Skip to main content

WINE: Chateau Ste. Michelle "Eroica" 2005 Riesling

Eroica is a collaboration between the winemakers of Chateau Ste. Michelle, and Ernst Loosen, a winemaker from the Mosel River region in Germany. This collaboration, which began with the 1999 vintage, released in 2000, was so successful that Columbia Valley rieslings are now popping up all over.

Since I've been hearing about Washington State rieslings all over the place lately, and since Eroica is probably the quintessential example of this type of wine, I decided to purchase one and try it out. (No, it's not "Erotica!" Don't get all excited).

But what to drink it with? Well, I am no wine expert, but I have developed one rule of wine drinking, and that's my rule for Riesling, which is really easy to remember. You can drink a Riesling with anything that you would drink beer with. I have come to this decision after reading numerous informational articles on the fact that Riesling goes with Thai food, Indian food, and pizza. And those things all have something in common: I like to drink beer with them, even though I'm not really a beer drinker. By extrapolation, I am going to guess that you could also drink a Riesling with buffalo wings or Ethiopian food.

For the Eroica, I chose to go with the recommendation from Chateau Ste. Michelle's head winemaker himself: Thai food.


I ordered up my favorite Thai dish, the very simple garlic and black pepper beef, and I also got some crispy won tons. I know! I know they are Chinese, but this Thai restaurant happens to make them very well. I ordered from Chao Krung, which although it is right down the street from me, there was an even closer Thai place that was my go to delivery place, but it recently transformed into a vegan cafe so I was forced to move down the block for my delivery needs. I'm glad I did, though because so far, I really like the Krung. And so does John Malkovich, so you know it's good.

So how did it go? Well, it was okay. The Eroica 2005 was not so sweet, it was more tart and peppery, so I think to go with the Thai food, maybe a sweeter Riesling would have been better. I think I would stick with the German or Alsace Rieslings for the Thai food next time. I had a $10 bottle of Rheingau Baron Something-or-other Riesling in the fridge that seemed to work much better. That's not to say the Eroica wasn't good--it was. Its acidity is balanced by a peachy sweetness. I just preferred the mellower German wine with the spicy Thai food, as the tartness of the Eroica was kind of weird with the spicy meat.

Tags:

Comments

Chubbypanda said…
Thai food is really sweet (at least to my tongue), so I tend to go with the German Rieslings. I like your rule about Rieslings and beer. Never thought about it that way before, but it's true.

I think I still prefer a very dry Pinot Grigio over any Riesling.

- Chubbypanda
12:48 AM
Acme Instant Food said…
I feel like I've finally enrolled in "Wine 101." I've never known ANYTHING about wine and this year seems to have been the turning point. I love your tip about Riesling/beer pairing. I'll give that a shot! Thanks.
11:21 AM
KT said…
Thanks! I barely know anything about wine, despite growing up in wine country so I'm trying my best to learn.

I think that entering into the world of wine is hard because it seems so elitist from the outside, so I'm trying to keep it simple here and see if I can't pass on some common sense tips so that wine dummies like myself can maybe begin to enjoy it as well. ;)
11:25 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RESTAURANT: Ristorante Belvedere, Monterosso al Mare, Italy

We started off our second-to-last day in the Cinque Terre by taking the train to Vernazza for breakfast: There was supposed to be a market that day, but since the weather was threatening, there were only a few meager stalls, mostly selling non-food items. We had our breakfast and walked around the village a bit. Vernazza used to have a river flowing all the way through it, but now the river has been shunted underground at a certain point. If you walk to the top of town you can see it, along with some ducks and geese that hang out there to get fed by whoever comes along. J. and I then went to sit and have an espresso and wait for the train to Corniglia, the only town we hadn't yet visited. Corniglia is home to the local nude beach (which we skipped) and is the highest of the towns, elevation-wise. We had to walk up a buttload of steps to get there. Look at me go: That's actually me going down (a lot faster than I came up), but I did come up them as well. There is a bus that ta...
7 comments
Read more

ABOUT THIS BLOG

I've been evaluating my blog and have realized that, while I have lots of nifty posts, I don't really have a good overall explanation of what exactly this blog is all about, and what one can expect to find here. So I'm creating this post and will link to it in the sidebar for anyone who's interested. I am not a professional chef. I have not been cooking for years. I am not an expert who is going to make beautiful and amazing and complicated dishes to "wow" you. I am, in fact, quite the opposite. I am a total beginner. I've always lived in places with miniscule kitchens and concerned myself with schoolwork and studying and working and not paid the least bit of attention to what I was eating every day. And that's what this blog is all about. It's about me learning where my food comes from, how to make it properly, and how to enjoy it to the utmost. It's no fun to learn by myself, so I started the blog to keep track of what I learn, kind of like a...
8 comments
Read more

INFO+RECIPE: Isaac Brock: Rock Musician, Chef

MODEST MOUSE Modest Mouse is not my favorite band. It is one of those bands that everyone around me loves and I am overwhelmingly indifferent to. I can think of one song of theirs that I like. I saw them live one time and came away with the impression that I like the music, the vocals just leave a lot to be desired. That vocalist is Isaac Brock. Isaac Brock has never come off as a nice person to me, when reading his interviews about music. I'd basically written him off as a bad vocalist, and arrogant twat. Then, I read an interview with him in the Believer . The interview was not about music, it was about food, and cooking. And I was shocked. It was like I was reading about a whole different person. A person I liked and wanted to know. A person like me. I discovered that he was born a mere two days before me. If astrology has anything to say about it, then he probably IS a person like me. Not quite the same ... that two days mak...
4 comments
Read more