Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Aaron’s Pigpicking ~ and a great bottle of wine...


So on Sunday I went to Brooklyn— NJT from Cranford, A-train from NYP on out to Hoyt/Scherm, then a couple blocks on foot found me in Aaron Sing Fox’s back garden, under a cleverly strung tarp that promised to protect us—mostly—from the threatening thunderings of a summer storm which had dogged my heels all the way from NJ...

This fine fellow here above was the star of the show, so far as the marquée was concerned—but that which did verily take my cake was a little liquid magic in a Bocksbeutel from Franken, once part of the kingdom of Bavaria, more recently one of the 13 Anbaugebiete of wine-producing Germany.

2004 Randersackerer Sonnenstuhl Silvaner Spätlese Trocken, Schmitt's Kinder

Do not be frightened away by the varietal name Silvaner, when you see it on of these bottles. Although Riesling rules the roost in most of the rest of the Reich—sorry, the Republik—here in Franconia the Silvaner most often produces the memorable wine. Sonnenstuhl—the sun’s chair, just like it sounds—is one of several prime fossil-limestone sites on the Main river that Schmitt farms... I like this estate because they make an exceptionally elegant Riesling, which is not the usual for this part of Germany. More recently I’ve come to appreciate as well their Scheurebe and Silvaner—not to mention some very fine efforts with Weißburgunder in the past couple years.

memorable ripeness, tropical fruit aromas uncommon to the variety—unctuous luxury on the palate: flavourful flairs of pears extending outreaches of peaches—supportive but not remarkable acids, an uncommon length with minerality that sort of backs-up the gullet within the next minute after you’ve swallowed the stuff...

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