Three whites for an all-seafood menu prepared by Marcia.
With minced crab fried in tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and coriander served as an amuse bouche followed by “escondidinho,” a casserole of shrimp layered under mashed “mandioquinha” (arracacha, white carrot) purée:
2006 Basa (Telmo Rodriguez) Rueda Blanco 13%
An unoaked blend of 50% Verdejo, 10% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Viura. Nice nose of grapefruit and touches of quince and lilac. A bit sweet, insufficient acidity, ending on a slightly bitter note. My first wine from hipster Telmo Rodriguez but nothing to write home about and nowhere near as attractive as the 2007 Bodegas Valduero García Viadero Blanco tasted a few months ago at the Leon and Castilla event.
With muqueca, a Brazilian fish dish using Saint Pierre fried in coconut milk, dendê (sorry, no translation) oil, tomatoes, peppers, onions, parsley and coriander:
2005 Paul Blanck Gewürztraminer Alsace 13%
Bottled under screwcap (hooray). Characteristic lychee, acacia and honey aromas followed by some caramel sweetness on the palate. At first this seems to have sufficient acidity and is somewhere between dry and off-dry but, as it warms, the acidity recedes and it becomes increasingly cloying. Towards the end it became undrinkably so.
With a dessert of sweet pumpkin cubes and sweet coconut purée with cinnamon:
2004 Johanès Boubée Sauternes Réserve 13%
A gift from a recent dinner guest. Found few references to this sauternes, apparently it is available in some French supermarkets. Characteristic apricot nose but with less honey and botrytis than one finds in top class sauternes or barsac. Good acid/fruit balance, light and pleasant, reasonably tasty but too dilute to deliver the classic sauternes experience. Never thought I’d call a sauternes a quaffer but if ever there was such, this is it.
Food was great, wine was mediocre, a frustrating imbalance after all the hard work Marcia put into planning and preparing the meal.