It was very nice to see you. You should come to California more often, though I'm sure Indiana is also nice.
I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the impossible task of my wine education. Every shipment that arrives here for you, you tell me to drink it. Dean, I'm not going to drink your wine, it's your wine. You're not shipping it here for me to drink. I'm completely fine putting your deliveries into your locker for you, it takes, like, a whole minute. Whoo-boy, then I need a little nap and then I'm fresh as a daisy! But it's always a very generous offer.
Thank you for the bottles you left with me, though. I thought it would be nice to try the Stony Hill Gewurztraminer (it took me longer to type that than it did to put it in your locker) and the Stony Hill White Riesling together. Then I thought maybe I shouldn't do that alone.I had a thing. Once in a while I leave The Cave and tend to the things, and this particular one gave me good opportunity to open both these bottles so I could compare them properly. I liked the Riesling a little better, but maybe because it was more accessible, more obvious and thus easier to like. The other one, (please don't make me type that again), was much dryer and aloof, but a second visit to it revealed hidden nuances that I think I later appreciated.
Then the next night I made this for dinner:
Pasilla peppers are at the farmer's market so I tried this and now I'm addicted to it. You put it on the burner and keep turning it until it is entirely black. This softens it and you can keep or shed the char, whatever your taste.
While that is going on, I heated up some jalapenos, garlic, tomatoes, (I was a little low on tomatoes...) and - wait for it - curry! I know, I can't help it, everything just tastes better with curry.
Add the quinoa and yellow split peas (both were pre-cooked) to heat.
Stuffed pasilla, yogurt, cucumber, lemon. Here's the mistake. This would have gone amazing with that wine. There are so many great layers of flavor and heat on that plate and the wine was a perfect match, and The Deanster knew this because he knows I eat like this, and he called it perfectly. But I blew an otherwise perfect meal by squandering Sage Deanster's completely generous gift on the wrong event. The whole time I was eating it (and it was really good) all I could think was how good that wine would have been with it, most likely the Riesling. The dry of the you-know-what might have been too much against the spice and heat.So, Good Dean, my public apology to you. You were right on the mark on this one and in equal and opposite reaction I entirely was not. Good wine though, thank you.
P.S. Max came in last night. He showed me a picture of what he recently had for dinner. (click on to enlarge.) Sort of like what I had but different. My dinner looked less surprised to be there.
