Recently, I was privileged enough to be extended an invitation by a Sommelier to a nice fusion dinner and to taste some really 'Super' New World wines. Not the Chilean or Australian wines that come to mind, but countries that you may never heard or think of producing wines. Yes, countries like Japan, Israel and India. I count my blessing to have received and accepted such a rare occasion where such wines are featured, courtesy of the Wine Sommeliers.
I arrived at the secluded venue with a thirsty palate. Curious, perhaps is the right word, as I was wondering what wines are we going to taste. We started off with a sparkling Malvasia secco, which reminds me of a confectionary shop. The aromas of clotted cream and melting butter was obvious and the taste equals the confectionary products. I was expecting something fruity like peaches, white currants or even apricots but, oh boy, instead my palate was enlightened!
A moment later, our appetiser arrived and we adjourned to our second wine. It was a Viognier made in collaboration with Michel Rolland, the famous winemaker. The colour was not too appealing to one of our Sommeliers. On the nose, it smells typically of Viognier, very floral and it went quite well with the deep fried tofu in century-egg sauce that we had. But I still prefer sipping on my Malvasia instead, which really brings out the creaminess of the dish.
After a while, we began opening another bottle, a red this time. The red wine comes from Yamanashi, Japan and the flavour intensity was quite subtle at first before a good swirl, but strong enough to have a good nose. The colour was an attractive lighter shade of red or pristine light ruby, I would say. The aroma was very pleasant on the nose, very floral, perfume with little fruit notes. It reminded me of a gourmet rose syrup if there is such a thing, I thought. I began sipping this unique wine and I find it to be quite complex too. A lot of flavours started to appear to my mind but I rather let it be, than putting a vocabulary into it (since I may lack of it) as I was busy pairing it with my heavenly salted fish pasta dish with Thai basil. For the first time, I had so many glasses of wines to pair with one dish.
As I begin to feel what luck I was having, to be seated with these people and having conversations purely on food and wines, I felt a little challenged too. It never occurred to my mind that this day would arrive as I began to slowly awakening my palate which was pretty much untrained before. As we were talking and trying to find the right vocabulary to describe the tastes, our next bottle of wine was opened. This time, we were going to have a Kosher Merlot made in Israel. Thank goodness I had chosen duck as my main. The full name of the dish is Duck Leg Confit with Plum Mustard Sauce and Yam Cake. It went really well with my Merlot and our discussion was on how Kosher wines are made. My loaned iPad came in handy, in Googling the answer to some of our questions.
Lastly, the dessert came. This time, I had my Japanese wine topped up as I thought, it would be brilliant to pair this wine with dessert. I was right, the wine went gorgeously well with my Pandan Infused Panna Cotta with Gula Melaka! My palate felt so alive for the very first time! I was really enjoying all the explosion of flavours and aromas that I began to feel that I could get used to all this.
The night ended with a bottle of Syrah from India. It was a really good expression of the varietal, spicy and peppery.
After that night, I began to continue furiously, on my journey towards more wine tastings. I was lucky to have my hubby who is constantly there for me. We tasted a really good Chateauneuf du Pape recently, a rather bland and deep-coloured Dornfelder, a Barbera and a few more. I hope, it does not end here...
