Pingin' It

Last night went to Ping's with famous New York wine guy Evan Spingarn. It's nice not to eat Chinese food where it is so spicy you need a gallon of Auslese to just calm your palate. Ping's is famous for seafood and Dim Sum and boy did they deliver. We had a whole cooked fish, head-on shrimp, squid, duck with a rich red sauce, quail with red wine sauce and beef and crab dim sum. The quail might be the best food value in NYC right now. Three dollars for one quail. Amazing. The wines were fun. Evan, being the salesman extraordinaire he is, brought a bag of wine. Some of it went with the food, others did not. I brought a special wine as I needed something glorious and not too sweet. I dug deep in the cellar and brought the 2001 Josef Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck. I needed acid and the Leitz 2001's had boatloads of it. Of the three major Leitz vineyards in Rudesheim Roseneck is my favorite as it is light, elegant and ages a bit more quickly than Rottland and Schlossberg which typically need ten years plus to start drinking well.

The Leitz was popped and poured as soon as I got to the restaurant. As I waited for Evan (he is a wine salesman, so they have to be late) I checked out the wine. It was a touch warm but they kindly brought over an ice bucket and the wine cooled down rather quickly. The nose was lovely with petroleum notes along with some candied lemons, minerals and pear. The palate was a "wake up!" Riesling with juicy acidity, lovely elegant texture, and great depth. Classic 2001 in that the acidity was there, it was a true spatlese and it had just devastating length. It was so perfect and ready to drink right now. Yes, there was still some acidity that lent the wine a big structure bit on the nose and palate we already were in secondary land which meant to me this was rarin' to go and fully in it's drinking window. I will let my final bottle rest for three more years just for the sake of science as I would love to check out this wine when it hits tertiary land.The next wine was the 2005 Francois Cazin Cour-Cheverny "Cuvee Rennaisance" which was good, but suffered in comparison to the Leitz. With 2005 being a hot vintage for whites in the Loire this wine did not quite have the acidity I like. It had nice apple cider flavors and a soft mouthfeel plus some hidden acidity bit in general this dissapointed, Oh well. Maybe time will do this wine some good. I prefer the 02, 04 and '96 as the acidity in these wines is great.