#247 - Lamb, Vanilla Mash & Rapini With '05 Bodegas Astrales

Fine and good (enough).

Both of us thought, after taking a first bite of vanilla mash, that the meal could have slid in so much better with a Bordeaux more than this particular Ribera.

It was an odd showing for this vintage of Astrales.  Typical haunting Ribera nose, promising a deep smoky goodness but we didn't get that, at least not in the expression we expected.  A bit of a tenuousness to its backbone throughout its 47,000 different changes throughout the meal.  Felt like it was hanging on for dear life or pulled a hammy or something.  A confidence was present but felt more like a bravado hiding a deep insecurity.

We liked but didn't come close to loving this vintage of Astrales, our first (2004 here).  The test came when we took a break from eating.  Both of us had no inclinations to reach for it and drink it by itself.  The conclusion was "it's good," which is really just damning with faint praise.

Food:  Rosemary-garlic lamb with vanilla mashed potatoes and rapini

Trader Joe's lamb chops marinated in rosemary and garlic, then drizzled with balsamic and olive oil, cooked a perfect medium-rare.  We enjoyed the lamb.  It was good lamb.

Vanilla mashed potatoes, though, are the most sexy food on the planet.  Madagascar vanilla and we could taste it.  These tasted like Love on a pillowy cloud of Love.  Fat and fat with a side of fat but, golly, they're the most delicious thing ever.  Thomas Keller recipe.  Natch.

#246 - TK Chicken & Pea Risotto With '09 Daniel Chotard Sancerre

Weird winter.  Great winter.

The kind of winter in Chicago that doesn't make me feel like winter is never going to end.  The kind of winter I like - something that feels more like an extended respite from nice weather as opposed to typical Chicago winters, which usually feel like a test of one's soul.

Last night's meal tasted like spring, or a precursor to spring, or an announcement of a forthcoming spring - helped by the fact that it's felt all winter like spring will, in fact, arrive.  Past winters rarely offered such building hope so early or at all.  Nice thing, that.  Kept me spry.  Maybe not this spry, but spry enough.

Spring flavors and spring wine in the dead of winter that hasn't felt like the "dead of winter" in the least.  If you run into someone in Chicago griping about this winter, tell them to shove it.  This has been awesome.

#245 - Spanish-Style Hanger & Almond-Saffron Potatoes With '05 Pico Madama

Last night's progression on the thoughts of the wine:

1.  Meh
2.  Ummm...
3.  Certainly has a lot going on...
4.  This is pretty good stuff but not really our bag...
5.  I don't know...kinda like it...wouldn't buy it again...
6.  Well...if it was on sale...
7.  I think this might have a place...
8.  Crap...there's a lot going on here...
9.  I'm not saying I wouldn't buy it again...
10.  Boy, that settles and sits reeeally well.

A 50/50 monastrell/petit verdot, we expected more of an interesting diversion than something that was going to sit in our wheelhouse with such a Spanish-Spanish meal.  I can't say we loved this wine with the food but I can say that our opinion of the wine grew more and more favorable throughout the meal.  Not because it necessarily opened up as the meal progressed (though it did a little bit), more because we sort of gave ourselves over to what it offered - its generosity, its limitations and all.

#244 - Bo Ssam With Sparkling Riesling & Vouvray Sec

Crazy mad genius David Chang becomes more so once you see how easy it is to replicate one of the staples at his restaurant, Momofuku Ssam Bar in NYC.

The New York Times gives you the recipe, it's not labor-intensive in the least (just takes some monitoring) and only costs about $30 for the whole lot.

It's bo ssam, a salty, sticky, deeply delicious pork butt wonder that serves as the centerpiece to a Korean lettuce wrap buffet of goodness.

Chang leads the party here but a supporting cast of Michael Symon (pickled onions), Bill Kim (kimchi from Urban Belly) and Jacques Pepin (scallop pancakes) rounded out the party quite nicely, thank you very much.

And the wine...yeah...good enough with one being a winner.

Food:  Bo ssam pork with scallop pancakes, pickled onions, ginger- scallion sauce, ssamjang sauce, rice, kimchi and boston lettuce for wrapping

#243 - Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken Thighs & Israeli Couscous With An '03 Heredia Cubillo

Strange and delicious collection of food-wine meals of late.

Borscht with smoked trout on rye (cheap gewürztraminer), a meal that tasted like really fancy Arby's (Bogle Phantom) and this one, vittles that tasted like a Spanish-Persian food baby that secretly had a Greek father. Oh, the scandal!  Almodovar should make a film about it.

Who could play the ghost that represents the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War?  I'm going with Kathy Najimy.  Almodovar loves to gender-bend.

It's been years since we revisited the Heredia Cubillo world. I think the first one I ever had was the 1999 or 2000 vintage and I was oh-so impressed with its tobacco- orange peel-leafy bigness.  Sure, it was a bit of a bumpy ride going down but something about it appealed to me.

When picking out this wine for this meal, I was struck by how much I haven't craved it in recent years.  We've had oodles of meals where a Cubillo could have excelled but nothing about it has recently screamed, "Drink me!"

Some of that lies in the fact that much of Heredia's upper line is only $10 more than the Cubillo line.  Cubillo's appeal comes from its pokey weekday lunch of tapas and a match-matchy goodness that's defined by its appealing rough edges.  Tastes gritty, rough and weathered, like the leathered skin of an old Spanish goat herder.

But, for $10 more, a Bosconia or Tondonia turns that gritty goodness into such wonderful grace and finesse that it tastes like something that should cost so much more.  To wit:  go here.

Cubillo has a place.  It's just not a place we've wanted to return to lately.

Last night reinforced that impression a bit.

#242 - TWIB Notes: This Week In Bottles

Let's do a connect-the-meals-with-wines puzzle!

Here are the wines:

1.  2009 Ponzi Pinot Noir
2.  2006 Ponzi Pinot Noir
3.  2004 Terre Rough Syrah Sentinel/Pyramid Block
4.  NV De Vallois Saumur Brut
5.  2005 Edmond Cornu & Fils Chorey-les-Beaune

And here are the meals:

1.  Roasted Chicken, Moondust Cheese & Mâche
2.  Braised Pork Shoulder, Savory Scones & Brussels Sprouts
3.  Szechuan Peppercorn Tuna, Roasted Beets & Frisée
4.  Semiramis Hummus & Dolmas

Clue:  the tuna and white Burgundy would have been terrible together!

Frankly (who's Frank?  Frank Lee Gifford!), only one pairing really worked on a superlative level and another was just flat-out awful.

#241 Orange-Green Olive Duck & Farro With A 1970 Heredia Bosconia

A New Year's tradition of sorts continues.

Just saw my first New Year's jogger, running as if he'd never run before, awkward and sloppy, jiggly and panting, so slow that the dog and I could almost keep up, looking like the Nike corporate headquarters puked up all over him, the tags freshly clipped off of all of it.

It's the kind of run that says this run, despite all good intentions, will not be repeated tomorrow.  It's the kind of run that instantly decouples the mind's best-laid, blind hope from reality with a hard smack in the face, telling you everything about what you've done and haven't done over the course of the last year.

Been there, buddy.

Good Luck.

We closed 2011 (Good Riddance. You kinda sucked.) with a magically delicious meal and a wine like no other, a wine older than either of us and a wine currently performing so much better than my New Year's jogger.

It was an aggressive beast worth every freaking cent.