the charming Frog and his toy

take-out + riesling = dinner

Just a simple no fuss dinner with some chinese roast meat takeaway and a bottle of German Riesling (I drank it all!). I think I’m addicted to the roast chicken from this particular stall at Toa Payoh Central, but their soy-based braised chicken was less than inspiring, sadly. Next time I’ll just stick to their roast chicken and fatty roast pork. I literally had to stop myself from consuming too many of those deep fried lard pieces (in those kailan)! Anyway, the 2002 Spatlese Riesling by Von Schubert had a bright canary-yellow core; lifted aromas of yellow flowers, honey, fresh cantaloupe and spiced pears; ripe limes, lime peel, sweet n sour green mangoes on the palate with medium to medium-plus acidity. Finish was not as long as I hoped it would be but quite a refreshing drink with all the food. I won’t recommend drinking this as a dessert wine at all – probably best served just slightly chilled as an aperitif or with some light food. A slight whiff of TDN was detected but that was pretty subtle and forgivable. I could easily drink lots of this given its 7.5%v/v!!!

Chateau Musar 1988

Born during the Lebanese war (with the Israelites), this bottle persevered through the years despite all the sufferings it had witnessed. Secondary and tertiary aromas – notes of caramelised sugar, leather, tobacco, earth, and perhaps a touch of clove were all quite prominent. The somewhat opaque garnet-tawny core with an orange-crimson tinge belied the fruit flavours, structure and acidity that it still held, and probably will continue to hold for another couple of decades, provided the cork doesn’t give way. Not too many bottles left in the stash. Oh well. Wrote a chinese version of this (not quite the same though) here.

one of my favourite drinks

Hendrick’s Gin, kalamansi and a touch of bitter-lemon soda in a martini glass.