Spanish Dinner

Herald & Teni's Place, Hong Kong
Tasted Saturday, April 4, 2020 by Goldstone with 99 views

Introduction

Teni kindly invited us for a home-made Spanish dinner to celebrate the end of their 2-week self-quarantine for Covid-19. The dinner was fabulous and Herald provided the appropriate wines.

Flight 1 - Aperitif (1 Note)

This Champagne never fails to please....

  • NV Gosset Champagne Brut Grande Réserve 89 Points

    France, Champagne

    No detailed notes but this is an outstanding and classy Champagne which is hard to beat at its price point. Toasty and creamy enough to be a very welcoming aperitif but with enough structure to pair very well with seafood. A glass left unattended for 4 hours had lost none of its charm.

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Flight 2 - Grilled Fresh Octopus (1 Note)

This was served as 'goujons' rather than thinly sliced, which makes it much harder to get right...but this was cooked perfectly. Fresh and succulent.

  • NV Hijos de Rainera Perez Marin La Guita Manzanilla 90 Points

    Spain, Andalucía, Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda

    From 375ml bottle. Light silver gold. Nose is quite yeasty and slightly pongy socks....touch of salted fish and iodine. Palate is attractively salty in a Hong Kong dried salted fish - ‘Ham Yu’ - way, old leather shoes, sour banana, quite rich. Very heady and quite long finish. An acquired taste, but I have acquired it tonight.

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Flight 3 - Lobster Bisque with Tumeric (1 Note)

An Indonesian 'twist' on traditional French Lobster Bisque.....wow, this was good and paired really well with the older Rioja because the Tumeric in the soup brought out the typical spice of the Rioja.

  • 1992 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia 90 Points

    Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

    Opened for a couple of hours but not decanted. Semi-opaque dusty velvet ruby colour. Nose is lovely soft but still structured red and black fruits, dried Middle Eastern spices. Palate is nicely fresh, medium-bodied, slightly sweet cranberry driven fruit. Mellow and mellows even more in a slightly sweeter way with extended time in the glass. Tamarind comes out. Moderate initial length that then really fills out. Tonight I preferred its 2006 sibling, which is unusual for me to like a younger wine but I think reflects that the 1992 is likely past its best....lacking the freshness of a 1959 CVNE Vina Real I drank two weeks ago.

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Flight 4 - Seafood Paella (1 Note)

Fresh succulent Hokkaido scallops and Boston Blue Lobster claws and tail....no Chorizo but some Indonesian spices to substitute. Wow, this was good....

  • 2006 R. López de Heredia Rioja Viña Tondonia 90 Points

    Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

    Magnum decanted for 2 hours then drank over the next four. Freshly jeweled deeply opaque ruby. Nose is a lovely immediate attack of precise graphite, anthracite coal, coconut, gunpowder, hidden black fruit in the background. Nice clean American oak. Palate is fresh, nice bright acidity, bright red berries, some deeper toned black currant fruit in the background. Young but already approachable in a New World way although still quite tannic. Needs time to unfurl over the next 5 years but it is already open enough to try.

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Flight 5 - Cova Chocolate Cake and Tirimasu (1 Note)

Closing

Herald's uncle in Amsterdam is famous for his Paella and Teni had clearly taken a lot of notes on her last visit :)

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