WTN: When things go right (the cheapskate version)...

My parents are back in Finland for a brief holiday, so we met up to eat dinner. I got some cheap pork filet which I marinated in soy and lemon juice for a few hours.

For the sauce I chopped up an onion and some mushrooms (I used gyromitra esculenta), oystersauce, chilli, cinnamon sticks, szechuan peppers, lots of garlic and some fresh herbs.

I browned the pieces of meat and then added the sauce and some water and let it simmer for almost three hours.

Cheapskate that I am, I opened up a Riesling that IIRC I bought for about 12€, Josef Biffar Deidesheimer Herrgotsacker Riesling Spätlese 1996 (12,5% abv).



Though just off-dry and though the food ended up being quite a bit spicier than I intended, the match was perfection.

The nose shows great purity, essence of Riesling as it were. This wasn't as mineral as I remembered from my previous bottle, but rather it is all about the purity of fruit with everything resolved (this doesn't mean the nose wasn't complex, though) - it smells mature but not in the petrolly way. The palate is fruity, very pure and tastes dry, though IIRC, it technically can't be called a Trocken. Long, pure and refreshing aftertaste.

A cheap but nice dinner and a cheap but fantastic wine has brought about maybe the best culinary experience I've had in ages.

-O-

maybe the best culinary experience I've had in ages.

Perhaps the cinammon sticks and the peppers somehow combined to make an inspired match with the riesling.. Interesting..

Perhaps the cinammon sticks and the peppers somehow combined to make an inspired match with the riesling.. Interesting..

Or that Pork is traditionally thought to be excellent with Riesling?

[David M. Bueker]

Pork in and of itself can match with anything as it has no intrinsic flavor other than a bland "meat" essence.

It's all about the spice/sauce.

Pork in and of itself can match with anything as it has no intrinsic flavor other than a bland "meat" essence.

It's all about the spice/sauce.

I don't tend to like the taste of Pork unless well spiced so I would say it isn't bland in taste. I think pairing is very much - but not only - about the spice/sauce. But I do agree that my previous comment doesn't really get me anywhere - must remember to think before writing. I guess the "lift" from the chilli and cinnamon coupled with the umami soy notes do have some sort of Rieslingfriedliness.

-O-

[David M. Bueker]

"Brown" or "red" spices with aged Riesling are usually a good bet.

Tonight with a dinner of fried salmon we destroyed a Biffar Deidesheimer Grainhübel Riesling Trocken 1996. Though not the ethereal match of the other Biffar and pork, this was good and the wine was great. A nose of mineral water and essence of Riesling; a palate of wonderful fruit, dryness yet friendliness and mineral water; an undending aftertaste. Rarely have I tasted a Trocken so successful and so lovable. It is a shame that Palatinates are so hard to come by over here.

-O-

[Robin Garr]

Pork in and of itself can match with anything as it has no intrinsic flavor other than a bland "meat" essence.

Try some local "pasture pork." It sounds like you're indulging in horrifying industrial product.

[David M. Bueker]

Most of the pastures up my way are tobacco fields. Not sure I would want pork from them.