For the longest time, the vegetable compartment of the fridge has been our de-facto wine cellar. Over many years of accumulation, it was getting crowded and we needed space to store vegetables for the increased level of home-cooking due to you-know-what. So it was time to start drawing down the strategic wine reserve.
Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva
The first bottle we cracked open was the Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva 2005. It was a sentimental bottle because it was a souvenir from our very memorable trip to Spain during the winter of 2010 with old friends QY, RC and ML.
This particular bottle was especially significant because it was from our hotel room at the Hotel Marques de Riscal in Elciego, Spain.
The Luxury Collection hotel was located within a vineyard and was designed by Frank Gehry, the same architect that designed the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum and many other iconic buildings around the world.
The Rioja held up particularly well and kept its full-bodied oaky flavour, but with mellowed-out tannins after spending a decade in the fridge. The MdR is more of an entry-level Rioja and is commonly found in Spanish supermarkets, but it was a nice and tasty drink.
LeSalette Amarone
The second bottle to leave the fridge was the LeSalette Amarone della Valpolicella 2012. We bought this at a food festival at the Marina Bay Sands many years back, and had high hopes for how it would taste.
We don’t drink much Italian wine and generally stick with Chiantis. But we tried a Bottega Amarone that a friend had brought for a lunch gathering once, and it was so luscious and so fragrant that we thought all Amarones were like that.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed. The nose was wonderful, but the taste was just meh. Win some, lose some. Moving on.
13th Street Blanc de Noir
The third bottle was a 13th Street Blanc de Noir 2007, a sparkling wine from Canada(!) made from only Pinot Noir grapes. I’ve had this many times before and it’s one of my favourite wines, sparkling or otherwise.
It has a strong honey fragrance and rich, creamy mouth feel which goes well with almost anything. Our most memorable meal with the 13th Street was at a ryokan kaiseki dinner at Shiraume Kyoto, and it made a great meal even more fantastic.
One interesting tip when having good champagne or sparkling wine is to also have it in a white wine glass, after it goes flat by swirling it around. After all, it’s still a white wine, and when all the bubbles dissipate, you’ll get to the true taste of the wine.
This idea was shared by Jamie Paquin, who owns Heavenly Vines in Ebisu, Tokyo during a particularly delightful after-work drinks session hosted by my ex-boss ET. I can understand if you’re still skeptical, but try it at least once and see if it works for you. In the case of the 13th Street, I found that the honey notes were more pronounced.
De Bortoli Noble One
The fourth bottle we extracted was the De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2007 from Australia. We’ve had this many times before, and is one of our favourite dessert wines, after a good Sauternes of course.
You can almost tell from its rich amber hue what it will taste like, and you would be right — sweet like honey, apricots and peaches but not overwhelmingly sweet. We had this with a very good pandan cake, and then separately with a spicy fried carrot cake. Both turned out to be great pairings.
Knight Black Horse Lychee Wine
The fifth bottle that we opened was the one I was most curious and concerned about. It was the Knight Black Horse Lychee Sweet Wine 2010 from Thailand.
Yes, you heard correctly, Thailand.
To be honest, I had very low expectations. Not because I was prejudiced because it was from Thailand, but because we had a bottle of Thai sparkling wine at a high-end Thai restaurant in Bangkok in the past which was, putting it mildly, not good.
But I was pleasantly surprised by the Knight Black Horse (cool name, by the way).
It was sweet, but not artificially so, and tasted of lychee, in a pleasantly refreshing way. Not as good as a Sauternes or the Noble One, but given the huge difference in price, that would be an unfair comparison.
Would I drink it again? Definitely, and especially so on a hot sunny day. We actually still have another bottle, courtesy of a cousin from a recent trip to Bangkok.
If you’re interested, we bought this at the duty-free shop at the Bangkok international Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK). They should still be selling it. That is, when we can all finally travel again.
Before you get the wrong impression that The Wife and I are alcoholics, I just wanted to clarify that the five bottles were not finished on the same day. They were opened over a period of several months, and we finished each bottle within the day, or at most, the following day.
The vegetable compartment is now empty enough to be used for its intended purpose, but there are still a few bottles left to be cleared:
- Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose NV
- Aubert Chardonnay Lauren 2013
- Knight Black Horse Lychee Sweet Wine 2014
- Migaki-Ichigo Mousseux NV
Plus a few bottles of Yuzu Sake from various Japanese breweries that are sitting in the storeroom but not taking up precious refrigerator space. But that’s a story for another day.
Enjoy your alcohol, but always remember to drink responsibly!
