1990 Cristal: Another great showing for this bottle. Creamy texture with great cut. Apple, ginger, and honey with a bit a graham cracker. Good stuff.
1981 Cristal Rose: I prefer Cristal rose in riper vintages. This was very structured and stern. Slightly drying on the palate. The fruit never really developed enough to flesh out the structure. The person who brought this said the last bottle was far better, so this could have been an outlier.
2009 Roulot Perrieres: This continues to crush it. Anyone who feels that the 09 vintage is lacking should try this. Bright orchard fruits. Tremendous cut and minerality. Just spectacular wine.
1985 Prince Florent de Merode Corton Renardes: In a perfect spot right now. Integrated red and black fruits with herbs and moist earth. Spherical in mouth in the way that only mature burgundy can be. Complete and complex wine.
1986 Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Les Combettes: Delicious mature chardonnay. Notes a creme brûlée, pineapple, and white peaches. Ripe but with great cut. I’m a big fan. (disclaimer: i sell this)
Color me curious. Are you guys saying that wine and vinegar pairings work? Sushi by definition has vinegared rice. I love wine with sashimi but struggle with the vinegar component of sushi. Thoughts?
I think the point about balanced with the fish is on the money yes, but also the rice and vinegar level are supposed to be in balance as you say. Great sushi is all over the spectrum in terms of vinegar presence. It is entirely incorrect to suggest that vinegar would not be a noticeable component in high end sushi.
If one is eating what passes for sushi in the US I can see where wine might be manageable, but wine with sushi done properly is a much harder pairing.
People have different palates and some may prefer this or that wine with sushi, but in general it is one of the single most diffident to pair with wine foods (i.e. pair so the all of the main flavors of a piece of sushi truly work well with the wine). There is a very good reason it is served with Nihon Shu in Japan.
I generally find that the sake offerings pair better than Chardonnay or Champagne. I wonder if it’s more of a weight and texture that the sake brings, rather than a flavor profile, that seems to stand up well with sushi.
Sake and sushi is a rather recent pairing.
Heck, sushi as we now know it is probably only something that dates from the back half of the 20th century.
Most serious sushi places I’ve been to don’t actively recommend sake with sushi.
Several of them seem to intimate that it’s a pretty gauche combination, bordering on gluttony (rice on rice), and that it does nothing for the sushi itself.
The “preferred” progression seems to be sake with sashimi and other sake no sakana (tidbits made especially to pair with sake), and then green tea with sushi.
But very few cultures have changed as much as Japan from mid 20th century onward, so there are very few hard and fast rules.
we’re talking Urasawa here. On par with many of the great sushi joints in Japan. I don’t think wine is terribly hard to pair with sushi. But I’m not a big proponent of wine pairing with food. I think it’s vastly overrated and rarely done right.
Not exactly sure why Sake is the preferred “pairing” to sushi anyways.
The thing I find most about eating with people on their turf or for the first time is see what they decide to pair with the food served. I would love to see what wine and sushi pairings people prefer. I would very likely learn something which is always cool, or I would at least eat good food and cop a decent buzz. Not a bad happenstance either.
Sake is served with sushi quite often for the same reason that wine and french food or wine and Italian food are served together. A simple case of 1+1 =3. Food and the local beverages simply grow up together. Trial and error and use of local resources being primary reasons. Sake is sometimes criticized as being incorrect with the rice component of sushi, but I am not in that camp. Very popular at high and low end places across Tokyo. Too much synergy for it to be bad. Kind of like toast with caviar on it being washed down by vodka. No problem with the grains overlapping there either
As for sushi in the US being on a par with great sushi in Japan, yeah, no. Legal limitations on what can be served and how, as well as a total lack of culture of Japanese cuisine. I know everyone has their favorite and thinks it is good. It may well be very good. On a par with what is here though? No. Simply not the case.
I’m not saying it’s on par with the very best in Japan, but I think it’d hold its own considering my own experiences in japan with some good places. it’s one of the best sushi restaurants in the US. Just disregarding a whole subset of food because it’s not from the country of origin is ridiculous.
Huge japanese population in Los Angeles. The executives of the major japanese corporations eat at this restaurant when visiting. It’s not some shit hole in the wall. Maybe where you’re from in the States before you moved to Tokyo sushi wasn’t very good, but LA is a whole other caliber. Some places really stand out here.
I do. It has a ton of press, I have spoken with friend here who have eaten there and whose opinions I trust with regard to sushi, and with enough of an understanding of sushi, I can sense it is a very high end and lovely place to have a meal. No dispute.
I would dispute describing me as high and mighty though. That is just rude man.
As to fish that by law has been frozen to kill off parasites vs. fish that never gets frozen and so has a character not available in the US, I do not think it takes any experience in Japan at all to understand it is simply impossible for a US establishment working within the law to serve any sushi on a par with what is in Japan. Nothing personal there, no slight on anyone’s palate, just simple facts. To believe otherwise because of proximity or because it is regarded highly in the US is what is ridiculous.
As to where I am from, Berkeley, I would suggest that San Francisco Bay Area has a passable reputation for food
On Jaonese businesspeople eating Japanese food in the US, stop and think why. It is comfort food for them. But then listen to their comments when they are back in Japan. Oy vey, not the overly impressed group that is suggested in your post.
Los Angeles crushes the Bay Area is regards to sushi
I’m not going to get into a pissing match over sushi in Japan vs the US. I’ve had great meals both places. Urasawa puts out a very high level meal of which sushi is just a part of. There are plenty of appetizers, sashimi, cooked dishes, wagyu from various regions in Japan, season specialties (sword squid this time). The wines pair well with the complete meal. As for a business man who visits the restaurant once, I suspect they have a different experience than someone who dines there often. Developing a relationship with the chef is necessary to acces the best that the restaurant has to offer. I know that this is equally true on both sides of the pond.
With whatever lowly sushi I’ve been able to get (and some has been excellent, even in certain places in the US other than LA), I prefer sparkling wine or Kabinett Riesling more than anything. Fino Sherry tastes overly bitter and completely overpowers the more delicate fish.
Nope. How that makes me high and mighty I do not know.
Imagine for a second that we were talking about pinot as made by boutique Sonoma wineries vs pinot made in say, Texas.
The same conversation could ensue, but it is unlikely you would defend Texas pinot with such fervor. Why? Because you have a developed palate and can tell the difference. Would that developed palate make you high and mighty? No, of course not. It would simply mean you had, for example, tried more pinot from different areas and were able to discern differences and rank them in terms of quality.
The same applies here. Try not to be too defensive
