One of our group recently read how zin is a good match for Chinese food so naturally we had to verify this by having a zin dinner at the elegant Shang Palace restaurant at the Shangri-La, Makati. 4 Zinfandels plus Silver Oak, Grange, and a Tokaji.
Menu was Peking Duck, battered cod in light soy sauce, Fujian noodles, minced pork hotpot and Kung Pao chicken. All were excellent and the zin did a very good job matching the sweetness and, in some cases, the heat of the food.
Ridge Lytton Springs 2005 - 77% Zinfandel plus some other stuff. Leather, smoke, earth. Sweet fruit. Rather soft. Good balance. Quite forward and easy. Very good.
Corte Riva Zinfandel 2006 - 90% Zinfandel, 10% Petite Sirah. Vanilla, sweet fruit. Lots of sweet, baking spices. Easy and light-bodied. Juicy. Much, much better than the barrel sample we had a few months back. Very good.
Orrin Swift The Prisoner 2005 - Very dark. Warm wine. Port-like. Quite sweet. Plums and figs. Not a style for everyone but I thought it was very good.
Seghesio Old Vines Zinfandel 2003 - Rich, milkshake-like but gets a bit woody on the finish. Slightly hollow, with fruit fading in the mid-palate. Either a bad bottle or this is best drunk young. Not showing well in this company.
It was hard to choose a favorite as the wines spanned such a wide spectrum of styles. With the food, I would have to say The Prisoner was probably the best match. The Ridge could probably age the best while the Corte Riva is somewhere in between the two styles.
After dinner, two more bottles made an appearance, a Silver Oak and a choice between a Grange and a Cask 23. I loudly insisted on the Grange. No food with these wines.
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 - Dryish and subdued after all the zins. Cocoa, firm finish. Good but perhaps didn't have the strength to show well after the zins, most of which were around 15% alcohol.
Penfolds Grange 1991 - The Rewards of Patience book of Penfolds regards this as one of the great vintages of Grange. Impressively deep color. Plum and chocolate and a smidgen of prune indicating its age. There was a leafy element. Not green or herbaceous, but more aromatic. Some said menthol, I thought more like tobacco or maybe tea leaf. There's still a bit of chalky/dusty tannin in the finish. There was a surprising acidity to this wine. I thought maybe this has a high percentage of Cabernet but a check reveals only 5% Cab, 95% Shiraz. Undoubtedly a good wine but unfortunately, less than great. Perhaps I had over-hyped this wine in my mind. The '97 Grange we had a few months back was much better I think. Could this have been a less than pristine bottle?
Megyer Tokaji 5 puttonyos 1993 - Caramel-like color. Raisins, rich initially then fades quickly in the finish. All flavor upfront. a rather disappointing Tokaji.