Celebration Dinner

[barnesy]

The wife and I went out to celebrate my new job last night. We went to our favorite fine dining establishemnt - Mona Lisa. Its a fondue place. They do traditional swiss style fondue. I decided I wanted a bottle of wine with dinner. I wanted to try a German riesling but they were out of the Dr. Fischer so the waitress said we have a couple of new bottles let me bring one for you to take a taste of. She came out with this beauty - 1997 Dr. Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese.

At 8% alcohol, you can drink this one all night without falling over. This was a fabulous first experiance with German Riesling. It only takes one bottle of this stuff to fall in love.

Bottle was $32. The Dr Loosen, I think its a non Pradikat, Riesling sells for 16 around here. So I am guessings the markup was a bit less than 100%. Most of their list seemed to be at a fairly descent markup. Dom Per was at 190, Veuv Cliq Grande Dam was at 190 as well.

The wine went well with nearly the entire meal. It held up to the appetizer swiss cheese mix that you dip breads, veggies, and such in, held up to the teriyaki filet mignon, chicken, salmon, aligator brautwurst, rosemary potatoes and other goodies. It didn't handle the super rich chocolate/vanilla/caramel dipping sauce that came with dessert. Very versatile wine. I loved it.

Barnesy

[Bucko]

I love German Rieslings at the Spatlese level, in fact I am drinking one as I type, a 97 von Hovel. As you say, very food friendly and easy to drink, all at a price that does not break the bank.

Bucko

[Thomas]

Von Hovel and Dr. Loosen: you guys are in great company. ...

[chittychattykathy]

I LOVE ÜRZIG!!! (& I'll post some photos of the Würzgarten for ya!)

[wondersofwine]

My favorite German wines are the Mosels. I have select favorites from Rheingau and Rheinland-Pfalz but love the Mosels as a region. I also like some of the Scheurebe (hope I spelled that right) wines--not just the Rieslings. I am partial to Wehlener and Urziger wines but really miss the Ockfener Bocksteins (Saar tributary of the Mosel) which I have a hard time finding in the USA.
Has anyone come across an Ockfener wine lately?

[Bucko]

WOW - Germany, Fayetteville, you must be military. I spent a decade one year in Fayetteville. ;-) Did my internship at Womack. Welcome over to our wine site.

AFA Ockfener Bocksteins, there are several dealers that sell them, e.g. Sam's and Pop's Wines to name a couple.

Bucko

[wondersofwine]

Bucko,
You're almost right. I'm a civilian working for the Army and spent three tours in Germany. My love for wines started with the sweet German wines but has expanded to red and white burgundies, zinfandels, and a number of other choices. I had a Jed Steele (California) late harvest chardonnay two weeks ago at a wine dinner that looked and tasted a lot like a late harvest riesling. It was quite remarkable.

[hotwine]

I spent a very brief eight months there too in '67, between Benning & 'Nam. What a place! The CG, LG Throckmorton, used to park out on Bragg Blvd. with a radar gun and personally issue speeding tickets to offenders. Can you imagine getting a DR from a general?!

There's nothing worse than old farts swapping lies.....(or so says my better half).

[wondersofwine]

Bucko,
You wouldn't recognize the new Womack Army Medical Center. You can get lost there (I did).

Hotwine,
In '97 they opened a new post library--The John L. Throckmorton Library! Thanks for the story about the traffic tickets. I'll pass that on to the librarian.

Trio Cafe here in town has occasional wine dinners and Butterflies Restaurant in Raleigh does also. The ones in Raleigh are usually on a week night but lately they have been offering the same menu and complementary wines on the following weekend. That makes it easier on those of us who have to drive 90 minutes to get to Raleigh. (Thought I better get back to the topic of wines.)

[hotwine]

Wonders, I also learned to appreciate German Rieslings while stationed in Germany as a DoD civilian (AF); small world!

I remember LG Throckmorton as a skrawny little nit who had too much time on his hands. In addition to writing traffic tickets, he also liked to drive through post housing areas and give residents Deficiency Reports for lawns that needed to be mowed. The guy needed a life! I wouldn't name a dog house after him. We all figured he must have been hen-pecked at home.

BTW, I left Bragg in Oct '67 and was assigned to the 1st Cav Div (AM) in Nov; our CG was MG John J. Tolson. He left in July '68 for Bragg, where he was promoted to LG as Throck's replacement. They were complete opposites: Tolson led us through the jaws of hell at Hue in Feb, Khe Sahn in March and A Shau Valley in April-May. We would have followed him anywhere. But I wouldn't care to follow Throck around the block!

So much for the travails of "garrison duty" for a young Lt at Bragg; I couldn't stand it.

[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 05-30-2001).]