I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the publication of #BWWOE than with the BYOR event yesterday evening at State Bird Provisions in San Francisco/CA. The most extraordinary mix of people (including someone who came from New York Wine City to be with us!) gathered at an over-sized table in this great restaurant, each bringing at least one bottle of Riesling with them which we then drank blind. Of course, when you let people decide for themselves – the democratic Riesling Spirit! – then you don’t know what’s coming, but we had an amazing global selection of Rieslings ranging from the super-elegant, peachy, but bone-dry 2000 ‘Cuvée Frédéric Emile’ from Trimbach in Alsace/France to the succulent and citric 2013 Bendigo Riesling (Spätlese-style) from Auburn in Central Otago/New Zealand. All of this was received with great openness, also several Mosel Rieslings from the 2003 vintage, which was panned by the US wine press when it came (oh, how well the best of these wines have aged!)
For me it was also the first experience of State Bird Provisions acclaimed cuisine. It made sense that Alice Waters of Chez Panise in Berkeley/CA was sitting at the next table, because this cuisine would have been impossible without what Alice did several decades ago to convince diners that ingredient quality and distinctiveness is more important than fancy Haute Cuisine preparations. It’s impossible for me to pick out a single dish, because all the almost 20 dishes which came to the table dim-sum-style were spot on. Sure, there were Mexican and Italian elements, but the way it was all done was totally Californian Melting Pot. As I’ve written before, the Melting Pot is also a cooking pot, and the Global Riesling Network is the perfect partner for this culinary cross-cultural pollination.
Sadly, I know have to leave San Francisco, but next stop is the Smith Madrone winery on Spring Mountain high above Napa Valley, and they make one of the best dry Rieslings in America. WATCH THIS SPACE!
PS Many thanks to Dade and Petra Thieriot and the team of Dee Vine Wines for the enormous effort they put into my three events here in the city! And a special thank you to Johannes Scheid of Dee Vine for being the MC of yesterday’s complex tasting.
