#140 - Lamb Stew & Pea Purée Dip With Two Wines

Two wines might be a stretch.

We certainly gave the Thackrey a go and enjoyed its candied cherry mixed with ripe horse poop. Interesting stuff, that one.

It just didn't do much with and to the lamb stew, not like an old dog that inexplicably found a quality resembling its initial former self.

You can read about our 2003 Pirramimma past here: love at first drink for a couple years, stocked up on only to maddeningly see it rapidly dying and followed now by a second life.

We don't know if the wine was in an awkward phase or if it was the result of different batches at the winery or different importer/retail sources and warehousing/stockroom issues (three different orders are all mixed up), but this has been an interesting progression, regression and progression again over the years.

Outside of cheap and good Trader Joe's Muscadet, the 2003 Pirramimma is the wine we've drunk the most in the last five years and every revisit is more interesting than the last.

Food: Spanish lamb stew, pea purée dip, baguette and butter

A New Spanish Table recipe once again. Lamb stew with dried and fresh red peppers is the title (pages 248-249) but the beauty came from the use of San Marzano tomatoes in all their brightness and pearl onions bringing a perfect level of depth. Red bell peppers and ancho peppers with garlic, chicken stock, white wine, red wine vinegar and various stew-ish essentials with a pronounced black pepper presence.

Started out tasting like a simple lamb stew but as it came down in temperature just a bit, all the flavors gelled together oh-so beautifully. Some great balance here with a surprising lightness that left us feeling clean.

Mint pea purée served as a dip for the bread and serving as a traditional match with the lamb in ways that made the meal feel like it was more than just a bowl of stew. Brought a more complete "mealness" to the meal.

Mrs. Ney didn't expect much while cooking it up but we ate well, really well with this concoction and compilation of goodness.

Wine: 2003 Pirramimma Shiraz McLaren Vale ($40 - 20/20 Wines) & NV Thackrey Pleiades XVII Old Vines ($32 - Randolph Wine Cellars)

Some of what we got from the Pirramimma last night we found last February. But where the fruit last time was a jumble of macerated fruit with a port-like consistency, the fruit this time showed more distinction and definition with big blackberry and blueberry with a bit of cherry perking up and announcing itself while coming off only slightly cooked this time. Almost round and supple (!), as they say. The fruit showed up to the party in some surprising and tasty ways.

Iron-rich blood to start that gave way quickly to the shockingly bright-ish fruit with a black pepper edge. Halfway through the meal, a huge, cheap and fresh tobacco note wrapped in mint, like Virginia Slims in all their 'bum a smoke in my 20s' glory. Seemed as if it had just 20% more lively acid, this one would have been almost exactly like when it was first released.

It's a comparative thing. It's not the freshest of fresh shirazes right now but it's showing a rejuvenation of sorts and we kinda loved it for what it was relative to past tastings and even for what it is right now separate from that.

The NV Thackrey Pleiades XVII is a complex little number (a blend of sangiovese, syrah, viognier, mourvèdre, roussanne, barbera and carignane). It's our first in the Thackrey line and from what I can gather, this might not have been the place to start. Candied red fruits, mostly cherry, with solid, medium-bodied acid and something like soy sauce upfront. The background notes is where it got interesting. Ripe horse poop dropped on a pile of straw at times with a tobacco and leather note on occasion. Large milk chocolate shavings hit, like someone shaved up a Whatcamacallit bar. Almost light, which was a surprise.

We were intrigued by it at first (and interested enough to try another) but that intrigue never progressed to wanting more, especially since it didn't really pop with the food.

Pairing: 91 The Pirramimma fit like a jigsaw puzzle with the stew in many ways

With black pepper as a bridge between the Pirramimma and the lamb stew, both sung together. The wine brought more definition and lift to the San Marzano tomatoes and onions while the stew brought more edge and sharpness to the fruit in the wine, becoming one of those times where the joy of food and wine together is sitting right in front of us in all its delicious enhancement. Even a certain minty note in the wine was resurrected by the pea purée.

The Thackrey didn't get off the ground, though. Turned into a reasonably decent Chianti with the sangiovese really dominating, making it a bit one-dimensional and coming off thin with the lamb.

But thank all that is holy that the '03 Pirramimma seems to have a true-blue second life. Too many bottles in this house to think about that much wasted money.

#36 - Tri Tip & Soba Noodles With '05 Sanguis & '03 Pirramimma

Oh, to be so let down.

After having a shockingly delicious 2005 Sanguis "The Bossman" syrah at Blackbird last summer, I slowly started to get my undies in a bunch over California cult syrah.

I never really followed up on it outside of doing some Googling and getting some names. All the ones I might have wanted to buy fell outside my wallet's range and keeping the wine budget within reason has become a bigger concern lately.

But Binny's had the other 2005 offering from Sanguis, "The Optimist", just sitting there, taunting me for weeks until I finally gave in Monday.

Food: Five spice-marinated tri tip with blackberry-black olive-orange zest salsa, soba noodles with braised pistachios and mâche

Tough to say which aspect of the meal was my favorite. I alternated back and forth.

Tri tip is some lean beef, cooked perfectly, and paired with the salsa, the entire thing became rather rustic. Sucked up the five spice in a nice way, letting it come through without overwhelming it.

Braised pistachios and soba noodles = my new favorite starchy-type accompaniment. They're hearty and filling without being Hearty! and Filling!

This meal, from a food perspective, approached the realm of great.

The wine, however, didn't.

Wine: 2005 Sanguis "The Optimist" syrah ($70 - Binny's) & 2003 Pirramimma shiraz ($25 - 20/20 Wine Merchants)

I wasn't let down because of the price. I wasn't let down because of the pairing. I wasn't really let down at all. The Sanguis is fine wine, well crafted and almost delicious.

It just never popped. Decanted for almost two hours. Dark purple with a reddish tinge in the glass. Roasted meat and herbs on the nose right out of the bottle with a nice background of blue/blackberry fruit. Got a lot of anise upon first sip and for the first twenty minutes. Nice, just wasn't integrated.

Nothing wrong with it but I began to wonder about the name in relation to the wine. Seems to have all the elements I wanted from it, even anticipated from it, but it never really got there. Finish was a tad short. Had some nice heat but that seemed to be making up for the fact that the finish wasn't anything spectacular. Fruit seemed to want to become a silky deliciousness but never made it. In order to really like this one, I think I would have had to be in a particularly good mood...or have had another bottle before it, that place where everything in life seems to be a precious little gift. Six of one, really. I compare the Sanguis to this season of 30 Rock. Sure, I'm laughing enough I guess and it certainly fits the definition of an original sitcom not placating to the masses, but it's just not doing much for me.

If given blind, I might have thought it was a darn good wine. I wasn't, though. And if given a few more years, maybe it would open up and become more integrated. For $70, I'm probably not going to find out.

So we cracked a 2003 Pirramimma shiraz, the wine that taught us how wines change. Back in 2005, we were still drinking cheap wine because we were kinda poor, but we were just starting to get into wine ratings and the studying of wine before we bought them. $20 for a bottle of wine still seemed luxurious but Trader Joe's carried this Pirramimma so we gave it a go.

Mrs. Ney flipped over it. I liked it but didn't initially follow her enthusiasm. That changed somewhat quickly. The fruit in the 2003, drinking it in late 2005 and 2006 was just about the most vibrant fruit I've ever tasted. Had a sparkle to it. Just shined. We drank it by the crate for a year or so.

After what was probably only a six month break, we returned to it to find the fruit was started to die a glorious death. Started to dry and a leafy quality showed up. Having already known the ins and outs of this wine so thoroughly, it was a bit of a seminal moment for us. We now had intimate knowledge of how one particular wine changed over time. Even down to the most subtle nuances. Sure, we read about it, even saw it in some Spanish wine but nothing to this extent.

Since we haven't really drunk one recently and the Sanguis left us a bit wanting, we opened a Pirramimma to compare with the meal.

It changed again. Now a bloody consistency appeared with it turning almost port-like. Where the fruit before had shown to be drying, they now tasted macerated and reduced down to a syrup-like mouthfeel. Meaty as well. It's probably approaching death but we're loving every second of its kick toward the inevitable.

Pairing: Good, yeah, fine

Both wines were just fine with the food. Nothing could/would/should have been changed to accommodate the wine. The flavor profiles in the wine matched. Nothing went off the rails and nothing turned funky.

But comparing the two became the focus. Both of us were left with the feeling that, for $20, the Pirramimma, even in a throes of death, performed equally as well as the $70 Sanguis that might have been a wee bit young.