Updated: 19 October 2004

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ALSACE CULINARY CHALLENGE & SEMINARS

Mr. Thierry Fritsch, Oenologist-Conference & Training Manager of CIVA made a whirlwind visit to Singapore 12-14 October 2004, to conduct a series of improved seminars & dinners for the Trade & enthusiastic consumer. CIVA stands for Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace, a body dedicated to the education & promotion of the wines of Alsace, France. This august body is based in Colmar, the geographical centre of the Alsace wine region. In his very personable style & intimate knowledge of his pet subject, Mr. Fritsch conveyed his enthusiasm for the delicate & elegant wines of Alsace to his captive audience.

The tour began with a Trade only seminar to re-aquaint old wine dogs with the delights of aromatic white wines and to impress on the young Trade professionals of the uniqueness of these special wines. 91% of production is of still white wines with just a smattering of rose-like red wines from the Pinot Noir grape and the rest Cremant d'Alsace, a Sparkling Wine mainly from the Pinot Blanc varietal.

The second day was the highlight event. This saw invited guests among trade, media & private collectors being treated to a sumptuous dinner. This dinner featured the talents of THREE Asian chefs, who were challenged to create a 3-course menu to match THREE Alsace wines given to them beforehand. The selected Chefs were from host hotel, Master Chef Ching Hon Chau, Shang Palace of The Shangri-La Singapore, Executive Chef Milind Sovani, Rang Mahal of Pan Pacific Singapore and independent Thai restaurant, Patara Fine Thai Cuisine was represented by Executive Head Thai Chef Khun Chimkit Khamphuang.

These three chefs clearly accepted the challenge with enthusiasm but dramatically different approaches. The creations spoke, perhaps, of the personality of the Chefs themselves.

The first wine was Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Gueberschwihr 2001. Ripe fruits on the nose, mouthfilling & lightly fat on the palate but finishing refreshingly dry. There was little minerallity in this wine & the ripe sweetness was apparent. Perhaps not one of their top bottlings but quite acceptable for the business at hand. This was the best wine of the three.

Master Ching took the "safe" approach of non-clashing flavours between the food & wines. There was no spark generated in his dishes nor the wines that accompanied them. His starter course of blanched seafood pieces lacked the impact of supporting sauces other than a bland ring of papaya & decorative Kiwi fruit puree. The vibrant & personable Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Gueberschwihr 2001 was not able to lift this ho-hum dish from its safe papaya ring, let alone offer support to the best wine of the three. I scored a respectable 7/10 points for being ordinary without any clash of personality.

Then came the creation of crispy puffs filled with tandoori chicken chunks marinated with mint from Indian Chef Milind Sovani. The impact of crunching the crispy puffs in the mouth, released an aroma of vibrant minty spice that lifted the zinggy Zind-Humbrecht Riesling to new heights. This bold & surprising combination of spice & flavours is the hallmark of this petite Chef. This first presentation alone left me wanting more of the same. I conservatively scored 8.5/10 points for his efforts but on hindsight should have been more generous. Chef Milind took top placing in the Appetiser category.

Coming a close second, in my reckoning, is Thai Chef Khun Chimkit. She took the safe approach to her dishes, as well. Instead of creating one safe flavour, Khun Chimkit offered FOUR separate flavours to approach each wine. To me, this showed that she is not entirely comfortable with pairing wine & Thai food. As such, there was two hits & two misses in her appetiser dish. The Crispy beehoon worked well but a bolder dash of spicy in its preparation would have helped. The pomelo & smoked salmon was the best match but fresh salmon should have worked better. She tried a rather impressive chicken satay wrapped in betelnut leaf that was quite delicious but did nothing for the wine. Her steamed yam cake offered a contrast in texture.

M Fritsch selected a very difficult main course wine in Hugel's Gewurtztraminer Jubilee 2001. This wine had confected sweetness combined with an almost sickly nose of fading roses. Acidity was lacking causing an overall heaviness on the palate. A certain bitterness of poorly made Gewurtztraminer was evident at the finish. I do not envy the Chefs with this wine. I have had tasted the Riesling in this Jubilee range, which I found far better.

Shang Palace was again the first one off the blocks. Curiously, he decided on lamb chops marinated in Chinese herbs. I would have worked with heavier doses of Five-Spice powder with this one plus a dollop of mint to boot. Some fresh rose water may have helped to distract the nose away from the faded variety in the wine. As such, I scored his poorly at just 3.5/10 points. The dish itself is quite good but not a match with this difficult wine.

After high expectations from his first dish, I was perhaps expecting more startling sensations from Chef Milind. His insistance on using the tandoor was his undoing. With more chilli spice of a dish, he could have carried the day. Instead, he picked salmon and roasted it in the tandoor. It came out without the distinctive fatty flavours of salmon & rather light seafood tandoor spices that did not match the more intense sweet flavour of the Gewurtztraminer. However, his flash of brilliance with a dash of spicy & acidic accompanying sauce, which was alas, inadequate to help the salmon steak. Coating the entire salmon could have helped, here. For his combination efforts, I scored him at 4/10 points.

In this section, Khun Chimkit did best. Again, offering a pallete of four flavours, two of them again hit off with the accompanying wine. Alsace wines always had an affinity with pork and is braised pork on rice - sushi-style was simply the best combination with the wine. She also used lamb and her marinade did better than Shang's. The spicy mango salad helped lift the wine as well. Overall, I had hoped for better but for her efforts, I scored 7/10 points, putting her top in this category.

The final wine was Marcel Deiss Tokay-Pinot Gris 1998. This is the oldest of the wines with good mature flavours of spice & ripe white stone fruits. I felt it lacked a certain vibrant acidity and felt heavy on the palate. Others I spoke to, was quite pleased with the level of acidity & clean finish. Bottle variation?

Here Master Chef Ching's offering of fresh fruit cocktail, although pedestrian, was the best match with this rather sweet wine. The level of sweetness in his syrup matched the wine's sweetness, thus offering a holistic combination that resulted in a soft landing for this extended dinner event. The Dragon fruit pulp complimentarily supported the sweet wine rather than overwhelm it. This is one instance of non-clashing flavours working for the diner. I gave him a generous 8/10 points simply on the right sweetness level of his syrup.

The next dessert was from Khun Chimkit. She featured a final 3-flavoured combination of coconut/red date ice-cream, pumpkin-yam steamed custard cakes and an interesting sweet lemongrass cream brulee. The ice-cream dumbed out the wine completely. The custard cakes did better without clash of personalities. The sweet lemongrass flavours added another dimension to the wine, leaving me rather undecided. Interesting & bold choice with a wine with much personality. I scored 5-points here simply because the ice-cream was completely wrong.

There appeared to be some delay with the Indian dessert dish, so it appeared last. I had hoped more flavour from his Indian mango kulfi (ice-cream). The intense flavour I had expected, would have combined with the overripe flavours of the wine. Alas, it was not to be, so I scored 6/10 points for him.

All the invited guests at this dinner was obliged to work & score the matchings. We were told it was a close race but the results were quite in line with my scorings. Milind won the first course, Khun Chimkit was best in the main course and Master Chef Ching picked up the dessert course. Overall, Khun Chimkit won the contest reflecting my own scoring having her pip her fellow challengers by just 1 point.

The very next day, I attended the seminar meant for the Consumer since I was unable to attend the Trade seminar held on Tuesday afternoon due to commitment at the Pacific Internet booth at GE@S.

Again, M Fritsch worked on the Asian cuisine - Alsace wine combination. Here we had SIX different wines to match THREE different dishes served up by Hotel M.

He preceded the tasting with an excellent video presentation of Alsace. This was followed is a general talk on the terrior and permitted varietals of Alsace. An excellent introduction to the Grand Crus of Alsace helped to highlight the better wines of this region.

The tasting that followed was a mini-version of the previous night's dinner but with significantly poorer dishes. Even my companions at table complained about them. On the other hand, the wines were indeed generous & rather quite good.

Hugel provided us with their innovation wine, Gentil 2002. This is a simple commercial wine that gathered the remaining harvest after the selection of the best cuvees. It is a blend, which is rare in Alsace, of several grape varietals that probably varied depending on the harvest. The Genil 2002, nevertheless, was a good drinking wine with everyday dishes that do not demand a more pronounced personality.

The second wine on the list was Leon Beyer Riesling 2002. This is a typical steely dry Riesling-style that may not find favour with casual drinkers in Asia due to its austere style. A more flamboyant & upfront fruity style does better. Further, it was a regular bottling cuvee that does nothing for a more experienced drinker. Quite a dilemma for the importer, I think.

The third wine was generously the Trimbach Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile 1999, one of the top cuvees from Alsace. This also being a well-aged 1999 wine. There are still many years of life in this wine but at this tasting, it showed its pedigree. Refined, yet austere, with minerally nuances and hints of petrolly fumes. Unfortunately, this wine demanded a better cuisine to match its personality that was lacking in this tasting.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Francois Lichtle Tokay-Pinot Gris Cuvee Leo 2000. The personable wine with flavours of white almond flowers, slightly heavy mouthfeel but with sufficient adidity found favour with me. The only slight drawback was the residual sugar apparent in the wine, although it would be fine with some nut biscuits on a balmy early evening.

We went on with the spicy Ringenbach Moser Gewurtztraminer Cuvee Tradition 2002. Rather restrained & fat on the palate without a redeeming acidity on the back palate. A rather decent wine, nevertheless, but was unable to combine with the dishes offered at this tasting.

The final wine was Sylvie Spielmann Kanzlerberg Gewurtztraminer Grand Cru 2000. The pedigree showed in this wine compared with the previous wine. The flavours were more defined & its off-dry style did well the show itself to advantage. Again, I could not match it with any of the food being offered, so drank it all by itself.

The generous wines offered in this Consumer tasting showed that Alsace is serious about promoting their wines and keen to show that their wines do work well with our Asian banqueting cuisine as well as, possibilities with our everyday dishes. Alas, we are too enamoured by brawny red wines that are supposed to provide protection against various ailments & promote a healthy wellbeing. 

However, I'd love to start off slowly with delicate & fragrant white wines that work well with dishes of seafood & white meats. These are dishes that are suggested for a healthy lifestyle. Later in the evening, I would then switch to some red meats for its protein content and have my quota of complex red wines for my health!

Below, are some photos taken at the two events, above, with appropriate captions.

The top Appetiser from Rang Mahal	These combination dishes from Khun Chimkit won her the Culinary Challenge	Khun Chimkit, Indian Chef Milind & Master Chef Ching (l-r)

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