Some quick observations, and notes from Riesling Study #1 - Atoboy
But first some background…
When I heard that Rieslingfeier, my favorite wine event of the year, would be moving to an every other year format I decided to plan a smaller and more casual version to keep the spirit alive and frankly to do something for Stephen Bitterolf who has put so much energy into Rieslingfeier over the past 7 years.
My first call was to Atoboy one of my favorite restaurants and to my surprise they immediately said of course for you we will do it. With that I had committed to a full buyout for 64 people.
I first emailed ~10 people that I know are serious Riesling collectors and word began to spread and before you knew it I had over 100 people interested including three German winemakers!
On to the event…
Atoboy was absolutely outstanding to work with in every way! They developed a Riesling friendly menu that worked superbly with both dry and and sweet food:
Lotus Root - Dubu, Gim, Chili Oil
Shrimp and Pork - Gochujang, Sichan Pepper, Cilantro
Cod - Green Chili, Radish, Scallion
Fried Chicken - Spicey Peanut Butter, Gochujang
Cheese course
The food was perfect and I am still in awe at how despite a full buyout and the need to serve 64 people the food was just as good as a normal night. I heard nothing but raves for the food and pairings. I will try to post photos.
When we go to Atoboy on Sunday evenings they usually put on Hip Hop and they call it Hip Hop Sundays so we kept this theme. I created a Hip Hop influenced playlist and named every table after a great Hip Hop Album.
On to the wines…
I drank many great wines and given I was making sure everything was running smoothly took limited notes.
1990 Selbach-Oster Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - Brought by Johannes Selbach and his daughter Hanna. Great vintage, impeccable storage resulted in just a stunning wine.
2013 Keller Hubacker - I decided to do a mini 2013 Keller Vertical. Hubacker was fantastic and interestingly half of our table prefered this to the Kirschpiel. The female half! I described this as having more bass.
2013 Keller Kirschpiel - Electric acidity. I preferred this. I described this as having more trebel.
2013 Keller G-Max - Easily the greatest young G-Max I have ever had. Exhilarating bottle right from the get go. And much more open than the 2012.
2012 Keller G-Max - Interestingly not as open as the 2013. Still a great bottle and one I wished I could have spent more time.
2004 Keller Hubacker - Wow. Love 04s and actually preferred this to a recent 04 G-Max
2001 Egon Muller Kabinett - Surprised at the lightness of this wine. It showed beautifully and paired well with the Lotus Root. Maybe 2001s are finally open??
2004 Prum Eiswein - A glorious bottle that was just so easy to drink.
2005 Egon Müller Spatlese Auction - I will remember vividly drinking this wine paired with Atoboy’s Fried Chicken for the rest of my life. Life affirming! A perfect wine!
2009 Emrich-Schobleber - A.de.L - This was opened late in the evening and it was a perfect wine to refresh the senses as it was just electric
1945 Franz Karl Schmitt Flächenhal TBA - WOW! Just wow to think about how difficult it must have been to focus on making wine at this time is just mesmerizing. Klaus-Peter Keller said this was made from the same vines that represent his Hipping parcel today. Needless to say I was so excited for this bottle and it delivered. I have one bottle left and hope to share it with Klaus-Peter.
Some fellow wineberserkers were in attendance and I hope they post some notes!
And finally I plan to host other Riesling Study events around the world. Not all will be this big. The next one will be at Ops Pizza on Sunday February 23rd. Tickets will be released on Wednesday. If you are interested in future events just send me a PM with your email and I will add you to the list.
We will also be conducting Riesling Study this Saturday (2/1) in Los Angeles at the Tribe Records event at Rappcats!
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