Kyoto Protocol I

Met up with J. and S. in Kyoto yesterday for the first in what I now anticipate will be many many wine dinners. I had come to Kyoto via Fukuoka, Singapore, and Madras, and along the way, had managed to leave my winter coat behind somewhere along the way. Thought I could manage, but I was wrong. So, after picking me up from the hotel, we headed to Nishiki market for a) refreshments and b) something resembling a jacket.


With the jacket situation miraculously resolved, we checked out all the fascinating food items for sale, and even took in a few samples to whet the appetite... grilled oysters, shrimp and scallops at a tiny bar, washed down with an enormous glass of an unnamed amakuchi (sweet) sake. The highlight though was a wild black rice vinegar drink, and it was wild in every sense of the word. Think vinegar, over ice. Truly an unforgettable beverage... was definitely worried that my palate had been ruined.

We then headed up into foothills north of Kyoto for a relaxing soak at the Kurama onsen, an indoor/outdoor hot springs facility. By the time we were finished here, we were pretty hungry and ready to move on to the task at hand... eating and drinking at J.'s flat back in Kyoto.

We started with some blue cheese, Copper River smoked Sockeye salmon, and red and green yuzu-kosho, two condiments made of chili peppers and the yuzu citron. It has a fantastic bite, like wasabi, but with more herbal qualities and a definitive citron taste. Notably delicious when mixed with Japanese toasted sesame oil. With these nibbles, we had the following:

2005 Nigl Gruner Veltliner Kremser Freiheit - nose of green peas and coconut cream pie... mouthfeel was a bit unusual - short, no frizzante, no gewurz... apple and citrus on the palate (it wasn't killed by the vinegar, after all). Great nose, not great on the palate - none of the typical things I'd expect from a gruner veltliner. For me, would have been disappointing overall if not for the rather interesting nose.

2004 Hirsch Gruner Veltliner Heilegenstein - more vegetables on the nose, more lively acidity in the mouth... more exciting, a bit of spice (gewurz) on the finish. This is more like it!

Tio Pepe Fino sherry - bog standard fino for the academic purpose of testing my new hypothesis that oxidized wines are more effective at cutting through fish oils - based on a recent experience with a 1999 Chateau Musar Blanc. J. postulated further that the tannins even in white wine are also active in enhancing the fish oils, so we decided to test it out. My take on it was that the two G.V.s were not remotely effective, for me, in cancelling out the fish oils. The Tio Pepe was much more successful, particularly on the attack and the finish, but less so on the mid-palate. Of course, my previous experience was with a relatively mild whitefish (Hammour), and this was smoked salmon. Interesting, and worth further analysis.


The first course consisted of ikura (salmon roe) on slices of butter sauteed yama-imo (wild mountain yam), grilled shishamo (a much lighter tasting sardine-like fish complete with it's own roe inside) and maguro (fatty tuna) sashimi.

With this course, we had:

Shigemasu ginjo sake from Kyushu - a perfumy, melony nose, good body, not overpowering, fresh, clean finish, alcohol decently integrated. A fine foil for fish, as I always find sake to be. The aforementioned wines were tasted throughout this course as well. J. felt the Hirsch worked fine with the fish and agreed as well that the sake (as expected) was a solid match with the fish courses.


The main course was "Surf and Turf," Japanese style: shioyaki style (salt-grilled) tai (sea bream), root vegetables and pan seared wagyu beef, paired with:

1998 Clos Mogador Priorat - fantastic nose - prunes, worcestershire sauce, tomatoes... palate was on the light side, pleasant tannins, if a bit meek. But the nose was so fantastic, it was still a very enjoyable wine for me. And actually, very nice with the beef.

Finally, for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with an aged Rogue stout (11%)...


Conversation was fantastic and free flowing, ranging from J.'s art to our respective interests in unusual cuisine. It was a great evening, and the hours slipped away. Unfortunately for me, I had a very early train the next morning to Tokyo, and I was certainly worse for wear on very little sleep, and with a full day of work ahead of me.

- Addendum - J.'s Notes:

Great pic of the vinegar bar! I have had the "kuro-zu" (black vinegar) before and even when cut with water, it rips your mouth apart!!! [V.], you finished more than half and that in itself was impressive (maybe it's what pulled you thru the whole weekend??? hehehe...)

Thanks also for bringing the "Yuzu-kosho" sauces from Kyushu! Those sauces were incredible. Especially notable for me was the dab of the red on the maguro instead of wasabi and/or shoyu. I've been told that wasabi's raison d'etre is to be a final bacterial cleanser for raw fish (not surprising, really) and the red sauce seems strong enough to serve that purpose as well! In addition, it gave a burst of flavor amidst that buttery palate from the maguro. On a side note...we mixed the green with some olive oil yesterday and spread it on some final stage sauteed chicken.....rocks!

For those who are "fish oil sensitive" with wines, sake is a no-brainer....and Orie proved it. Like he said, the closest runner up was the sherry, but in the end sake ruled on that front. I am not as sensitive so the GruVe's we had stepped in quite nicely. I agree that the Hirsch is a superior product at the level we were drinking. These were my first GruVe's so my take was that this grape delivers a nice in-between character that indeed is food friendly.....not quite chard, not quite ries, but hitting a lot of the good notes both have, plus adding some new notes too. I will def. follow up on this grape....in fact, looking forward to your generous "smaragd" gift, [V.]! I am starting to think Austrian wines are an untapped region of excellence!

The final stage of surf and turf worked out well, I thought....segueing from the whites into the red. Just goes to show that whites can carry the weight in a meal far longer than red only lovers tend to think...the nose on the red was delicious all night long (and mind you, that was a several hour decant)...the palate was weaker than the nose and i found the finish lacking, but it worked fine with the steak...if unremarkable beyond that. (Who is to say, really, about aging most of these wines, after all....) For those of you holding older CM's, beware!!!