overwhelming, hints of pear, spice, and flora. It tasted brilliant being 7 years old with notes of delicately smoke oak, elements from the aromas echoed and the finish was lingering. Very memorable.

The next bottle came closely. Kistler 2006 Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay, Carneros. This is where Kistler impresses. A good example on the ageability of their quality of Chardonnay. It showed aromas of apple/pear note, and hints of smoke. There is a sense of coolness, a strong silent type in style, but still quite showy on characteristics. I would love to have it aged a few more years.

Savored…Chui Huay Lin Restaurant, Singapore

The theme was Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris or New World Pinot Noir for the 11 on Monday dinner gathering. We meet once every two months and this group is 14 years old. We were meeting for authentic Teochew cuisine in a Teochew Club. Teochew is a form of dialet spoken by a chinese from a particular part of China. This cuisine is known for its delicate and pure flavors. It turned out most of us brought Riesling, and it was an appropriate match to the different Teochew dishes.The highlight Riesling was a bottle of 1971 vintage and a couple of bottles of California Pinot Noir, but I am saving that for another post. Nonetheless, these four labels were delicately sweetened without being overwhelming and the right amount of acidity to enhance the cuisine. Mild candy like flavors, laced wtih fine mineral notes. The approach of the Rieslings were bold but silky at the same time.

Thank you for sharing. Let see what we can come up with in August with Japanese Cuisine.

Wine Style…Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant, Singapore

I have been rather quiet for the past few days, and I have a really good reason. I was defeated by technology. I have a love- hate relationship with it. Over the past few days, I have been trying to transit from an old 15 inch laptop to a brand spanking new 11 inch latop. I have opted for a smaller laptop because it is much lighter with more upgrade options. So happy that I will have the option to upgrade its RAM up to 8GB, and I do not know what RAM is.
Anyway, there are loads of data to transfer and I was having a hard time in loading software. I almost wanted to throw the new laptop out of the window, A dear friend came to my rescue while trying to coach his 14 years-old niece on golf (my friend is a pro golfer). Now I am up and running with the new laptop.

While transferring data, I did a ilttle harddrive house keeping and came across this picture I took in 2008. And memory of its taste came rushing back. This is a gorgeous Pinot Blanc from Carneros of Napa Valley. Slightly elegantly sweet, noteable pure fruit and tight crispy acidity. It was savored while celebrating my mom’s birthday and a rahter good match to teochew cuisine. Lets see if I can find anyone to share a case with me on my next order…….